Greetings fellow travelers- from the Snow-Belt:
“Why Should it Cost Ya”? Phil Unetic and Maux McCormick
Nu (So)? We’ve seemed to come to the end of the spectacular fall foliage season in the mountains and have begun a rapid descent towards winter. Last Saturday, we were at the Townshend Pumpkin Fest in the afternoon, and it was a gorgeous day. We left around 2 to drive home ….52 degrees, sunny, blue skies, brilliant colored leaves…and got home 40 minutes later where it was 35 and snowing (two inches). A little early, no?
We have pretty much ended our lodging season with a number of guests for fall foliage. After the great Danes, we had two woman form Germany and California…elite softball playing pen pals who travel together once a year. They had been traveling for three weeks together and may have turned the corner on their time together…so came here for four days. They were a lot of fun, but stayed up very late watching the baseball playoffs. So, we went them down to Cooperstown when they left here, to feed the jones. As soon as they left, we went from international chic to Midwestern kitsch with couple from Kansas who showed up at the door, with him yelling “is this the place that advertised free beer?” They claimed to be official members of the NRA (Never refuse anything). They also stopped on way here at the Ocean State Job Lot (think Big Lots) to buy and bring their own pillows to our house. …….This was quite the adjustment for us.
We did get out in between for a brilliant fall sunshine drive. The colors were at absolute peak and shimmering in the mid-day sun. We stopped at a recently plowed corn field to run around yanking up corn stalks for our front door decoration (see the featured photo) – in between hiding from cars going by (this was a desolate road, where the hell were they going?). On the way back we stopped at Sal’s Italian joint in Wallingford to sit on the sun drenched patio and have some pizza, while Lucy sang love songs to the little pup ignoring her across the road. Wallingford has the last traffic light you can find before you head up the mountain to our house. Usually, you get one car every three or four light changes-…but fall foliage…we watched them backed up on Route 7 for a mile or so, while no doubt thinking how charming Vermont life is. I told Jen we should carry some maps and planned routes printed out with us to sell for five bucks a hit to the beleaguered leaf peepers.
This past weekend we had our last friends for the season, when Phil et Maux came up from Jersey. We had a great couple of days with vast rambling conversations touching on estrogen deprivation, various penal issues, the true meaning of the word ersatz, and our uncle Bernie. Entertaining, to say the least. Maux is recovering from shoulder surgery, so was limited in exercise to lifting variously filled glasses and knitting…but we schlepped them around any way hitting the “early bear” dinner at our beloved Sams, doing the Vermont Classic Charming Village tour (a must when you come, and we give a great discount… plus all the dirt roads you can handle and and unlimited ponds and stone walls). We took them up in the woods to see Maya, the legendary potter with the kiln bigger than several of our bedrooms. Luckily it is warm in her studio, because it hit a low of 18 that night. We once again decided to name our bed and breakfast The Inn at Scum Pond, if we can find someone to make up that sign. These people never stop laughing, nu? Phil joined the ranks of my band mates to come to play at folk club on Monday nights. I had to keep him reeled in as his fingers clearly wanted to move rapidly out of the folk vein into some bluegrass or such. All my band mates have been very well received by the music group, and add much needed jolt to the proceedings.
By the way, since Maux was here, Jenn has now taken up knitting in earnest in between house remodeling projects and planning more remodeling projects, winter gardening, buying up bedding and laundry baskets, organic farming, shop girling a b-and-b hosting.
We made another trip this week down to the Bronx to see how people live on another planet….and to visit my old fiend Bob who is still imprisoned at a place very generously called a “rehab center”. We are trying to battle with the enormous NYC bureaucracy to get him some advocacy and a decent place to live. This has been an important reunification for me and will miss seeing him once we return to the heartland. See the photo of him and I cavorting on the institutional patio. From the “home”, we found a shockingly hold- over Italian neighborhood in the Bronx for some mojo pizza eating and people watching, and a sneak trip to the bakery for cannoli’s. What a bustling place and way of life …more people on one city street than we see in a month in the mountains……..but less moose, ponds, stone walls and woodchucks. From the city we headed north in the manic traffic (have you ever drove the Taconic at rush hour) to visit Joel and Sherry up at their manse at pretty High Falls. Had a good overnight visit. My cousin Sherry, who is my oldest living family (take that, girl) has determined that she is my “Jewish alter-ego”…which I clearly need to make amends for my many lapses and to avoid purgatory, even if most Jews don’t think it exists.
We also made one more (maybe not the last) trip up to the house of horrors, where to our own amazement, we have managed to re-rent the apartment (you didn’t really think I was going to say we had sold the house, did you?). We found this uber-cute young couple on Craig’s List, who are SOOO excited to have their first apartment. They are 20 but look 15 and resemble post Norman Rockwell Vermont counter culture poster children. Of course, we want to adopt them and make them our newest refugee children. It is good to have someone there and we managed to get heat on before the pipes froze (in mid-October mind you).
So we are home approaching the home stretch with but three weeks before we make the trek back to the heartland….oh, it’s gonna be flat. I will be traveling much of next two weeks in between getting house closed up and vast arrangements made, but will get in one more post before retiring the mountains for winter.
Love to the masses, Estuardo
