Happy Day to all:
Two photo options again this edition- so as not to bore EVERYONE. I’ve attached around 30 of “best of” to go along with the commentary or you can see the whole Monty via the Shutterfly link attached below,. Took a bunch this week with my new Bull Goose Looney camera- which I have no idea how to use, but takes pretty good photos anyway. Photos are of our first snow on Sunday, our ridiculous efforts at faux security and our last hurrah trip to Maine coast for an overnight.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2CauG7RyxZMm-
We are in crazed process of trying to pack up/shut down house for winter and head back to Ohio on Thursday. We embrace the mantra that everything that could go wrong will do so. Had our entire second floor electric go out this week, which led us to finally track down the fabled electrician. In a gesture of great goodwill- he showed up a little before 7 am on Friday and went around the house like a whirlwind checking things out. We had a list of about a dozen issues but he got the main stuff done- restoring electric and getting long dormant flood lights working for security. Before he came we tried to find the breaker again- throwing all 40 plus breakers (in three distinct boxes) to see what controlled the upstairs; nothing worked but we did get almost all of them labeled and managed to shut down our internet and phone for hours.
We then went down to the bitter end with the oil company- who finally yesterday came and fished the pump out of the $1200 worth of fuel oil they had delivered to us unasked for. Three trips, lots of hassling and a house that has smelled of fuel oil for weeks….it’s fair to say that contractors in Vermont even exceed the lowly national standards for reliability and predictability.
Woke Sunday morning to a winter wonderland- which was amazing (see photos) but has lost its luster as it is now under 20 degrees and we have to do a bunch of outside work. Our punch list may well lead to punches (I believe that is how the term derived?). By Sunday, we already so burnt out from making lists, and trying to change locks, that we took off for an overnight to the coast of Maine (see many , many photos)…highly recommended. We visited Kennebunkport- but did not see George and Barbara, went to the legendary Maine diner and spent a great morning at Ogunquit. Then we had to come home and continue our assault on the house.
A few weeks ago- some people put it in our head that we needed to have home security so that someone would not take all of Karin’s lovely things she left for us. So we began a two week obsession with security options. Suffice it to say- we are un-securable; no reliable phone service to conduit a monitoring plan and police response time of about an hour- during which we think the house could probably be emptied out and reduced to studs. We then looked at non- monitored home alarm systems- but found they would not work in a closed down, freezing house. So we came up with our own brilliant security plan, consisting of lots of padlocks, boarded up windows and doors, fake security signs, fake cameras and bunch of little door and window alarms we got on the internet. I doubt we will become more secure- but we will use a lot of batteries and have a lot of red lights constantly flashing (see photos).
The leaves are all down, the cold has set in and we have to empty out the house…..must be time to leave. So- this is it for the Vermont Blog for 2013. May resume when we get back in spring- since doing an Ohio blog leaves me (and I’m sure, you) short of inspiration. Check out the photos, and have one last major thrill.
We’ll see you all down the road.
Stu
