Author: stumberry

Greetings fellow travelers and happy day to all you mothers:

 

Buying sliced Nova,

I feel a whole smoked whitefish-

giving me a look……………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews

Uugghhh…..mud season in the mountains; it has been raining, and then snowing for two weeks…grey an misty…and cold…I think we are skipping spring…..but the Vermont House finally passed legal pot for the state, and the Senate jumped on this in a Nano-second…and now waiting for the conservative (can you believe it?) Governor to veto it…but we have a patch of primordial soil all ready and waiting ….

So…a week of settling into a very wet and dreary mountain home…..

Last Sunday- we made our inaugural trip to our favorite East Restaurant in Rutland, for the Roast Duck with pine nuts…OMG- gotta have it…went with the Jewish Fish Monger (if its Sunday- must be time for Chinese), who filled us in on all the winter gossip…then hit the local KMART to buy him shoes. In a surreal moment, we were the only people in a this huge cavernous airplane hangar of a building…they built this shopping center twenty years ago as a regional hub- but no one goes there and the 10,000 parking spots sit like a decaying old airfield…

Monday we got back on the horse with our daily routines. Stu worked in the morning and then went to the Gym on the slope, where he was the only person in the whole facility (even the staff were somewhere else-maybe where the sun is shining?)…..then lunch with the Yentas at Java Baba’s, back home for a nap by the fire, and then on to Folk Club for pickin;’ and grinnin”…home for a late supper and watching the Cavs annihilate the Pacers. Jenn, meanwhile back at the ranch…spent the day making a five page project list and inspecting the upstairs rooms for potential bedding needs…

Speaking of Folk Club….we have two new young musicians who have started coming- a breath of fresh air to counteract the Evil Witch and her musings…..

And I Had a Dream…….Jen tells me I woke up at 3 in the morning , bolt upright in bed, bellowing and  thrusting my jaw out. She thought I was having a heart attack….but indeed, was having a rather spectacular Technicolor dream in my child hood neighborhood…the same bullies  who chased me over fifty years ago, were chasing me and had me cornered…and of course, I was sitting up to expose my fangs like I saw them do on True Blood…but they wouldn’t come out, and fortunately, I then woke up, thus avoiding another fatal conflict. Dr. Freud?

Since we like to keep lists (and cross them off, of course)…we had a variety of mountain firsts this week…..

First outing of the season- headed up north on Thursday to find a hike, and wound up on the best kept secret- The Interfaith Peace Trail, which is on the pass over the mountains outside Middlebury. They have a dozen or so trails, each one devoted to a spiritual path and posted with placards with inspirational ditties all along the way. It was our first part sunny and mild day, so we schlepped our way through four trails ..accumulating five miles, while Lucy did about 15 in- circles. We got the Christian, Native American, Druid and Buddhist enlightenment walks,…but could not find the Jews trail…but it was getting close to Shabbos, so maybe they were preparing…… We stopped on our way to the trail at the very vintage Ripton store- in the middle of nowhere on the mountain. They have a 1914 cash register, which I believe probably moved in with the gent who was tending it…built in 1870 with wooden floors and safety deposit boxes, to serve all the local needs…..After the hike, we headed down into Middlebury for a local date night dinner at a place run by the college..…waddling out an hour after for the sunset drive home through the mountains….we got home just in time for it to start raining again….

First music event in the mountains- Friday night we motored up Route 100 to Stockbridge to the mystical and eccentric Wild Fern to hear our beloved music leader, Claudine, in one of her many band iterations, with the father and son Shrewsberries. There were five tables in the tiny place and about fifty of us…so it was quite intimate. We took along all of our friends who are in the process of bitter divorces, so the ride there was quite uplifting. Everyone at the show was a musician –so there was a lot of chorus singing going on ,and a decent amount of air fiddling. All of the dinner we had was food sourced locally within five miles of the joint…and given how long it took to get our food, I think they sourced it as was ordered. All in all, a quite Vermont-centric experience.

We finished our week of firsts on Saturday with a trip to the first Rutland Farmers’ Market of the season (Lucy got humped eight times, so she had a ball), where the couple who run the Wild Fern, were providing music for the shoppers…..everyone in Vermont has a number of different gigs. We stopped for a while before the rain came back, at the West Rutland community wide Yard Sale and acquired some unneeded junk and some fine pastries and breakfast sandwiches…and generally got to mingle with the more traditional Vermont society (“we love the Trumpster”). Last night, it was so wet and cold, we plugged in the master bath Jacuzzi and hid in there for a bit, and then lit a fire in the Walter and Karen shrine room, and stared at the flames with the moonlight

After a somewhat mild day yesterday, it is now again raining and 45 degrees, so we hunkered in this morning for mother’s day breakfast and I relented to go over the 14 project lists that Jenn has running…and now have consolidated them into a tidy five lists of projects for this summer and fall. I, myself, am going to find some work to do and get traveling…to avoid at least some of the carnage. This afternoon we are heading up to Dartmouth, for a timely documentary on Race in America (can you say, Trump?) and then the traditional mother’s day dinner with the Indians (dots, not feathers).

Be well, enjoy the spring if you are lucky enough to have it, and stay in touch.

 

Ferlin’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings fellow travelers:

“Through the Red Sea costs extra”.

Israeli movers

overcharge Moses……………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews

Welcome back blog readers- it is good to be back with you, though not without a share of mishaps (you’ll have to read on). And a hearty welcome to the new group of followers…..long may you read. For the Newbies: you can also hit the attached link and read the blog on my website, if you are more driven by such. And, eventually, you’ll catch up with what the hell I’m ranting about…or you can go back and read the last four years’ blogs on the website and be snazily up to date…

Dedication: to my very dear friend, Bob, who suddenly and tragically passed this February after a fall at the nursing home in the Bronx. I was, amazingly, gifted with the highly unlikely chance to see him the week before he died. Bob was the first guiding light in my journey of life (and for many others): an inspiration and a mensch of the highest degree.

So, it was a long and interesting winter- not at all what we expected back in the heartland. To sum it up:

Lows- The Parkway outside our kitchen window, TRUMP, passing of three good friends, TRUMP, four months of no sun, TRUMP, Several injuries related to turning Medicare age, TRUMP, not much work for me, TRUMP, my dental hygienist leaving my dentist, TRUMP, missing the mountains, TRUMP, big city traffic and noise and endless orange barrels and detours….and …. TRUMP.

Highs- Overcoming the squirrel population (we live trapped 13 of the bastards), seeing our kids, family vacation to Yucatan and Cuba, sun forays to the Baja and the Keys, playing with The Band all winter, the nearby Y, the hot tub four nights a week, seeing the 50^th anniversary tour of the Dirt Band, watching seven seasons of Mad Men..…spending time with all our old posse

All that said, it is too good to be back in the mountains. Getting here was fraught with peril, as usual- though we got to have a brief visit with the expectants (Ry and Lauren) in Cleveland, where it’s a day to day count for the first grandchild. Managed to once again offend the NEW York state police and garnered a VERY overstated ticket for which they may send me to Danamora for a few years…can you say “traffic lawyer”?. Due to the “misunderstanding” on the hated I-88, we were going to be late for the plumber arrival, so called the plumber son on his cell…and a miracle, he had service in Vermont- which turned out to be good, because his dad went to Florida and neglected to put us on his schedule. Luckily, he was able to get away from another job and meet us in time to let the water flow. From there it was on to the Cable Guy…always one of life’s pleasant adventures…and no different this time around. Did get the internet up and running through a fair amount of advance conniving (and therefore our phone service) with relative ease, but had problems with the cable, which wound up in three  days of hassling with them and eventually my  threats to blow up the nearby Rutland office (I’m now waiting for storm troopers at my door)…but we are now hooked up with a wave of the future, voice controlled remote (i.e.- “ give me Netflix”, “turn on the damn NBA game”)- Jenn says I have to quit yelling at the TV…..we are adjusting to the intrusion of the 22^nd century.

Before I go any further (if I haven’t lost you already)…did I mention THE POND……how many ways can one say magnificence…beauty of this quality one usually reserves for the Louvre and  the Grand Canyon…nature’s masterpiece in three acts…I weep as I type…but I’ll just stop now and let you gaze at the pictures in awed silence as I head out to the barn to discard my trusted kitchen strainers once and for all.  Ayy- I’m Faklempt- talk amongst yourselves… (did I mention we have ducks?)

OK- this a lot for a first installment (for all of us)- so I am going to revert to the ZEN of our first week, as we work to settle in and re-acclimate to the wilderness (hopefully only 250 more word):

• The trees are mostly still bare- it is the end of mud season here…and it’s been in the 40s and damp- we had one day with two hours of sunshine and ran out to mow the lawn and put out all our yard tchotchkes
• In a recent survey of Vermonters, 28% are ready for Vermont to secede from the Union (DT effect) and create its own country….who might be our prime mister?
• Returned to Folk Club Monday night in the midst of unpacking…some things never change , but two of my fellows were lying in wait for me to return to do my most forlorn songs to highlight their recent break-up misery with lonely hearts club material …what am I, a therapist?
• First day back and we already had connections with: the Jewish fish monger, our Blue-Skies massage maven, the lord of the Dump and the one African -American gay hairdresser in Vermont.
• We made our first run to the Dump (uh…the Transfer Station) and were regaled by the dump master on how he was coming down to The POND to fish soon…naked…when I am out of town (have I mentioned he has thing for Jenn)
• Lucy has re-discovered the JOY of free roaming on our dead end dirt road….getting into shit left and right…and requiring three baths on one week
• We have established new BEDDING in our rooms and Jen has a list (going around all day in her mind) of at least a dozen home improvement projects plus the acquisition of a pickup truck
• The lunch Yentas at Java Baba screamed and ran into my arms when I came in for the first time…what’s not to like…and filed me with news of the weird
• We went out in the rain on Saturday to help out with the annual Vermont “Green-up” day, walking down dirt roads for miles and picking up a total of about a quarter bag of garbage…it’s a clean place generally speaking
• I discovered you can walk into a Vermont car parts place, and tell them the brake parts you bought over two years ago in Ohio are kaput, and walk out with free replacement parts…it’s a longer story than that, but another time, with no word limit
• And, we celebrated my old-age birthday last night with a trip to town, a nice dinner at Rutland’s finest Table 24 and a concert at the fabulous Paramount theater…the kings of old fashioned bluegrass (all with ties and jackets)…The Del McCoury Band

 

Enuff is enuff…no? Talk to you soon. Love, peace and tolerance, my friends,

 

Stu-Ber