Happy Indigenous Columbi Weekend:
“Endless is my vow under the azure sky-boundless Autumn” ……………………………………………………… Soen Roshi
“You’ll lose it if you talk about it” …………………………………………………………………………………Ernest Hemingway
“I’m not perfect, but I’m enough” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Carl Rogers
All the schmooze that’s fit to print…………….
Back on the Train- together with Phish (look it up) we got back to some form of para-normal at first of week, no guest, no events, almost 80 degrees (ok, maybe not normal) and leaves starting to have a bit of pop and shimmer……got to gym, where again only person in ghost building……it’s the right time of the night…. TQ into The Mystic, as she gets on the Cider Daze train…and disappears for 12 hours at a time…still no lunch to be found in post-flooded Ludlow
COVID Winning here………Folk Club cancelled this week since everyone who went last week has The Plaque.…digging my masks out of the moth balls….no mas….no mas…
Alternative Music – sine no Monday folk club gathering……. I reluctantly aged to have The Old Vet Doc Who Can’t Hear come over and run through tunes for the Cider Daze set…hard to keep the beat when you can’t hear anything…. foghorn required……with giant flash cards for Braille- form lyrics
Trekking to Find Sister Jane- who made her annual visit this week, after years of lobbying to come for Cider week….trip to Manchester invoked every possible detour and roadblock and 30 MPH leaf-peepers at 8 in the am (don’t they sleep)…highlight was recently flood-reopened scenic Route 131 over to live and let die land, which is down to on lane in 4-5 places….and in one mile-long section has one lane because for there is only one lane!…..the other lane fell into the river and is yet to be found…..managed to only be 10 minute late (though she was 25 minutes early) and did the leisurely overland route through The Mounts home…with stop at folksy grinder place in lovely Puerto Nuevo…and lunch on the ground at the town Green…..followed by the requisite late season Creamee stop (only a B grade- but no complaints from Lucy)
Mountain High Culture Returns– in the form of the Manhattan Shorts film festival (if within 50 miles of a showing site, go see it –a must for film fans)….the annual selection the ten best 10-15 minute films in the world….at our tiny town library with a max of 30 people…which is astoundingly one of only 500 sites worldwide to show the Fest…….all during the same week…top pick for me was the one with a flower store owner with a bull-goose level stutter trying to communicate with Siri for directions…A++++….since Jane had been up for a long time, we only went to first half and left at intermission (Papi went solo for part two the next night)…we l all wore masks and got the dirty looks only potential plaque bearers can get
Medicine in Rural Vermont– went down to Springfield Hospital –blink and miss it- for a routine scan…was out in 20 minutes ,start to finish….it’s like the gym….my own private hospital……though left my daily planer there, and made two poor employees search every part of the hospital for me when I got home and convulsed…then hunted down a tiny cheap 2024 planner at dollar store……changed all the dates to be 2023 accurate for last three months of year…and put in all my commitments…..then promptly found the missing planner in my car….thinking to blame scan radioactivity……you feel me?
On a Mission from God- put the band back together for Cider Daze—an assembling of six of the finest pre and post octogenarian area musicians for a one off garage band practice……despite Master Jeb consistently introducing us as “Stu and Crew” or “Stu and Friends”, we have now crowned ourselves the Cider Daze Pick-Up (though in a weak moment I had a notion to lobby for us to be “Stu the Shrew and the Wildmen”……this is unbelievably a real name from a 1965 incarnation…..)…like riding a bike (with training wheels) –on to the grove in minutes..…easily entertained, easily prepared…..easily tired out……
Papi and Sister Jane go to Rutland– having lost sight of The Queen for days now, Sister and I spent a lovely 80 degree Thursday afternoon exploring the finer elements of Rutland-life…..Ramuntos (of course), The Mart, Grocery and my new favorite Friday afternoon activity: picking up prepared Italian food at Paisanos, in the back of a beer store…..where I have tamed and befriended the grumpy lady Paisano…who now goes over the planned menu with me and gives me free bread……transport, heat and serve….Did I mention the mountain view when you walk out of the grocery……not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy…. Arrived back in Belmont just I time to get our free Creamees from the General Store in its first public event since closing last year…. OMG…Creamees returning to town…Creamees returning to town
The DAZE-after a week of worry, obsession and little sleep….TQ’s nightmare scenario arrived with a full day of pouring rain on Saturday…she was at The Green pounding the pavement and architecting The Cow Plop at 3 am…..and soaked to the gills when I arrived at noon…astoundingly, The Green was still packed with wet and stubborn Jerseyite leave peepers…..we set up shop in the library to play our set acoustically….and piped it out the Green via speaker…attracting a consistent flow of people coming to get dry…..the rain stopped for a few hours in the afternoon….and the collective Queen and Co. spirits refused to be dampened…..somehow creating lemonade out of cowshit……..
Dinner on the Ground– directly from the Cider downpour, we headed over to The OddFellows to volunteer serve at the annual Benefit Supper for the Fire Department….where we were the youngest people of the crew (that is saying something) and served over 100 family style roast pork dinners to the wet and the hungry……I Iearned a few new things at the dinner: kids only want red desserts, Dennis the former Sate Rep and two-handed Coffee Purveyor never runs out of things to say, even very conservative rural old-timey Vermonters despise The Donald and you gotta watch for the guy who sits at four different tables and eats all-you-can-est dinner at each one…..the post serving dinner with the crew is a very mountain experience that should be filmed foe the Shorts festival….
So, TQ is off to the Daze again today……brandishing her sword at the head of the troops……sister Jane is sleeping off the carbs……and we will join later…….sun is out but it’s peaking at 50 degrees…we have maybe seen the last of 60 for October….…I remain-one joke over the line Sweet Jesus……
Love ya like a rock,
Ferlin’
