Obladee-Oblada Friends:
“Having no destination, I am never lost” ……………………………………………………………………………IKKYU
“You have to come to the shore. There are no instructions” ………………………………………………. Denise Levertov
“It is good to know the truth, but it is better to speak of palm trees” ……………………………………Arab Proverb
Well- it’s been a long week and a short distance…35 and blustery to 93 in the shade overnight- and back down to a high of 50…. mountain winds prevail…daily…. but things are settling down on The Mount….
After our first day of indentured servitude on Saturday last, we set out Sunday for our first wander…which took us around the central part of state for the open studio tour. Started in nearby Bridgewater Commons at several studios in an old mill building overlooking one of the state’s magnificent speed traps…and became quickly drawn in by one artist who is a 911 survivor and needed to tell her story, which was intense and lengthy….and led to her work in which she depicts every person killed on 911 in miniature head form…..which sits right next to bizarre paintings of civil war reenactors (see photo #1)….. that, we more or less blew off the studio tour and headed for the woods…splendid day led us eventually to the hamlet of South Royalton, where after years of trying, we finally scored lunchables from the legendary Worthy Burger…giant burgers, a massive pile of hand cut fries…and then a ride to the nearby Creamees joint to top it off…..about tripled my carb intake of the previous month….basically been on an all salad diet ever since.
Monday was machine readying day around the domicile, with every gas powered battleax coming to life without trouble- this has got to be be too good to be true…. nevertheless, the property is swept and groomed … Tuesday resulted in our finally getting Jens car back after 8 days…worth the wait…. a projected 2K plus repair bill in the heartland, reduced to a $500 bargain here…. got to love the mechanic in the meadow and his outdoors repairdom….
Cars good…phone bad…still living with only the erratic WIFI calling due to the latest screw up from the greed infested anthills that call themselves communications companies…. don’t you love communicating with them…. on the hunt for a solution, but living with minimal phone access until we leave the house…make a lot of calls in the car in few places that have cell signals between mountain ranges…ok, maybe a bit more complicated life here in some ways…like phones. mail and finding a place to get takeout without driving 45 minutes…. our three closest options have closed since we left last Fall……Sal’s, Harrys and the Belmont Store…and Door Dash is not driving up the mountain anytime soon…ergo, the salad diet…
The Queen has rediscovered her Court, and disappears for hours at a stretch to cavort with the local Yenta royalty..…in between playing Jenn-EE- Appleseed with latest property improvements..…so TQ connects while p and Lucy walk…finding new dirt road opps every other day or so…..Thursday sucked it in , made a huge list and spent five hours doing town things…..kind of like going in on the wagon in 1840s Montana…..experienced many goods and services, all a success with the exception of the cell phone morons…..Friday looked like a good enough day to take on the much worn deck and its need for good lovin’…so TQ scraped in the am while Papi provide the virtual cure…then we scraped together…then we stained…in a blitz to bat the threatening skies as the therm hit 90 plus….this led to an immediate strip down and first Pond plunge…me and da turtle…
With dubious weather predicted now for next we, we took off yesterday for a southeast Greens tour down the route 30 corridor to Dorset, Shaftsbury, Arlington, Bennington—snuck across the line to Hoosick NY, where we got local store lunch and ate in a drizzle, then discovering actually still in Vermont, so able to ditch the Yankee caps…nice walk at Shaftsbury Lake State Park and on to famous Bennington battlefield, which is neither in Bennington, nor in Vermont, but it is pretty cool…dem’ Ethan Allen boys was fierce…hard to imagine we hated the British that much…but this is indeed hallowed ground….finished the southern part of the loop in historic Salem NY, where we encountered an extraordinary portrait of American Prom decadence going on outside the ancient courthouse…..then circled home with one more dirt road walk in late afternoon sunshine at Middletown Springs….
And now it’s time to get it up and start all over again…Amen…. start it all again…. Amen
Poll question…. if you get held up on the road by official police cars doing traffic control in a private rent-a-cop capacity-can they tell you what to do legally and police you if you don’t? You would not believe ow long that debate went on……
Though I’m guessing there might be some more important questions to answer…. but …until then
Ferlin’
