It was a gorgeous weekend here in Vermont. Fall colors are probably near their peak if they haven’t hit it already. On Saturday Kelly and I took Lilo (our youngest dog and also the youngest of all our animals) out on a short expedition to downtown (where we dropped off our voter ballots) and then we walked him to the downtown park near the river. Kelly had been there before, but it was my first time there. I have been missing out because, as you can see, the park is gorgeous.
Sign near the park entrance.I love this building. The Frank Adams Grist Mill is a museum now. Another park sign. This one is down near the river.Wow. Scenes like this are one of the reasons why we moved here.This view of the river is just a couple hundred yards away from our house. Gorgeous. Lilo is surprisingly unafraid to get wet, which is very un-dachshund-like behavior.
I will continue to post here in the blog now that I have gotten back into the habit again.
Well, another tough year has gone by, thanks to Covid 19 (again).
This year has been particularly eventful, as Kelly started grad school in January of 2021, we sold our house in Winthrop, and are both currently looking to change jobs so we can buy a house in southeast Vermont, preferably in Windham County and specifically in Brattleboro. We are also considering Bellows Falls, as it is nearby and also is on Amtrak. It also happens to be where Kelly’s dad was born.
We don’t own this mug, yet.
There are a lot of reasons we decided to do this, but perhaps the biggest and most important was we decided we really wanted to get away from the insanity of Boston traffic and the nightmare of a Boston commute. We got to try it out somewhat while we were working from home in Winthrop because of Covid, and we decided we really liked it.
However, we also quickly discovered that no matter what we did, we continued to have internet connectivity problems and that was especially frustrating. No matter what we tried, we could not get a reliable Internet connection. We had people from Comcast at the house multiple times trying to figure out what was wrong. We ended up replacing all of the cable on the outside of the house, going all the way to the utility pole, as well as replacing all the cable inside the house, plus getting a new modem (twice). We tried putting the modem in a more central location (located right next to Kelly’s computer in her “office”, which was the guest bedroom). It didn’t work. We still had connectivity problems of one sort or another and when you are paying almost $300 a month for cable, phone, and Internet, that gets old rather quickly.
Discussions with other people who lived in Winthrop revealed that they too had connectivity problems. It seemed to be a widespread problem there. So we began to think about moving, and eventually we became convinced that we would be better off living somewhere far from Boston traffic and Boston cost of living. We could get a bigger, maybe even a nicer, house and a larger yard for the dogs and for gardening and still come out with a smaller mortgage payment than what we were currently paying. It was a no-brainer. We could also end up in a place with a higher vaccination rate and a higher percentage of mask wearing. Winthrop, and particularly our next door neighbor, was a Covid hotspot from the jump and our next door neighbor was a maskhole.
So where to go, then? We started looking in Western Massachusetts (we are still looking there, at least somewhat) but soon expanded our search into southern Vermont. We quickly began to fall in love with the Brattleboro area, as we had a lovely time every time we went to visit. All the people we met in Brattleboro and its environs were friendly and welcoming. It really is remarkable how consistently and continuously we had positive interactions with people there. Likewise Vermont has the highest vaccination rate in the nation and people are smart about masking.
So we packed up the house, and of course that in itself was quite the adventure as it involved both PODS and U-Haul and some less-than-ideal interactions with both companies that caused delays. Although we packed up in July with the hope of getting the house ready to be put on the market by Labor Day, that didn’t happen. Various delays put it off until almost the end of September. Still, we had the house on the market on a Friday and we had an offer at our full asking price by Monday. We worked with RedFin to sell the house and it was a great experience.
Another problem we had to solve was what to do with our kitties, Scratch and Violet. We couldn’t take them to the long-term hotel with us (we were already bringing Dash and Nymeria) and for a long time we could not find anyone who could board them. Finally we got lucky and some friends said they could put the kitties up for as long as we needed and at a very friendly rate. So the kitties went off to what we are calling “kitty summer camp” although by now it has already lasted into winter. Still, they seem to be doing well and we are very grateful for that. We do miss them and look forward to being reunited with them in 2022.
The hotel has turned out to be ok so far, although we have also had some problems here that needed to be solved. Still, it could be much worse, and at this point we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We hope to be in our new house, wherever it may be, in 2022 and settle in with our kitties and puppies in what will hopefully be a better space for them as well. Remarkably, living in the hotel has been a good experience for Nymeria, who has gone far in coming out of her shell and learning to trust us. She has even begun to approach other people for pets, which we think is remarkable and fills us with joy every time we see her do it. She and Dash have gotten to spend a lot of time with us and go on regular walks which does all of us some good.
Nymeria and Dash napping together. They love each other to bits. If she’s not barking at me then she’s cuddling with him.
So we hope that everyone else has had, if not a good year, at least not had too traumatic a year. Hopefully Covid 19 will be conquered in the new year, as long as people aren’t too stupid about everything. I know, it’s a lot to ask, frankly, but we can still hope that common sense will win out.
Violet definitely has her favorite spots in the house to sleep. One of them is the basket that we made into a little cat bed. It sits in the guest room (now unofficially called Violet’s room since she is the one who spends the most time in there) under the window.
This cat bed used to sit on top of the upright freezer in our kitchen in the old place and Scratch and Bucky would sometimes battle over who got to sleep in it. Now Violet is the only one who uses it.
She also loves to sleep in the office up on the top floor, usually in the little cat hammock but not always. Lately she likes to sleep under the desk when I am sitting there at the computer working.
I love that she wants to be nearby whenever I am in the office. It is quite endearing.
Yesterday when Kelly was up here practicing her music Violet also came up here to sit with her and listen.
We really lucked out to get a little kitty with such a sweet disposition.
In my last gardening post, I had promised to put up more pictures at some point to show how things were progressing with the garden. And so here is the progress report. Today was a gorgeous (but hot) summer day and I was out in the yard doing some work, so I thought I would take some pictures for another blog post.
For the first time in several years, I am able to do some real gardening, and so with the arrival of spring I have managed to get quite a bit planted, both in pots and in the ground.
Rerun had a protective blanket of fear. Dash prefers the whole bed.
Since Kelly and I were stuck at home yesterday, we had a marathon viewing of Season Six of Game of Thrones, just to watch it all again. So it was so very appropriate when we re-watched the scene where the white ravens were sent out to announce the arrival of winter. When I got up this morning, the temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit, with a wind chill of about -20. When I went outside this morning, the winds had blown the snow around quite a bit, which at least made a pretty picture in the back yard.
I do love winter landscapes, even though they mean I have a lot of shoveling ahead of me.
It looked like we had gotten about a foot of snow, at least when I was out clearing the walks.
One of our neighbors kindly cleared most of the driveway and part of the walk for us with a snowblower. We love Winthrop.
Officially, we got around 11 inches of snow, according to Boston.com. As you can also see on that data table later in the article, the wind was blowing pretty hard – it got to over 50 mph here. At one point yesterday afternoon when Kelly and I looked out the window, we could not see more than 100 yards or so.
So puppies did not go out a lot yesterday. This morning Dash was excited that he was finally going to get to go outside, but he became much less excited when he realized that conditions were still far less than ideal for anyone really close to the ground.
Dash had gone out, turned around then went over to the generator to do his business. Note the lack of a Thumbelina in this photo.
Note that in the above photo, we are looking out onto our concrete patio, which is covered by our deck. So all of that snow you see out to the support beams was blown in by the wind. I’m just glad we didn’t have to try to crank up that generator. That would have been truly awful. As it was, Kelly and I were marveling over the difference in experiences between our new place and our old one. At our old place, we would have been feeling terrible cold drafts even in our bedroom.
As it was, some members of the household decided that it was best if they stayed under blankets during the snowstorm.
Scratch doesn’t get under blankets often, but when he does, you KNOW it’s cold.
Dash and Thumbelina also decided that it was best if they stayed in our bed.
Thumbelina likes to sleep like a person. I have no idea what Dash is trying to sleep like.
And last but definitely not least, little Violet wanted me to come snuggle with her in “her” room (the guest bedroom) for a while. She does this thing where she sees me, waits for me to walk up to her, then she jumps over the baby gate we have installed in the doorway of the guest room, then turns around to see if I am following her. When I come through the gate, she will walk over to the bed and flop down on her favorite blanket, which is actually Kelly’s bathrobe. And then it’s snuggle time.
She may just be the most adorable little baby kitteh ever. And she probably knows it.
We may get even more snow this weekend, with predictions for “heavy” snow on Monday, although I have not yet seen any estimates of how much.
The extended radio silence around here has been due to several factors. The major factor has been because Geoff and I spent the better part of this summer looking for and then buying a house. (YAY HOUSE!!!!!) Then we had to move.
We had to move ALL the stuff and things. And ALL the books. OMG.
Good people make mistakes. It happens. No one is perfect. How we acknowledge those mistakes, and how we try to make amends, that is what’s critical to getting along with everyone, especially those who are harmed by our mistakes. It makes a world of difference whether we recognize the harm we sometimes do as individuals, as organizations, and even as nations.
And that is why it truly pains me to see groups that I believe in make bad, even horrible mistakes, and then fail to do the right thing afterward. It is just heartbreaking. And lately it seems like it is one after another.
We don’t write about books around here as much as we probably should. Life, politics, history, current events, and other interesting stuff tends to get in the way. We’re OK with that, those things deserve our time and attention as well.
Not too long ago, Geoff wrote about some home reorganizing. That has been a part of a much larger multi-month cull and organize project. Part of that project has been BOOKS.
