Comrades and Comradesses:
“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning” ………………………………………………………Erich Fromm
“This morning it rained, this afternoon it is sunny. How is that not like the mind?” ………………Michael Kewley
“There ain’t much to being ballplayer…. if you’re a ballplayer” ………………………………………………Honus Wagner
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli” ……………………………………………………………………………………………Pete Clemenza
I’m late, I’m late…for a very important date……. been a week plus…. didn’t make it off the bus……keep it short, keep it lean…. wonder what the hell it means……
Workin’ on the chain gang……so gonna work at being brief about the highlights of the week……sorry for the missed Sunday blues……
Blues in the Greens- Labor day weekend tradition; sitting in a mountain greenery on a cool, fall sun drenched day at the birthplace/homestead of Silent Cal- Vermont’s lone Presidente……and the sound wafts over the Birkenstock shodsters…not really blues, but ii works……. Bonus- get to hear the stylings of Grandson of Woody, Son of Arlo…you know…. you know
Life is cabaret- but not like the one that happens each year on Sunday eve of the Labor Day holiday, when every blue hair in ton (TQ excepted) piles into the beloved all-purpose library to hear our own mysterious local smoky jazz duo …on string bass and Lady Sings the Blues vocals…. the town yentas serve wine and desert…….and Joel Grey lurks in the shadows…
Is it Summer yet?…………….after a very cool and rainy few months, we hit the 90s four days running last week…and everybody jumped into their very full Ponds……and we actually used the barn found air conditioner we had resurrected and spent hours stripping part and getting to work….and never used……and it was cooooooollllll………and so hot, we actually got out on the kayaks (snuck out without Lucy) twice this week…..
Mine bubby Gekumien….in the dream….and left me with the directive to make latkes…which I did…such a Mensch…see the pictures and drool….
In our quest for perfect heath……The Queen keeps us on the pure man’s diet……tho we reached a new pinnacle this week when I was instructed that we had to buy Grass-Fed butter ($9 /pound) ……and the previously sanctioned organic butter ($7.00/pound) no longer made the grade……apparently on same shit list as veal…. imagine me and you…. I do….
Lucy has a suitor……albeit non- hetero……the wild dog that belongs to the wild man up the wild hill……Ivy…. now arrives every morning at 8:30 promptly to knock at the door ask if Lucy can come out and play….so she can chase her and maul her for a half hour before our girl comes in with scraped knees and tears……and then cries to go back out 20 minutes later…lucky we are not the strange typed that humanize our pest…. and she/they are a pit mix from outer space
In the cool of the evening, when everything is feeling kind of groovy……the girl and I have taken to dusk walks with the bugs, the coons and the magical light of the dirt road fields, babbling brooks and bales of hay…one take over the line….
Italian food village style…since finding anywhere to eat within an days’ ride is now a treasure hunt, we took the short route around the horn, and went down to see Mama Tamara on Friday night…in lil’ Wallingford…where we ate cuisine born of lust between Sicily and Philadelphia……it ain’t great, but it’s fun…..and we sit outside at the table drag out from inside, with Lucy-Lu and watch the world go by up and down Route 7…and then….we get to go see Mr. Kelly at the foremost Creamees stand in our area…best maple, best people, best price…..mosquitoes no charge….they give Lucy her own bowl of vanilla creamee, but she turns her nose up and waits for me to share my maple…who does she take after?
And…finally….where are the men that I used to sport with…edition 457…..well, last weekend they were in Higgnaum Connecticut, where we gathered with six of my Bronx childhood posse (and better halves)for the first time since Covid…I really think the pictures speak for themselves…..there was a lot of laughing and a little crying…but we’re all still upright after between 60 and 65 years of friendship…and the sausage and peppers, Marone…..more wine, Paulie, more wine……I become Stuie again for few days…and the world is still a good place…..and there is lots of promise of all that is yet to come…and Tony and Uncle June are still alive and there in the flesh…..long live the original Hawks…..
And post-finally, this Friday is the one and only’ s 60th….so drop her a line or a buzz…. or a Zen thought…she is one of a kind…….
Go forth and multiply good things….and stay in touch,
Stuie
