After Easter and Transition

Happy After Easter

and Transition to

Spring.

And now I find myself 50 years old.

Our accountant said it plainly. You already have been 50 for a year. You know, when you are born you are zero.

My bubble of stress burst. I had been 50 for a year and felt no different. What a rapid transition. Why couldn't spring come any faster. As if the last cold was the stubbornest and clung to the ground in great cakes of ice and dense snow.

But I wanted to recall Easter day. A holiday and symbol of the spring and apparently governed by the lunar calendar. Also nature based rituals of egg gathering and rabbits. chocolate? and pork? At least for traditional midwesterners like myself. Pork represented a great corn harvest from the previous year. Bounty. Abundance. Now a source of fuel (food deprivation) and certainly some misguided farm subsidies.

Really, seeing Mars Attacks as an offering on the satellite TV signal catcher on Easter was not merely a minor shock but also a pleasant diversion from the conflicting religious and food stimuli and normal daily obligations. Mars Attacks reflects the arrogance of man and government and rebirth of man's vision of the universe. Not as an innocent explorer wandering off to the nearest spinning object, but as a participant and survivor. One willing to utilize even a demented old woman and shy caring young man to stumble onto the only way to save the world. The movie gets better every time we see it. We bought a copy but still feel celestial intervention decided to put the easter bunny to sleep and crack the traditional eggs and play it on the satellite dish, sure to be enjoyed by man and martian alike.

Best wishes. Spring is around the corner and in the case of VT, down the road apiece as well.

where did al gore go? the picture I sent him of our record breaking snow pile in March came back no forwarding address. lesson: don't try to predict the weather. In VT spring may be optional.

Tags: Spring

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day

And hope you have had a nice one plus or minus corned beef and cabbage which was our preference.

We choose to be Irish for a meal. We used our potatoes and carrots.

 

The weather is raw and icy cold in spite of the deceptively warm 30 degrees. That is usually a heat wave in March. This 30 however feels different. It is so cold I couldn't stay outside in the new found sunlight appearing after work now. Short term torture at adjusting to the new time change. It is doubtful we should ever change time so often.

The spring bird sounds are coming in spite of the cold snap. Red wing blackbirds, in fact all the blackbirds, ravens, crows were squaking and singing these liquid impossible tunes calling out to all that their stake has been claimed. We saw some turkeys today. They were sipping water by the edge of snow. They they went trotting away on the hard crust of snow.

So raise a glass to an Irishperson or a person choosing to be for a moment.

Spring must be coming soon.

Tags: St. Patrick's Day

Day after Vermont primary/town meeting day

Election results Vermont.

I had intended on writing something on Leap Day but it came and went without any words written. Now we must wait 4 years for another. As I wrote earlier with a typo I just discovered some cruel rule maker gave us and extra DAY (not year, apologies to you perfectionist types) of inconvenient winter weather. Now I sit here, the day after election day/town meeting to locals, and I am wondering why the bad weather has struck again. I suppose so I can sit and contemplate the icy wilderness and play the new video game Fred found on the free pile in the web.

I also want to finish Janet's new son to be "Hunter"'s quilt and wall hanging. The theme is Trip around the universe--much like my blog. If I can locate the picture which Vista ate, I will post it. I like the colors and the little Harry Potter pictures. The wall hanging was completed with bias tape mom bought a million years ago. Was fun to put together.

Oh yes, back to election day/town meeting.

We went to the Monkton Town meeting and were satisfied there are enough young and restless voters/townspeople in town. Although I was silent except for some very small talk to a neighbor, there were people who spoke up "for me"...in other words, when they asked a question that made someone twitch, they were showing me the democratic process that makes the USA the best country on this planet. They were not hostile but just wanting to know. The answering parties tried and sometimes just gave up explaining the inherent mysteries of budgets, line items and the finer points like why a tandem truck instead of a single axel. My thoughts drifted to... with the bigger truck, they will dump more snow on our side (the "right" side) of the road. But I voted with the social conscious that it was better for the greater good. I will shovel twice as hard to please the road commissioner. But at least I had a chance to say no....

The best thing about town meeting was showing up, upright, breathing tax payer. Perhaps some in town think they know me or what I am about. Or that I may be defeated, put down, give up. They may talk about us since we have become some sort of gossip fodder when avoiding the social scene. When one person wagged her finger in front of my face as if it would make me disappear like a Harry Potter spell, I wondered why we live here at all.

Then

When I heard the townspeople questioniong and voting and shaping the future of the town of Monkton,

I thought, Maybe we'll stay for awhile and see how it turns out. Why go somewhere new to start all over again. Is that a sign of aging? I am almost 50. I am so close to 50 now. Soon I will say I am 50 years old. Many others in the school where the town meeting happened yesterday were about our age. The boomers acheiving critical mass. There were a few elders and some young people. A great acheivement was two local teachers who brought kids to town meeting and succeeded in keeping them quiet and observant. I don't know what they got out of it but I saw the kids watching us adults and seeing how we cared enough to show up and ask questions.

We left at noon,

just before the PM voting.

I was exhausted and had too much social exposure. I felt comfortable that the town was getting more skeptical. That the new comers were just what the Dr. ordered....Change Agents. The old ones and ways would die and a new town will emerge.

And we listened to Dirt Farmer again with our cat Captain chiming in-he loves the music and sing along time.

Captain is on the left. Sean is on the right.

They are oblivious to town meeting and primary results.

They really see life as it affects them.

This has been the latest stop on trip around the universe....Monkton, Vermont.

Have a great day wherever you are in the universe.

mary

Tags: Election day results Vermont

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