Que Penso soni Babbo Notoli?
“ The bright autumn moon: sea-lice running over the stones”………………………………………………………………………………………..Torin
“ You must be present to win”……………………………………………………………………………………………….Casino Sign
“ When people talk about THEIR ISSUES, I start getting sleepy”……………………………………………………………………………Diane Russell, NYPD Blue
Hidden Sunday Treasures- Perfect day last Sunday led us out with no destination….ambled down Rutland way to one of he worlds GREAT Snack Bars in West Rutland for fresh haddock and clams on a bench in the sun…….then went hunting fro a walk, discovering the magnificent Pine Hill Park, tucked away outside of downtown R-town…….hundreds of acres of bike and walk trails with this amazing kids treasure hunt by guided signs….who knew?
Blasts from the Past- Has bayonet seen McCartney 3,2,1 on Hulu? For those of you on Medicare, we grew up with favorite Beatle; mine was originally George for his taciturn coolness. Later it became forced choice ….Lennon or McCartney. I always leaned Lennon, preferring the dark churlish mystery to the bright effervescence of Sir Paul….who i never really cared all that much for…..but his three part doc with uber-producer Rick Rubin…is a total mind changer….at 80ish, still boyish and with this incredible love for the music and the muse….Sir Paul ROCKS…..and incidentally, check out some cuts from Neil Young’s’ soon to be released first in his bootleg series set…a 1971 Carnegie Hall show….solo, acoustic, brilliant…and …those CRAZY eyes….
Babies– Little Parker is now one week old……and proving to be one of the world’s foremast sleepers…. though we have caught her awake and smiling via Portal a few times…. Toddler Sloane is demonstrating some cool big-Sis chops……gearing up for our visit next week …..thinking /I need to recruit little Maddie (Texas- Marcus and Sara) and/or little Ava (Wisconsin- Jesse and Jess) from one of my “foster” sons to complete a transfer and fill out the OSU woman’s team-class of ’39…
The Queen is roaming the manse in search of challenges….in between her extraordinary social calendar……she is roaming in and out to find trees to chop down, more lawn to cover with gardens…and de-wallpapering the entire house…. next idea is for some state of the art tree-removing shovel to carry on our hikes to capture wayward and lonely forest specimens for the yard periphery…please, make it stop…
The Call of the Wild #52– alter a tow year hiatus, our neighbor up the road, Drunken Dennis, has acquired another mangy, emaciated cow for his winter butcher block…. the wastrel is out in the field bleating or mooing or something most of the day and night…. apparently begging for respite…the sounds of country living…
Are we now that old?– Used to be we celebrated 50th anniversaries with much older siblings or parent types…….but ….we are apparently now them….were invited to some friends’ 50th celebration this week…an extraordinary collection of blue and white hairs teetering around their beautiful barn and property…..lots of long, convoluted conversations punctuated by senior moments (“what was I saying”?)…the senior groom had three pages of note to his beloved , which he wept through presenting to her….the more stoic ancient bride had one index card with a few bullets…perhaps this is the balance of 50 years of bliss?…..we made two new friends that we hung with there…..The Retired Bolshevik Postmaster and The I-Only-Shop- At -Coops Activist…should you make new friends in your seventh decade?
Road Trip # 743– Yesterday was hot and muggy and provided a perfect back drop for day trip- so up early and headed up the magnificence of Route 100. Stopped in quaint and lovely Rochester for fresh bagels, eaten on the sweeping town green…. while Lucy frolicked with her newest bestie…another very short, strangely long hybrid named Mater…. whose parents were expats from Columbus….and had lived on the same rood as Tess and Jake and the brood……
After a couple of short hikes, we made our way up and over he panoramic Lincoln Gap to scope out a Peaching operation we had read about in the Vermont alt. newspaper…which turned out to be quite the thing…..heading from Warren over to Bristol, we found the farm stand on the packed-dirt Lincoln Gap road…administered by our newest friend, Todd G….who readily declared us his gift to his day….Todd is 7th generation Vermonter and hails from a long stock of farmers and doubles as Young Life (excludes us) minister…we got to and hear about his house which they moved from an elderly relative two years ago up the road about a mile….apparently the key to which is lanolin soap (use your imagination)…Todd regaled us with local flavored stories of young men he has taken to the darkness of NY state (think Cuomo)to retrieve the bushels…who had never left the Gap before (think Deliverance) and of his mob- informed nephew from Napoli (Todd’s brother joined the navy, procreated and never came back )…who could not believe all the money left trustingly out on porches to pay for the peaches(who gonna leavea out dissa money and not-a getta stolen)..until our young Italianate had the epiphany of a “community offa da trust”….we exchanged excitements for a half hour an left Todd the Minister/Peach-man/House Mover/Exposer of naivetés- to the graces of reading THE blog on his phone while he waited for his next Gift for the day….. (are you reading this, Todd?)
Leaving the farmer and heading down the road to Bristol we apparently missed a stop sign, conveniently placed ten yards in front of a second stop sign…and got to meet Officer Bruce….who may well have been the most polite an genial copper I’ve made the acquaintance of….despite his commiseration of eh confusion (and duplicity)of the back to back to stop signs, he felt compelled to ticket me, though made up a “no proof of insurance citation” which lowered the fine from a whopping $225 to$ 76 and no points……What Luck!!!..notwithstanding Bristol’s long known financial hardships –which has likely led to placing additional ridiculously placed stop signs for Officer Bruce to collect revenue…we, thus, skipped our plan for lunch at Bristol, and are now on a two year boycott…
Having spurned the fine cuisine of Bristol, we found ourselves drooling by the Time we passed Wanks Franks roadside stand in Pittsford on the way home …clearly another roadside attraction…where Wank (really) served us up some local sausages with homemade sauerkraut…. which left is only semi-satiated, and required a stop at Ramuntos for a dessert pizza….
And, that just about brings up to this….Rainy day forecasts approaching as Hurricane Henri makes its way to the eastern seaboard….and a visit from the Exalted British Hairdresser and The Duchess of General Electric for dinner and haircuts tonight…before TQ delivers her to Dartmouth tomorrow for the coach to Boston a the flight back to the homeland…..and we…leave Friday for 12 days back in the heartland to see our lovelies…….thus may be down on blogging for next week or two……but….we will …survive……
Pep in his step Papi
