Autumn Rememberies: October camping with the spawn

Of course September ended
but October was no less grand.
The Columbus Day (mid-October) camp out rolled around.

There were only 3 boys.

Thank gods.

Well, actually, you can see that they think they ARE the gods.

Not that the girl isn't a force to contend with as well.

She rocks.

 The Dawn Treader lives and is well.

They are deceptively adorable when they are laughing.

 Big Bertha gave her life in service to Lake George camp outs.

Summer Rememberies: Airing The Teens

The Supreme Queen

Of All That Is Good And Necessary

For The Continued Happiness

Of Teenagers

rested comfortably while remaining alert to the antics of her charges.

They made this awesome bowl and spoon.

They caught this snake twice. Poor stupid snake.











Oops. I dozed off, and look what they did. Sigh.

The Appalachian Trail Figures Into My Daily Life

 Some people walk the 2,200 miles (3540.5 km for my metric friends)
(I SWEAR! I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!)
from Springer, Georgia to Katahdin, Maine.
Thru-hikers - those addled souls walking all the way through from Georgia to Maine -
stop in the store throughout the summer.
 Most come in looking a bit dazed.
A few come in bouncy and manic.
They all smell.
Geography Lesson

An Example Of The Thru-Hiker Presence 
  This feller hails from just north of NYC.

He left Springer, Georgia 4.5 months ago.

He smelled ripe but looked fairly clean.

He seemed totally perplexed about EVERYTHING. He was so disoriented that it rubbed off on me and I forgot to ask his trail name.

Some come in with esoteric camping/hiking needs that we can't fulfill, like bulk stove fuel. But mostly they look for little things to make the last leg of their trek north feel more comfortable, like corks, odor neutralizer, ripstop nylon mending tape, jar lids, stove fuel canisters, bar shampoo (oh, am I ever ready for THAT request now) and, the thing for which Dan & Whit's is known on the trail, free day-old sandwiches. Those sandwiches don't appeal to me even when they are fresh, because I was a Deli Slave for an entire Year Of Deli Hell when I first started working at the store. But I digress. So... The End.

How To Communicate With Management In An Effective Manner or How I Learned To Cope With Being Stuck Behind The Register For Two Hours On Thursday Afternoons

Forced idleness can spark one's creative impulses.

Materials on hand can be used in myriad ways.

And remember, you can never have too much signage.

A Change Is Gonna Come

Better Days Are Coming

For Chickie Chick and for everyone, I hope.

Friday was U G H

Like... what happened to SPRING??

Sheesh.

People kept coming in

and hanging around the registers

and talking about the roads

and drinking coffee

and not wanting to go back outside.

I don't blame 'em.

When I skulked across the street to the bank,

the slush was ankle deep.

I had to do it becuase it was P A Y D AY!!

YAY!!

 

Someone complained about the new self-serve gas -- how you have to get out and get wet becuase there is no canopy.

BUT

there is no canopy becuase of the anti-canopy zoning.

This is an anti-canopy town.

We all thought that the pro-canopy lobby should take it up with the Select Board at the next town meeting,

not with the innocent, hard working, and loyal employees at the store.

Ha ha.

Check out the Spring in Vermont label.

Apparently, I have been here before.

Sigh.

Spring in Vermont tests your faith.

I swear.

Don't Try To Carry Your Laptop Upstairs To Watch TV In Bed While Balancing A Bowl Of Frosting And A Pack Of Gluten-Free Graham Crackers After Drunk Cooking For A Couple Hours

The dinner turned out really yummy.
The dessert in bed thing didn't turn out so good, though.

A Diversion While I Process The Great Tragedy Of My Broken Laptop

Last month I went to Long Island via the Throg's Neck Bridge,

which was the brain child of Robert Moses,

built in 1961.

Taken from the dashboard of my car.

Aerial photo stolen from Wikipedia.

Robert Moses was an incredible urban planner/politician who made NYC and Long Island a GREAT place for cars and a CRAPPY place for public transportation. He was a deeply bigoted man who thought that if you couldn't afford a car you didn't deserve to go anywhere. 

There is a great view of NYC from the bridge.

Out the right car window. WOOT!! I even got the Empire State Building on the far left!! That is the Whitestone Bridge in the center (also a Robert Moses brainchild, built in the 1940's.)

I came back via the ferry.

The ferry out of Port Jeff harbor. It was so rough that the upper deck was closed.

Uh oh. Hide my camera.

I was doing something...

... and thought I ought to light the candle on the window sill.

Then I thought I ought to take a picture of it.

Becuase experiencing something isn't enough.

You have to photo it as well... to make it... count?

Then I saw the chicken coop out the window.

And I thought about Henny Penny all alone out there and how she is always cheerful and clucky and seems so pleased by the meager bits of lettuce that I chuck on the ground for her.

I should try to be more chicken-like, I think.

Tipsy Whipsy

So I am wasting all this time experimenting with
Drunk Cooking

when I should be

getting my ass

down to Dan & Whits

and taking the pic

of the back of the old building 

that I want to show you.

I cooked
rice and beans
with onion
and red and green pepper,
and special chili beans
and homemade chili powder.
I served it on crispy corn tortillas
that I fried in olive oil,
 all heaped with tiny pieces of sauteed zucchini.
O
M
G
IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD,

You should really watch this. She is so fuuny!

P.S. I drank vodka, orange juice, and cointreau on ice. Wow. Good. Sweet. Yummmmm.

BUTTER YO SHIT, BITCH!

It was really fun

So last night my daughter and I were making this amazing rainbow cake together.

 And she got all evil and up in my face.

 So I had to do the It's-Me-I'm-Great-I'm-Right Dance to reassert my dominance.

Which she tried to thwart by chasing me with frosting. 

But I prevailed!!!!!!!

Now

Playing at a Blog Near You

The Righteous Me Dance Project

YAY ME!!

Until it flowers again

St. Francis And The Sow

by Galway Kinnell

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

Still thinking about what a great day Friday was

It was a kick ass day at the store on Friday from start to finish. 

3:45 pm as I was leaving I saw this.

Those are fun people.

And look at their fun toys!

Familiar Territory with Retirement Home

Last weekend's snowshoe.

I know it looks just like the pictures of the woods on my previous snowshoe post BUT... I know all the streams and rocks and trees and bends in this trail.

When I was teaching, I would hike up the old road behind the town graveyard every day. Once a week during my special double free period, I would go all the way up to the high meadow. I would also frequently take my class up into these woods for a hike.

The view across the high meadow last weekend.

Same view, summer 2011

I have been charmed by the ambiance of this dwelling since 2004, the first time I hiked up here.

Summer 2011

It is wired for sound! There is evidence of the old electric wires running up through the woods.

The familiar view out across the valley coming back down. We used to go sledding in the graveyard.

Modify Materials For Optimum Usage

Just so you know and don't come around looking for some chew.

Awesome Deep Snow With Moose Tracks

Up in the wilds we were intrepidatious and adventuristic.

Trail closed. Pfft. Let's go anyway.

Irene, you bitch.

Just a couple of trees down. Nothing too serious.

We saw the depressions where 5 large bodies slept. Moose or trolls, we weren't sure which.

We saw other interesting things, too.

Iced troll penis?

Why I Love Vermont

15 below zero yesterday

Chicky Chick got a second heat lamp

A balmy zero this morning

Chicken Pity

I always feel more sorry for Dessie when there are unusual weather things going on. Today there is a big snow storm so I brought her home a head of old lettuce from the store.

OSM inspired search

I went looking for my washboard in the basement. I couldn't find it. I did find the box of smaller jug band instruments we used to play in my class.

We could make some NOISE! See that plastic sack? It is full of combs. We used to play the combs every morning (with wax paper on them) after singing and recorder playing. We would play our favorite songs, even some rounds. It was big fun.

I used to think of my students as Les Sangliers Petits. I have been missing them a lot lately. I probably gave the washboard to one of them.