Turning Point sing

Turning Point of Windham County is a recovery program for people dealing with drug and alcohol addiction. They gather at a meeting room in a house in Brattleboro on Flat Street, across from New England Youth Theater. Today, a group of about 10 Hallowell singers gathered there outside to do a little sing. I think this took place because a woman who is a Hospice volunteer and is familiar with Hallowell also works with Turning Point and thought that the group would enjoy being sung to as they were coming out of their meeting. It was pretty chilly, but it was not raining, as it had been forecast to do. So we dressed warmly, I sat on my stool, and we sang about 7 songs. The group was indeed very appreciative. We always end with what has become our signature song, How Could Anyone Ever Tell You: "How could anyone ever tell you, you are anything less than beautiful? How could anyone ever tell you, you are less than whole? How could anyone fail to notice that your loving is a miracle? How deeply you're connected to my soul!" This song never fails to touch people, and we often see people wiping tears from their eyes as we are singing.

Turning Point meeting-place****************************************

Our Hallowell group singing for Turning Point********************************* I was supposed to meet with Jerome at 11a.m. today but this sing sort of crowded that appointment, so I called him and changed it to tomorrow. We took Calvin home after the sing, and on the way we stopped to get a few things at the Dollar Store, but it was closed! Oh dear! We hope that it is not closed permanantly. Ellen buys food containers there very reasonably which she can use to take food to people and not have to arrange for them to return the containers. We're hoping it was closed due to a temporary staff shortage. The website for the store says it will open at 9am tomorrow morning. We'll see! ************************* This evening I have signed up for a special Zoom session being sponsored by the Vermont Interfaith Action Committee. Debbie Ingram will make a presentation about Proposition 2, which would eliminate slavery unequivocally from Vermont’s constitution. She also delves into the history of how Vermont’s constitution influenced Amendment 13 which created exceptions that have led to mass incarceration of Black men today. I was mostly unaware of this issue, so I look forward to learning more about it. LATER: It was a very interesting session that informed us of a great deal we were unaware of. The basic point is that the Vermont Constitution of 1777 has this paragraph: "That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent, and unalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Therefore, no male person, born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person, as a servant, slave, or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twenty-one years; nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years, unless they are bound by their own consent, after they arrive to such age, or bound by law for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like." This abolishes slavery, but with two big loopholes: (1) you can be enslaved under age 21 (men) or 18 (women); and you can be enslaved for punishment." The current Proposition 2 gets rid of the loopholes. It abolishes slavery, period. Four states have already done this, 15 are currently in the process of it, and many more are considering it. This will be on the ballot in VT in November. It has already passed both houses of the VT Legislature twice (as required by law to amend the Constitution). The full implications of this Amendment will have to be worked out in the courts - esp. what it means for incarceration. So this is huge, and we are in favor of it.

Debbie Ingram, a UCC pastor who led the session tonight

A nice little walk

I just returned from walking on our driveway - this time I went down to Jill Green's driveway, almost all the way to the bottom! I paced it as 720 paces one way - 1440 round trip = about 3000 feet, conservatively a half-mile round trip, half of which is up-hill (and half down-hill). For me, right now, that is a good little walk. I hope to extend it gradually into something longer and more challenging. My pool membership expired last Sunday and I am debating whether to renew it, or just get my exercise by walking, now that it is getting warmer. I go to the pool mostly to use the exercise machines. My shoulders make it impossible to swim anymore. Today, we were originally planning to go to a concert with John & Cynthia in Holyoke, MA - a concert featuring a Ukrainian quartet, DakhaBrakha. Unfortunately, the concert has been postponed - the group has had travel problems. I think it will now be in early May. So John and Cynthia are going to bring supper here - they are picking up burrito bowls at Tito's, a local Tex-Mex restaurant in the Hannaford Plaza. That will be fun. There is no class session tonight in our Uncanny Journeys course- that is every two weeks, and it will meet next week. Our reading assignment is William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. We don't own a copy so I got a free audio book of it - we've been listening to that. It seems more accessible than Sound and the Fury or Absolom, Absolom. Tomorrow we have an outdoor Hallowell sing in Brattleboro around noon.

DakhaBrakha Quartet

Many things!

A great deal has happened since Katie was here and Spring arrived! Of course, there has been March Madness - the NCAA Men's basketball tournament. North Carolina has done amazingly well! It played UCLA - a #4 seeded team - in the Sweet Sixteen round on Friday night, and UNC won. It was a nerve-racking game that had many ties and lead-changes, and UNC just didn't seem able to ever get ahead by more than a point or two, but toward the end they had a spurt and won 73-66. That advanced them to the Elite Eight. In that round they played a team that had become the "Cinderella" team of the whole tournament - Saint Peter's University (Jersey City, NJ), a #15 seeded team that had defeated three more highly-ranked teams against all expectations. So everyone was rooting for them as the underdog. But UNC won handily, and now they are in the Final Four next weekend. And who do they play? DUKE! Their archrival - who they have never played in the NCAA Tournament! They have played something like 136 games over the past nine decades or so, but never in the "Big Dance" as they call it. So that will be a huge game. I'm sure Duke will be the favorite, but you never know - UNC defeated them just a few weeks ago on Duke's home court in the last game of the regular season. And they sort of rained on Coach K's parade - the last home game of his career at Duke. Duke will be looking for revenge, I imagine. We watched the UCLA game at Katie and Savanna's, stayed overnight, and went to a funeral the next morning with them (see below). The Saint Peter's game we watched at Cliff and Eliza Bergh's, and that included a lovely supper that Ellen prepared. ************************************* We sang at a funeral in the Guilford Church last Thursday, and went to a funeral in Belchertown, MA last Saturday. The one in Guilford was for Joy Amidon (no relation to Peter Amidon) who along with her husband, John (who died in 2015) was a very dedicated member of the Guilford Church Choir for several years. Joy had developed dementia and was in a nursing home all through the pandemic, so we had not seen her for some time. But we had met her sons when John had died, and they were there Thursday, of course, and actually sang in the choir with us. The anthems were well-chosen gems because Joy was a lover of music, and they were beautiful. This was the first in-person funeral at the church since the pandemic started and it was really quite lovely and moving. It was also Pastor Elisa's first funeral since becoming pastor in Guilford, and she handled it well - not surprisingly. She follows in the footsteps of two pastors (Shirley and Lise Sparrow) who had a special gift for funerals. Elisa has a special gift for worship leadership in general, and that was evident in this funeral service as well. ***************************************** The second funeral was very different. It was for JeeJee Plouff (rhymes with "fluff")- a woman who was, in effect, one of Brendon's grandmothers. I say "in effect," because she was not related to him. But his mother (Krystal, Katie and Savanna's adopted daughter), had married JeeJee's son Fred Plouff after she gave birth to Brendon, and JeeJee took a real interest in Brendon. (Brendon's biological father has never really been "on the scene"). This was Brendon's first experience of the death of someone he would feel was family. It also sort of brought home to him that the people closest to him are all pretty old. So we wanted to be there for him. The service was held at a funeral home in Belchertown, and was led by a woman on the staff of the home. A lot of people came - JeeJee clearly was part of a large community of people. One room was devoted to a slide show of her life. We learned a lot about her - as one often does when one goes to a funeral! We were glad we went. On our way out from the funeral, we went by a demonstration of Trump supporters there in Belchertown, waving flags supporting Trump in the 2014 election. That was a first for us - witnessing a live demonstration for Trump.******************************************* Last week was also our course session on Uncanny Journeys. This session was on the stories of Franz Kafka. His most famous story, The Metamorphosis, (Gregor Lamsa wakes up one morning to discover he has become a dung beetle), was part of our reading assignment, but it was clear that the story that grabbed the attention of many of the class members was In the Penal Colony. The centerpiece of that story is a machine - an exquisitely bizarre machine which is used to execute prisoners condemned to death. But it does so by torturing them for 12 hours by inscribing the sentence imposed on them using needles going ever deeper into their skin all over their body. This machine was created by a former Commandant at the Colony, now dead, but passionately remembered and defended by an officer at the colony who administers the machine. It is a strange story and strangely compelling. Kafka had a very fertile imagination, especially for bizarre forms of evil! *************************************** This was also a week when spring showed some of its many faces - e.g., beautiful sap buckets on big maple trees near the Dummerston Cemetery (buckets are rare today - most people now use tubing, which is not aesthetically pleasing!); and crocuses by the Guilford church - brave little flowers! ****************************************** Also, on Sunday morning, Ellen and I read the scripture at the Guilford Church, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in a dramatic way - I was the father, Ellen was the younger son. (Peter Amidon was the elder brother and Pastor Elisa the "narrator."). ******************************* Oh, and we received a very interesting item from Maggie and Jerry - a biographical sketch of "Saint Gerald." who is the patron saint of the disabled and physically challenged! Someone I can turn to! Jerry is, of course, Gerald Hochburger. So we have a saint in the family! The original "Saint Gerald" lived in the ninth century, in the French province of Aurillac. We know of him through Odo of Cluny. Jerry even looks a bit like Saint Gerald! Wow! *************************************** I guess you could say it's been an unusual week!

JeeJee Plouff (on right) with her life partner.

Ellen watching the slide show of JeeJee's life.

Trump supporters

Beautiful sap buckets

Saint Gerald

Ellen and I reading scripture

Brave crocuses, harbingers of spring!

Welcome Spring!

The Spring Equinox actually occured yesterday, March 20th, at 11:33 a.m. I think of Spring as arriving on March 21st, but that is not always the case astronomically. So Spring is here! Yay! Today is a worthy first-full-day-of-spring day. Sunny and fairly mild. Of course, we could still get some winter. March is famous for late snow storms in Vermont. I remember one year ages ago we got 4 feet of snow around April 5th. But even then, you know it's going to melt fairly quickly. The sun is getting stronger, no matter what. This will be a fairly full week - we have River Singers Tuesday evening; CTS Zoom session, Contemplative Prayer and our Swarthmore Course (on Franz Kafka) all on Wednesday; Singing at Joy Amidon's funeral on Thursday; UNC/UCLA game Friday at 6:30p.m. It's almost "normal" !! Ellen would rather it be more like it was during the height of the pandemic. She loved those quiet days when everyone was sheltering in place and she could read all day!

I searched my photo archive and thought this one would be perfect to serve as an illustration for spring.

SHC Award Committee

We got Katie to the airport by 11:00a.m. yesterday for her 1:03p.m. United flight to Denver - she wanted to get there in plenty of time, so that was perfect. We had to miss going to church, and we have not as yet had a chance to watch the service. So that is something we can look forward to. I texted Katie last night and learned that she had a good flight and was home safely, and her three Ukrainian eggs made the trip without breaking. So all is good! ***************************************************** Today I had a meeting of the Shirley Crockett Award Committee at the Ragle's home. It was a lunch-time meeting, so Ellen made lunch for everyone - mulligatawny soup, multi-grain bread, grapes, brownies and shortbread. Ellen did not come to the meeting - she took a well-earned day to read, though she did make the soup and also had to make two pies for the homeless meal, so it wasn't exactly a day of rest! There were five of us at the meeting: Diane, Elizabeth, Tom and Nancy and myself. Pastor Elisa was not able to come - she was preparing for a funeral - but we called her and ran eveything by her before adjourning. We had a good meeting, agreed on who we would offer the award to this year (coming up in late May, the anniversary of Shirley's death); decided to expand the committee to include people more involved with youth and children; and looked ahead to next year which will be the 25th anniversary of Shirley's death.

Diane

Nancy and Tom

Elizabeth************************************************* All these folks knew Shirley well. Tom and Nancy were largely responsible for our coming to the Guilford Church in the first place back in the 1970s, and both Diane and ELizabeth were close friends to Shirley. As time goes on and we expand the committee, it is inevitable that people will serve on the committee that did not know Shirley well, or even at all. But hopefully they will carry on the tradition in her spirit.******************************************** Right at the moment, I am at Richmond's garage in Guilford, making a date for him to look over all the items Subaru says need to be done, getting a second opinion. One of the items is wheel bearings - they are going to take the car for a spin to listen for that, so I'm waiting. Doug Richmond thinks he can definitely save us money. When Shirley and I were pastors of the Guilford Community Church, we brought our car to Doug Richmond all the time, because it is across the street from the church and it was very convenient to leave it here while we worked at the church. I trust his judgement very much. Lately we have gone to Subaru because we bought our cars there and they are much closer to where we live. But for example, I need a new low-beam headlamp. Subaru looked into it and found the housing is melted and the entire housing needs to be replaced. They would chsrge $470 for a new housing. Doug can get a used one, or an after-market one, much cheaper. Some other things are not necessary for safety. So we'll see. Subaru's list added up to over $5000, which given the age and value of the car, might not be worth it.

Quite a game!

While Katie was here, the Tarheels took on Baylor University in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The game started ten minutes after noon, and Katie was working on her Pysanky, and since I was sitting nearby and listening on the radio (on my cell phone, using an app called Tune-In). ) she listened in. She soon got really drawn in - as did Ellen. UNC was a #8 seed in the East region. Baylor was the #1 seed and were last year's national champions - all the odds were in fsvor of their winning the game. But UNC took charge and by the half, were 13 points ahead. Ten minutes into the 2nd half, they had stretched that to a 25-point lead! Incredible! Literally - it was very hard to believe what we were hearing! But with only ten minutes left in the game, a Tarheels victory seemed assured. But then the seemingly impossible happened. The Tarheels' best player that day, Brady Manek, who had shot repeated 3-point baskets, and made about 26 points singlehandedly, made a "Flagrant 2" foul against a Baylor player (his elbow hit the other player's cheek - we don't know if is was intentional or not - and he was ejected from the game. Suddenly, they had lost their best player. A minute later, another key player, Caleb Love, fouled out with 5 fouls. Two players had to come off the bench. Baylor stepped up their pressure and began to whittle down the Tarheel lead until, with seconds left in the game, it was Tarheels 80 - Baylor 77. Baylor made a two-point basket, and got a free throw which made it 80-80, and the game ended. Overtime! Oh NO! Baylor had all the momentum. The arena was packed with their fans - they were playing in Fort Worth, Texas, just an hour from their home campus. They had all their starting players on the court. UNC was down two top players, they were exhausted and demoralized. But at the begiining of overtime, one of those Tarheel players off the bench made a 3-point basket - his second one of the entire season. They went on to dominate; Baylor made only one shot out of 10 attempts. UNC won 93 - 86! Incredible! Baylor had made a 25-point comeback (one of the largest in NCAA history) and could not convert that into a victory. This was a game for the ages! The sort of game that gets talked about for years - even decades. UNC will go into the "Sweet Sixteen" and will play UCLA next Thursday. We'll be listening, maybe even watching.

Katie’s Pysanky

Katie really got into making Ukrainian Easter eggs! We had all the equipment set up on the dining table and she just laid in and created her own designs and wow! did they come out nice! One of them was her "work" egg - a marijuana-leaf egg! She and Ellen just came back from going down to Robin Davis's house where she dyed one of them black and took off all the wax and blew them out. Here they are:

Making the eggs

Katie is here!

We have just returned from picking up Katie at the airport - Bradley Field in Windsor Locks, CT. It is astonishingly warm! In the 70s! It was almost too hot down in CT. Katie's plane waas on time - even a few minutes early. WE stopped in Northhampton on the way back. Katie checked out a cannabis dispensary in Northhampton, just to campare with Colorado (BIG difference - cannabis is twice as expensive in Massachusetts!). We also stopped at Harrell's for ice cream. It was the perfect day for ice cream and everyone knew it - the place was packed. But we found a parking place right in front and enjoyed our ice cream sitting on the wall opposite the store. Fun!

A very popular spot in Northhampton

The famous Herrel's bears

Not as busy the day this picture was taken!************************** Now we are home and Katie is telling us about her new job. She is so much happier in this job because even though the hours are long, when she goes home, she is home; her work is at work. She can relax. She is working with living plants. Very different from being on a computer all day long.

The kind of place Katie works

Tamar is in a high school musical

Last evening, we went to Northhampton to see a production of Mamma Mia, a "juke-box" musical written by Catherine Johnson and based on songs made popular by the Swedish band ABBA, composed by Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus, members of the band. Tamar auditioned for one of the lead roles, but had to settle for being a member of the ensemble. She is a Junior. She is hoping for a more major role in next year's musical. I knew nothing about this musical, despite it's being one of the longest running shows ever, both in England, where it originated, and on Broadway, where it had a 14-year run! I was not particularly impressed by the musical itself, either book or songs. But the students obviously poured their hearts into it and it had amazing energy. Some of the voices were very good, particularly, Donna, who is the mother, and Sophie, her daughter. The plot, such as it is, is sort of crazy. Sophie has been raised by her mother, and does not know who her father is; her mother refuses to discuss the issue. The show, which is set in Greece (not sure why), opens with Sophie about to be married, and she has invited to the wedding (without her mother knowing), three men, each of whom she thinks could be her father. She hopes that by meeting them, she will learn the truth and be "given away" by her true father. That sets up a pretty wild ride of encounters between and among the principals - the three men, Sophie and her mother, as well as a wide variety of friends and other family members (and three Greek goddesses, who function like a Greek chorus). But the plot is nothing more than a showcase for a lot of songs. Although everyone was miked, I could barely understand any dialogue or lyrics of songs. But it hardly mattered. The choreography was particularly effective, I thought. The costumes were well-done; the set was very spare. Tamar had one scene at the opening in which she sat at a table with another girl, and we were close enough (row 4) to be able to hear her singing and I got an unusually good photo (flash photography was prohibited but I didn't need flash). The audience was very enthusiastic, particularly the girl sitting in front of me, who screamed her head off after each song. So it was a high energy experience, and that was unusual in this time of COVID, to say the least. The entire audience was masked - a requirement (if you forgot to bring one, you were given one when you came in). There was no requirement to be vaccinated. I saw only one member of the ensemble wearing a mask. We saw Tamar after the show and gave her a bouquet of rose buds, and took her home. Her parents, and Katie, Savanna and Brendon, are all coming to the Saturday performance. Tamar seemed pleased with last night's performance - it was the opening show. There were no glitches. There was a pit band, so the music was live, and it was well-done, if a bit loud. So - well done, Northhampton high school! Please give Tamar a worthy role next year! (And let it be in a really high-class musical!).

A good photo of Tamar (at right) fairly up close

Ensemble scene - Tamar is up on the balcony somewhere

Finale scene

The program booklet

Tamar's bio entry in the program

A sense of spring!

Today it was reslly possible to believe in Spring! And looking at the next few days, I think that feeling will be re-enforced. Our snow is almost all gone in the woods. The piles thrown up by the plow are still there, of course, but they are much reduced. Temps will be in the 50s and 60s in the next few days. That will melt even more. I wouldn't be surprised to see little green shoots appearing here and there! We will have a real treat coming up in a couple of days - my granddaughter, Katie Shay, will be coming for a visit, arriving at Bradley Field in Hartford, CT at 2pm in the afternoon on Friday. It will be a short visit - she will return Sunday morning. But we haven't seen her since last summer, and a lot has happened in her life in the meantime. So we need to do a lot of catching up. And what else is going on? We are reading the short stories of Franz Kafka for our Swarthmore Course Uncanny Journeys. Tomorrow we will go to Northhampton to see Tamar in her high school musical, Mama Mia. In the afternoon, at 4:30 tomorrow, UNC will play Marquette in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. I'm not sure how that will fit in with getting to Tamar's musical, but we'll try to either listen to or see at least part of that game. We might be able to go to Katie & Savanna's for the beginnning of it, at least. Or maybe we'll just hang out somewhere in Northhampton and listen on the radio, via my iPhone. Earlier today I picked up Jerome and took him to Hannaford to do some shopping. I took a fifteen minute walk on our driveway after I got back from that. Ellen is shopping at the moment and I just cleaned up the kitchen and did my exercises. I had a zoom session earlier today with retired clergy - Jeff, Catherine, Jack and Roger. We always have a good, lively discussion. Catherine told us about someone she reads regularly - John Pavlovitz - and by some coincidence, just a few minutes later, when I checked in for my Wednesday Chicago Theological Seminary Wednesday noon Reflections, I learned that he is to be the guest speaker next week. Here is just a little bit about him (written in 2017 when Trump was President): Pavlovitz, forty-eight, is a Wake Forest resident, minister at North Raleigh Community Church, and father of two young kids. He's also the writer behind "Stuff that Needs to be Said", a blog that calls out hypocrisy in plain language, with the president and his ardent followers within the religious right earning particular scorn. His style—compassion paired with a no-bullshit, emperor-wears-no-clothes attitude, all informed by an inclusive brand of Christianity—has endeared him to millions of readers. This year alone, twenty-three million people have viewed his blog, and he has over sixty thousand Twitter followers.******************************* So the days are full and it is wonderful to look forward to Spring!

Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

John Pavlovitz (1969- )

The Seven Storey Mountain

Last evening, I went to a book study group that was held at the Amidons. It had been formed as a sort of spin-off from Contemplative Prayer at the Guilford Church, mostly at the initiative of Patty Meyer, and includes six or seven others. The book was Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain. I had never read it before. Indeed I had never read much of Merton at all. TSSM is called "An Autobiography of Faith" and tells in pretty riveting detail the story of his early life and his formation, ultimately, as a Trappist monk. A key word for him is "vocation." This is the story of his struggle to define, discover, accept, find joy and peace in the vocation of being a contemplative monk. It was not easy. Merton is a fantastic writer (that could have been his vocation, and in a way was, but also wasn't, and the tension between "writer" and "contemplative monk" probably ran through his life after he entered the monastary). Whatever you think about his belief system, you (at least I) was pulled along by his writing. The book obviously touched everyone in the group and raised a lot of questions: e.g., what does it mean to love God? What does it mean to pray for someone? But also, "Why has this book sold millions of copies?" For me it raised the question "Do I have a vocation at this advanced stage of my life?" "If so, what is it?" Merton himself gives a kind of answer to that question himself: "This means, in practice, that there is only one vocation. Whether you teach, or live in the cloister, or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married or single, no matter who you are or what you are, (and I would add - no matter how old you are), you are called the the summit of perfection, you are called to a deep interior life, perhaps even to mystical prayer, and to pass the fruits of your contemplation on to others. And if you cannot do so by words, then by example." (Seven Storey Mountain, p. 458). I also brought to the discussion an article I found in the Christian Century by Cassidy Hall, a filmmaker who created a documentary on Thomas Merton. She is wondering if it is time to "let go of Thomas Merton." She writes, "Merton, as a White cis man and vowed monastic in a patriarchal church perpetuates damaging exclusivity alongside his wisdom." So there is another perspective. Her film is titled Day of a Stranger. All this certainly gives one food for thought!

Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Coping mode

Let's see - I went to see Jerome in the hospital and learned that he had been discharged. So I went to his home, but he wasn't there either. I roused his daughter's boyfriend, and learned that he had been taken to the ER! And that a home health nurse was with him. I subsequently learned that he is home again and is "OK." I wanted to visit today, but we're in the midst of a blizzard. So I texted his daughter and told her I would come tomorrow. I called Pastor Elisa and activated the church prayer chain. Jerome's cell phone is not working. Frustrating! On a more trivial level, the Tarheels collapsed last night and lost to Virginia Tech by 13 points. So that ended the ACC tournament for them. There is still March Madness! Ellen decided not to mail cards because of the storm. Katie is visiting next week and I'm calling her in a bit! So, we are coping as best we can.

Right now**************************************** LATER I heard from Margaret that Jerome is home and that some new medication is actually helping him. So that is good news! LATER ON SUNDAY: I went to see Jerome Sunday afternoon. He was up and feeling somewhat better - he's taking a compound pain-pill -Ban/acet/Caff that seems to be helping. He wanted to go to Wendy's for something to eat so we went and he got a Hot&Sweet chicken sandwich and some fries. Not bad.

An actual In-person sing!

Today we went to Holton Memorial Home for a live, in-person, sing in their activity room where we had a small audience of about a dozen residents and a few staff people. Mary Cay Brass led and there were about 8-9 of us singers. We sounded a little ragged from lack of regular experience singing together, but I don't think anyone minded. We sang with masks, but the residents were unmasked. It was fun singing again. We sang for about a half-hour. Among our songs: New Jerusalem, I'll Fly Away, We'll Camp A Little While, Africa, What a Wonderful World, How Could Anyone Ever Tell You? And some "singalong" songs like Swing Low, Sweet, Chariot, and You Are My Sunshine.

Holton Memorial Home

Gathering in the Dining-room

The singers...

...and our audience****************************** Yesterday, we drove to Shutesbury for supper with Katie & Savanna, and stayed late to watch UNC play Virginia in the ACC Tournament, which was on ESPN. UNC totally flummoxed Virginia. Virginia scored only 13 points in the entire first half! That was the lowest first-half score in the entire history of the ACC! The final score was UNC 63- VA-43. UNC plays Virginia Tech tonight in the semi-finals. I will be able to listen on the radio app on my phone. It would be fun to drive down to K&S's (which we could do) and see the game, but we filled the tank on the car today and it cost $65! Gas is $4.39 a gallon! So we'll stay home. If UNC wins tonight, they could meet Duke again in the championship game tomorrow evening. Duke is playing Miami as I write and they are ahead by 7 points. It was tied at the half. If UNC/Duke play again tomorrow that will be some game after UNC's upset win over Duke in the final game of the regular season last Saturday. We probably would watch that at the Bergh's. So this is basketball season, and of course "March Madness" starts next week. Who knows how UNC will do in that tournament, but it could be fun!

Snowy errands

Well, on the heels of that violent windstorm we got an unexpected snowstorm. We had to run some errands yesterday and we decided not to let the snow stop us. Ellen wanted to take things to the recycle bins at the landfill and take cake to the refugees at SIT, and I wanted to visit Jerome in the hospital. So we set out. It was the kind of snowfall that sticks to every twig and branch. So it provided some wonderful photo-ops. And this morning, in the bright sunshine and blue sky, it is pretty spectacular.

At the recycle station

A friendly reminder that you are under surveillance!

Getting rid of our paper and plastics

Beauty at the landfill

Cake to the dining hall at SIT

On Route 30

The iron bridge makes a nice geometric pattern

West Dummerston Baptist Church (across from the Post Office)

Coming out of the covered bridge

Coming up the East-West Road

We made it home

Snow-heavy branches out the window

A bright wintry scene today!