Category: Green Mountain Blog

Ola Amigos et Familia:

“If I knew the way, I would take you home”…..Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter

Holy shit…rain, rain, rain…we have been here 35 days and it has rained 30 of them…not just wet but wet and cold (barely cracking 60 most days and in THE 30s at night)…..we seemed to have lost summer here in the mountains…and on top of it, who would have thought that Vermont would be providing ammo for the moron-in-chief’s no climate change beliefs? It has been so wet…that we have fall foliage happening in some high places….in mid-May!!!!!

 

So this is going to be a short ZEN for the week in the mountains. I’m off to cross the pond tomorrow to  meet up with the prodigal in Madrid for ten days in Spain and Portugal. Eight hour flight preceded by another 8 hours of me getting to JFK by car, Amtrak, railroad and subway…you know traveling from the mountains is no green pickle……

Had our fist Airbnb guests last Sunday night- a delightful older couple form Normandy (France, not Oklahoma), Eveline and Jean Michel, who spoke almost no English…but still were able to express their disdain and amazement at The Donald…how embarrassed we are to claim him (can you say Monsieur Ber-Nie?). Very nice visit with lots of laughs and hugs and many hand signals…

Jen left for  six days in Cleveland with new grand-baby Quinn and has been walking around the whole time with Quinn attached to her via front-pack…..while she weeds, cleans and mows…as soon as she left-the sun came out for two days, which left me all the yard chores. I usually take a lot of care of little Lucy, but leave the loco cats to Jenn…so this week I have spent a copious amount of time attending to their screaming needs to be fed three times a day…plus one poops only outside the litter box and one pukes regularly after each meal. I tried putting them out this morning to see if they might just go away, but all they did was puke, shit and cry to get back in….Went to the dump this morning, where the Dump Master and mountain clairvoyant, Kevin. accosted me for coming without the little lady, and swore he would  come down and give her multiple hugs and squeezes when she returned…apparently he misses her…

I’ve been  trying to reach old Jeb, the local stoned mason and master of the towns’ music equipment via e-mail, text and phone for months to ask for his assistance for when the Bunty boys come out to play a gig  in August…but no returns calls or contact…..and then I discovered him across from the general store this week busy building a wall that The Donald would admire, though he seemed to try and hide when I came to get him…this is the way missions area accomplished in the mountains….tracking and trapping..

After an hour of trying to open the five gallon container (hermetically sealed) and finally ripping it to shreds with the Zaw-Saw, I have inserted ten packets of all purpose, earth restoring and pond healing Bacteria this week…so now we wait for crystal clear blue waters to appear….or so they say…

Well- time to take a small- pond break and get ready to head across the big one (do they use Bacteria on it, does it have algae?)…have to figure out how to last ten day with 22 pounds of luggage (weight restrictions for Spanish airlines)…so off to gather and weigh….

Adios for now…back in a couple of weeks….say you will miss me-just say it…

Buenos Dias,

 

Estuardo/Papa

Greetings friends, family and countrymen:

“Heimlich. Is that a

Jewish name? I wonder as

a diner turns blue.”                                  Haikus for Jews

 

Winter turns into summer quickly in the mountains. On Monday the overnight low was 28 with snow flurries. By Tuesday ,we had a very nice day and by Wednesday it was in the low 90s…the mountaineers came out to dance. We’ve had a run of tropical weather (even though nights are still in the 30s) which has made for more and more lists of projects. Just finished three hours of mandated windowsill and storm window cleaning, which is quite the task in a 150 year old house, since none of them stay up while you try to clean them—which leads to multiple arm abrasions and a houseful of foul words. Meanwhile, Jenn was outside puttering in her gardens…and creating her next round of sciatica…..remind me of the benefits of getting old?

So back to Tuesday. As had been our custom, the sun came out…and we hit the road, Unusually, for us, we headed south, which took us down the Green chain to Weston for a picnic on the green and then to Peru to the lovely Hapgood Pond. We did a bit of a walk around the pond (S/J=3 miles, Lucy Lu= 9 miles)…and then mosied on to the metropolis of Manchester- the home of Hildene, the ancestral mansion of Robert Todd Lincoln (yes-that Lincoln!)…and…of the Green Mountain outlet shops. The outlets are quite a juxtaposition to the elegant old town, which also houses the famous Equinox hotel, where Roosevelt (yes- that Roosevelt) met with Churchill and Stalin to plan the end of the Big One. While there, we found a beautiful beater of a house for sale…..probably meets the definition of faded glory…amidst the splendor of mansions on every side of it…and took photos to try and lure Max to invest in long term capital gains in the mountains (no luck). We found this Italian deli joint (AL Ducci’’s) on a side street and they made us some very indigenous (to Brooklyn) fixins before they closed and threw us out.

On Wednesday, the thermometers hit 90- so I headed north to find a Marriott to spend the night in air conditioned luxury. Actually, it was my first time back to the monthly meetings of the Governor’s Council for kids that I sit on, and takes place in Waterbury, the hub of all things government in Vermont…and the scene of many of Archer’s book settings. I spent the day driving through the majesty of the mountains turning green overnight, stopped for picnic lunch, took a nap, read the USA today (avoiding all mention of El Trumpo), worked out, and took a dirt road jog…. and then dined at the little Thai joint and watched the Cavs smoke the Celtics. Jenn was at home sweating and working very hard…which I felt VERY bad about…but duty calls and I go.

I returned Thursday afternoon and it was 93 degrees and Jenn was gone and the yard was half push mowed….so I shed my clothes and donned my cape and went out to defeat the elements. Two hours later, I sat immobile and sweat drenched—unable to move off the chair and drinking a gallon of Gatorade. I considered a jump in the pond to cool off, but the 50 degree water did not really speak to me….and it would have ruined my sorry state to present to Jenn when she returned from gallivanting.

Speaking of THE POND….well let’s just say that all that glitters is not gold, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, paradise ain’t what it seems, some things are too good to be true (you probably get the idea)…so the hated algae has begun to reappear, snaking down with the fucking the mountain runoff and leaving little snatches of its demon scum in our pristine endeavor. NO, NO, No…we say….so we do some research on line and buy the forbidden (in Vermont) copper sulfate to extinguish the species (so the ads say) and it arrives with a thousand warnings (if you get it on your skin, just lay down and wait to die peacefully). So- yesterday we head up to the mountain hamlet of Shrewsbury to find Matt the Trout King at his hatchery (six dirt roads to get there) and he is not around- so we leave our calling card, amazed at his collection of ponds, and get home to find the water temp (went to Walmart for thermometer) is above the required- for- treatment 60 degrees and it is sunny and quite nice out. Out comes the kayak and the kitchen strainer I meant to throw away, in goes Stu to strain and spray (with my hazmat suit on). Three hours later, I am back- soaked and freezing – with a pretty clean pond and a gallon of this shit sprayed through a small spray device . I take a hot shower and get under the blanket on the couch, to nap and recover, when the Trout King calls me back. I talk to him about fish for the pond and ask him about putting them in right after spraying……and he says….”no, no, never use that chemical shit”. So today we head back up the dirt roads and met the King and he sold us $300 worth of bacteria- which apparently  will make the POND sparkle…as well as fifteen of the King’s special trout and twenty crayfish…the sum of which is apparently the ultimate pond cure. The fishes are now swimming like crazy trying to avoid the monster snapping turtle, (which returned from his banishment in the last week). Next week we are dumping the first set of bacteria………I don’t really think this SAGA ends.

So, I’m supposed to be working on the project list, but Jenn and Lucy left- so – I am doing this instead. I may be erratic in my postings for the coming month, as I am off the Santa Cruz tomorrow for a 24 hour stay (12 hour each way to get there , including a red eye back Wed. night), then the Urbanites are coming to the mountains from Florida for four days (“do you have microwaves there in the mountains”). Once they leave, Jenn heads to Cleveland for five day with our new grand baby (you go Ryan and Lauren)….and then once she returns Stu heads off into the wild blue yonder to find Max somewhere in Spain or Portugal.

Hopefully, by then – the POND will be crystal clear and filled with wondrous fish……………………….or not.

Be very well and keep your fingers crossed.

Stu-Ber

 

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

 

 

 

Dear Friends, Family and Faithful Readers:

“Like a bird on a wire, Like a drunk in a midnight choir. I have tried, in my way, to be FREE”…………………………………Leonard Cohen

“There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in”………………………………….Leonard Cohen

“We will be all right. That is how we are. The sun rose this morning ,and it will rise again tomorrow morning”…Barack Obama, the day after

“When dealt an uncertain hand, it is not unusual  to panic and mistakenly rush to Trump our opponent”  The Country Jew

 

It has been a sad week in the mountains. As we worked to prepared to close the house down, say goodbye to our piece of mountain bliss and to all our Greenie friends, we lost a Leonard and we gained a Trump….BAD TRADE; might be worst in history

I spent Tuesday night watching basketball and trying to not peek…to not watch as it became clear what the end result would be. A result that may set us back in into DARK days: for our mountains, for our oceans, for people who look different or act different, for children, for us old folks, for those of us who prefer to schtup others with the same genitalia, for the melting ice cap, for those needing to see the doctor and get medicines….for human kind….

Jenn spent the evening with a bunch of Buddhists in study and prayer…REALLY…but it did not work..

We woke Wednesday to the shocking news and encountered a saddened and subdued populace in the Vermont Greens, where even though we’d have rather had our Bernie, we still understood the stakes at hand….it was like walking amongst Zombies throughout the day……no one could speak or make eye contact…..…the general sentiment is that maybe we can become part of Canada with our beloved Bernie as our prime minster, if they have not yet finished building their wall to keep us out. . ..then I went to the gym, because I could not think of anything else to do, and there in the weight room, on the TV, was the REAL President, telling us that it would be all right, that it was time for mending and coming together, that the sun would still rise, that he was going to work to assure a smooth transition , that he was going to continue to fight for right……. I wept, I really wept, all over the mats and the weights and the elliptical machine…..watching this man of great dignity and leadership, this man whose kindness and compassion cannot be questioned regardless of how you feel about his politics and policies…..how can we lose this and get that?

It is up to us now, each one of us. It won’t be the White House, or the Congress or the talking heads on TV..…it is we who have to be fair and compassionate to each other, we who must challenge injustice, we who must seek what is right for all- not just for our own little backyard….. It will be a long four years, but not without opportunity to learn and change for the better. We are going back to Ohio, a place  I am saddened to be from at the moment.

We will welcome the people with turbans, the men who prefer wieners, those who think we should elect Fidel…………..come live with us by the parkway and the roundabout…come share our grief, come be AMERICA with us.

Ok- you didn’t tune into the Blog to hear me rant (or did you?). Maybe you even voted for the Trump (please say it ain’t so) and it is a fine late November Sunday morning in which I need to say goodbye for the time being, since no one wants to hear new of the parkway and the flatlands (but who knows, could happen)

So………..Check out THE POND…it is at  two thirds full and rising daily, a thing of beauty. if you come next year, you can swim in our spring fed waters, jostle with the frogs, daintily step around the snapping turtle, bob to avoid the last of the falling apples……mountain beauty for our hearts…

We had a final dinner at the Castle – a two hundred year old mansion that has housed six presidential stays…. elegant, restrained, charming …and a special  three course mid-week prix fix menu…what’s not to like?

Saturday found us on one last wander..…stopping to store up on free range meats, organic produce, New York slices of pizza. …and to make a circuit of sweeping mountain views and farewells to our dear mountain friends. We are on the farewell dinner circuit this week, with one last one tonight …..Sunday night Chinese (of course) with our beloved Jewish fish monger….

Id’ like to stay here and write more all day, but there is a house to close down, a car to pack,  a wagon we need to find to drag home 300 pounds of meats and vegetables and our final goodbyes to be made to  our wonderful Inn at Scum Pond……so…….until the leaves return to the trees and the days lengthen………I bid you all so long from the mountains.

Be kind to each other, my friends….kindness will get is through.

Much love,

 

Stu

 

 

Happy daylight savings time to all (bah-humbug….):

“It takes a long time to understand nothing”…………………………….Edward Dahlberg

“Follow your inner moonlight, don’t hide the madness”…..Allen Ginsberg

“How many sunsets can you watch?”…..Anonymous New Yorker

“ Mr. Johnson gets up early” (be careful with the interpretation on this one!)…………………..Jennifer Burrows

 

 

Behold the POND……..it rises, it shimmers, the meteor crater disappears…. a lot of rain and SNOW has us, unlike most of Vermont, out of drought…..and the springs are flowing…..check it out…may even be filled by the time we leave…my crowning life achievement…..we spent four hours last Sunday chopping, cutting, and cajoling the ancient apple tree to get it away from the POND…it took saws, ropes, ladders, loppers and a Larry to get it done…now we have water, no mas apples

Speaking of leaving….TEN DAYS until the return  to the flatlands…back to our roots, our friends, our kids, the Bunty boys, a modern flight schedule, three minutes to shopping, Chinese delivery, our hot tub……AND……the parkway outside the kitchen window, all night lights on the roundabout, a house shared with wild life, traffic, traffic, traffic, noise, noise, noise, people, people, people,….guess you could call it a yin-yang…Cha-Cha- Changes…….

Power visiting-…I made a trip up to the Capitol this week to testify in front of a legislative committee on reforming juvenile justice..…sat in a hot hearing room for four hours waiting to speak, was then told I had five minutes, which evolved to me getting into it with the Senator who chairs the committee…..Him- “ I did this for 25 years, blah, blah, blah”  Me- “Maybe you should have done something else”……probably my last  invite to the statehouse

How about those Cubbies????- even  us Tribe fans found ourselves rooting for the ever downtrodden……what a game…

Hitting the Apple- we went down for one last visit to the big city for an overnight this week. We counted more people of color in 15 minutes than we have seen in the last six months in Vermont. Jewish Deli. Italian Deli, NY Pizza. bagels and lox, and a Diner ……we had to crawl back home to the wheat grass and organic beets…..had a nice dinner with new found cousins…we have multiplied our family four-fold over last five years; we just keep getting bigger…soon we will be like the Bushs and need a compound  in Kennebunkport…..who knew?…Jenn, Lucy and I got to spend a morning  with my oldest friend, and first life mentor, Bob, at the nursing home in the east Bronx, which is both touching and so, so sad….he has some dementia and no family and  nowhere else to live…..fucked over by a greedy system that casts away its old to sit staring in front of a wall..…but he gets three hots and a cot daily…..am still working with the appointed lawyer to sue the shit out of the mercenaries who screwed him over, though not sure it will help him  much at this point…..after 48 hour trip to the Bronx, it was very good to return to the Sticks (though I did return with a satchel of corned beef and pastrami)

A Mountain roaming– since it finally got out of being in the md 30s every day- we took advantage of the high 40 degree warmth yesterday to make a full day of it. Hit the indoor Rutland farmers market  for the last time (market loves Lucy), then did all the shopping things we tend to do on Saturdays, with the masses, for no good reason (Walmart loves Lucy), spent 40 minutes getting an “instant” oil change ( we probably disagree on the definition of “instant”) and hit our beloved Ramunto’s Pizza, to soak up the local ambiance and raise our cholesterol. Chores done, we headed out on a drive to capture the last of the fall colors and then sought out one of our favorite hikes up near Pittsford.  We did our usual three miles or so, while Lucy did her usual ten miles running in circles and chasing all things walking and breathing. We took the back mountain roads back down to Mendon and to the Home Depot (a place I never enter, but Jenn qvells for). After that, we sat in the parking lot staring at our jones- feeding Chinese restaurant , East, trying to decide whether or not to eat dinner at 5 p.m. ,when we had already had two meals in the last five hours. Suddenly, we had a sign……sitting in the same parking lot was the Jewish Fish Monger, clearly also considering the merits of a very early Chinese feast…needless to say, we conferred and then spent the next two hours gobbling bok choy and Udon. By the time we got home it was dark and 25 degrees…..another fine day in the mountains.

So- will leave it at that for this entry into the ongoing adventures of mountain living. There are 4-5 yard machines waiting for my love and attentions and a shitload of stuff to put away for the winter….and maybe the tree guys will show up today, since they were due ten days ago…and one last POND cleaning is probable in order……… “Jenn, my strainer, please”….

The dark days are ahead. Keep your spirits up, and get out and vote, so we don’t have to move to Canada.

Bad-bada- bing,,,,,,…..Vito

 

Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm:

_______________________________________________________________________

“The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself” ………………Lao-Tzu

_______________________________________________________________________

the rains come in earnest, then snow, we pick up the apples, the POND rises………………

the leaves fall to multi colored ground, autumn wind howls, Stick Season comes………….

secret trip to balmier climes,  return in snow….only October!

late night Hartford descent , car snow- covered , it is a long, white drive home…….

 

you can’t go home again, lest you can arrive under cover of dark…………………………….

snow and foliage, dwindling colors and white out, rare is mountain life…..

broken engagement cable AND deck bracket……. job for the Country Jew?

a tractor dies, a tractor now runs, is it too late to mow in snow?………………

jenn paints face to join tribal dance of necromance; Stu dwells in baseball…

october ends, how can there be Saturday without Farmer’s Market?

giant Rutland town spook parade, ghost, goblins, skellies and now…..see…..Bernie!!!!!

hawks and doves collide in the sky…one more week…can we have our Bernie?

fifteen days, fifteen days..…from mountain dirt to our new parkway home…OY…..

that’s all, tis no more……pond dump trees must trim……… miles to go before I sleep

 

Monsieur Stuard

 

Bonjour, mes amis:

“Every day you play with the light of the universe”    Pablo Neruda

So we started the week last Sunday with a perfect fall day in mid 60s…by Tuesday we hit 83 degrees and went to bed at midnight at a surreal 70…today it is 33 out, and heading for highs in the low 30s this week. Such is life in the mountains, no? And….the rains came…for several straight days, and the POND Gods are smiling…water level has doubled and now we only have twice as many apples as water in THE POND.

With the perfect fall weather, and absolutely PEAK colors , we headed out last Sunday for an adventure day. Drove up to Shrewsbury hills to see Maya, the legendary potter. She has the outdoor kiln the size of our living room that she fires for 72 hours twice a year, and makes pretty amazing shit. We go up during her annual open house to scrounge her wonderful “seconds” (like going to the early bird dinner) and taste her open house morsels. We encountered her little waif daughter, Iris, lurking around the woodpile like a wood-elf. I asked her if she was an eyeball or a flower, which really stumped her. She was fully dressed in fall apparel, but no shoes, as she exclaimed “I hate shoes”- so I took the “ I hate shoes” pictures which you can ogle. From there we headed south towards Peru (really) for some hiking. We had decided to do the early bird at the Swiss Inn – a small non-descript place we have been driving by for over 20 years without ever stopping, which meant dinner between 5 and 6. As we hit Weston, Jenn felt too hungry to wait, but it was too close to our dinner (it was 3 p.m.) to eat, so we made a quick drive-by through the Vermont Country Store (the world’s’ foremost purveyor of kitsch), for their minion of cheese, jam and fudge samples…milling in circles for 15 minutes around the sampling area until we were sated…..amidst the legions of leaf peeper shoppers. Even got some carry out snacks for Lucy……wondered how many travelers stop there just for the snacking options?

Leaving the store- feeling nauseous, we discovered that the VCS actually had their own “nature trail”, which I doubt gets much usage amongst the shopping hordes, so off we went for a stroll in the woods. Then on to the aforementioned Peru, where we discovered the Hapgood Pond at twilight. Took a wonderful hike around the beauteous pond, ultimately joining two older gents with whom we shared our Bernie passions and spoke of the Trump-devil in hushed tones. These are not hard conversations to find in the Vermont woods.  We walked around two miles and Lucy ran about six. We got to the Swiss Inn just in time to make the early bird and had an unremarkable but quite satisfying dinner, while little Lucy passed out in the car.

Mountain living has limited medical access at times, and when I came down with two wax-clogged ears this week (“did that stuff come out of me?”- Roseanne Roseanna Danna), I was forced to depend on my own Dr. Quinn, medicate woman, who spent around three hours prodding and poking my ears with various unsanitary instruments, which, overall, seemed to work just fine.

We got our Airbnb review from our first-ever alternative lifestyle couple, who were, it turns out, really impressed with our “powder room”, which we were surprised to learn we had.

So, when it hit the mid 80’s tropics on Tuesday, we took off with our beloved Vermont secret hikes book to find Tim’s Trail in West Haven, Vermont. (I do believe our latest compulsion may involve trying to do all 170 secret hikes in the book). Getting to the Tim was quite the undertaking, taking the 20 miles interstate that goes nowhere into NY state and then circling back over a series of dirt roads back into this little unknown corner of Vermont. The trail tuned out to be a memorial to the Tim and quite a beautiful walk along cliff edges and vistas of the Lake Champlain valley below. Four miles, nine for little Lucy …and a deserved trip to see the poets of fish at the amazingly situated Fair Haven Inn, with the Greek owner and his Rumanian hottie bride…who must be uber-exotic in the quaint hamlet of Fair Haven.

Have I mentioned Kevin the dump-master? Every Saturday morning we head to the transfer station (dump) with our assemblage of garbage and recycling (like mail delivery, there is no garbage retrieval in the mountains), and are greeted by the surly mountain man, Kevin. Kevin LOVES Jenn, and rumbles mightily when I show up without her. He gives unsolicited advice on THE POND, local politics, where to go to get good steaks and general living in the mountains. He usually offers to take me into his little Belmont “mall”, where he stores everyone’s unwanted junk, to offer me X-rated VHS tapes to take home for the little lady. He thinks my name is Jay, though I have told him repeatedly ,that it is Chuck. Mountain living, no?

So- midweek I drove up to spend the night at the Commodores Inn in Stowe to attend my monthly meeting in Waterbury of the Governors’ Council for Prevention for Children and Families (in the mountains we would prefer to prevent having any children or families, and in nearby Cavendish, they are reputed to eat their young during the annual peak of foliage). This meeting allows me to hob nob with the movers and shakers of the state (no Bernie, sadly) and have a free lunch. The drive up route 100 was splendid beyond words and the Commodore‘s Inn, though dated from the 70s, had a cute pond out back where the Commodore himself held court with his cronies, drinking local beer and launching miniature yachts into the sunset. The Commodore should be on the Governor’s Council, I believe, and should meet Kevin.

We ended our week last night with a last minute Airbnb reservation. Thought we were done for the season, but got last minute request from two young med students from Yale that were in dire need of a mountain getaway. The Yalies turned out to be quite a cute pair of Korean kids, who I think were named Seaweed and Wussy…at least they did not seem offended by being called that. Wussy had decided to go by the name Wyatt in America (cowboy novels?) and they were quite the a pair of nice kids. We sent them out on multiple tours of the area and they left this morning after having taken nine showers in 36 hours. I guess Koreans like to stay clean….

Well, I way exceeded my word count this week. Must be the cold, as it stays warmer in  my office-cave. We’re on the countdown- leave for the flatlands three weeks from tomorrow and I am off to a secret location for a conference this week. Enjoy your autumnal bliss and be well.

 

Love,

 

Jay

 

 

Yaba, Daba, Doo………….

“Never curse a fall….the ground is where humility lives” …………………..Yasmin Mohaged

Well, we skipped the prairies, but went from the mountains to the oceans this week. After having multiple Airbnb guests for six straight nights for the Columbus Day Peak, and spending weeks of watching THE POND have more apples in it than water (we are in an official drought here on the Greens, even Bernie says it is dry)) , we scurried out of town to head for the coast.

Our route to the Maine coast took us through most of north central New Hampshire, where we usually go only under the cover of darkness. This is a Vermont joke…but now I see good reason. After being sheltered from the Trumpsters here in our liberal bastion, we encountered literally hundreds and hundreds of the Devil signs throughout New Hampshire and on the central part of Maine (it seems it gets less when you go further south- maybe the healing effects of the sun). It was a stark contrast to the beauty and serenity of the brilliant mountain colors everywhere we went. We bought some tape and taped our mouths shut, so as not to risk any potential sexual molestation by the devotees.

In magnificent sunshine and temps approaching 70 ( I dug my shorts out and reached for a bit more summer), we drove to the Maine coast at Bath and spent the night, then spent two days winding down the coast to York. Great time of year with kids back in school and tourists at a minimum off the beaten path, where our homing devices take us. Being fairly entrenched in the aging process, it was refreshing to find ourselves the youngest people around wherever we went…us and the walkers and the wheelchairs ….……..boy –are we fast.

We spent one night at a Marriott in Bath (points) and then found another dog friendly cottage outside of Kennebunkport (we are retroactively loving the Bushs). The first night we had a nice king bed, which was fine for the 3 of us …but the 30’s era depression cottage on night two had something between a single and a double, so Lucy had half and Jenn and I had half…..by two a.m.- I simply pushed a sound asleep Jenn to the floor and Lucy and I did pretty well for the rest of the night. So, it was basically three days of walking quiet beaches, hiking in the great north woods, driving through mountain and ocean vistas in bright sunshine and doing the Maine lobster-roll tour. Lucy LOVED the beach ,springing around like a dervish, in and out of the surf and then crashing for hours in the car from her “play-hard, sleep hard” lifestyle.

We returned on Thursday and Friday I reluctantly took my aching back to see the country shaman; a woman Jenn had found for her even more ailing back. Vickie practices Integrated Positional Therapy (really, it IS Vermont, after all)….in a two hundred year old one- room schoolhouse on a dirt road no one can find- in the mountains of Shrewsbury. She is an attractive and funny woman…..which made it pleasant to have her try to find places to weave her fingers deep into my tissue and chakras (or some such shit). Not sure if it helped, but it was enjoyable lying on her bed in the woods in the late afternoon autumn light …..it’s possible that it sounds sexier than it was, but…..

So, we have had our last two scheduled guests of the season the last two nights. The first were two men and a dog…witty professionals from upstate NY, here for one of them to be in a cross fit competition. This was our first alternative lifestyle couple (is this politically correct?), and I think we passed the test, even taking care of their very dainty dog while they went to dinner (she refused to leave the room whilst they were gone). Then last night, we had two women from Minnesota that sounded like they came straight from Fargo or Prairie Home Companion. They were very excited to be here and traveling through the  ALL the northeastern states. Quite the contrast. The fellows were quiet, urbane, restrained, traveled with one sheik small bag, and very cautious about how much they did or took on (had to get home to weekend chores after the competition). The gals  were uber-exuberant, couldn’t decide whether to head north or south the next day, not wanting to miss anything (they are going to do both!) and came in with eight pieces of luggage for ten hours here. They ate car food on paper plates in their room and drank a box of wine. I think this represents the chameleon-like  life the of the innkeeper…no?

Well- it’s going to be a fine week here- heading up to near 80 mid-week- so we need to get out now and search for more leaves. On the dreaded countdown now- with four weeks until the flatland return…ugghh…oy…ugghh..).

Lots of pix again this week. Hope you enjoy and do more autumnal things.

Your humble correspondent,

Stub