A New Day’s Risin’ on the Blues, mes amis:
“Year’s end, all corners of this floating world……swept” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Basho
“You can’t stop the waves…. but you can learn to surf” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Jon Kabat- Zinn
“If the FOO shits……wear it” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………From the Country Jews’ Tall Tales
As this new year starts, we all have a lot of questions…………. here are mine:
These next four (with totally unbiased answers) could be culled from Stu’s Reviews- which shame on you if you don’t read thoroughly:
What was the best film of 2020?……Tie: Uncut Gems and 1917?
What was the best TV series you watched in 2020?………… The Wire
What was the best book you read in 2020?………………………When the Crawdads Sing?
What as the best album you heard in 2020?………………………….” Letter to You”- Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band
All my troubles seem so far away…Can “Yesterday” possibly be the Beatles all time best song (Sirius radio says yes in their annual top Beatles 100)?
Does anyone else wake up thinking about the phone number 281-8211…. which was the constant source for time and temp in the 70s?
Did anyone else get a care package of bagels form New Jersey from McConnell, Pelosi and Schumer?
What is the population increase going to be as result of stay-at –home, no contact, no nothing 2020?
Are we tired of going for walks yet?
Have you done more baking this past year than in the last 20 years combined?
How many pizzas have you eaten in 2020?
Has there been a general resurgence in midnight snacking? Did we gain weight?
Once you get the vaccine, can you do anything you want? Kiss strangers? Go to a “sex club”? Share a popsicle with someone on the street?
California sunset?………….How long to drive from Vermont to San Diego…. actually 2960 miles……thinking about it.
Can people go to any state they choose to get a vaccine…. goin’ back to the country…. baby don’t you want to go………
Does anyone have sense of power and control anymore?………… Good or bad thing?
That may be about ten questions too many….so on we go……what to do on a Covid Sunday……when another week of the virtual (no pun intended) same is about to start……Well, we get out every Sunday for an outing…..which means drive, walk, lunch, repeat……lately that has meant heading south to Stratton Mountain….Stu writes the Sunday Sermon…..we typically divert to see The Dumpmaster…then head down Route 155…past the Weston Priory, where strange doings are happening….down through Weston and the line of out –of- state crazies descending on the Vermont County Store…..on to Londonderry, past Mike and Tammy’s general store, with 850 flavors of soft serve, with a typical stop at Grandma Miller’s bakery for more pastry than we should eat in a month…..past the world’s best remote shopping center in South Londonderry….on to the rolling hills approaching the ski area….Vermont 100 to 11…to 30…and back to 100….where The Honeypie sits……lunch in the car of the exotic sausages from Morocco and Thailand, hand cut fries and pickles….and on to find the dirt road walk…last week we found a wonderful dirt road with light dusting of snow….but as we strolled along with the mountains as backdrop on all sides …hit an underlay of black ice…and down went Papi…. in complete angel stance…out for a standing eight count as head hits ice…. then…. no one around as he falls and can’t get up…. but catches up with The Queen and The Beast….and finished the walk at snail’s pace…. poor. poor, sore boy…
And speaking of TV…. Papi a bit of a High-Brow snob……preferring heady dramas that transport our Covid selves to another place and another time…. but…. when I’m not looking…. TQ tends to watch things like “Lucifer” ……which I can identify from anywhere, since the devil sounds just like Vincent Price….
The bi-weekly dinner at Sal’s…which is our closest take out place, at a mere 12 minutes down the snowy mountain…. was quite good this week ……pasta fazzoul, eggplant parm, Baba Louie’s bread, chicken scaloppini……but just as you head down through White Rocks National Forrest into enchanting Wallingford…. you hit the 25 mph speed trap…usually unmanned…. but it’s a holiday…and TQ was singing really loud with her radio……so …Sal’s supper…. Priceless…. or $145 in reality….
Been a big week for drives…and on NY Eve Day we trekked for northern romp……up the Connecticut River Valley…Sirius radio fading in and out…can Sgt. Pepper really not be in the top 100 Fab Four songs?…..drove up past Norwich…where we found a magnificent Gold Coast series of dirt roads for the rich and famous……which led to a long hike –looking at Vermont style MacMansions….and being accosted by an ancient codger on an ancient tractor for parking on the side of the road….TQ worked to apologize to him……while I drifted away, index finger in the air…..wound up at White River Junction where we found open Bar-B-que (Fatty’s) and bulked up for the cold…..found a place to sit and eat at Queeche Lake , where we watched the extraordinary art of ice fishing……honing their craft………one guy was on laying the ice for half hour tying to roll himself up…and…..that…..was pretty much our new year’s celebration….. how old do you have to be to not care that it is New Year’s eve?
And…then …yesterday…. got the muse again…and went out to follow the sun……crossing two mountain ranges until we found it over by Hubbardton…and had midafternoon, very cold, but sun soaked walk on a fabulous dirt road…and a quick stop at Ramuntos for the requisite 2 slice cheese special……has anyone rediscovered Coke during The Plague?…
Is the “All-State man” really G_D? …………….and, TQ just got back from testing the latest 3-5 inches roads, feeding someone’s’ pig, flirting with The Dumpmaster, waving to her friends from an appropriate distance and taking out the slough bucket…so time to go…is it a new year yet?
Hope this is a much better year for us all…stay safe…cast an illegal vote in Georgia so Stacey Abrams will stop e-mailing me…….be vigilant a while longer……and be……Forever Young…….
Papi
