Author: stumberry

Greetings Family and Friends:

I can drive away the sorrow; I can drive away the pain.

I might wake up some tomorrow, and you’ll pass my way again.

I would beg or steal or borrow, on life’s rapid moving train.

I would drive to west of Fargo, just to see you once again……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………” West of Fargo”- 2003           

My good friend, Steve Hekler passed away last Sunday night after a grueling yearlong battle with cancer. Steve was my first and oldest friend in Vermont. He was a funny, kind, unassuming and extremely talented man…and a wonderful friend. When we first came here, I was a bit lost without the music of the Bunty boys and I immediately met Steve, and he became my Vermont musical muse. We played, we ate, we laughed, we cried. He reactivated my long dormant Jewish roots after 45 years of separation from that culture. The fluent Yiddish of my childhood returned. Our Sunday night dinners at East were often the highlight of the week. He was a young man who left us way to soon, and leaves a giant void in many lives. He will be sorely missed and the world is just a little bit less of a graceful place without him.

Rest in Peace, Jewish Fish Monger.                               

I don’t have a lot in me after this very sad week, so will just throw out the highlights via my Blog Newsflash and let the photos tell the rest of the story………………………

Have now entered into the “Dinner on the Ground” phase of Corona 2020……having guests over to middle-of-the-yard dinners at a very long table for social distancing…who knew?

Made my first foray back to the Monday night Folk Club hootenannies on Monday…. standing ten feet apart on the Village Green…. I have been reluctant to go due to microbe expulsions that come with singing, but decided to gather with my other musical friends to sing Steve back home

THE POND is AMAZING……been in three times this week with very hot weather (90s in the mountains…. but no global warming going on here) and endless work on the property…. even got out the floaty devices this weekend…. clean, pure, cool………amazing…. again……who knew?

The funeral took place in 93-degree heat…. over 100 people gathered at the graveyard…and EVERY ONE of them wore a mask…. outside!……the Bernie-state is indeed impressive in it level of social responsibility…

The Moron-in Chief says “99% of Corona case are absolutely harmless” …. I’m fully relieved now…You?

Once again fixed the 45-year-old tractor this week and it’s back to running……My family always said that little Jewish boys from The Bronx are not supposed to grow up to fix tractors……but who knew?

Did several outings this week, north to Brandon and over to the rolling farm country of the Champlain Valley….and then down towards Brattleboro…..too hot to kayak even though we are now schlepping the beasts everywhere, but managed some very hot walks on the endless supply of scenic dirt roads….and a little Diner stop—–dining out in the middle of their very big yard…..this is our new normal-we only dine outside at restaurants that have pickup windows and very big yards……really, who knew?………………..

The Virus continues to rage in many parts of the country, people are scared and confused and our leaderless nation is suffering from the worst divisive inner turmoil in a century (or at least since 1968) ….hate your next door neighbor- but don’t forget to say grace…and you don’t believe  ___________________________

Be well…stay safe…. eat a little peaches….

Papi

Happy Independence Day weekend:

“You see more sitting still than chasing after” ………………………………………………………………………………………Jonathan Franzen

“Step by step, the early morning breeze” ………………………………………………………………………………………………Hakuin

“When you vote for a Republican…. God kills a kitten” …………………………………………………………………………. Vermont bumper sticker

It’s been a slow week in the Greens…. Aren’t they all right now? Vermont is beginning a slow reopening after being very successful at stopping Covid spread, but now the tourists are going to be coming from the cities, so who knows?

Spent part of last weekend trying to get Home Depot here to mix paint and deliver curbside, which required a note from God…. but eventually got it done after multiple calls and prowls of the parking lot. Nothing like having to work hard just to be able to work hard.

We decided on one of our trips to town that we just had to have fried chicken……so planned our trip to coincide with a stop at the Rutland KFC…only to find it had was gone (literally gone- no evidence of its existing) ….so began a whirlwind journey to feed the chicken-jones on a Sunday night…. ultimately finding the goods at the Price Chopper just before they closed…. surprisingly worth the hassle………………

After a number of fits and starts, we decided that Thursday was officially the start of kayak season, and spent hours assembling the kayak rack on top of my car. A major effort despite the assumed possibility of being more convenient. Mostly The Queen did it while I sat inside dabbling in word affairs…. a wrenched neck later (after hoisting the vessels on), we made our maiden voyage to the peaceful waters of nearby Lake Nineveh. Though the tiny parking lot was crowded with cars, the lake is large, so was the usual tranquil experience. As is custom, Lucy managed to stay on Jenn’s kayak for few minutes before spotting me and diving in, then spending the rest of a two-hour trip swimming after me…. little legs thrashing in the water…. it’s actually quite a sight to behold…. looks like a sea lion making its way across the ocean…

Friday dawned bright and hot for our outing day…. after I finished the workout in the barn, and a jog up and down mountainous Route 103 (my kingdom for a small stretch of flat land), we headed off to find our muse……wandering up through the Greens to South Royalton, with the ambition of finally making it to the legendary Worthy Burger…. only to find it closed for the fiftieth straight time we have tried). By this time, intense thunderstorms had hit, so we found Sandy’s small roadside snack bar (Vermont generally had the best snack bars known to man) and had more fried chicken under a little canopy area…. followed by what was clearly the best yet Maple Creamees (big, cheap, frim, full of maple) …. headed back out in the rain….and passed an empty parking lot –Dollar store- in the middle of nowhere…so resumed our three month quest of trying to find the things our brethren have been hoarding. Hazmat suit on, I scored a major coup…. emerging, fist pumping with multiple bottles of alcohol and peroxide, missing pasta boxes, kitchen scrubber (who knew) and a discount pack of tidy-whities (don’t ask) ……………

Arrived home in time for Jenn to get out and finish mowing…. culminating in a broke down tractor….it has been too good to be true thus far….so the 90-year-old machine going down seemed inevitable….

We had decided that since the hordes were going to be invading our safe space, we would stay around The Inn for the weekend and work on the property. Planned for a relatively light (is this foreshadowing?) wok day painting and staining the decks……woke up bright and early this morning, was a fine and love-a- ley day………eight hours in 90 plus heat, two wrenched backs, third degree sunburns, four bee stings, and the first dive of the year into the healing waters of the crystalline POND ….we limped back into the house…..is this a sign of aging?…..it looks pretty good out there …bur we only got one done….trying to see if joints will work enough today to do the other…and still be ready for the Jewish Pig Farmer and the Empress of Death to come later this afternoon for a masked cookout……..mountain work is never done……

My five recommendations for another week of enduring The Plague:

1. Get a vinyl copy of Neil Young’s newly released 1975 masterpiece “Homegrown”
2. Stream “Baptiste” and “The Missing”
3. Read a new book (see Stu’s Reviews for ideas)
4. Get out on the safety of the water
5. Avoid paining/staining projects

So enough avoidance with this shtick…. time to hit the chores and make the tea……

Be well…………… stay safe, sing a little song……WEAR YOUR MASK….

Papi

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