Author: stumberry

Happy Mother’s Day to all: (Mothers in the many senses of the word)

“All truths wait in all things” ……………………………………………………………………………………Walt Whitman

“To understand nothing-takes time” ……………………………………………………………………….Zen Saying

“Sorry I’m not home
to take your call. At the tone
please state your bad news”…………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

There have been many miracles this week in the mountains. The sun came out for more than one day at a time. After several false starts, the tractor is running AND mowing….and the broken dryer is now fixed by the urban-bred home repair boy…without the appliance repair guy coming. And……Thursday it turned green here overnight…one of nature’s unusual phenomena.

Jenn is off to Cleveland for four days for Baby Quinn’s first birthday- leaving me to deal with the various forms of animal excrement…as well as slamming medicine down the throat of poor little fading Niko the cat…..who is beyond traumatized by the process. We made another sudden trip to the vet this week- thinking again it may now really be the time to put her down, but once again she got a reprieve and has bounced back- for the 700th time. Now, under the unconventional and bizarre care of Dr. Stu –she seems to be thriving..…what does this mean? Let’s just say that maybe the junk food diet has some benefits….

Wednesday was our good weather day this week- so we headed off to find a drive and dirt road (we are staying off trails, per se, due to increased tick activity in May)..…wound up down in Peru (really!) for a lazy walk up a mountain dirt road and then down to J. Hapgood’ s general store, where we picked up lunch and ate on the church bench in the hazy sunshine….watching a bevy of guys with high-end implements clean up everyone’s yard in town….what do we have to do to qualify for having this ?

We got home for a quick rest and then up the mountain to John and Lydia’s house for another memorable swinging soiree..…John and Lydia tend to show up out of the blue for few days and invite us for dinner PLUS….which always has significant consequences for the next two days. We had a heated five hour discussion over whether or not they were bonafide “Southies” (look it up)….apparently vehemently not, with quite sophisticated explanations on what exactly makes a “Southie”..…I still think that they actually are, but then that is just me…

Jenn made a trip down the mountain this week to visit with The Jewish Pig Farmer and his bride, who are now doing weight-watchers (Kosher, I presume) and are barely visible due to immense weight loss…..we will go out to dinner with them next weekend, which may present some menu challenges..

I made another twisted road, lost- four -times, exotic trip to see the Healer up in the Woods this week….in order to…well, get healed (modicum of success)….I was on her healing table for two hours and could barely walk when I left…but felt very woodsy-Zen like.

Friday was a moderately nice day…and the Pond-schmutz has begun to announce its presence due to the thousands of tadpoles giving birth…so I did a hocus-pocus pond treatment and then convinced Jenn to get in the water (before she left for the airport) and re-initiate our wacked out fountain and water moving system…..it was in the low 60s and the water temp (which I assured her was lukewarm on the surface) was probably in the 30s….but since I had hid her car keys, and she could not leave for the airport to go to Cleveland…..she agreed to do it…with superior results.

Well- cutting it short today…as I have excrement to contend with…and heading over to watch the Cavs and Celtics Game One with The Jewish Fish Monger (a lifelong die-hard Celtics Fanatic)…..which I hope to survive intact…so got to get going…..plus he has promised to make matzo ball soup to modify the game conflict and tension…

So, until whenever….

Yours, Papi

Greetings mes amis:

“I walk into where the light is”……………………………………………………………………………………………Mark Strand

“Sorry I’m not home
To take your call. At the tone
Please state your bad news”………………………………………………………………………………………………..Haikus for Jews

GO CAVS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Ferlin’ Norris

You were probably wondering where the heck I’ve been today-as I try to have this ready for your Sunday brunch….but alas, country life in the mountains gets in the way…spent most of the day with chainsaw in hand cutting up limbs from our recent losing battle with 60 mph winds….then on to getting the yard machines running (so far- amazingly- so good)….and then lamenting the sudden loss of our clothes dryer with a lot of wet clothes to dry…in the rain….Still- a lot for nice Jewish boy from the Bronx, NO?

As a result….I am sore and tired and still have damn house things to yet fix today….So, again, he threatens the Zen version…but today I am committed….so bear (or bare) with me….

THE POND…is thriving…with a zillion little frogs’ eggs abounding, waiting to overtake our lives and some new resident ducks floating around…and the peepers at night are like a country symphony…..

Birthday came and went this week…quiet one, but made the requisite lunch trip to Java Baba, where treated like a local here for surviving for __ years (you’ll have to guess)…and then on to my first visit to our little local post office (only open for two hours each afternoon), where the postmistress, Nikki, came out to jump into my arms…apparently missed our fascinating brand of mailings..

Monday…got back to folk club, for Monday night music for the first time…the real folkies were missing and I am a bad influence, so we got little loud and crazy (Can you say 20 minutes of Neil Young ranting?) ..which I will have to temper for the next one

Tuesday, our bestie, Blue Skies, came over “for coffee”….which is a metaphor for a lot of Yenta action…and filled us in on winter’s life on the Mount…as she was leaving, she mentioned , in passing, that she was getting her knee replaced the next day…Vermonters are stoics, don’t you think?

Wednesday….the sun came out for the first time, and the temps soared to a ridiculous 86 degrees (it was 24 on Monday night)..so the snow is almost all gone now…and we headed up to quaint Middlebury for a drive through the mountains, lunch with Mama Corleone at Costello’s Italian Deli (we actually had a sandwich called the Don Corleone)….then up over the Middlebury Pass to find a dirt road and Big-Ass pond (actually a dam built in 1916..and still filled with ice) for a nice hike down…then the drive home down scenic route 100, and our first Maple Creamees of the season…which Lucy adores….

Speaking of Lucy, she is adjusting to the mountains slowly- going out at night to howl at the beasts of the mountain night (nothing there), digging massive holes in the yard, in search of what?….and rolling in shit daily…which adds to our cacophony of animal experiences- with Grace puking daily and old Niko leaving puddles of liquid poop..…this is all where Jenn comes into play…

Friday, we snuck under cover of darkness, over to the hated New Hampshire, to go to the Super Walmart and buy a new Smart TV at a silly-low price…AND…no sales tax….We’d love New Hampshire if everyone was not busy acting out the “live free or die” thing…..so now we have a massive unopened box in our living room that we are trying to figure out how to fit in our quaint country home (this was actually a Xmas gift from Max, that we returned in Ohio-so as not to schlep it to Vermont, and then re-bought, with our return Mart gift card…at $100 less…my momma wood be proud)…

Yesterday we spent the day as true Vermonters- picking up trash along the roadways for statewide Green-Up day and then volunteering for the first community supper of the season (thanksgiving in May…) at the ODDFELLOWS HALL (for real). I was rewarded for my superior serving skills with a few glasses of pinkish wine, which I did not know really existed- thought it was a myth…

Jenn is off next weekend to Cleve-town for baby Quinn’s first birthday (see her pix)-while I apparently will have the animal excrement assignment back in the Greens…and Tess… is halfway there with baby girl whatitsname…and that, my friends………is all she wrote…

Spin your dreidels and make a good wish…..Love Ya’ll,

Stu-man

Greetings fellow travelers:

“The world is its own magic”………………………………………………………………………………….Shunryu Suzuki

“Our plans never turn out as tasty as reality”………………………………………………………….Ram Dass

“Lacking fins or tail
The gefilte fish swims with
Great difficulty”……………………………………………………………………………………………………..Haikus for Jews

We have just arrived…so time is of the essence, as we are overloaded with moving in and set up issues- but I thought that many of you are probably twitching at this point with withdrawal, so felt obligated to resume pontificating, at least minimally…so the Zen of this moment:

The Winter…….was somewhat daunting….thirty days in a row below 15 degrees and then the rains hit for two months solid….and of course about four days of suns since November…our water system sprang a leak somewhere in the yard, so sump pump ran every minute (we’re on our third one) and Stu walked around with a chainsaw in his left hand looking for wood to cut to keep the house from becoming an igloo…and work travel…ughh….let me count the airports I was stranded in since December…Jenn did yoga 14 times a week, found an ecological center to volunteer at, thus bringing home a brand new range of ideas to translate home dictatorship into, and fruitlessly searched for the magical p-up truck. We also had a range of exotic health issues, but who wants to know that shit anyway?

Prep for the transition went smoothly until I dealt with our cable provider in Ohio- Time-Warner- who I had such a delightful time with, I told them I’d walk on their grave and hung up, terminating a 35 year relationship. Who does not hate their cable company? Then, on our last day, I decided to drive the ancient Jeep and snaking out of our driveway, totally knocked off Jenn’s side view mirror (for the third time),which led to a two hour unplanned – for jury-rigging job to allow her to have any view whatsoever for the 12 hour drive (she’s such a wimp- who really needs to see out both sides, anyway?). Did I mention that this is the fifth year in row of last second calamities trying to leave Ohio…what is the message here anyway? I would recount all of the calamities to you…but it would be very Un-Zen like, so another time, maybe?

Generally speaking…I’m wondering if we are getting too old for this double life? But, then I’d have to start talking about health issues….which I’m refraining from, at least for the moment….. no promise on this

The trip here tuned out to be quite easy on a beautiful sunny almost 70 degree day…with our new strategy of driving as far as Binghamton (yes, it really exists) making it very bearable. Lucy slept the whole way somewhere amidst the piles of shit in the back- I even had to wake her to go potty….and the cats are now loose and crawling all over Jenn for 7 hours. We had great delivered – Italian from our new favorite road stop place and made Mt. Holly by 2 on Friday after a somewhat late start….and arrived to find not only no Green, but a yard with snow piles and very brown grass…no memo here yet on it being spring time…BUT….the POND is peaking…what joyful sight

We then spent almost three hours unloading the cars in a downpour….leaving the almost heated house in a state of utter chaos and confusion…but being the slightly OCD, frenetically driven and competitive schmucks that we are, we had most of it sorted out before going to bed at midnight…though neither one us could bend down by that point (that is not really health related!?)

So- the initial updates……………………………..

Jenn insisted I go down to Java-Baba while we were unloading to see Beverly, who had texted me every Friday all winter to tell me how much she missed me…when she sent me one last week, I replied on Monday, with a link to David Bowie’s “Monday I have Friday on My Mind”….which may have tipped her off that we would be back this week and set up a misguided (on my part) expectation…that I surely needed to fulfill….though it resulted in our usual massive and wonderful free lunch

And by the way…it is April 29th…and snowing out as we speak….ah, mountain life…….

And….we found our return greeted by mouse turds everywhere, so the cats are out at night (instead of being locked up in their hovel) and little Grace is bringing us a daily gift of dead meece at the foot of our bed each morning….

Saturday turned out to be a decent day and we headed off to massive choring in town…so, musings from our first outing:

– The dump now has an office (instead of the beloved Belmont Mall)-which is where Kevin the Walrus in now hiding out…though he came out to flirt with Jenn when he saw us arrive….and Lucy still
thinks the dump is doggie heaven
– The General Store is still very general…and the proprietor, Kevin, is still a world class curmudgeon
– The Famer’s Market is thriving indoors for the moment- and still a cost match with “Whole Paycheck” foods
– Walmart still loves Lucy-and she loves that they stock interesting things on the lowest reachable shelves
– Our favorite Ramuntos- still has the best pizza north of NYC…and a good supply of Burlington’s “Seven Days” weekly news rag for our green-lefty readings
– It’s still a major treat to shop at Hannaford and walk out into the parking lot and be surrounded by mountains

We got home to sunshine and Lucy immediately went exploring to find the best pile of shit she could roll in- which had her banned outside until Jenn deigned to bathe her…I myself kind of look forward to the scents

We have been welcomed back by countless Facebook messages and texts from our mountain friends-apparently the word leaked out that we were back in the greens…though people have been kind enough to stay away rather than have to help us unpack and schlep…

AND…our really BIG NEWS…both my kids (Max and Tess) had offers accepted yesterday on new house purchases…moving on up…and if you don’t already know, Tess and Jake are expecting a little girl in October….which has been quite a shock to us all….and will be our second grandbaby- to go with our dearest little Quinn in Cleveland (Ryan and Lauren’s little girl) who will be a year in a couple of weeks…trying to get used to being Big Papi and Meme right now……

So…back to adjusting-which means Jenn is relentlessly cleaning and ordering shit on line, and I am destined for the couch and watching the Cavs try to win game seven…supposed to be up into 70s midweek so hoping for some mountain hiking, and then next weekend is Green-Up day and the first community supper of the year-both of which we will be volunteering at…but for now, we eagerly anticipate Sunday night return to East for some special duckling and elegant Chinese in the mountains…

Well, once again…not very Zen-like-but there you have it….back in the saddle

Stay safe, do a good deed and stay in touch…

Love to all,

Papi