Alive!

September 14, 2009
Another week begins. I have not felt this good in a while! I am energized and not tired. I woke up this morning and knew right away that something was different. I realized that I felt alive. But it was beyond that. Even when I was exhausted and my mind was foggy, I was aware that I did not have the oppressive feeling of deadness that I had been carrying around for years. It was always there, even on a good day in Klamath Falls. Sometimes I would feel like it was just sheer force of will that kept it from swallowing me whole. At some point in these past few months, it went away. I sometimes think about the days I spent in that house just trying so hard to get through each day—it was hard work to schedule myself and surround myself with what I needed to get through a day. I marvel at the fact that I did it. And now it's gone. I am grateful. The exhaustion I have felt over the past couple of weeks had more to do with a disrupted sleep pattern than any feeling of dread at facing another day. So this morning, after going to bed at 1:15 and sleeping through the night, I woke up at a reasonable hour and felt fabulous. This is how I work best. I am definitely not a morning person. But since sleeping in the tent necessitates a whole different system, it eventually caught up with me. But I was able to get a lot done yesterday and get back to a daily round that works for me. I can see the results!
We had an appointment to look at a place this evening, but it was too far out of town, which made it impractical for winter since there's no bus line out that far. We did find out that the local transit system includes express buses that go to Montpelier, Middlebury, and St. Albans, all of which are between 30 and 40 miles from Burlington in opposite directions. This means that we can expand our search, since we would be able to use the bus to get into the city in the winter. Bill does not want to have to rely on the truck. So now we have some leads in those places, too.
It rained like crazy yesterday morning! This guy came to Meeting on his bicycle and when he came in for the book discussion and removed his backpack, I could see a little wet dog head. He carried his dachshund in the backpack and the poor little guy was soaked. Cute dog, though. He was a good Quaker dog and sat quietly through the discussion and then Meeting, running around to greet everyone at the end!
Today was really nice. It was so peaceful sitting outside and reading this afternoon. It's supposed to start cooling down into the 60s during the day and the 40s at night starting tomorrow. The leaves are starting to change faster now. I am not really sure when peak foliage season is supposed to be, but it's a big deal around here. Today we saw some chicken breakfast sausage with Vermont blueberries and maple syrup. They are purple. I had to get a package to try. Last week we had some of the fatter sausage that was chicken and apple with Vermont syrup. Those were really good! Pick-your-own is getting started now and I might do some of that if we find a place before the season ends. I was able to get a Vermont tomato and a bag of local apples in the grocery store. I missed the Farmer's Market Saturday because of my migraine. Maybe this coming Saturday we will be able to go. There is a huge local food movement around here, which I think is great! It looks like we will have to learn to eat fewer potatoes, since we are no longer in potato growing territory. Some come from Maine, I guess. But there are lots of other things that offset the lack of local potatoes! Next Monday, Paul Roberts, who wrote, The End of Food, which is a great book, is giving a free lecture at UVM. I wrote it down so we can remember to go. There is just so much going on here—it is a very vibrant community. The community seems alive, too. There are lots of people from somewhere else here. I hadn't really thought of that before we got here, because my experiences with New England have been the opposite, both when I lived in New Hampshire in the 70s and 80s and had people openly expressing their unhappiness that outsiders were moving in, and when we visited Maine a few years ago. New Hampshire may well be very different now than it was then. But this place most certainly is not insulated or isolated. I am sure that there must be tensions between the newcomers and the old-timers, and it will be interesting to see how that all plays out as we learn more about the dynamics of community here. I think that the fact that there are people from all over is a good thing, because new ideas are always welcome. Well, they are not exactly welcome everywhere. But they are welcome to me and they seem to be welcome here, so maybe that's a good sign!

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

September 2, 2009
It was a beautiful day in Vermont! We woke up to fog covering the trees and hills. After breakfast, we headed out to Thetford, a small town about 10 miles from here where Bill used to live. He saw a house that he used to live in. Another road that he wanted to take was blocked by a concrete barrier. Then we went to Hanover, NH, parked the truck and walked around. By then it was sunny, but pleasant. Not too hot and the sun did not have anywhere near the intensity it has in Klamath Falls.

After lunch, we went back to the Welcome Center in town and back to the food coop.


Then it was off to Quechee Gorge, with a stop on the way at the Cabot Cheese Store. We got to sample several kinds of yummy cheese. They had some cheese that was encrusted with various flavors. Butter, too, though we didn't have a chance to sample that. Still, it seems like it would be easy enough to make. When I get a kitchen again I will have to try it. I saw a book put out by King Arthur Flour about whole grain baking and I was reminded again how much I am looking forward to settling down for awhile and having a chance to cook and bake again. Quechee Gorge hasn't changed much in the 28 years since I saw it last—at least not that I noticed. I still got slightly dizzy looking down at the bottom.

We walked down a path through the woods to get to the visitor's center. It was quite lovely—trees, shade, squirrels—and pretty quiet.
Tomorrow morning we head out for Burlington. We will check out a campground in town and see about staying there for the next several days, since the weather is supposed to be good. No rain in the forecast until late next week. I think it will be somewhat frustrating to have to wait over the holiday weekend before trying to find a place to live. We have no idea how long that will take. I hope it doesn't take too terribly long for several reasons. First off, though the campground is open until mid-October (ready to take those foliage-watchers), it will presumably be getting somewhat cold at night. We could deal with that if we had to. But it is also the case that it takes lots of effort to live in a tent and we have things we need to do, so it would be easier to not have to expend energy unnecessarily. And, there is the fact that we are looking forward to being settled for at least a little while. I am sure that in the spring I will feel my usual restlessness. But I am always a winter hibernation kind of person and I am getting into that mode. And I want to be able to cook and bake and that kind of thing, as I said earlier. But this isn't really something that we have control over, so we will just do what we need to do and deal with whatever comes. We have had lots of practice doing that.
The truck has been nice and quiet since last Friday, when we brought it to American Tire and Automotive on Route 22 in Green Brook, NJ. They were great. We had an 8 a.m. appointment and they took it in right on time. They had a clean, comfortable waiting room with really good coffee. They came out and told Bill that it was his U-joint that was the problem. And the front shocks needed to be replaced. Neither of these things was a surprise, since he had done some research on the web. What was a surprise was the price. One of the things Bill was able to do was to get an estimate for that area. We thought it would cost between $750 and $1000, and hoped it wouldn't go higher. It was $500. And Bill had found a coupon on their website, but couldn't print it out, so he asked them if he could use it anyway. They got one for him and took $20 off of the price. I took home some cards and recommended them to my aunt, cousin, and cousin's daughter. They also gave me some coupon books to hand out, so I did that as well. We were really pleased with the way it all turned out.
The adventure continues!

Places

August 19, 2009
We're in Flint, Michigan. Might as well be another planet. We started off in the peace and beauty of the U.P. and ended up here. The bridge was a trip this morning. It seemed huge. According to a postcard I saw, including the approaches, the bridge is 5 miles long. It's an attractive structure. They were working on it, so we were in the inside lane, and there was equipment between us and the view sometimes, but it was still a nice sight. Then it was a few more hours of nice scenery until we gradually ran into more traffic and eventually, 4 lanes of it. By the time we drove by Saginaw, we knew we were back in what people tend to call “civilization.” I think we were going by the outskirts of Saginaw—at least I hope so, because it seemed to be pretty industrial. There was a weird smell in the air. Thirty miles later, Flint. Bill's stress level kept rising as the traffic got thicker. I don't blame him. There's a reason I hate driving.
This seems like urban with some grit added in. Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Fargo were urban. The first two were pleasant enough. They seemed like nice places, even if they were large and too busy for my taste. I wouldn't want to live there. I didn't much care for Fargo, but it was still not quite like this. I could visit the Twin Cities again. I hope to never be here after tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow I will be just outside of Cleveland, so I am not sure how much of an improvement that will be. I am sure that there are people who adore Cleveland. I have only been there once. I have what is probably an ignorant and stereotypical idea about Cleveland not being very inviting. And since I will just be passing through, tomorrow will not do anything to enlighten me, I suppose. I have been thinking today that Burlington will be interesting. We read that it is the smallest town to be the largest city in a state. The population is about 35,000 people, I think—maybe a few thousand more—so it's about the size of Klamath Falls. But it's close to places like Boston and Montreal, and seems to have some really progressive thinkers. I know from experience that you can't go by what you see on the web. There were things in Klamath Falls that looked really good until I got there and saw the reality, which was nothing like what was advertised. So I am either a chump or a hopeless optimist or something, because even after my experience in Klamath Falls, I am really starting to see possibilities for our time in Vermont. I am hoping that some of this stuff really is happening and really is there for me to be involved in. The Quaker Earthcare organization is based there. The Quakers seem like they're active and involved. There's a whole bunch of stuff. So I am starting to feel hopeful about what we will discover. And the city is small enough to be comfortable and not so small that we will be isolated. Larger cities are close by in case the opportunity to do projects or some other kind of work comes up. And it would be nice to see Quebec again. Bill and I went there for a weekend once (when we lived in NH) but that was about 25 years ago. Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts about places for today.
Tomorrow, Cleveland.