Fellow Sufferers and Sufferagettes:
“When it is winter, speak cold; when it is summer, speak hot” ……………………………Chao-Chou
“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders” ………………………………… Chuang- Tzu
“My dog doesn’t worry about the meaning of life” …………………………………………Charlotte Beck
And, The Queen, provides the motto of the week- metaphor or not, yours to decide – “My flowers are wilting” ……………………………
It’s another Saturday night…and I ain’t got nobody…. got some money, cause I just got paid…….
So, quite the ten day or so, since we last manifested our shared joy and angst………enough time for us to recover (barely) from annual band weeks and two weeks of house painting (TQ mentioned her next nine covetous house projects today, and I stopped the car in the middle of traffic, got out and left it running, and headed for Quebec) … and so welcomed our Cleveland granddaughters for a week, whilst their parents traipsed around the Northeast…………Safe to say I probably took more pictures than it would seem humanly possible….but that is the Papi-San thing to do….so having now crashed my laptop (again) trying to send myself too many photos, then trying to attach too any photos and then trying to exorcise too many photos…I have now resorted to a (Google defined) manageable set of attachments………BUT…..if you prefer to gluttonize……the link to the whole shebang…too much cuteness/how to wear out two aging adults photo album is yours, a click away: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mLCwcxrFAZvdN82n7
So, where to start…tempted to say to just put on your readers, and look at the photo obsessions……but….no cheating here…maybe just a synopsis? (how likely is that?)
Recovery days were good last week……. we also have had our other apples of NanaPapi eyes have a third b’day (Parkie) and firs 1st day of Kinder garden (Sloanie)…al in the rearview mirror for our two intrepid elders…. Highlights, highlights…yes, please…..
Fade to calm before the storm….
Saturday night- we went to Vermonty hay bale diner at nearby Plew Farm, from whenst we get out meat products, eggs and folk wisdom……the family arrived at nigh midnight with sleeping angelic girls…had a bit of chat time with Ry and Lauren and off to prepare ourselves for a week of action
Sunday- morning saw the cod up kids wild tour of the property, turtle searching and rock climbing in the yard….which soon led to a five minute span in which the little angels managed to brake my little camera and take the head of one of our Buddhas….but, hey…you know the saying, it can all be replaced, right (actually I spent time this week discovering that my beloved lil’ camera, which I paid under $100 for new, and replaced when it drowned for $25 on EBAY, is now listing used for around $300…apparently having become a cult item…..(an antique?)…so then off to Mt holly Daze…where we cavorted with the locals whilst The Queen held Court………discovered that Quinnley was a sack race champion and that Harper could not stand up in the sack, which led to____(more foreshadowing)….
Monday morning the parents took off and we initiated entertainment with a trek up the hill for blueberry stealing/picking…and our first of many efforts to keep Ivy from trying to reverse impregnate little Olaf…did I mention that the little circus coke as part of eh g-daughter package?……well Ivy is having her first heat and is momentarily over her zest for Lucy in favor of lil’ Mr. Olaf’s testosterone …all seven pounds of him…..got in a trip to the farm for organic lessons and toddler whispering by TQ……and withstood seven 4 year old meltdowns in an hour …is No a two syllable word…..Noooo-aahhhhh………….
Tuesday was a first outing day with a hike, a trip to the library to make off with some illicitly borrowed kids’ books (everyone in town has the key access, you may remember)…then down the 140 to Wallingford for lunch and best Vermont Creamees at Kelly’s and an aborted trip to the cloud Sparkle Barn…..then on to make-up miniature gold at the drug cartel front that passes as play center o mild of nowhere on Route 7….”I’m from Brooklyn and you can F-off guy at the helm……safe to say the PGA will not threatened by our golf outing at the awful miniature course, where Harps ran of with the balls into the woods……… after dinner that night, amazingly TQ organized a sleep out to the tent she set up in the yard for Vermonty camp adventure…whilst Papi, Lucy and Mr. Olaf shard the big bed and the AC…you go, Nana…..they made it through the night only to be awakened at 6 am by a howling Ivy who could not figure out what this was all about…..
Wednesday we braved a trip to Lake Nineveh……preparation time 4.5 hours….and the munchkin’s 1st Kayaking adventure……where Quinnley tried out solo kayaking in a mini….and did great for about 15 minutes…then required rescue…. beach time was required, which meant coming ashore on a sign, sign, everywhere a sign private beach…and then having to withstand a privacy discussion/see the sign lecture from a senile homeowner who could not remember he knew Jenn and I pretty well and was alternately pissed off and enamored by the kids …’such blonde hair I’ve never seen”………Nana had a Queen meeting to attend, so Papi strapped the kids in for date night, which involved grocery and Mart adventures…hikes to the covered bridge and the swinging bridge …dinner at the 99, where we discovered kids eat free the night after a Sox victory(Go SOX) at this beloved, and mediocre, New England institution….can you say Lobsta roll?…then down for more creamee heaven
Thursday was total adventure day with a perhaps overly ambitious (certainly not Papi, you say?) 12 hour Burlington experience…a two plus hour drive (are we there yet)…to the Echo/Leahy (our other Senator) Science Center on the lake for the MO Willem interactive exhibition mania…who knew about the Pidgeon?…..fancy-ish luncheon on the dock on shores of the Champlain….then pile back in for the short but unhappy trip down rush hour route 7 to the Shelburne museum….10 acres of majesty with art and an 1800s village…with ride ons the 100 year old caroused…..the magnificent history of the circus in miniature of 100 years of the big top….then onto the incredibly restored elegance of a private t rail train-circa 1890 -and the last of the great Lake steam ships…are we tired yet?….not quite…on back to Rootland…for pizza at Ramuntos and, yes…another creamee………..
Friday was a home day with games, tears and Pond swimming…. which was somewhat tempered by clouds, yucky-yucky- oooh…brown water and the threat of being consumed by ancient snapping turtle……screaming and Papi rescue ensuing…… though Mr. Olaf seemed to love the Pond…as did ivy when she discovered her unrequited love was trashing around in there………………………
The big kids showed back up late Friday afternoon…full of their own week of joy…and we let them adjust by Papi schlepping the girls and Lucy down to see the weekly music extravaganza at Okemo…music was lousy….the Connecticut mob was boorish and there were no other little kids…….but we gallivanted nonetheless and managed one last series of photo ops…before succumbing to hanger and heading home- but not before a stop at Shaw’s in Ludlow to get a bread for dinner, which included a quick 3-way shared chocolate iced donut, that we might have gotten away with as a freebie if Harper were not bathed in it…hosing required… home then for the house special Bolognese…and finally, to bed
They all left around noon today….and NanaPapi embarked to cleanup/collapse mode…. from which we may emerge sometime yet this year…….
All’s well that ends well…the Dumpmaster was very happy to see us back at it today…and Ivy decided to come in the house and that maybe we were really her parents…..which did not go over that well with Saffron…..but.. tomorrow is a day…start of a new week….and no more looking for love in all the wrong places………
Back to it……love the one you’re with……
Papi luvs ya……….
