Author: stumberry

Greetings Fellow Travelers:

“Take thou also unto thee wheat and barley and beans, and lentils and millet and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof etc.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………From label of Ezekiel 4:9 yeast free bread (or from The Bible-your choice)

“ Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings- always darker, emptier, and simpler”…………………………………………..Friedrich Nietzsche

“How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?”……………………………………………………………………………..Leonard Cohen

“Lovely nose ring –
excuse me while I put my
head in the oven.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

A week of “Quoting” in the mountains…………………………………………………………………….

“We gotta get outta dis place”…… After a few days of working the land and THE POND…..we decided it was time for a Sunday drive ….and set out to deliver and hang the posters for the MT. Holly Daze celebration today….so we chased summer around the Quaint mountain towns of region; circling through East Wallingford, Weston, Londonderry, Landgrove and Peru (Vermont, that is) ……….stopping for short walks along the way and emulating Lucy as she stopped to literally smell the roses…we call this the “Quaint village tour”….”Quaint” may be an understatement…………

“Look at the size of that F____r”………….we have inherited a bull-goose size “House Toad”, who has emigrated from The Pond, apparently seeking asylum from Pond oppression, outside our front door……we welcome immigrants here and believe they enhance our community…..and Lucy has failed to notice he/she as of yet……………………………

“What happened to all the women”…..on Monday Folk Club was a boys night only……apparently a memo circulated amongst the folkie woman to stay away en masse (a “Me-Too” move?)….with only the men there it becomes decidedly testosterone-ish…..and the volume goes up several decibels….plus we have a new folkie member-an acquaintance of mine from the Gym on the mountain, who is an interesting guitar virtuoso, brain- damaged surgeon, who claims to have played with Richard Thompson????….really???….

“How depressing was that?”……we went to our second play of the season at the Weston Playhouse, “Fun House” …and our first in the sparkling new “Weston Playhouse at Walker Mountain”- a year round arts facility built last year after a ten year campaign to extort money from theater goers…..the play was very well done, but they should have handed out Zoloft at the door….the venue is quite the upgrade over the former Weston ”second theater” , which was housed at the local Rod and Gun Club (really)…………………………….

“I think I made a FOPA”…………..Jenn describing a mistake in what she believed to be the French phrase spelling…..(I think she did, no????)………

“I’ll have whatever she’s having”………….The gym at Okemo ski area has been getting a lot busier since the summer people arrived en masse, I think there were as many as 6-7 people at a time there this week (I often have the building to myself)….I was working out on the bench press one day this week, when I started hearing this moaning and groaning, which began to increase in volume, frequency and intensity……eventually culminating in a crescendo of orgasmic screams…..needless to say I perked up and scanned around to find the source- a young woman in purple spandex from whence this emanated……she continued to express herself this way as she moved on to stretching (quite limber) and weight lifting (really strong)……all of which was pretty distracting my working out……I finally gave up and went outside to jog five miles in 90 degree heat and take an hour long cold shower……..

“We gotta get outta dis place #2”-……We decided we needed to have an overnight away- so Thursday, which was a God-day in the mountains (72, sunny, no humidity)…we loaded the car with food and gear for all eventualities and set out to parts unknown….and spent 13 hours driving around southern Vermont and then on to the Hudson River byway…..in search of a gourmet meal and quaint lodging………by 6 pm, we had decided we did not like any of the lodging offerings since the tourista were out in full force, and circled back hone arriving around ten pm…..we also stopped for a meal of burnt meat loaf and something resembling roast pork at a little “trading post” underneath the Champlain Bridge (connecting NY and Vermont)…..since we were gone 13 hours, used a full tank of gas, hit two states and took four walks…this apparently adds up to an overnight in the mountains……

“Better, worse or the same” … I have to call in dally to the mad scientist- doctor (Frasier’s brother Niles) up at Dartmouth, who I am seeing for some unknown condition that may be Rheumatic/Lyme- related/Yeast-induced). When I call and try to tell him how I am doing , what symptoms I have, what is the progress….he reminds me of “the rules”…..”Better, same or worse than the day before”….nothing more, nothing less…the cure may be worse than the condition….

“Ve like to zee the Red Zox”…..we had our third Airbnb guests of the season this weekend – a lovely young couple from Holland (Utrecht), who are avid baseball fans…..Jakob and Annemieke ( I called her Anne Marie for short)…..they already had plans to see the Yankees in New York and wanted to see the Sox today in Boston…so we sent them down to wait until the second inning and scalp tickets when the scalpers get desperate (one hopes)…they left us a cookie and a love note….gotta love the Dutch……

And, finally………………………………..

“I need another bush and I’m not sure we really need a pickup”…….The Garden and Bedding Queen as she prepares for the annual Mt. Holly Garden Tour showing next week (after spending 430 hours in garden preparation) and after seeing a Subaru Impressa and Kia Seoul listed on line…. we do keep busy in our heads in the mountains……

And, that, my friends, is about it….gotta go get ready to man the fiery grill at MH Daze…an decide whether I am better, same or worse for tomorrow’s call….See ya…….

Stu

Greetings Patriots of all ilks:

“Better you should close the club soda”………………………………………………………………………………..Stu in response to Jenn offering a beer after she did not put the top back on the now flat club soda bottle

“ I live, which is the main point”…………………………………………………………………………………………….Heinrich Heine

“A flower dos not think about competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms”…………..Zen Master

“Hard to tell under
the lights–white Yarmulke or
male-pattern baldness?”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews..

Pens Pals in the mountains……………….I received a beautiful book of poetry this past week form my pen pal, Sherilyn, who lives in Winnipeg (north of the wall). I met Sherilyn in 1978 when Phil and I were traipsing around the country and we spent a few weeks together in the Pacific Northwest….though I have never seen her since, we have exchanged letters for more than 40 years, with astonishing regularity (I have hundreds of letters hidden away in a box, which my kids will someday come upon as some extraordinary panorama of our times)..….even now , we continue to exercise this somewhat archaic art form and have not resorted to e-mail….40+ years, and still poetry!

Birthdays in the mountains….we spent last Sunday in the 95 degree heat at a birthday party for our friend, Linda Miller…..which meant hours floating in their pond in rafts with little drink holders, while Lucy ran around the pond in circles barking at us…..this is apparently how one deals with heat with no air conditioning

Kayaking in the mountains…..we got out this week, to escape the seven straight days of 90 degree plus heat, to lovely Lake Nineveh, for our first Kayak trip of the season….. we often try to stay apart so Lucy will stay in one boat, but eagle eye fleagel spotted me from all the way across a pretty big lake…and dove in from Jenn’s craft …..swimming after me for the better part of two hours, with her little life vest and her little legs churning and her snout barely above water – snorting the whole time…..a few other kayakers seemed amazed, though I’m not sure if they were impressed or suspected puppy- abuse…..Of course, on the way back, we had to make dirt road, over-mountain detour , to find Cremees….before all crashing back at home (Lucy slept for six hours!)

Fresh Milk in the mountains…..Jenn has struck up a relationship with nearby Farmer Johnson, where she leaves her own personal jug to be filed with newly milked cow stuff a few times a week…since she was busy with the town yenta-ing job, she asked me to pick up the filled up milk jug for her….which created quite a stir amongst the group of farm-wives (how many does he have?) when I drove in with my foreigner plates to pick up the milk…..after a quick cavorting with their baby heifers, I was able to locate the milk shed and the storage fridge …..and return home with the anointed milk…..though, apparently, I had forgotten my glasses ( and it is DARK in the milk shed), since the next day we realized I had someone named “Gerber’s” milk and jug….which looked pretty close to reading “Jennifer” to me…and does the Gerber get some kind of special milk, anyway?

Sunday morning visits in the mountains…..The Jewish Pig Famers’ wife just showed up with her dogs for a visit, and Jenn was telling her about The Blog, as I was mid-composing…she asked to be on the list, but Jenn was dissuading – her describing the nature of my stereotypical descriptions….using herself as an example of being the object of my stereotyping…to which the JPFW responded…” men just have to give us shit about what they don’t understand”….this is apparently Vermont pig farmer wisdom….

Fourth of July in the mountains……We braved the 96 degree heat to head into Belmont for the infamous eight minutes of Parade….with Queen Jenn on her community association float..…After the first vehicle, with the “Grand Marshall”, who is our local state senator..…came the wandering donkey, who proceeded to shit all over the parade route…which the state senator hastily cleaned up with a shovel…which I believe is a real example of government at its best…..From there, we went in to REALLY hot Rutland to check out the “Giant” flea market at the state fairgrounds…..which turned out to have four tables of fish wives hawking semi-voodoo dolls and other Vermont relevant tchotchkes..….then on to find shade for a walk up a dirt road at White Rocks Recreation area, and after much debate over a picnic lunch, a decision to take our first trail walk of the summer…so despite the tick-hysteria, we put on the Off (what a sentence, no?) and did a two mile walk straight up….then back home where Lucy slept another six hours….

And…Gardening in the mountains…my Garden Queen had another three yards of mulch delivered for her garden overhaul project ( more mulch than it might seem…BIG pile) …..and we are on a trimming, lopping, edging, digging whirlwind leading up the Mt. Holly Garden Tour in few weeks…Lucy and I find places in the barn to hide while this activity is going on…and I just booked a few Marriott nights in anticipation of the Tour preparation heating up……

Dining in the mountains…..this week had us meeting the King and Queen of Java Baba-land at the legendary Country Girl Diner in Chester for their Friday dinner special menu ..…open until eight (usually closes at 3), eight specials on a chalkboard (only five choices left when we arrived at 6:30) and cash only ( we had bills rather than change this time)…….it’s a wonderful experience……mostly gravy-based, in a classic 1939 Mountain View Dining Car (you can look it up)…..then on Sunday night, we made the pilgrimage to Rutland, to our beloved shrine, East, for the traditional Sunday supper…..we now have a permanent table reserved for us there…

Conflict in the mountains….THE POND is once again dissipating as the heat of summer goes on…with little in the way of feeder water supply, so we are again considering tapping into the old spring up the mountain and running 1500 feet of pipe down to the Pond…..which the diaper cleaning people who owned our place for 50 years did……A Connecticut mensch bought the adjoining zillion acres a few years ago and is building his pleasure dome up there, and the spring is on his land….when I mentioned the idea to him last Fall, he immediately pointed out that it was HIS LAND…….but we have now found that the deed to our property includes a right of way for the springs up there….so there, Mr. Connecticut…..you go back to the burbs….The process would still involve all kinds of piping, gravity, coupling , heating and dowsing…..so we may just pay the fire department to come with truckloads of water for THE Pond..…stay tuned on this one…has the potential to be Hatfield and McCoy like………

And…finally… though there is much more I could illuminate you with….Pet-acquisition in the mountains….So, our friend, Linda, the French Master Chef’s betrothed, decided it was time for another cat (I think she already had 14) and cat procurement is tricky in the mountains, as most of them seem to be going to Chinese restaurants (remember the recently closed-by-the health – department Chin-Some -Young Guy in Bellows Falls) so she found one being deported from the Deep South to NYC…and on Saturday, drove 5 ½ hours to midtown Manhattan to pick up the little ball of fur, and then 5 1/2 hours back (we declined to accompany her despite repeated pleas)…..we clearly love our pets in the mountains…..

And……that…my friends…is clearly more than enough…..

Papi

Happy Summer Ya’ll:

“You must learn to wait properly”………………………………………………………………Shoji Yamada

“He’s more Kasich than Kasich”…………………………………………………………………. Stu responding to Jenn about Vermont’s Governor Phil Scott, who is hard to pin down on political leanings and quite unpredictable

“Everyone should have themselves regularly overwhelmed by nature”……..George Harrison

“Left the door open.
for the Prophet Elijah.
Now our cat is gone.”………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

“I’ve really been spending time in my head”………………………………………………..Big Papi in mulling about this week’s Blog style

Off the teletype……………………………………………….Dateline: Mt. Holly………………………………….Sunday July 1st ……………………………….Rat-ta- ta …..Ra- ta- ta ……………………………….Vrrrooommmmmm………..

HOT………….95 yesterday in the Mount……………………………..no end in sight…………no AC around……..what you gonna do?……..3 hours in The Pond Saturday…………four buckets of Algae…..VEEY CLEAN….Very cool……

Shade…………………..first walk of the summer up the Gates Trail……Spring Cistern found….how to get water down the mountain into The Pond….possible Hatfield and McCoy showdown with Connecticut mansion builder on adjoining land, whose spring is it?….black flies go nuts…ooh-aahh……..Lucy finds BIG dogs (horses) and thinks “life-mates”…………………….

“Greasin’ the Bowbee”…………making nice with the Mount road crew supervisor (Mr. Bowbee) to get them to build a temporary bridge replacement over the stream from Rt. 103 to our house…rather than make our road a thru road for egress…and us wind up with another house next to a “parkway” for the Belmont crowd shortcut to Rutland….Jenn working on skimpy outfits and sweet talkin’ skills with “The Bowbee”

De-shitting the place…….How many A-1 Septic services can there be in the small mountain hamlets…more than you would think….

Music in the Greens…..summer lawn music starts….Castleton College mountain setting picnic night….”The Hot Club of Saratoga” (really, Saratoga!!)….like 1930s Paris Hot Club with Django Reinhart and Stefan Grapelli…..very ambitious….all bands love Lucy……

Cell phone plans are a sham – how can you pay hundreds of dollars and run out of minutes? …..five conference calls in one day must do it…along with children buying houses and having babies……………………….and what about the daily dropped calls?

POT….legal as of today in Vermont…but you cannot buy it or sell it….get out the garden hoe, mama….

GOLIATH………..Billy Bob Thornton…. Amazon……check it out……….quite the ride

Jenn- many friends now in the Mount…..pulling organic weds, remodeling bathrooms, building Fourth of July floats…..many home visits for wine tasting…taking over the community building…thinking about a run for the House District……..Jenta-Yenta………..the queen of Mulch…………………………..

Stu- on the anti-social side….no friends to speak of except those who cannot ever make any plans…..boo-hoo….BUT….many daily acquaintances….. my “Circle of Care”…..……one day last week: mingling with the Gym matrons at Okemo…….my free lunch mama bear at Java-Baba……the inside contact at the General store leaking all the secret news of the Mount…… the postmistress who gives me daily prizes…. and the librarian who gets books for me from all over New England and leaves them out for me to let myself in to the library for 24 hour a day pickup……..who needs friends-with needs anyway?….though why is clearly a complex psychological question??????

Tessa-Bear…..six months down and three to go…might make baby-date yet…….

AIRBNB- had a last minute hang-gliding guest this week…..was here for 12 hours and I saw him for five minutes of gliding regalia…..he left and now we have two baby chicks, that The Mulch Queen is fostering, living in the guest room..…which is keeping Lucy up and vigilant most of the night…….

More Music…More Heat….Friday night – at ski hill – free concert series……young bands playing 80’s hits……bad expensive Bar-B-Que……..visiting Jerseyites with wine spritzers…..two zillion dogs searching for ground scraps…..sunset on the hillside………………….

Weston Playhouse….first show of season……….Our Town….New Hampshire’s Thornton Wilder’s 1937 gem which was the first show presented at the new Weston theater that year……unannounced lead role of The Stage Manager done by Christopher Lloyd (Jenn: “don’t we know this guy from somewhere?”)

Sunday-Sunday…….Tasks for the day: spread Mulch before it is 90 degrees…. get all our weekly laundry done because electric rates are lowest on the day of the Lord (why is that?)…. jump in the Pond…find air conditioning….finish the endless Blog….

Blah, blah, blah, blah…..I need the remedy……Feliz Naveda………………all that glitters isn’t gold……..it’s all right mama…….Buenos Diaz……

Papi

Aloha:

“Let yourself become the space that welcomes any experience without judgment”……………………………………………..Tsoknyi Rinpoche

“Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down…….and they all led me straight back home to you”………………Gram Parsons

“I closed the box and put it in the closet. There is no real way to deal with all that we lose”…………………………………..Joan Didion

“Jewish triathlon–
gin rummy, then contract bridge,
followed by a nap.”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews

I’ve been thinking about “sound bites” this week….which seem to be ubiquitous in our culture……for instance “ Make America great again”, “We will build a wall to keep them out”, “I always look out for the little guy”, “No new taxes”, “I’m also honored to have the greatest temperament that anybody has.” ….well, you get the picture….so here are my own annotated sound bites for our week in the mountains…..

“I’ll bring the gefilte fish”………The Jewish Fish Monger in preparation for our dinner party last weekend, that featured all of our mountain chums, including the Jewish Pig Farmers, the German intellectuals (German was actually spoken at the event), the trippy Organic Farmers, The Boston Shanty Irish Southies, The Russian spy….and a few new ringers thrown in…the food was great, the whiskey was flowing and the conversation was titillating and bizarre…a good time was had by all…..and we were exhausted by the time they all left near midnight

“This belt will work fine”………Famous last words of the parts guy at the mower repair shop when we got a new belt for the tractor last fall, which took three peoples’ strength to stretch and get on… and which had the mower blades running even when not engaged…and which snapped early into our new season…which led to us doing it all over again…well, we’re not really farm people, ya know…

“Boredom is the lack of quality relationships”……after staying at home with no work travel for 6-7 weeks and Jenn and I hovering over each other 24/7)…..was thinking some Marriott stays were a dire necessity…and then the phone started ringing and the e-mails started coming….and now I am suddenly trying to decide who to answer…..and whether air travel is all that desirable…famine and feast

“I really need a snack”….our newest yard boy, Ian, after about ten minutes of weed whacking, most of which was spent kicking and screaming at the whacker……apparently Jenn had set the dangerous precedent of feeding him at regular intervals when I am not here. I asked him if he could use some bread and water……a bit of a difference from the hearty Midwest farm-yard boy types we are accustomed to

“We have the Presidential suite ready for you”……The Marriott front desk at my arrival at the Fairfield Inn in Waterbury (Vt.) this week, for my monthly meeting of the Governor’s Council for Children….apparently the ongoing perks of being a “Titanium” rewards member (Platinum actually, but Jenn can’t remember that and thinks I am Titanium) ……it was pretty nice with a fireplace and such….though I kept wondering which presidents might have stayed there, but was reassured to consider that the Donald would never stay at a Fairfield inn……It was a beautiful drive- day up there on glorious Route 100… a little nap…a little workout…a little jog…a little Thai food…a little hot tub….the complete Stu gets away package

“Take a load off, Fannie”………..Left Waterbury after my meeting Thursday morning and hooked up with Jenn in the mountains of New Hampshire for a drive down to the Boston area(Shirley, MA) to the Bull Run- a 200 year old stagecoach inn that has unbelievable music seven nights a week. We caught up with The Weight Band—who are a band that does The Band, and has five guys who at one time or another actually played with The Band…….. including the great jim Weider on guitar, who replaced Robbie Robertson in 1983 when The Band resumed touring after the finale of the Last Waltz in in 1976. . The food was shockingly good at this erstwhile traditional supper club, we had great table mates (very, very Southie , indeed) and you could close your eyes and hear Levon and Rick Danko singing the great Band catalog. We stayed at a nearby Springhill Suites (two Marriotts in a row……got my fix) and shared the hotel with a huge wedding party, which meant we were up most of the night listening to drunken conversations and squeaking bed springs…but who is complaining….

“Here comes the sun”…..Last night we went over to the “Mount Hollywood” barn studios to hear a barn concert featuring Walter Parks- who is generally regarded as the King of the swamp guitar, and spent many years as a sideman for Richie Havens. We and the Mt. Holly stoners were treated to the very eccentric guitar and vocal ramblings of this very tall, very aesthetic, very temperamental NYC- via Florida swamp- player, who truly channeled Haven’s voice in the lower register and then sang other worldly in the higher registers. Maybe 50 people there to hear the trio which featured local blues guitar legend , Rick Reddington, on bass. When Walter did “Freedom”, Haven’s Woodstock anthem, it seemed like having the late great Richie in the room. This is music in the mountains…………………

“All the news that fits”….and that is where we are….for now…..

Happy trails to you….

The Chuckster