Greetings Fellow Travelers:
“Tilling the field in the shadow of a hill. Not a bird sings” ………………Buson
“Little by little- one travels far” ……………………………Some Astute Spaniard
“Silence is so accurate” ……………………………………………Mark Rothko
“Don’t confront me with my failures- I have not forgotten them” ..Jackson Browne
“Well, the first days are the hardest days- don’t you worry anymore” ……Garcia/Hunter
GREEN is the color of the moun-tain lair……in the morning when I rise (Donovan-ish) ……I’m just wild about Saffron…………. First full week on The Mount produced many observations…….
Fourth of July………..first gathering around The Town Green in two years……..lots of hugging, hand slapping…..that’s what happens in a state with a near 90% Vax rate….in a state with a Republican governor, mind you…..though thankfully not named DeSantis, Abbott or Noel (the Unholy trio)…..still apparently a Plaque hoax in those places……..but, I digress…….the eight minute parade was magnificent….and The Queen….well you got to see the pix…nuff’ said……resumed Sunday rituals (what, if not rituals?)…and made the short mountain drive down trough Weston, Londonderry, to Stratton mountain, for the call- in exotic sausages at Honeypie and a short dirt road walk….
Days spent whacking and whacking and whacking (machine induced whacking, that is) ……uncovered The Pond from its four-foot surround of weeds and got the poor man’s pump/fountain going…. got the 55-year-old mower running and slayed the yard…. posted on line for yard boy/girl……no takers…. just ol’ Nanna and Papi with the ancient power tools …. gonna need a better caretaker……
The gym at Okemo has fully reopened now…. but ONLY for hotel guests and condo owners …. locals left out…. ugghh….so got The Gym in the barn set up and back to cosmic, barnyard exercising (or exorcising?) …. but who’s complaining?
The Queen is reclaiming her throne with many planning events with the local Association yentas and starting up her multiple volunteering efforts……busy enough that after ten days we still have not vacuumed the house……but then again, who’s gonna know?
The Dumpmaster expressed great dissatisfaction, on our return, that we had said we would be back in June, and it was the first week in July……. which apparently left him more cantankerous than usual……
Made it down to Sal’s’ Red- Gravy dive for its many iterations of the same pasta dish on Thursday night…and on the way stopped in our tracks in Cuttingsville to check out the familiar looking Subaru for sale on the side of the road……which drew our eyes, because it was our Subaru that we just sold in January….we could tell by Lucy’s footprints embedded on the console…..guess our buyers (once were friends of friends- wanting to be our friends- but probably not anymore) did not care for the ol’ clunker- although did notice they were selling it for 2K more than they bought it….a bit surreal…
Friday, we geared up for a full day in the city (well, Rutland, which is as close as we get, but not to be confused with The Apple, or Boston or even Burlington)….Aside from shopping and lunch at Ernie’s Hand Carved (shockingly good corned beef and pastrami on rye for the hinterlands)….we bit the bullet and visited both the Verizon and AT&T phone emporiums……to me that is like used car shopping….but, what are you gonna do, when you’re going on ten days of no phones through Sprint….time for a change, no….The monopolizers were by far more professional and service oriented…..so hopefully we can make the jump this week and have some form of contact with the flatland..
During the shopping, I came close to having my first physical altercation in probably 45 years….when an Old Vermont codger took exception with my sliding by him to get milk, after he ignored my three “excuse- mes”…started yelling at me and got in my face…luckily a store manager intervened before I went for the KO…then he followed me around the store, giving me the stink-eye, while guzzling beer from one hand and maple syrup from the other…..I’m going to assume he was unvaccinated….
After a week of mostly cold and rain, Saturday dawned a perfect mountain day – 75, sunny, blue skies, zero humidity, so we headed into town early to hit the post office to see if our mail, which has been floating around since some time in April, had found us (it can wind up in any of the 3 post offices within two miles of us)….don’t get me started on the postal service unless you plan to give me a rifle and show me a bell tower (how many times can I use that?)…..suffice to say that no amount of funding will fix that venerable institution. After only having to visit two of the three offices, we got a few floaters, and made for Ludlow to pick up breakfast sandwiches at The Café-at –Delight ( it’s at the only light in Ludlow, get it?)…..calling in the order turned out to be a long term commitment, the young woman can only be described as resembling the woman from the Dr. Rick “how to not be your parents’” commercials…the one who has the no cussin’, no fussin’ sign)-had to tell her the simple two- sandwich order four times and literally spell out wheat toast for her…….
….After a protracted wait, we got our grub and stumbled on to the magnificent Ludlow Cemetery with many levels of ancient stones and beautiful view of the slopes and valley…..and….a phone signal….my phone rang for the first time in ten days…and I was so excited I talked to a robo-caller…..Satiated by the breakfast, views and a good walk….we continued on to Shrewsbury to impromptu visit the Trout King and pick up the annual bucket of Pond Elixir…he said he had no time for us, but let us go down to the tanks anyway, and then yakked at us for a half hour, with the mantra “what Pond Sins shave you committed so far this year”?…… eventually we left with our $300 bucket…and on to see Farmer Jeff to buy three months worth of organic Yogi meats…thus stocked, we headed home, where The Queen engaged in hours of garden restoration, while Papi hit the couch….
And, so, here we are…another day, another dollar…what’s in your wallet?
Happy trails to you-until we met again.
Papi- Monster
