Greetings Patriots of all ilks:
“Better you should close the club soda”………………………………………………………………………………..Stu in response to Jenn offering a beer after she did not put the top back on the now flat club soda bottle
“ I live, which is the main point”…………………………………………………………………………………………….Heinrich Heine
“A flower dos not think about competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms”…………..Zen Master
“Hard to tell under
the lights–white Yarmulke or
male-pattern baldness?”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews..
Pens Pals in the mountains……………….I received a beautiful book of poetry this past week form my pen pal, Sherilyn, who lives in Winnipeg (north of the wall). I met Sherilyn in 1978 when Phil and I were traipsing around the country and we spent a few weeks together in the Pacific Northwest….though I have never seen her since, we have exchanged letters for more than 40 years, with astonishing regularity (I have hundreds of letters hidden away in a box, which my kids will someday come upon as some extraordinary panorama of our times)..….even now , we continue to exercise this somewhat archaic art form and have not resorted to e-mail….40+ years, and still poetry!
Birthdays in the mountains….we spent last Sunday in the 95 degree heat at a birthday party for our friend, Linda Miller…..which meant hours floating in their pond in rafts with little drink holders, while Lucy ran around the pond in circles barking at us…..this is apparently how one deals with heat with no air conditioning
Kayaking in the mountains…..we got out this week, to escape the seven straight days of 90 degree plus heat, to lovely Lake Nineveh, for our first Kayak trip of the season….. we often try to stay apart so Lucy will stay in one boat, but eagle eye fleagel spotted me from all the way across a pretty big lake…and dove in from Jenn’s craft …..swimming after me for the better part of two hours, with her little life vest and her little legs churning and her snout barely above water – snorting the whole time…..a few other kayakers seemed amazed, though I’m not sure if they were impressed or suspected puppy- abuse…..Of course, on the way back, we had to make dirt road, over-mountain detour , to find Cremees….before all crashing back at home (Lucy slept for six hours!)
Fresh Milk in the mountains…..Jenn has struck up a relationship with nearby Farmer Johnson, where she leaves her own personal jug to be filed with newly milked cow stuff a few times a week…since she was busy with the town yenta-ing job, she asked me to pick up the filled up milk jug for her….which created quite a stir amongst the group of farm-wives (how many does he have?) when I drove in with my foreigner plates to pick up the milk…..after a quick cavorting with their baby heifers, I was able to locate the milk shed and the storage fridge …..and return home with the anointed milk…..though, apparently, I had forgotten my glasses ( and it is DARK in the milk shed), since the next day we realized I had someone named “Gerber’s” milk and jug….which looked pretty close to reading “Jennifer” to me…and does the Gerber get some kind of special milk, anyway?
Sunday morning visits in the mountains…..The Jewish Pig Famers’ wife just showed up with her dogs for a visit, and Jenn was telling her about The Blog, as I was mid-composing…she asked to be on the list, but Jenn was dissuading – her describing the nature of my stereotypical descriptions….using herself as an example of being the object of my stereotyping…to which the JPFW responded…” men just have to give us shit about what they don’t understand”….this is apparently Vermont pig farmer wisdom….
Fourth of July in the mountains……We braved the 96 degree heat to head into Belmont for the infamous eight minutes of Parade….with Queen Jenn on her community association float..…After the first vehicle, with the “Grand Marshall”, who is our local state senator..…came the wandering donkey, who proceeded to shit all over the parade route…which the state senator hastily cleaned up with a shovel…which I believe is a real example of government at its best…..From there, we went in to REALLY hot Rutland to check out the “Giant” flea market at the state fairgrounds…..which turned out to have four tables of fish wives hawking semi-voodoo dolls and other Vermont relevant tchotchkes..….then on to find shade for a walk up a dirt road at White Rocks Recreation area, and after much debate over a picnic lunch, a decision to take our first trail walk of the summer…so despite the tick-hysteria, we put on the Off (what a sentence, no?) and did a two mile walk straight up….then back home where Lucy slept another six hours….
And…Gardening in the mountains…my Garden Queen had another three yards of mulch delivered for her garden overhaul project ( more mulch than it might seem…BIG pile) …..and we are on a trimming, lopping, edging, digging whirlwind leading up the Mt. Holly Garden Tour in few weeks…Lucy and I find places in the barn to hide while this activity is going on…and I just booked a few Marriott nights in anticipation of the Tour preparation heating up……
Dining in the mountains…..this week had us meeting the King and Queen of Java Baba-land at the legendary Country Girl Diner in Chester for their Friday dinner special menu ..…open until eight (usually closes at 3), eight specials on a chalkboard (only five choices left when we arrived at 6:30) and cash only ( we had bills rather than change this time)…….it’s a wonderful experience……mostly gravy-based, in a classic 1939 Mountain View Dining Car (you can look it up)…..then on Sunday night, we made the pilgrimage to Rutland, to our beloved shrine, East, for the traditional Sunday supper…..we now have a permanent table reserved for us there…
Conflict in the mountains….THE POND is once again dissipating as the heat of summer goes on…with little in the way of feeder water supply, so we are again considering tapping into the old spring up the mountain and running 1500 feet of pipe down to the Pond…..which the diaper cleaning people who owned our place for 50 years did……A Connecticut mensch bought the adjoining zillion acres a few years ago and is building his pleasure dome up there, and the spring is on his land….when I mentioned the idea to him last Fall, he immediately pointed out that it was HIS LAND…….but we have now found that the deed to our property includes a right of way for the springs up there….so there, Mr. Connecticut…..you go back to the burbs….The process would still involve all kinds of piping, gravity, coupling , heating and dowsing…..so we may just pay the fire department to come with truckloads of water for THE Pond..…stay tuned on this one…has the potential to be Hatfield and McCoy like………
And…finally… though there is much more I could illuminate you with….Pet-acquisition in the mountains….So, our friend, Linda, the French Master Chef’s betrothed, decided it was time for another cat (I think she already had 14) and cat procurement is tricky in the mountains, as most of them seem to be going to Chinese restaurants (remember the recently closed-by-the health – department Chin-Some -Young Guy in Bellows Falls) so she found one being deported from the Deep South to NYC…and on Saturday, drove 5 ½ hours to midtown Manhattan to pick up the little ball of fur, and then 5 1/2 hours back (we declined to accompany her despite repeated pleas)…..we clearly love our pets in the mountains…..
And……that…my friends…is clearly more than enough…..
Papi
