Country Mischief

I grew up about a mile from the center of Templeton. My first girlfriend lived right in the center. I spent the first years of my schooling in the small brick building that sits right next to the ice cream barn, where I learned that oil and mayo together make the best Italian sub to be eaten. I have climbed the stairs to the bell tower of the First Congregational Church. I have listened to flute and violin being played behind the historical society during tea time. I have followed paths behind the historical building deep into the woods and found hidden roads and campsites. I used to ride my bike the mile down Hubbardston road to the center, past old dumps, where my neighbor and I dug out deep blue bottles from half a century ago, and past cursed foundations and blackberry patches and old men with far too many animals: geese, goats, even an occasional mountain lion.

I love Templeton Center. It is a beautiful, quaint center, set up in the tradition of a town common (originally named for the common space used to graze cattle communally). I still think that I may retire and buy a house there.

My father was tutored in the center by one Mrs. Stone. She owned a magnificent brick house cornered in the far end of the center. The house was built from the ballast bricks that the original occupant used to keep the ship he came over on balanced in the water. Eventually Country Mischief bought the building. I was slightly horrified, to be honest, when they did. They are a "primitive decoration" store. I have since changed my tune. They have done wonderful things with the building and, really, the center as well. My favorite memory is of the time that they decided they were going to pump Christmas Carols into the center of town. The town eventually put a halt to it... boo town.

Country Mischief eventually opened a breakfast and lunch restaurant in part of the building. I must tell you, a better breakfast would be hard to find. The specials speak for themselves. I highly recommend the herbed bread toast. We went this morning. The kids love the place for all of the quirky art inside. Henry found what he was sure was a voodoo doll. Nora was taken with an old, rotary phone. I am in love with the architecture. Jenny loves the decor. I am going to post a few pictures from this morning. Check out the one with the "specials," and the one in the eerie red hallway!
This restaurant and building are definitely not one to be missed.

a few days

Trying to catch up with the past few days. Here are the three pictures that I took. The iris was wild and growing on the side of the dirt roads that wind through the park. The bird is a Bobwhite. It was doing this mating call. It would fly up about fifteen feet into the air and sound this beautiful, kind of wild call and circle a few times in a small, maybe ten foot, circle. Then it would land on a tuft of grass and wait.

Its amazing how similar men and birds can be.

Raining

I had about an hour of homework to do with Henry today, because we missed yesterday's allotted time due to Nora's last dance class. This poses a problem sometimes. Nora needs attention. She's the kind of girl that is going to make sure that she has my attention, be it in a positive way or negative. I absolutely hate sitting her in front of the tv while Henry and I work through his homework. I don't actually do Henry's homework for him, lets get that clear, but I like to sit with him and kind of nudge him along as he works. I imagine this will be the way of things till he goes to college. I have plenty of correcting to keep my busy.
At any rate, Nora was alone and bored, so... problem, usually at least. Jenny was at work tonight and Nora decided that she was going to watch the birds in our bird feeders outside in the front yard. Today, it was raining. But she still sat there for a good twenty minutes, devotedly waiting out the birds.

Our kids are at perfect ages right now. Sweet, and sensitive. Curious and devoted. I need them to stay this age forever.

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Dancing Noras

Nora had her last dance lesson of the year today. It was her first year of dance, and I think she really enjoyed it. Dance is something of a holy ground in our house. Jenny was a dancer, and even majored in it for a while in college. We have opinions about dance around here... Dance is either art or it isn't dance, and Modern Dance is high art. I have grown to love dance, although, god forbid I actually ever attempt it. (please remove any pictures you might have of me in a leotard from your mind...)

I was nervous about today. Nora dances in a closed room without an option for parents to view the class. She is behind closed doors. I usually wait with Henry on the couch, or the hugely uncomfortable chair outside of the dance room. Henry does his math homework for the week, and I correct papers: Each to the sound of the Zumba class going on next to us. I can still hear Nora's class at times, but beyond that, it is a complete mystery.

I wanted Nora, and actually Henry too, to take dance. There truly is a grace that is imparted on a trained dancer. They walk differently than us mortals, and they generally end up pretty good looking too. I remember Jenny making sure that I knew that dancers (she was referring to the male kind she was dancing with at college) had the best bodies in the world. Yeah, that is true. So, I wanted Nora to have that in her corner as well. Trained body and mind.

I was very impressed with the presentation today. Nora takes dance at the Studio in the Pines here in Rutland. Marsh Warrington teaches there. Amazingly, there is no end of year dance recital. The year ends with the opportunity given for parents to view a typical class. I love this. While dance recitals have their place... I have sat through enough of them to realize that they are there to give the parents something to hang their hat on. I love that there is no recital at the Studio in the Pines. I love that the focus is on the process, not some glammed up end of the year presentation. Nora's class was intellectual, imaginative and involved some pretty complex body manipulation. Above all, it was really nurturing. They ended the class, as I assume they always do, with Marsha calmly speaking under her breath to all of these little girls, curled up like eggs in a nest, that they were special and important. And then they repeated it out loud, "I am special. I am so special."

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As Expected

Well, it has been an adventurous week. I haven't been as punctual about blogging as I would like to be. It is becoming hard to think of what to say... This weekend has filled that space nicely. Lets start off with niceties.

I built a bow and arrow, complete with quiver for Henry. He is a very, very happy boy. Actually, I am kind of happy with the way it all came out. I think I would have died for something like this at his age. There may be something in the Bronson genes that communes with sticks. I still have one that I carved in my teens sitting next to my work bench downstairs.

It was nice out this weekend.

I woke early and walked Chauc both days.

I didn't die from heart failure during my music set or at any other time this week.

OK, that does it for niceties. Now for the not-so-nice.

I attended the town meeting this Saturday, or at least the sham that passed for one. I must say, I did not in any way expect that the "politics" of those in charge of our greater state would poison those who govern us at such a local level. I didn't think that, even at this lower level, the need for political office came along with a need to decieve.

I am naive.

The board pulled a fast one, and, in my opinion, truly tried to deceive the people of Rutland. Instead of presenting the town with the budget that the school committee had come up with, they came up with their own figure, which was significantly less, and, without any explanation, or even admission that they had changed it in any way, attempted to get their own version passed. Fortunately, some of us caught on and tried to piece together what should have been presented. Unfortunately, it was too late as confusion swept the audience. I had very little hope of the school's budget passing in Rutland, especially because the town foolishly rejected the 2 and a half prop override. I was content to see the budget fail and was ready to be a part of the process either way. However, I am truly saddened that, for what I can only surmise was because of the board's lack of belief in the intelligence of the people of Rutland to hear clearly and vote with a clean and informed frame of thought, the board tried to make our decision for us.

This is the result of their, at best, misguidance, at worst, subterfuge:

The question's resulting vote was absolutely meaningless. This, in my understanding, is how this played out.

A vote of yes, to their lower budget request could do one of two things:

If the rest of the towns vote to accept the school budget
1. Be completely meaningless because the town's would then dictate that Rutland must pay the school's original budget request.

If the rest of the towns vote against the budget:
2. Be completely meaningless because the School committee would have to reconsider the budget and pass a new, lesser budget for the towns to approve.

This was the case by the way, they did vote in the meaningless number.

A vote of "no" for the town proposed school budget would do these two things:

If the rest of the towns vote to accept the school budget
1. Be completely meaningless because the town must pay the amount the school originally dictated anyway.

If the rest of the towns vote against accepting the school budget:
2. Be completely meaningless because the school must then reconsider the budget and approach the towns with a new figure.

What a huge waste of time and energy. We are now stuck in this purgatory of voting yes against the school budget.

It was awful. It was my first town meeting. What a terrible mess. Perhaps we should have had the voting of the town officials after the town meeting.

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Mother's Day

Its raining. That means no walk for Chauc and no walk for me... In truth, the Mosquitoes came out strong yesterday and this morning is still pretty warm.. so I was kind of dreading going out, at least potentially. I was ready to douse myself with bug spray and go forth though. I think Chaucer is definitely more disappointed than I am.

I went out for a big hike yesterday morning. I have a route that I go sometimes and it takes me through the woods, off of the roads. It takes about two and a half hours to walk, but its a circular route... and I love those. I took a couple of pictures. The one with Chaucer is typical of the second half of the hike, off of the roads. It winds up hills and through mid-forest fields (the third picture) down into dense pine forests and out into the high-tension wires, then back onto the abandoned roads of Rutland State Park. Love it. At one point there were these cute little efts all over the road. God those things are cute... poisonous as all get out but sweet and red and cute. Their only poisonous if you eat them, and I don't intend to do that soon, so I guess I'm fine.

Yesterday was mother's day. We went to both Grandmother's houses yesterday evening. It was short but nice. Henry and Nora ate half of the candy we gave my Mom, and half of the flowers Jenny gave hers had dried out on or porch before we got them to her.... go Bronsons. But they were both fairly gracious, I guess a necessary trait for mothers.

It was also my Dad's Birthday a couple of days ago, so we gave him his card and gift today. He is nearly impossible to buy for. He already has everything he could want, or at least that I know that he could want. So I gave him a clip on light so he could see all of his stuff that he already has. You know its bad when when you're buying a gift and you think to yourself while your buying it, that buying this gift is only making buying his Christmas gift that much harder.

Lastly, I built Henry a bow and arrow last night: Springy branch, notched and strung, straight stick with forking branch cut off at precisely the right place to make stringing the arrow easy. He is now completely obsessed with it. He woke up at 5:45 with me this morning and was already wearing it across his back. I told him that I would try to make him a quiver for it soon. This is definitely going to be my picture one of these days :)

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Reconnect

Well, its been a week. I had kind of a traumatic last Sunday, and its take me a while to get my head back together. I did take pictures through out the week though. Those are here in reverse order. I have Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome. I had it operated on about six years ago and they were unsuccessful. However, during the months that followed, I became asymptomatic and I was deemed cured. Well, this Sunday, while playing worship for church, I had another attack. It wasn't huge, it only lasted about a minute, but its the first time that has happened to that degree since the procedure. It was a cathadrization btw... to kill the extra nerve in my heart. Attacks speed up my heart to around 270 or so and I feel faint. They used to last for around 15 minutes on average and happen a few times a year.

I am not scared, it was short, and it happened and was over. But I must say, I am sad to see it back. I was just really getting to the point that I wasn't overly concerned with my heart. (Heart problems are such a head case... its crazy). Now, the worm is back in my brain. For example, mowing the lawn today = wondering if my heart was going to freak out. This is the way it works for me. I always have it on the back burner. sad sad sad. It might never happen again, and if it only happens every five years, for a minute span of time... I can deal with that. I just wish it was gone.

This morning, by the way, was very beautiful. I have been getting out of the house at around 5:30 lately to give myself some extra hiking time. I like to be back in my car at 7:00. There are these oaks part of the way through my hike, that are hundreds of years old and so beautiful. You can make one of them out in the fog in the first picture. Also, I saw a couple new birds this week: a Great Egret... maybe I'll throw that picture up here as well... all white and giant and beautiful, and a eastern towhee this morning. lovely little thing.

So yes, to the pictures, in reverse order sporadically throughout the week.

Isabella is in there as well in celebration of the removal of her braces :)
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Reading Time

We are just finishing the second Harry Potter. :)

Weekend update

Seems like these happen quite often, although this one is especially late. The weekend comes and is packed with stuff to do and I am unable to pull away and write an entry.

The big news this weekend is that we went and saw the three stooges at the movies... and it was good! I was so scared that they were going to kill a sacred treasure of the United States, but they didn't. They maybe desecrated it a little, but who doesn't do that? Henry laughed through the whole thing, and Nora liked it too. There were times in the movie that it even felt like it could have been the original three. That is a high compliment. They veered a bit here and there, and I can see why some reviewers didn't like that. They tried to throw a dramatic subplot into the movie, which felt a bit alien. But over all, as Nora and Henry are illustrating, Two Thumbs Up!

The rest of the pictures are just me filling in days that I missed. I am still, after all, trying to take a picture a day. So, in order Saturday, Sunday Monday and this morning. (btw, I took a bunch of pictures this morning on my walk and failed to see that my camera was on the wrong settings so they came out awful. The last was the only one that was any good at all.

Have a nice Tuesday.

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