Greetings Brothers and Sisters and a Happy Father’s Day:
“Cause you’re
The kind of man you know
Who likes what he says
I wonder what’s it’s like
To be so far over my head” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………” Last Train to TULSA”- Neil Young
“Too much talk will include errors” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Burmese Proverb
“The truth is more important than the facts” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Frank Lloyd Wright
Oh what a beautiful morning……have hit 90 a few times this week, which is Sahara like weather foe the mountains, but the nights remain in the 50s………some in the 40s. We have adjusted to our initial return traumas and most of the Inn at Scum Pond is now in working order, after exercising three 16 hour days of compulsive behavior to regain control of the waters and the weeds…………………The Queen has disappeared into the gardens and the embellishment of a myriad of small plastic storage baskets……………. Lucy is spending her days with the Jamaicans on the weekends when they are here……hoping for the big grill to be fired up down there.
We have been trying to figure out what our routines are here in the mountains in The Time of Corona. No Gym…. No Music gathering…. No Bebe to see three times a week……What do you do? What do you do?…………Jenn has been out and about making socially distanced reunions (with people I prefer not come here, since they are wont to barge in the house mask-less), collecting our vacationing house plants and starting back up rolling around in the dirt at the organic garden….I have decided to tackle the long neglected Barn Clean-Up project – my initial plan was to remove five items a week for The Dump or the burn pile but my first attempt, resulted in TQ taking back four of them, for some yet undetermined project- The Virus is creating role reversals in many ways, no?)
Speaking of The Barn…..it has become my epicenter and it houses not only all the yard machines and tools……but the massive Nautilus-like apparatus we inherited from my cousin when they moved back to the city several years ago, which took us two weeks to reassemble, and has mostly sat like a post-apocalyptic sculpture since……But Now….it has become workout central….maybe not to the standards of the Y, but pretty cool….plus trying to do a two mile run/fast walk three times a week up and down Route 103……which seems moderately flat from the car vantage….but is, in reality, a minor mountain……so….What to do?……gym, run, occasional work remotely, read, serial TV (we rejected having cable for the first time ever, so no TV to speak of , except streaming -does anyone actually watch broadcast TV when there are no sports?) …and how much news can you watch without going postal?), dirt road walks, a bit of laying in the sun, a fair amount of phone chatting, house projects when forced into it, obsessing about selling the ancestral home (two contracts…two back-outs) ….and generally pondering the meaning of life in these dark times……
Thought we had the old house beast sold this week…had a number of critical step towards the finish line……BUT NO…. can I say how much I hate the house market game, the whole realtor rules thing, and every house buyer in the universe?
But……THE POND……up and running with the little makeshift fountain, cleaned up, bacterailized………Magnifico!……………….is this Stu’s happy place???????????????? Hot enough for dip today, if it wasn’t for the ice cold mountain waters…. maybe in August….
Tulsa…. are you kidding me?
VP-make a choice, already, Joe…let’s get on with it….
Is John Roberts the new swing vote on the high court? Who might have thunk it?
Had some major Virus firsts this week……. had our first major outing since mountain return, with a Thursday trip up north to Brandon and Middlebury. Made short stop at the Brandon Dispensary (unlike those in the big city, you can smell this one two miles away), on to Middlebury to Costello’s Italian-Deli take out and a long awaited visit with Mama Corleone, lunch in the shade of the Marble Works, then up over the Pass to the Snow Bowl and dirt road walk, then down on route 100 for the dazzling-ly Green drive down Vermont’s scenic highway. Gorgeous day, blue skies, puffy clouds, hot-but perfect on the shaded walk…what’s not to like?
On Friday night, we had our first restaurant outing since February, down to the Victorian Inn at Wallingford for al fresco dining. Thy have a nice little patio at this Swiss Chef –owned place and added Pub fare to their fine dining menu a few years go (Schnitzel to die for)…..but they had one cute little table literally out in the front yard…which was clearly for us and Lucy….Perfect night out, perfect setting, perfect meal…..a shade towards normal….which is a bit easier to think about in Vermont, where there have been no COVID hospitalizations for three weeks, are just now reopening…and where the restaurant is required to ask you five questions about your health before accepting required reservations….
Then yesterday we had our first social visit of the season with the Ersatz Russian Spy and the Mt. Holly Schoolteacher of the Century……very nice to while away some time outside in the yard with some other adult human beings…. a bit out of shape on social discourse at the moment…. but will hopefully improve with more human sightings……
And this week……On to The Grocery…. for the first store visit in three months……have our Haz-Mat suits cleaned and pressed and ready to go for the event….
I sit before flowers, hoping they will train me in the art of opening up…………………Be well………………Stay Safe…………………Be Happy (or at least close)
Papi
