Be sure to click on photo

To the faithful followers of my blog: I was just visiting the blog and discovered that on my computer anyway, the photos in the blog are clipped and to see the full photo you have to click on it. That seems to be the case only since I started using the Blog app on my iPhone, which involves downloading photos directly from the phone photo library, so it may be a glitch in the iPhone. Earlier posts, which I did using the computer, do not have that problem. So be sure to click on a photo  to make sure you are seeing the full dimensions.This is an unfortunate glitch because using the Blog app is really quite handy. It's quite a bit more cumbersome downloading photos on the computer. Sigh!!

Adjusting to being home

Well, we've been home three days. They have been full days. Saturday I had to prepare for choir and church on Sunday-the regular pastor has pneumonia and I was needed to lead a short memorial for two long-standing older members who had died at the end of January but storms had caused church to be cancelled the first two Sundays of February. Then later in the day we went to Massachusetts and saw a movie - Still  Alice - and then went to Katie and Savanna's to watch the Academy Awards which we couldn't get on our TV.

Today I did a whole bunch of errands - post office, downloaded email and sent one to the choir (my computer is magically working again - what's with it?), got a new nozzle for the sink sprayer, tried to renew my driver's license (my birthday is coming up in a week ) but the camera was down at the DMV, went to the pool- first time since getting back, picked up a brochure for the spring Osher Adult Ed courses. This evening I went to a bass section rehearsal for Handel 's Samson. Fun choruses! I also picked up a score for the Mozart Requiem. Next Sunday the Brattleboro concert choir is doing a read-through of it, and I 'm doing the bass solos. I did them for a BCC performance of it 25 years ago and Susan Dedell asked me to do them again. So I'll be working on them this week! I also picked up all the federal tax forms at the IRS office today. Time to get all the information needed for taxes organized. No shortage of things to do!

Here's a couple of glimpses of snow around the house:

There's a propane tank buried under there somewhere that has to be filled pretty soon!  I 'll be doing some shoveling! Good grief! 

Here's how it looks in front of the house where the plow has pushed up the snow. How long will it take for all these piles of snow to melt? June? July? Actually, once we get warm spring rains, it disappears pretty fast. I 'm guessing it will be gone by early May at latest. But I bet we'll still see a lot of snow on Easter. 

Next Tuesday is Town Meeting day in Vermont. Often the ground is bare on that day and sugaring is well underway - not this year!

It's going to get very cold tonight- maybe the coldest yet. Gosh, what  a winter (of course we missed six weeks of it!!) Spring is only 25 days away!! 

We're home

It's Friday night and we are home. The weather today was perfect for travel inside the car! We were warm and cozy and the road was dry, it was not too windy, the sky was blue. I read aloud much of the trip and the miles flew by. We got home at about 8 pm. Ellen went grocery shopping while I got the house in order. John had turned on the heat in the bedroom so it was cozy. I cleaned out the flue trap and built a fire. The only plumbing problem is that when I drained the upstairs pipes, I forgot to drain the spray hose in the kitchen sink so it froze and now it leaks. We 'll have to replace the spray head. Otherwise all is well. It will take a while to get the cold out of everything though.

Old haunts

DAY THIRTY-NINE: Our trip from Erie to home is taking us through an area I lived 46-48 years ago: Penn Yan, NY. I was on the faculty of nearby  Keuka College from 1967-69. This year the Finger Lakes are frozen over. It is a bright sunny day but very cold. We started out at -15; now at 2pm it's 9 above. We ate lunch at the Penn Yan diner.

Now, on Pre-emption Road we are seeing our first real piles of snow by the road on this trip:

Who knows what we'll see at home 

Boy O Boy Is It Cold!

DAY THIRTY-NINE: ( I think): We 're at a Super 8  motel in Erie, PA and it's -15 F out there. Wind chill is -29! Glad the car has a good heater and seat warmers!

Yesterday we took Jerry and Gretchen out to breakfast as a "thank you to our hosts" treat. We went to a pancake house near their house we had never been to before. It was good. We actually were on the road by 9a.m. But it takes 2 hours to get clear of Chicago traffic, and then you go into the Eastern Time Zone near Walkertpn, IN and all of a sudden it's after noon! And then we hit about 100 miles of blowing snow and poor visibility and traffic slowed to 35 mph, and it was after 3pm before we got to Ohio. Then things cleared up and we were able to make good time and got to Monroeville, OH by  5:45 and stopped to say hello to Rev. Wayne Chasney, son of an old Drury College friend, Chuck Chasney, who died last April. Chuck was best man at Shirley's and my wedding back in 1955. Wayne is the very image of his dad. He's pastored a UCC church in Monroeville for 21 years, but I had never met him before. We got  a quick tour and promised we'd be back. We went on to a favorite restaurant in Oberlin OH - the Aladdin (great falafel salads) and then tried to figure out where to get to for the night. We ended up here in Erie, which is pretty much the half-way point. John very kindly has turned on the heat back home so it won 't be totally frigid in the house . Thank you John ! He says the driveway is icy under snow. Our neighbor Zac who plows for us says he raked 3 1/2 feet of snow off the roof. That's a first. 

Leaving Thursday a.m.

DAY THIRTY-EIGHT: It's decided: we'll leave Bartlett tomorrow morning (Thursday). The weather looks better for travel then. Today Ellen is doing a tour of Goodwill stores in the area looking for used books. I've stayed home to read and rest. It's bitter cold here, but what a winter we 're going back into! Maybe we're a little nuts to be going back, but duty calls!

I just went through Gretchen's Birthday Book and took notes on all the Crockett birthdays and anniversaries. Good job done!

Family gathering

DAY THIRTY-SEVEN: The Crockett clan gathers this evening; this noon we had lunch with Carol Plagge at Alexander's in Elgin, and last evening we had supper with Ellen 's goddaughter Ruthie at J. Alexander's in Oak Brook. We met Ruthie's boyfriend Pavlos, who was a very engaging young man.

Here's the clan:

Clockwise from left: Maggie, Becky, Suzie, Ellen, me, Peter, Dennis, Daniel, Jerry is taking the photo. 

                 Peter and Dennis

Jerry, Gretchen, Becky and Suzie & pizza

We 're checking weather and trying to decide whether to leave tomorrow or Thursday. Stay tuned. 

In Bartlett

DAY THIRTY-FIVE: Tonight we're in Bartlett. Going back, we stayed in Marysville, KS Friday night and Sat. a.m., we got involved in a Katherine  Hepburn, Cary Grant movie titled Holiday, which was delightful, and we barely made it out of the room by 11 a. m. check out time. We ate at a locally owned restaurant, the Wagon Wheel, and looked around town. We got a laugh out of this sign in a shop window across the street:

The owner explained that the joke was you had to go by a barber shop to get in the back door.

We went on to St. Joseph, MO, which has several historical museums. We spent some time at the Pony Exoress Museum. St. Jo (as locals call it) was the eastern terminus of the Pony Express which ran the U.S. Mail by horse about twice a week to Sacramento CA for about 17 months from April 1860 to Oct. 1861, when it was rendered obsolete by the telegraph. Average delivery time was 10 days. 

 Model of Johnny Fry , thought by some to be the first rider, a 19 year old boy. 

Models of the founders of the Pony Express - Russell, Majors and Waddell. Russell was born in Vermont. The whole operation required an astonishing degree of vision, planning and risk and the company ended up going bankrupt. But not before it caught the imagination of millions and created a colorful history. 

A section of the map of the route. Swing Stations were about fifteen miles apart, where a rider would change horses. Home stations were about 75 miles apart where riders would rest and then return to their origin with the mail in the opposite direction. There were about 185 stations in all. 

                   The entire route. 

Down the street was the Jesse James House. It was too late to go in. Too bad, because I have a James in my family tree who is thought to have been related to Jesse. Maybe that's why I feel a tug whenever I walk by a bank !

                Jesse James House

We left St. Jo after 5 pm and arrived in Columbia, MO about 7pm, got our room and went for supper at the Flat Branch Pub, a favorite spot. Katie was out with a friend Sat. eve, but we had breakfast with her Sunday a.m. at Cafe Berlin, and caught up on her news. She had just turned in a script she had written for a short movie in her screenwriting class. Maybe someday it will become a movie and we'll get to see it!

After breakfast we left for Bartlett, taking a bit different route than usual, stopped in Bloomington IL for a bite to eat and arrived in Bartlett after 7pm, in time to see Downton Abbey.

In Kansas

DAY THIRTY-THREE: We left Boulder this morning and drove to Arvada outside Denver to visit Robb and Jan Lapp . Robb was a seminary classmate - class of 1957. Robb has had a fascinating and varied career as both minister and leader of secular non-profits. We're hoping we can attend our 60th reunion together in two years, God willing.

We left Arvada at about noon and drove to Marysville, KS. We abandoned I-70 and took US 36. A long drive but a very pleasant one. 

Our time in Boulder

DAY THIRTY-TWO: We've had a lovely three days in Boulder. Betsey is doing amazingly well. She is in her fifth week of treatment, and she looks great and feels good. Every day we were here was an extra long day for her. One day she had a hair appointment after her treatment, the next she had a going-away party for a colleague at work, today she had an extra-long session with her energy healer,  so she has missed her meditation time after treatment, and she's been tired by evening, but she is amazing. She dreamt that her healing colors were white, violet and green, so we got her  a bouquet today in those colors. This evening we had a lovely meal at Sushi Toro which had lots of things on the menu Betsey could eat. And it was good too !

Ellen and I have had a fairly quiet time this week. Ellen has done some cooking for Betsey's lunches, and has done a lot of reading. We have made several trips to Alfalfa's an organic supermarket, which has a very nice cafe and an amazing selection of food. Below is the produce section with a special little bit of Boulder culture being advertised: Drag Queen Bingo night with a First Ladies theme. Come in drag dressed like one of the First Ladies and win a prize ! 

Produce section at Alfalfa's with billboard

I made two trips to the music library at Univ  of Colorado to photocopy and then cut and 3-hole punch a score of Handel's oratorio Samson, which we 'll be singing when we get home -  we're missing several rehearsals.  But we have both a CD and the music now so we can work on it on the way back home. 

I also read a Jane Langton mystery that was in our bedroom, and started Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales  -  very unusual stories. We 've also taken short walks. Yesterday we walked a little way up a road past Rob and Betsey's house past an old schoolhouse that has been preserved, and an area with vivid vestiges  of the fire that swept through here about 7 or 8 years ago. 

      Sunshine School house, built 1900.

The school is still used for occasional community events.

             Forest fire scene at dusk

Today we took a little excursion to Nederland, CO - a lovely drive through the mountains. It is a pretty quirky place. We had coffee and scones and learned about Dead Frozen Guy Days - coming up in March. It seems that a Norwegian man froze his grandfather cryogenically back in 1983, the grandson was deported back to Norway but grandpa is still frozen in Nederland and has become a tourist attraction. I said it was a quirky place!

We came back to Boulder through the canyon and went to the Chautauqua park which is still an active place where you can rent little cabins and attend cultural events and lectures. It has a commanding view of Boulder. 

 A scene in Nederland with a little taste of Colorado culture.

                   Boulder canyon

           The Dining Hall at Chautauqua

                   The Auditorium

     View of Boulder from the Auditorium 

     A typical rental cabin - this 2-bedroom cabin would rent for c . $250 a night at high season, but only about $200 this time of year. 

Boulder is a biker 's heaven. It's much friendlier to bikes than to cars. Which is good! But it takes a bike shop like this to support it . 

Some of the bikes we could see from the window were $3000! But a $2200 one was on sale for $1950!

We leave tomorrow for Columbia MO to see Katie again. On our way out of this area we 'll stop in Arvada CO to see my seminary classmate, Robb Lapp. 

On our way to Boulder

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: We said our tearful

Goodbyes this am, and were on the road by 9 or so. Had lunch a Little America truck stop near Kemmerer , WY:

It 's very windy but mild - in the 50's - and no snow on the ground. Good driving. 

We see a lot of this sort of thing!!

See - no snow except a bit in the mountains. 

Been reading aloud from this book - a novella "Simone Weil in  New York City

We're in Boulder at a Chipotles restaurant. 

Trip to Idaho Falls

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: It's Sunday morning and since church is not until 1:30 pm I'm relaxing in bed. Yesterday we went to Idaho Falls. It is a monthly shopping trip for Paul and Jenny for bulk foods and supplies. There is a fairly good grocery in Alpine - the Alpine Market but prices are better in Idaho Falls and way better than in Jackson, where everyone is a millionaire, it would seem (an exaggeration with some truth in it).

It is about a 75-mile drive to Idaho Falls, but a very lovely one past the Palisades Resevoir, through mountains, Into Swan valley, past farms. It was sort of drizzling when we started out , but the day improved as we went along and became a blue-sky day in the 60's! It was very windy, however. Very windy. We went first to i jump a big trampoline place for kids. Ellen and  Max got out there and P, J and I went to Target where I got some dental and foot supplies (hoof and mouth?) and then we went back to I Jump, picked up E & M, (Max had fun but it was very crowded) and on to Barnes and Nobel. I didn't get anything there but took a couple of pics. 

Max is looking at a Looney-tunes comic, which he got.

Here he is looking at a Harry Potter audio book, which he didn't 't get. 

Ellen got a book by Atul Gowande, Being Mortal, about end-of-life care. 

It was then on to Five Guys for lunch. Good fries! And then to Sam's Club for bulk food, much of it frozen. By then, the basketball game between the Tarheels and Boston College had started back in Boston, and I could get a radio broadcast of it on my iPhone "Go Heels" app! So Max and I stayed in the car, I listened to the game and Max played. The Heels got off to a terrible start ("they just don 't look like themselves" the commentator said), but managed to get to a 33-33 tie game at half-time. Then we left Sam 's Club, went to a fabric store for Jenny and headed home. I could still get the game on the iPhone as we drove along. Sort of miraculous. The Heels had a much better second half (what did Coach Williams say in the locker room ?) and they won 78-67 or something like that. They now have an 8-3 record in the ACC Conference, 3rd place, which isn 't too bad. Two of those losses were by only a point or two . 

The trip home was lovely and after we got home and had carried in all the supplies, Ellen and I had a very nice walk up the hill in the waning sunlight. The road was totally clear of ice - first time. 

In the evening after supper we watched some British soccer with Paul, I read  Home for a while, Ellen read Being Mortal, and then to sleep. 

Today after church, I 'll pack the car with everything except our overnight bags. Tomorrow we head for Boulder to spend a few days again with Betsey and Rob and be of what help we can there - I think Betsey has a plan for us! 

Home from school

DAY TWENTY SIX. Spent the day yesterday reading  Canada, cleaning the car, walking, and then we met Max where he gets off the school bus. 

The bus stops at the entrance to Trail Ridge  development which is where Paul's house is. His house is at far left:

Two or three other kids also get off here. The girl in front lives next door to Max and she and her younger sister often play with him. This was "costume day " at school so she had on a pink dress. Max wore a cape - sort of a Batman thing.

Subaru ok

We did go to Jackson today and learned that moisture had disabled the air bag, that we needed to dry out the seat, and failing that, we would need to get a new seat cushion at a cost of $530!! Fortunately, the sun came out and we were able to park the car with the door open and the sun shining in. Tonight the air bag warning light is off.

While in Jackson, we once again walked onto the elk refuge and this time saw an entire herd of longhorn sheep. We learned that they were migrating and were trapped by snow and were hanging out and seemed to be finding food. They were quite a sight but too far to photograph with the iPhone. There were lots of photographers around with long lenses.

I've switched from Robinson back to Richard Ford 's Canada which is really engrossing. It's been a while since I've read this much fiction back-to-back.  

Immersed

DAY TWENTY-THREE: I've just finished reading Marilynne Robinson's Gilead which follows Lila chronologically within the story, but was written before Lila. But she must have had the whole story sketched out in her mind when she wrote it. It is a lovely book and I hope I can find time to reflect on it here at some point. I feel that I've been immersed in Robinson, and her main protagonist, the Rev. John Ames. It is so rare to find a truly sympathetic portrait of a clergyman in fiction.

I looked up information about Marilynn Robinson and discovered that we have something in common - we both graduated from  Brown in 1966, she as an undergraduate and I as a graduate student. She was Marilynne Summer then. Now I hope to read Home, but if I don't get to it here, it's waiting back at the house.

The other immersion has been the car seat in the Subaru. We inadvertently left the passenger window open and it snowed in, soaking the seat. Not a big deal except that it has disabled the air bag sensor and the weather is so damp it will take a long time to dry out. We have an appointment with Subaru tomorrow since  we need routine service anyway. Maybe they can reset it. 

No go outside

DAY TWENTY-TWO: No photos today. It is miserable outside. Rain on snow. Ice. A day to stay inside.

 Ellen gave me a book to read. One she just finished and thought I would like. Richard Ford's Let Me Be Frank With You. Four novellas. "Try the first one." I'm Here. It was good. Not the sort of book I usually read. Frank is a retired realtor called by an old college chum to whom he had sold his own house ten years earlier. The house is now a total wreck. Destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. The old chum - hardly a friend but someone with whom he feels some bond and toward whom he feels some sense of obligation - wants to meet him at the site of what used to be his house - a 2 million $ structure now worthless - and advise him on what to do now. A situation full of potential for comedy and rue. Ford exploits it wonderfully.

Sitting next to me are three other books. Conrad's Heart of Darkness. One of the strangest books I've read. Almost finished. Then Gilead and Home, both by Marilynne Robinson. I finished Lila. Now I want to go back and read her earlier books - all about the same characters. May not finish them before we leave - they 're library books.

This morning we learned from John that a dear friend back in Dummerston, Esther Falk, died over the weekend. She lived alone by choice. She was in her nineties. She fell outside in her driveway, it was very cold, she couldn't get herself inside and she froze to death. We were so saddened by this news. I have known Esther for almost 60 years. I performed the weddings of both her daughters. I have spent many lovely hours in her home. She was a deeply concerned person, engaged with the world, very principled, a wonderful gardener, generous with appreciation. I called Susanna Griefen, pastor of the Dummerston and learned that there were signs that she had struggled to get up, but then apparently folded her legs and crossed her arms over her chest and was at peace with death. Not a bad way to die. Maybe like going to sleep. Spared a long decline, independent to the last. But, Gosh, I'll miss seeing her in church. It is hard not to be there for her family at this moment. John will try to look in- she was special for him too.

Esther Falk (1920-2015)

Walking scenes

IDAY TWENTY-ONE. Last night we got a few inches of light, fluffy snow so this morning I did a little shoveling and sweeping of snow. But yesterday was a good walking day, and so far the best walking has been on the road that goes up the hill behind Paul's house - everything else is pretty icy. This has become a very familiar walk, but of course it is also a bit different each time . So just as I took you on a tour of everyday indoor scenes , here are some from our almost daily walk:

This is from the top of the hill, by a big house which never seems to have anyone at home. The view is obstructed by bushes from the top.

This is the big house that is usually empty in the winter. We occasionally see signs of life in summer, but only rarely. What a travesty to have a house like this and rarely use it !

Just below the big house, the view opens up. Only the power line is an obstruction and you can sort of ignore that.

Below the big house at the top is another big house that is also usually empty! What is it with these people? 

I always chuckle when I pass this street sign. They obviously intended "osprey" but I like to imagine an appeal to the local mosquito prevention brigade - "O Spray" or even a mis-spelled crude religious grunt -  "Us Pray"

Another landmark is the horse pavilion. People board their horses here and there is an indoor riding ring. One year when Mimi and Tamar were here they got to ride horses here. 

This picture is a good one for showing the setting of Paul's house which is on the far left. You can see the end of a huge reservoir in the distance - The "village" of Alpine is next to the reservoir but unfortunately they haven't really taken advantage of that location in planning the town, if there was any planning.

I often count my paces when I walk. Not sure why - when we 're on an unfamiliar trail it gives me a sense of distance of course, but I'll do it even when I already know the distance. This walk averages about 2500 paces round trip. I figure my average pace at about 2.7 feet. So this walk is about 1.3 miles round trip. In good weather we walk a bigger and longer loop above Paul's house that is more like 2.5 miles r.t.

Astounding!

DAY TWENTY. Went to church this afternoon at Star Valley United Church in Thayne . Pastor Allan Schoonover was preaching. The text was "and the people were astounded at his teaching ." He asked ""when was the last time you were astounded by something?" Then "When was the last time you were astounded by something in church ?"  He went to talk about all the things that had astounded him during the past week - e .g ., a call from a friend who had been confined to  a wheelchair for years and had been depressed but called full of spirit and enthusiasm because a school had asked him to teach a class and he felt needed. A TV program about a man in India who had single-handedly freed 100's of children from slavery in sweat shops. And the fact that he just turned 77 and is still alive! I liked this sermon. The first thing I thought of was Betsey . Her spirit and courage in the face of brain cancer astounds me. I learned that Allan had also been at Selma. I had someone take a picture of us . 

            Allan Schoonover and me at church 

I brought this picture home and showed it to Jenny and Max, and Max said - "He was at my school." Sure enough - he had gone to Max's school around M L King day to talk about Selma.

After church I had a good talk on the phone with Betsey. She 'a doing well - feels good, good energy. Astounding!