We lost our power

About 10pm last night, we lost our power. I was alone. Ellen had gone to the store. An hour later, she had not come home, and I got worried. Then i noticed something - a fire, something hurning below the house, near the road. What could it be? I began to worry that Ellen was in some kind of trouble. I felt helpless. I could not really investigate the fire myself - not safely. I called Bess Richardson - I had just been talking with her on a Zoom session earlier in the evening. She is an RN and former EMT. She encouraged me to call 911. So I did. The West Dummerston Fire Dept. came to check out the fire. At the same moment, Ellen came home. She was safe, thank goodness! She had run into numerous branches and trees on the road and had to take the long way home. The fire got tamped down somehow. We went to bed in the dark. The power did not come back until noon today. I cancelled a meeting that was to happen this morning at the Guilford Church. I still don't know exactly what was burning.

Wow, is it windy tonight!

As I write, the wind is blowing hard and stuff is hitting the house! We may lose our power. The lights flickered a minute ago. Yesterday was a warm, sunny day - it got up into the high 50s - even over 60 some places. Ellen and I took a walk on Park Laughton Road out of Dummerston Center. Nice!

Looking back at Dummerston Center - parsonage on left and church in the distance

Looking the other way***************************** ICE FISHING SHANTIES The warm weather is playing havoc with the shanties on the Retreat Meadows pond where ice fisherman come every winter. The ice is getting soft and when I came by this afternoon, I could see several shanties still on the ice. I would not want to drive out there with anything to pull in my shanty at this point!

Some shanties have been pulled in already by wise owners

Look carefully and you can make out 4-5 shanties still on the ice!*********************** A couple of weeks ago, the local art museum put on a display of arty ice-fishing shanties. I hadn't realized that some owners really dress up their shanties. Here is one:

Wow, pretty fancy!****************

Party and game

Saturday afternoon we went over to the Bergh's to celebrate Eliza's birthday and also watch the Tar Heels play Duke in the final game of the season. Eliza's sister Barbie fixed the meal - it was very nice - and then we had a birthday cake which was also very nice and then we watched the game. I think there were nine of us all together - Eliza, Barbie, Cliff, Sarah and the two girls, Phoebe and Maggie, Eliza and Cliff's son, Will, Ellen and me.

Phoebe, Maggie and Eliza

The girls putting in the candles

Ready to sing "Happy Birthday"! ********************************** The game proved to be not only exciting but actually quite interesting. It was slated to be a festive night for Duke fans because their beloved coach, Mike Krzyzewski, is retiring and this was his last game. Duke was highly expected to win, but UNC pulled out an upset victory, raining on Coach K's parade, so to speak. The way he responded was very interesting. He was not pleased, of course, and said somewhat shortly that the result was "unacceptable" and the season was not over! (There is an ACC tournament and of course March Madness). I had this narrative set up for him to say graciously that "for Duke to be the great team it is, it needs a worthy rival (which is true), and UNC proved itself to be that rival tonight - I commend Coach Hubert Davis and his team for their outstanding performance." Needless to say, that did not get said. I read later that one of the Duke assistant coaches refused to shake Coach Davis' outstretched hand after the game, and another one took his hand but looked away. So much for graciousness! It's only a game, guys!

A visit to the hospital (to see someone)

I just visited Jerome in the hospital. He got so dizzy at home that his daughter became very worried and took him to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, which is just a few blocks from where they live. She must have used her boyfriend's car. I think he's been there a couple of days. He is still pretty woozey and says his head hurts, but that has been the case for some time. They've done a lot of tests but no clear indication yet of what's going on. So no word yet of how long he will be there. I hope they can fimd him some relief because he has felt rotten for some time - this is just an extreme case of it. There are things going on in the family too. DJ, Mary Tolles' foster-son, is in the hospital after a drug overdose. He was found unresponsive and while he is better now, it is unclear what the longterm consequences will be. We are holding him and Mary in the light. There is much to be concerned about today!

I didn't think Jerome would appreciate being photographed in the hospital bed, but here is a nice one with his daughter, Margaret, from the past.

The corridor outside Jerome's room. I guess this could be anywhere in the U.S.

A memorial to Mike Gregg in the lobby at BMH. Mike was the husband of Lila Gregg, a pillar at the Guilford Church. He worked for the CDC in Atlanta for decades.

A lovely birthday supper!

I had a lovely birthday supper last evening! The house looked so nice, and the table had a special Ukrainian theme with sunflowers and a centerpiece with Ukrainian flags. John and Cynthia came for supper and Ellen prepared a lovely meal with our favorite walnut/cheese ball dish, plus squash, rice pilaf and roasted brussel sprouts. And of course a lovely carrot cake with ice cream. I didn't have 89 candles, of course, but I did have eight in an inner circle and nine in an outer circle. Cynthia brought the video she has created which features John, me and Martin Luther King, and she played that for us! It highlights the fact that John and I met MLK in 1967 when I took six-year-old John with me to pick up MLK and Andrew Young at the Providence airport to bring them to the campus where MLK was to give a talk the next day. She had played it for her 4th-5th-graders at the Marlboro school, and they had really liked it! They want to meet these famous people who have actually talked with MLK in the flesh! So that was special. I got two books for my birthday - the 2022 edition of Guinness World Records from Maggie and Jerry - a totally fascinating book which is sort of addicitve. John gave me a new biography of Buster Keaton, star of silent films, and a brilliant one at that. We remembered a time decades ago when we would go to the home of my friend, Arnold Kirchheimer, and watch 8mm films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin - at a time when Buster Keaton was not well-known at all.

I think the photos above speak for themselves; they don't need to be labeled. Today I am having s quiet day. I'll try to get to the pool and this evening we'll be singing Taizè chants in an Ash Wednesday service at Guilford.

Town Meeting Day

Today is Dummerston Town Meeting Day. Before COVID we would have gone to the Dummerston School for the day, starting at 10 a.m. in the morning. The Town business would have been done in the morning, school business in the afternoon. We would have voted on budgets, and special articles which can be put on the agenda by petition. We would have gotten up and asked a question or argued that people should vote yes or no on a particular article. We would have seen our fellow town-folk, many of whom we see only once a year at Town Meeting. A very nice lunch would have been served by the school kitchen crew - something one looks forward to every year. No in-person meeting today. We voted for town officers and for the various articles by absentee ballot. Ellen and I got our ballots a few days ago, filled them out this morning and dropped them off at the Town Office this afternoon. Some of the offices were contested and we had to do some research to decide who to vote for. It was exciting to learn that two offices - one on the selectboard and one on the school board - we were able to vote for an African-American woman. That is a first, I think. On the same trip I returned a big pot to the Dummerston Church, took cake to Afghan regugees at SIT, and went to the pool. In about an hour, John and Cynthia will be here for a birthday supper for me.

Deborah Stanford is running for a seat on the school board in Dummerston. She brings 35 years of experience as a teacher in the Bronx in both public and private schools. Her granchhildren live in the area.

Jemima

Jemima Farwell is Calvin Farwell's younger daughter. She was born just a year before Shirley and I built the house here in Dummerston, and so was a little toddler when I first got to know their family. She was a feisty litle girl! A little later she was part of the Junior Choir at the Guilford Church which I led at that time. This would have been in the 1980s. There was a memorable moment at a Christmas Eve service back then when someone standing next to her wasn't paying close attention to the burning candle they were holding and accidently set fire to Jemima's long, red hair. It was put out very quickly, but it filled the sanctuary with the odor of burnt hair! If you have ever smelled burnt hair you know how shocking that moment was! Jemima has a son, Simeon, who is just a few months younger than my Katie. They have been living in the Berkeley, CA area for several decades, but now, at age 50, Jemima is reforming her life. She has given up her home in Berkeley and has come back East. She has been house sitting in various places, trying to decide just what comes next. This week she was staying with Calvin (who lives with his son, Sam, and his family) and I took advantage of the opportunity to see her this afternoon. I have long been very fond of Jemima and had not seen her for many years. So it was really great to see her again! We didn't have a lot of time - Ellen is still working on the big meal - but we had a chance just to see each other and catch up a little bit. She is going to be living with a friend on Bunker Road starting next week, so she will still be in Dummerston for a while, and I hope we'll have a chance for a longer visit in the near future.

Me and Jemima************************ This morning we actually went to church! Guilford has resumed services in-person, with masks and social distancing. But it felt really good to be back with others again. Ukraine was very much a part of the service - a more somber service than other years when Mardi Gras was more in the forefront. "Planting seeds" was the theme, and we were each handed a sunflower seed when we came into the church - the sunflower being the Ukrainian national flower. According to Pastor Eiisa, she had planned to hand out sunflower seeds today long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine! The Holy Spirit was at work! This will be a big week - John and Cynthia are coming over Tuesday evening and Wednesday is my birthday! It is also Ash Wednesday. When you turn 89, being told "you are dust and to dust you will return" makes a lot of sense!