Category: Green Mountain Blog

Comrades and Comradesses:

“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning” ………………………………………………………Erich Fromm

“This morning it rained, this afternoon it is sunny. How is that not like the mind?” ………………Michael Kewley

“There ain’t much to being ballplayer…. if you’re a ballplayer” ………………………………………………Honus Wagner

“Leave the gun, take the cannoli” ……………………………………………………………………………………………Pete Clemenza

I’m late, I’m late…for a very important date……. been a week plus…. didn’t make it off the bus……keep it short, keep it lean…. wonder what the hell it means……

Workin’ on the chain gang……so gonna work at being brief about the highlights of the week……sorry for the missed Sunday blues……

Blues in the Greens- Labor day weekend tradition; sitting in a mountain greenery on a cool, fall sun drenched day at the birthplace/homestead of Silent Cal- Vermont’s lone Presidente……and the sound wafts over the Birkenstock shodsters…not really blues, but ii works……. Bonus- get to hear the stylings of Grandson of Woody, Son of Arlo…you know…. you know

Life is cabaret- but not like the one that happens each year on Sunday eve of the Labor Day holiday, when every blue hair in ton (TQ excepted) piles into the beloved all-purpose library to hear our own mysterious local smoky jazz duo …on string bass and Lady Sings the Blues vocals…. the town yentas serve wine and desert…….and Joel Grey lurks in the shadows…

Is it Summer yet?…………….after a very cool and rainy few months, we hit the 90s four days running last week…and everybody jumped into their very full Ponds……and we actually used the barn found air conditioner we had resurrected and spent hours stripping part and getting to work….and never used……and it was cooooooollllll………and so hot, we actually got out on the kayaks (snuck out without Lucy) twice this week…..

Mine bubby Gekumien….in the dream….and left me with the directive to make latkes…which I did…such a Mensch…see the pictures and drool….

In our quest for perfect heath……The Queen keeps us on the pure man’s diet……tho we reached a new pinnacle this week when I was instructed that we had to buy Grass-Fed butter ($9 /pound) ……and the previously sanctioned organic butter ($7.00/pound) no longer made the grade……apparently on same shit list as veal…. imagine me and you…. I do….

Lucy has a suitor……albeit non- hetero……the wild dog that belongs to the wild man up the wild hill……Ivy…. now arrives every morning at 8:30 promptly to knock at the door ask if Lucy can come out and play….so she can chase her and maul her for a half hour before our girl comes in with scraped knees and tears……and then cries to go back out 20 minutes later…lucky we are not the strange typed that humanize our pest…. and she/they are a pit mix from outer space

In the cool of the evening, when everything is feeling kind of groovy……the girl and I have taken to dusk walks with the bugs, the coons and the magical light of the dirt road fields, babbling brooks and bales of hay…one take over the line….

Italian food village style…since finding anywhere to eat within an days’ ride is now a treasure hunt, we took the short route around the horn, and went down to see Mama Tamara on Friday night…in lil’ Wallingford…where we ate cuisine born of lust between Sicily and Philadelphia……it ain’t great, but it’s fun…..and we sit outside at the table  drag out from inside, with Lucy-Lu and watch the world go by up and down Route 7…and then….we get to go see Mr. Kelly at the foremost Creamees stand in our area…best maple, best people, best price…..mosquitoes no charge….they give Lucy her own bowl of vanilla creamee, but she turns her nose up and waits for me to share my maple…who does she take after?

And…finally….where are the men that I used to sport with…edition 457…..well, last weekend they were in Higgnaum Connecticut, where we gathered with six of my Bronx childhood posse (and better halves)for the first time since Covid…I really think the pictures speak for themselves…..there was a lot of laughing and a little crying…but we’re all still upright after between 60 and 65 years of friendship…and the sausage and peppers, Marone…..more wine, Paulie, more wine……I become Stuie again for few days…and the world is still a good place…..and there is lots of promise of all that is yet to come…and Tony and Uncle June are still alive and there in the flesh…..long live the original Hawks…..

And post-finally, this Friday is the one and only’ s 60^th….so drop her a line or a buzz…. or a Zen thought…she is one of a kind…….

Go forth and multiply good things….and stay in touch,

Stuie

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Hola Y Feliz Domingo:

“And then, my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.” …………………………………………………………………………………………………. William Wordsworth

“As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Jack Kornfield

“Wrinkles only go where the smiles have been” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Jimmy Buffett (RIP)

Thinking about the seasons change, the end of something, the beginning of another…all tied up in some colored leaves and shortened days…. been a week of reflection and mulling……as the mighty Greens begin to mute into permeation’s and shades…. what have we got?

The Harvest Moons- blazing over the shadowy mountain tops….3….2……1…………………

The 80/40 Rule- eighty and hot during the day, 40 and chilly breeze at night

Barn Centers- filled with drying leaves, canned summer crops, exercise rooms, kids play areas, solitude breaks……………………………… rays of light

Breakfast Sandwiches- an art form deluxe from tiny roadside joins and stores……of local eggs, snappy Vermont cheddar and crisp bacon…eaten in the misty mornin’ light……. hot off the grill……morning dew-ish

Cider Donuts- dense rings of mountain flavor…. hot from the fryer…. powdered or not…. half dozen treats……6…5…4…3…2….1……all gone

Greens Car Repair- drive for an hour, leave it three weeks for the first available man with a computer……all good…. take it home……lights flashing, bells belling on dashboard…..stat all over again, amen…start it all again

Yenta-ism- rarefied art form practiced in mountain hamlets by the local Queen and her Courts…if ya gotta know, ya gotta go (to see the Y’s)

The Dump- the preternatural hub of village life, where The Dumpmaster and Sneaky Peter preside over all the unfolding events of importance…. see and be seen…. Shop at the Dump Mall…ah… the smell of fresh garbage of a Saturday morning

Music on the Green- gathering of a summer evening……. local sounds of homegrown talent…feel the connections…support the band…. good or bad……summer waning…cooler music nights with early darkness…. huddle around the tiny band-stand ……….and the band plays on…the band plays on

Indian food- from the service station, from the tiny grocery, from the convenience mart…coolin’ curry in the colored leaves…picnic table joy, bring the plates

Libraries that sing- all night access via the hidden key that everyone uses…………… quiet stained glass window nook of a cool sunny day, the crack where the light gets in……Sunday night jazz cabarets…. film fests…. ALL- IN-ONE

Mountain Dogs……ones that you cannot look at when you enter…don’t look at her…. don’t look at her….and ones that show up every morning to knock on the door……” Can Lucy come out na play” ……is it Buckwheat’s’ dog?

Dirt Road hikes- look out of any window, any morning, any evening, any day……a stunning view, a quiet stroll, an overhead color laden canopy……everywhere, every turn an adventure…. off from the tick patrolled trails that come with the gift of Lyme……up, down and sideways…and, around the next bend……………………………….

Mountain Contractors- no job too big, find them lounging at the Dump………yes, I can do that in nine months…. wait …and see

Isolation- can a mountain man live on dirt road, miles from nowhere……with no companion, no car, no job…in Vermont?     Yes…… Yes……. Yes

PONDS- LUV Floods……more, more, more

And, yes, there are stone walls in Vermont….

C’mon people now…. smile on yer brother………. Papi

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Yo and yo:

“You get there by realizing you are already there.” ……………………………………………………………Edward Tolle

“The morning glory lives only an hour-Yet it differs not at heart- From the giant pine which lives a 1000 years…………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Zenrin Kushu

“It’s gonna take lot of love…to change the way things are.………………………………………………..Neil Young

Well, it’s been a short week on The Mount. Wandered around in a daze for a few days after the Heartland return…me look fora cell signal or stream…. TQ in search of some grass to kill…

Left the proverbial dog days of August to come back to our first 42-degree night, and mostly autumn-evocative weather all week…

Go back on the horse with all my work projects…. saw all my virtual clients (platform is the virtual part, not necessarily them) in one week, which pushes my focus for extended empathy (hey- you think you got it bad) …l caught up on my various and sundry projects…with my worldwide streaming capability…assuming it does not adhere to mountain norms and go down once a day…

Most of the week was the perfecto 72 sunny –cloudless sky-zero humidity……. except when the forces of evil again dumped a day of rain on our traumatized mountain towns…get out the rowboat, Ethel…. there is still no grocery or drug store in sight for the near future in Ludlow……but there is a tent….

Got out on a couple of afternoon walks with Lucy-Lu, who was so pleased, she found majordomo special shit to roll in….  for which /TQ meets us at the front door upon return, with her 400-pound fireman’s spray hose….and hoses us both down…Lucy because she stinks, me because I let he…. bad Papi, bad Papi….

Having our usual jonesing for the granddaughter acolytes…. where are the girls that I used to sport with?

I managed a strung-out day of shopping in the modern universe…given I am generally in and out of any store in 10munites……but TQ has a knack for creating lists that amount to treasure hunts (organic mung beans , FCS) that have me on hands and knees around stores, drooling and begging the instacart people to take pity…Wednesday was such a day with not only the usual grocery and Mart stops,….but the dreaded Co-Op…..so got the Birkenstocks and patchouli out of the trunk, put on the rose coloreds, had a small hit and meandered in to figure out how to measure and price mark the items in the Bermuda bulk triangle……then wait about 26 minutes while the robed Yogis figure out how to get the cash register to work- please let me pay….…al of which is so traumatic as to lead me straight to Ernie’s’ Hand Carved around the corner for a low-carb Pastrami an Corn Beef on rye…..life is a balance, no?

TW is revving up for the coming of Cider Daze in October and is less and less visible by the day, plus added in the monthly (not that monthly) ya-ya celebration of the woman’s yenta dinner…..so had a few nights of faux-Marriott solitude  around the house to ponder how to find a baseball game on TV without cable, how to maximize carb intake and gleefully wash the dishes and do laundry without supervision- the challenge being to get it done without a trace before someone realizes had done it……though Lucy looks at me with accusing eyes…

From the previous ramblings I’m sure it is apparent that not all that much happened this week, part because we both came home with day care children sickness, partly because we had had enough- no mas- to many fish in the sea……but by Saturday were ready……and wandered up the ongoing post-flood havoc of lovely routes 100 and 12 to the quaint hamlet of Barnard for their annual street dance extravaganza. Stopped at the state park for a walk with our new handy-dandy to get in elder-schmelder pass, then on to town hall parking lot to mingle with post-commune, long- woke set. As soon as the music started, it poured like banshees (is that a thing?), but the swing band Route Five-Jive (think Django meets Bob Wills –but not all that good) played under a tiny tent thru the downpour…and the moon childs danced in the rain, whilst we oldies dozed under the canopy of the fire department (nice engines). Nice ride, nice day out, sun came back out and we warmed for a moment……then ahead to home and back to our sickbeds to resume recovery.

Did I mention that The Dumpmaster and his cronies told TQ that life was meaningless without her when we dropped off our junk? Or that we had my car back for 2 days before errors lights were back on in spite of the miracle 400 bucks battery fix? Well, no matter…sixteen tons and what do you get?

Hasta Luego, baby,

Papi

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Good morning sunshine:

“With no bird singing The mountain is yet still” ………………………………………………………………………………………Zen saying

“What a day fora daydream, What a day for daydreamin’ boy” ……………………………………………………………. John Sebastian

“Decades down the road, can’t let that train be slowed” …………………………………………………………………………. Ferlin’ Norris

Well it’s been quite a few weeks hither and yon……

When we last left our heroes, the last of the Bunty boys were departing for the Heartland and left us with the one car, while the mystery death of my Jeep resided in the Rutland Dealer surgery. It wound up there for three weeks only to find that the 48 error codes and the fact that I had no usable transmission were all related to a bad battery……which somehow the “experts” took three weeks to figure out (It is the mountains, and apparently they only have one guy who is code-reader) ….and…voila…a four hundred dollar Dealer battery…..but……The Beast is  back on the road…but I am way ahead of myself.

We had three days between post-boys-partum and mid-summer Ohio jaunt, so I took the only vehicle, and left The Queen to her garden madness and went off for an overnight to a retreat of the Governor’s Council- up in lovely Randolph. Spent the night in a weird but nice airbnb which I had to traverse 42 road crews and ten miles of outback like dirt road to get to……flood, flood, go away, come back another day…..Randolph, which we always liked and almost bought a house in way back, is still a very quaint and classic Vermont town, but has added several foo-foo joints, and  wound up eating at a Filipino place on the square where I shared the corner with Tuesday night smooth jazz purveyors, with the thumping standup bass to give me a chewing pattern. The theme and vision of the place was amazing- I was so psyched- the execution so-so. The all-day retreat was on a hillside at a state park on a sunny and warm abut very windy day……came home hoarse from yelling out various celebratory ya-yas.

Got back from the alleged respite/overnight and then off next morning to the Heartland. With my recent MRI and bullet dodging of a planned biopsy, were free to take Quin-Lily and Sloanie for three days for NanaPapi Camp, which was rapturous, fun-filled and exhausting with round the clock activities. How many potty jokes can a five-year-old tell? Before that, we celebrated little Parkers’ #2- in which she led us in 26 straight of singing happy birthday. Al the girl pictures are attached, though selective- did not think you wanted to see 246 shots of our granddaughters……but maybe I am overthinking it…………………

Got in a band practice, several dinners with friends, walks with my posse of dog walking pals, a number of sneaky trips to the Y and rainy day trip with the girls to see the Ninja Turtle extravaganza-which we realized halfway thru was more suited for 17 year olds than 5-6 year olds- but, hey, what do we know.

We ate pretty much pizza, burgers and fried chicken for the week, but we don’t care about no stinkin’ carbs ad sugar and fried foods…and still made a number of trips for Heartland faux-Creamees.

Trio back was uneventful except for locking ourselves out of the house just as we were ready to leave and discovering we had not put new front door keys on our chains…plus having left the one possible entry key locked inside plus TQ having insisted on locking every window-to create a veritable fortress….…but turned out in ones of life’s rare surprises, that The Nave had a garage door key stored away. From there it was smooth sailing until we missed the turn in Binghamton whilst yakking away about the Florida Keys, and while we did the three-mile miracle mile detour still missed getting gas and wound up in a dire search before running out. Finally got home, after 12 straight hours, to no internet, phone or TV, and TQ made the brave trip to find a cell signal and call the cable co. morons to get us a signal. But, by midnight we unpacked, connected and exhausted.

The season is changing here in the Greens, and nights are quite chilly and days are no humidity-fall looming-won’t be long.

Having had our g-daughter fix, gotten our winter house in order, and seen our old friends, we are now back for the Fall-haul thru November- TLWATCDR (figure it out). Looking forward to some guests in next few months and couple of reunions, but mostly just calming down after the activities of the month ……And, TQ is out scanning the property and all of Mt. Holly for in search of potential trouble that she an dig her heels into. LLTQ (another one!)

Mostly kid pix this week, so if it’s your thing…. enjoy.

We just got back the upload for our show this year on the Green, so if did not already send it you, below is a link. I’d suggest headphones to get the quality feel but it’s a pretty good feed by the local TV station……and …it’s the 45th Band anniversary….BTW…. when the band gathered in Ohio last week, we did 12 straight Band songs before we even spoke ….to honor the passing of the great Robbie Robertson. Where have all the flowers gone?

https://okemovalley.tv/bunty-station-belmont-green-26

Be kind, be well, take a plunge.

Estuardo

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Greetings and Longish time no see:

“Where does the term Dop Kit come from?” …………………………Randy Wasserstrom (1976) and Feel Unetic (Redux 2023)

“I need someone to warm my buns” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………The Naven

“WD 40 is not Lube” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Mitch Tayse

“Better, Same or Worse” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Dr. Strange

“I LOVE THIS WEEK”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Bunty Station

A Buddhist approaches a hotdog vendor and says: “Make me one with everything.”

Well, it has been a really long two weeks since we last went Bloggish….week One was devoted to 5 year-old recovery and week two to The Bunty Invasion…it is now recovery time again.

Sloane left us after our week together a week ago Sunday and then we slept…aside from all the adventures we had, we managed to have the annual family traffic stop in Albany. We are no longer eve surprised to see flashing lights and sirens for every family vacation. Tess says that Sloane does not even blink an eye any more when the armed man comes to the door.

Flood recovery had proceeded nicely until we had another dump week before last- and another one this week. The first PTSD occurred while we are having a sandwich outside Java Baba and once again food ourselves in a water park as the newly constructed parking lot began to wash away Redux.

Aside from that, we tide to return to biz-as usual with a few hikes, a shop till you drop day in Rutland and a trip to the reopened gym at Okemo.  We had a drive by with the Royal Hairdresser as she came over to dinner for The Queens monthly haircut and Papi snuck one in also. Got thru a soggy mountain Music on the Green, in which it poured until show time and stopped at that exact moment and the sun came out…..mountains! Finally got our new fridge delivered by a non- English speaking crew with no tools or materials to install- left after two hours muttering “no mas” after not being able to get the device leveled- so had to rant and rave at home depot to send a crew with English and tools-which came four days later and they did it in four minutes…this is appliance shopping in the mountains.

Spent the Friday-Saturday prepping for the British (Bunty) Invasion…..with ever more shopping, massive house de-fogging, yard primping and trips to the Cavendish town wide yard sale…..and then the rains came yet again reducing Ludlow to a lake.

We made it home safely, barely, and then Sunday dawned nice….and the boys started landing. In the past, they used to arrive in a scattered pattern for days Sunday through Wednesday, but everyone came on Sunday-so we had a party of nine for the week. The “I love this week” mantra was coined within an hour of arrival land maintained as the theme all week. Our 45^th year band celebration was an incomparable array of male bonding activities, all watched over and directed spectacularly by The Queen Hostess. Daily hikes, afternoon lunches on the porch, late candlelight dinners for a dozen were de riguer. The amount of beer, bourbon and sundry enlighteners consumed was staggering for l guys and the amount of belly whopping laughter irreplaceable.

It is impossible to describe just how unusual it is for this many people to spend a solid week in one house and get along so well…..everyone pitches in, everyone fights to pay for everything…and everyone r to ward off the predictable chaos.

Did I mention the music? Starting Monday, it went on for six days with impromptu jams, two practices with our additional Vermont crew, Music on the Green on Thursday and culminating with the 25^th annual Tie- Dye festival on Saturday at The Empress of GE’s palatial estate. Our core six were joined by our longstanding local Vermont friends on percussion, slide guitar, the magic of Fiddler Bob and our good pals Cheryl and Mike….. and a parade of other music sibs as they joined in for special numbers. Thursday night the Band was tight as skinny-jeans, and we garnered an amazing $375 in tips which donated to the local flood relief efforts here. Saturdays set was all loosey-goosey with in a mud strewn property that had us all thinking Woodstock revisited.

It was week of Adventures and Misadventures too many to count for these pages, but will let the pictures tty to tell the story. Most of the boys shuffled off to real life on Sunday with Mitch and Steve staying overnight until this morning. Though nice to have our house back, we will really miss all the guys and Rachel and Chris who came along and were super roadies.

I think Lucy will sleep for the next three days.

I am attaching nice array of photos, and also sharing link blow for those who want the full Monty.

Have a crazy three days ahead and then off to our mid-summer Ohio visit for ten days and some g-daughter mana. Be back to you all on the flip side.

Love is in the air, Stu

Bunty in Vermont full google Photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3kYc6kDVfm9m1HVQ8

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My good people:

No quotes, no stories and not much to say. It has been an incredible week. Had g-daughter #2- Sloane- here at The Mount for the week. I flew back to Ohio on Monday and flew her back on Tuesday. Tess flew out to Albany Saturday night; we all spent the night in hotel and then they flew back on Sunday……..with a six hour wait in DC …with an almost 5 year old.

In between we had a total adventure, which the pictures tell better than I can. Circus Schmirkus, Kids wonderland, parks and pizzas, hikes on the trail, swimming in Pond, concerts and Creamees, endless hide n seek…..needless to say we are into recovery mode for the week. I don’t believe we ate anything all week that was not carbs or pure sugar…but we kept her hopping.

Hope to have more of our g-daughter brood next year for NanaPapi Camp ‘24.

I have attached some pix for the week here- but have also created a Google photos album that you can access with the below link if you really want to feel the experience…..and have much caffeine around.

One week to annual Bunty-Music week in the Greens….so the game is afoot.

Will try to be more entertaining next week after a few hours of sleep…….

Papi

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5qMJKmwSiVSybDvAA

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Gurgle, Gurgle, Gurgle: 

“Down by the water; Down by the old main drag” …………………………………………………………………………… The Decmberists

“ HISTORIC and CATASTROPHIC”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Vermont Seven Days weekly

It’s a Hard…. It’s a Hard…It’s a Hard…………” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. Bob Dylan

See the sky about to rain. Broken clouds of rain. Locomotive pull the train. Music flowing through my brain………………….

Well, you know, I’m not going to try and fully capture the Great Flood, because, Hell, it’s been all over the NY Times and NPR and even Fox News (so even ardent climate deniers are going to have to ponder this one, along with the Canadian smoke-fest and the 92 degree ocean water in Florida……do we have a theme yet, or are we just really bad and getting our spiritual due)….you have all heard the trauma and seen the pictures. Suffice it to say…..Wow…who’d have  thought our little stream would look like a class four whitewater raft rapids….but it did….we survived…we are well….there is a lot of helping going on and community spirit is abundant……

Now, onto the news of the weird……

When we left off last week, we had played hooky from Tim fest on Saturday and gone fishin’ more or less. So- dutifully headed over Sunday noon for day two only to find out a day late , dollar short…apparently it was only a two day except in Tim’s mind months ago and on the yenta land of Facebook…..so it was just us and the hungover stray travelers from hither and yon….which turned  out to be the best group of impromptu musicians I have ever played with…sat in a circle for two hour playing feminist revolt songs (did I mention they were almost all women and all played in all-women bands from whence they came?)…..one of those moments you come across in blue moon for no apparent reason that are reassuring…..and in this case, clearly the calm before the storm…..

So, Monday it was driving rain for 24 hours, on top of an already dangerously high water table…wham, bam, thank you mam…. best new: state EMS were heroes this time and not a single person passed from the destruction….

When the dust settled on Tuesday and it the sun also rose, we set out to survey and offer help, eventually trekking down the just cleared road to Rutland to shop…..and encountered the Bizarro world that is mountain living, where Rutland seemed totally untouched, whilst villages around us had floated away….BIZ as usual….did manage to survive the throngs at the only Home Depot within a day’s ride to shop for a new fridge of all things…as TQ has divined ours is finally on the brink and that my pinpoint hammer shots will soon no longer restart the beast …such a worrier……after we decided on a fridge and went back to buy it, we came and decided to measure and found we can now not get it past our pantry opening sine we have our new counter tops, so it will have to come in thru the back 40 and up rickety steps…..which we have decided we will surprise the delivery men with  and make their day with an exciting challenge to interrupt their boredom……..

Have I mentioned THE POND……WOW…it doth overflow……?

On way home from Rutland, my pent up emery required exhausting, so had TQ drop me 2 miles from home to jog back, which proved illuminating as Rt. 103 had fallen into the river in several places….and had me tiptoeing for fear of joining it…I mean it just fell in six foot wide sections….holy buckets……got home in time to find the Walrus Dumpmaster courting TQ and very disappointed at my jogging appearance up the trail…another lost opportunity….

Since he only place we could get to and had anything to offer was Rutland, made it down three straight days….Thursday was massive grocery shop, the depot, drug store and the Mart…….all on post chiropractic appointment…..at which I discover that in the general  prevailing chaos I had left with no money, no wallet, NADA….so brazenly borrowed a hundred bucks cash money from the doc and dared myself to get everything on the lists or$100 or finagle credit…amazingly, got it all with my 100 and came back with mad money…and became one of those people, for first time ever, to feed cash into self-checkout machines….I always wondered who did that and felt a bit judgmental about it…..but no, I be them……

After two days of dry, was able to get Lucy and me out for dirt road walk to our usual go to nearby, and met The Raker, a 75 year old ZZ top wannabe gent who was out raking dirt up and down road in front of his house…..and who I mistakenly nodded to and aske of his health…..staggered away 45 minutes later having heard the entire family history and the chronology of many wins and losses in his battles with the evil empire ..and he raked the whole time…..

Been working on keeping carbs down, but TQ shows up with the weekly bread from Siri (not that one) which is this dense mélange of fine earthen flours…… And I instinctively drift into Carbland….bring me more, bring me more…..

Friday, we had to go to Dartmouth for a scan…and spent hours trying to figure out how we could get there around myriads of washouts  …even WAYS was off and not keeping up…..managed to find a route through the Greens and arrived at med complex that is probably larger than Vatican City…..what a joint…kind of looks like the Mall of the Americas….the drive up was illuminating…..man oh man…..the destruction water can make…capped off a 16 hour fast with a  trip to the Vietnamese sandwich shop for Banh-Mi haven……..

Yesterday we joined the Miller clan and spent much of the day looking for opps to be do-gooders……did not find may in all our Mount H. stops, but heard a lot of tales of woes and watched mountain men openly cry…..but found our groove down in the utterly devastated Ludlow, where stores floated away and the streets are surrounded by 30 foot piles of dirt and gravel in every discretion……got to fill up sandbags for hours at the fire dept. (did you ever wonder from whence sandbags came? And then cleared out the town trailer park of mounds of debris……volunteers everywhere…….great bonhomie…and got free barbeque lurch from food truck for our labors…

Came home and passed out to get up and do it again, Amen…..but looking like another bad rain day today so everyone is prepping worst if we get more than the barely receding waters can handle…so far, so good……doing my anti-rain  dance……

Say a prayer for Owen Meany-and love to ya’ll,

Stu

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Como Estas????

“Boredom can be interesting”………………………………………………………………Narayan

“It has taken me all my life to understand that it is not necessary to understand everything”………Rene Coty

“Oops……Wrong cookie” ……………………………………………………………Fortune Cookie writer

Sittin’ downtown in a railway station……………………………………where are Brewer and Shipley when you need them……………………well, it’s been an all-out adventurous week on The Mount at La Chez Queene………….Resettled after the whirlwind down to the city and survived the latest Covid treat…….spent a few days proactively isolating and missed Monday music……Plaque still suck……decided we were sickish enuff to warrant trip down the hill to little pathetic Ludlow Chinese, which is solidly mediocre and almost twice as expensive as its counterpart near the Heartland home….have I bitched enough yet about the cost of living in Greens………..

By Tuesday, we had a string of negative test days- so headed Uptown or Downton (depending on your band width) to Belmont, or Mt. Holly, (depending on your band width) for 14 minutes of thunder and lightning (think Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) …. which is the longest endeavor in parade’s recent history….. TQ of course was the Grande Dame, tho the Association float was somewhat pathetic, in a cute sort of way………. dashed home after that to welcome the World’s Most Beloved School Marm and The Erstwhile Russian Spy for long overdue cookout and catch up…where we had delightful time and learned that our own Peter (the Great?) has a longstanding used rube glove collection…the possibilities are endless…..

By Wednesday, it a time to get out, so Miss Lucy and I went hunting for several dirt road walks in the late day hazy sunshine, where it had now gone from weeks of Canadian-cloud  chilly rainy 60 to a hot and humid (no AC in site) almost 90…..Feeling more or less invincible now, headed into town on Thursday for a shop-a thon, Root-land style…which , by all accounts, is somewhat limited, and definitely not Madison Avenue…but came back with bags and bags….spent at least 25 minutes trying to fill tiny glass jars with bulk spice from giant glass jars at the local Co-op (assignment from TQ)…me and the Birkenstocks……and the patchouli…..and the hemp shopping bags……free parking in Downton though for Co-op-ing……..

Thursday night we traversed hill and dale (not the Gene Autry kind) to the quaint Phelps Barn at the championship level quaint Grafton inn (oldest in Vermont) for burger ‘n beer night, which was $10 before The Plaque and is now $20…but  they added a fish option….met up with old friend Beverly, my long lost benefactress of a 1000 lunches at Java-Baba…along with her whole miscpachah….had a great time after years of separation….and trying to rekindle now-  tho she now works a bit far away for me to go for free lunches…….

Friday dawned very hot and after a brief foray into my world of work, we threw the kayaks in the back of the jeep and drove to Nineveh for first paddle of the year….not a soul on the lake, which is mountain water deep, clear as a bell (go, Johnny, go) and no motors…..tried paddling our separate ways to avoid Lucy hysteria about separating the pack….but even that too much….as she barreled form one vessel to the other…finally just taking the panic- plunge….and doing her Lucy Weissmuller thing…..traversing the entire lake with little legs pumping, snout just above water and snorting/ yelling the whole way…….got home just as the thunder skies erupted….after quick stops in Belmont to raid the community room and library….job well done

You can get it if you really want it……. but you must try…try and try…try and try…you’ll succeed at last……

Ignoring several  if invite-obligations, we took off Saturday for a drive up majestic Route 100 with plans to traverse the gap over to Middlebury…but got waylaid in lil’ Hancock for lunch on the  veranda of the old hotel and then a hop skip and jump over to Texas Falls where we spent hours hiking, gazing, contemplating and ultimately jumping in a tide pool of sorts….made our way over the gap late in day then on down to Rutland where we made first foray into checking out the now legal empire…ok, it’s not San Diego, but cute…and then made it a twofer day with Indian food for diner from the tiny grocery store (better than you might think)…finishing up at TQ’s Palace- the Home Depot….where we stocked up on  our massive store of planting apparati…………..and fell asleep trying to find a helper-type to advise us (good luck with that)….and now the time has come………

Getting ready for big month ahead with Sloanie visit in a week, The Band for a week after that and mid-summer Ohio return a week after that…good day sunshine……

Go out an cavort, Make it count, Be the ball…..Love, ya’ll……

Papi (Was a Rolling Stone)

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Gootin Dag:

“Many men fish all their lives without realizing it is not the fish they are after” ……………………………Michael Baughman

“Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness” ……….John Cage

“If you gotta go now…. go now….go now”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Moody Blues

Well, the Arcadian Driftwood SmokeFest refuses to submit, with index of air quality bordering on shit, and a low cloud cover most of the time. Could be worse; people are wearing HazMat suit in the city……but enough…..we need really big wall on the Canuck border. Forget the Mexicans, this is the real r…an I know just the man we can elect to get it done………

Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine….th sun shine in……..

Been a whirl of a week near Star lake…………………our hometowns……

Last Sunday went from smog gloom to blue sky glory in late afternoon, and went to Vermont style birthday party on the former Empress of GE’s deck, overlooking he splendor of the Greens. Daughter Andrea’s 40^th had bunch of no-shows –so it was mostly family style, which for them means around 35 people who live in the compound…and our plus two….despite being grumpy with TQ about not really wanting to be social, enjoyed the multiple generations and got a months’ worth of hugs (after wondering aloud if I was actually huggable these days).

That was the end of sun for a while, as the rains came, the clouds drooped, the streams came a rushin’ and THE POND filled tot it’s magnificent brink.

Midweek we went down to Rutland to the nice Table 24 (which shockingly had closed for good the night before) for an event celebrating Vermont’s constitutionalizing of Reproductive Rights….we now invite women from anywhere to come here and be served without barriers or repercussions…which is quite amazing in our time (Pence and Desantis were invited to come but sent regrets)…….and was pushed through by our republican governor…..though he might not be a Republican anywhere else………….after all we have two parties in our statehouse currently…Democrats and Progressives….but still, I digress,….the event was moving and the celebratory quilt put together by many hands, quite impressive……I managed to not insult anybody for the entire evening….mostly by keeping food or drink in my mouth at all times….did I mention that the crowd was filled with lily-white, blue haired, extreme fit people wearing Birkenstocks?….Duh…..I have now dubbed this, after one of the quilt squares, the no-sex quilt gathering……

After the event, we snuck over to Ramuntos for some slices before heading p the mount, and were shocked to see multitudes of other vegan-tofu types from the event sneaking in, looking for little pepperoni topped jewels…. kind of reminded me childhood Yom Kippur at the Schul, and we’d mosey over to the coffee shop and keep heads down (allegedly fasting), but when I’d sneak a peek, there were 50 such families all hiding with their schmeaedr bagels………

Thursday we visited the Weston Playhouse for the first time since pre- Covid……more lily white, fit blue hairs…..no Birkenstocks……and caught a preview show ($20 ticket- fourth row center- who knew?) for The Buddy Holly story, which was beyond spectacular, and possibly life changing…the stars totally aligned that night for the cast of mostly young star wannabes, and they put on the performance of their lives…..SHOCKUNG….maybe the  best live theater I’ve ever seen…maybe I was also accidentally impaired…a lot of maybes

Capped the week with a weekend in  The apple- specifically Westchester County (if that counts) to get with all of my olde cousins for first time since Covid….I say older because for 20 years I had been the patriarch of our family…till I searched out three sets of cousins ten years ago, whom I now gladly defer to and assume the mantle of the baby cousin……gotta love that…….Italian for 12 at Tuckahoe…spent night in Riverdale…..then Saturday in lovely Nyack with a beach front luncheon and night at the local Doubletree….sadly, my cousin Joel wound up going to hospital just as we arrived, which was real bummer, but got to see the rest plus my nephew Mitch, as well, who drove across the river……ROOTS in CAHOOTS…..very moving…..

Back home to more rain and dankness on the edge of town, on this strange long, maybe holiday weekend…………

Minimally exposed to Covid in city- so monitoring, but so far, so good….is there an end to this nonsense?

I hope you all only freedom and joy.

Hasta Luego, Stu

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Bonjour:

“Sun rising over the mountain path- scent of plums” …………………………………………………………………………….Basho

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning” ………………………………………………………………………………Meister Eckhart

“C’est la vie say the old folks- it goes to show you never can tell” …………………………………………………………Chuck Berry

Been a travelin’ man over the seas…. I remember the night…. Second straight week on the resuscitation of road warrior-ness and between that and raindrops falling on my head…. both tired and a bit mute……so don’t got much this week….

The Canadian Smoke Fest has continued to leave us without much sun along with the start of the who-would-live-around- there Hurricane season, has brought us transference type rain, rain, train…… forecast does not show a rain free day for next to weeks- though we all know the forecasters are basically using a crystal ballad on a dart board….

Father’s day came and went- lots of texts- no children, no grandees……. S…. L…. O…. W……. where are the kids that I used to sport with?……TQ made breakfast and dinner…and watched raindrops in between….

Music has been hot on Monday nights with our wandering leader and resident Gypsy back from world travels….and regular attendance from the grumpy guitarist and the mad mandolinist…plus our resident rain- woman (think Dustin Hoffman) ……..keep going sluggish on Monday nights and the having Mr. Hyde take over, and being one to leave and have to lock the place down…..building towards Bunty band week in early august, when the boys descend from around the globe…..

I seemed to have missed the retirement (maybe even semi-retirement) memo and am back on the horse with five projects of one sort or another…good work…but, make it stop, mama, make it stop…..

This week’s edition had me back on the shores of Gitchee-Goomey, by way of Chicago…determined not to repeat the last 9 hour trip……so I took the six- seater just down the road from here- to Boston- and then on to Chicago-then on to Dan Ryan expressway Hell out to Michiana…work went really well….have new disciples…..travel was indescribable…..first had to call about six- seater for every couple of hours for last 24 prior –to make sure it goes-then go to waiting room that is smaller than my living room, wait while they woke up the local TSA and call him to come in, weigh both my bag and me, wind up the propeller and shout the safety rules……turned out to be really nice day and flight was really pretty ending with a Magnifico view of Boston harbor…..made new Bestie on board –Deadhead, entrepreneurial Strangelove type on board-and we might be friends forever…we did exchange blood oaths- but, hey….Vermont is like that…..

In Boston , I had to make a frantic run to help out  a 90 year old couple form the 6-seater with a 45 minute layover to depart for Blue-Hair world, and who were being fucked by the airline bureaucrats and not given back their carry –on bag as it was missing a tag, that the renegade living room TSA had neglected to put on back in la-la land…folks were in tears…so Papi made a mad sprint to the baggage  claim, found their bag, reentered through another TSA , traced them to their departure gate and handed them their bag before the gate folk closed the aircraft door in their  face…which would have led to postal Papi…got round of applause at the gate and emotional goodbye for my new grandparents…

The trip home broke the previous record and took 10 hours –with an extraordinary 3 hours in and around crazed Friday rush hour to Chi-town to get to the Midway, de-riguer flight delay, and the TQ driving four hours’ round trip to pick me at the live free or die terminal -home at 3 am (but no big deal, I was still on central time) ……

Tried to get in a much needed walk yesterday- and got as far as Java Baba for lunch……before the skies opened again – sat outside under an awning and ate……. watching deluge for over an hour…. the rain shooting off the roof in such massive arcs we thought were at a water park….no walk …nap…. did get in dry moment at Saturday Dump drop where the DM asked for TQ’s hand for the 40^th time…. whilst maintaining his best Poncho villa (check the photo) ….DM and TQ sitting in a tree…….

I got no more- happy to be home for a while….plant me a garden, eat a little peaches, get me a home….story for paucity of pix today…..road, rain and accidental deletion conspire to leave not much….though SEE POND in glory….and Papi with each of the bigger grandees…

Off next weekend to The Apple to see all the cousins for first time since pre-Covid- pretty excited….’till then….it’s only me…and you….and a dog named Boo……

Ferlin’

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