Oh Brother, How Art Thou?
“The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of his tail” ……………… Rabindranath Tagore
“All is one, one is none, none is ALL” ……………………………………………. ZEN
“I got you Babe” ……………………………………………………………………Sonny Bono
Feelin’ the RAMBLE this morning, after a week of sturm and drang…so going with the abstract form……. the swelling is in the telling….
Sunday last was trekkin’ day, per custom, and off we went to the high country between Rutland and Danby in search of the museum of dirt roads; finding a beauty, complete with miles of matrices of hanging maple lines crisscrossed with raging streams, water wheels and vistas……… eventually leading us back to the draw of the two slice of special at Ramuntos……. Just in time for roving alarms signaling the rare occurrence of tornadoes in the mountains………. No climate change here……
The day the music died………… Reminded this past Monday that weekly Folk Club at The Mount is not quite pulling into Bunty Station…………… Circles and song sheets are a poor replacement for soulful inspiration………. Where are the men that I used the sport with?
Tuesday sauna workout at the Springhouse at Okemo Mt…………. Upside: the building and the facilities are all mine ….and what a view……. Downside: broken air conditioning and working out in 89° heat……. Must not be any free lunch……
Check out the photo of the new Library Maven’………… my new volunteering gig at the Mount……. Consisting of a two-hour weekly shift shooting the breeze with various local visitors and waiting for a train………. My own library romper room…….
Has anyone checked out the HBO documentary on the history of Stax/Volt music? …………Otis, Sam and Dave, the Fabulous Bar-Kays, Isaac………… This may be the real American music………. the role of soul…….
Mid-week role into town to visit in Rutland Co-op………. To acquire various seeds, stems, and bin potions for The Queens’ concoctions…………… I had to fight my way in, wielding a large organic carrot, due to my failure to own, wear or display a pair of Birkenstocks………….
Our new ambition to rid our barn (and souls) of 40 years of unwanted crap has resulted in a personal mandate to haul a minimum of five items per week to the dump………. This week we made a special trip on Wednesday night with a whopping 10 plus items, of dubious distinction, loading down our trunk……… who knew that The Dumpmaster convenes his entire court mid-week………… Clearly this is the place to see, be seen and conduct all forms of nefarious business…………. Much of our junk did not even make it to the bins, before being swallowed up by the hordes of shark like mountain folk…. …..
TQ is currently on the project rampage……. Yard barely recognizable…………. Secret items arriving daily to the neighbors mailbox (she thinks I don’t know) ……….. This week she banished me to the basement to clean 10 years of dust and debris, requiring the double N-95 masking……… …while upstairs a new window appeared in my bathroom and plans were made for multiple construction projects…………… The coming week will apparently herald the initiation have a multiyear house painting project, led by the brand new assistant Dumpmaster……
I returned for the first time in some years to the table of the Masseuse in Da Trailer for hot rocks, suction and a full assessment of my spiritual wellbeing while she manhandled my ancient bones…
Friday we made our way down the iconic Taconic……. filled with memories of my long ago childhood treks with my long gone father to West Point…. reasons unknown…… but always including a stop at the beloved Chief Martindale Diner (the real deal) ……still in business….and hosting our visits almost 70 years later….
This led us to our usual 24-hour annual whirlwind trip to visit my Cousins in the Big Apple surroundings………… Five meals, 60,000 carbs and too much wine later we made our way home last night………. Family- finding has become a mission of mine in my waning years…. And we were able to gather eight Cousins together for the traditional meal meeting at one of a dozen Italian Restaurants in the affluent Burb of Tuckahoe….
We stayed with my closest cousin in her high-rise apartment in the last bastion of Jewishness left in the five Boroughs…………. In a building self-contained to survive the next nuclear war and containing somewhere in the neighborhood the 10,000 scurrying souls………. All of which proves to be a startling delights to Lucy, who must have been a very urban dog in a previous life…… who knew that she knew from elevators, noisy apartment neighbors and pissing on concrete? … Bonus was a Saturday morning jog to a classic bagel emporium during the height of the rush hour to the massive Riverdale Shul………… Bobbing and weaving through the hustling, suited and yarmulke bearing, murmuring observers of the faith……… leaving them a bit startled as I whizzed uttering “Good Shabas”, from what must have appeared to be a lunatic fifth Goy with a dog and a bag of bagels….
Not to mention stopping every 20 yards to snap photos of the quaint little Hobbit houses that probably sell for four million dollars….to Jews and Goys alike………. there is some ancient, primeval attraction to these places I’ve spent years trying to leave behind, yet which emerges the moment I hit NYC traffic and my inner taxi driver returns from hiatus….
And is there a more alluring sight than the mighty Hudson River making its way from THE great city to the mountains and beyond….
Well, much as there is many more ramble to tell….that must wait for another time as we have to go see a man about a guitar……. Don’t ask
So, until we meet again, may the sun warm your shoulders, and may you find a real slice of pizza regardless of your location……
Estuardo
