My brother Tony came to visit me this weekend, the first of my brothers to come visit our homestead in VT. All three of my sisters have been to visit. Tony, 41, is looking for land, contemplating a move. He came with his friend Tim Obarski whom I also know from Toledo, I first met him when he and tony were both teenagers. Now he’s got a big truck and a Vermont beard. I don’t know what to call tony’s beard except for maybe ‘tony’s beard’. They showed up as I was nailing boards to the 3rd floor walls and got the winter home tour right off the bat. Jakobi ran down, she last saw her uncle at my dad’s funeral just over 5 years ago…damn has it been that long? 1/2 a decade she was three then is 8 now. Up to the longhouse where Ambiana was, as we were on the roof deck colleen came home from a run and went to the waterfall for a rinse. Out on the big deck overlooking the creek full of rushing melt water we caught up. I have seen him relatively recently as 1 1/2 years ago we met up in Boston for Big Papi’s last game with the Red Sox. He’s only seen Patti and Mom since he last saw me and we saw patti 3 months ago and gammma…when was the last time we saw gamma, was when it when she sledded down our hill after Thanksgiving in 2016??? He has not nor have I seen Susanna’a pregnant belly, would have liked to see that…we’ll meet our niece in South Carolina in July for Gamma’s 80th.
Ambiana danced in her ballet company’s “Choerography Showcase” on Saturday night and Tony & Tim came with and we sat down at Posative Pie in Hardwick for a beer burger before the show…and then they were off…quick visit, hope the land he is looking for turns up. Tim has 2 boys, 12 & 7 so a playdate with them looms and they live in the Bristol area which Colleen and I both loved when we lived out of our car 10 years ago upon our summer arrival in VT…
For the 1st time I did not film Ambiana’s dance performance. I put down the camera and took it in with with no tech…She was in 7 of the 16 dances, most group pieces but one with Erika and one, my favorite: ‘radioactivists’ with Erika, Sophie and Maple. Then home and to bed and the next day back to work on the walls. Jakobi has beeen sewing up a storm, she asked me to tie a knot in the thread ONCE. When i saw how many things she had sewn; pillows and pouches and a shirt for her doll I asked and she said she watched what I did and then tied her own knot…that is initiative.
Ambiana is always dancing, now that it is warmer out the big deck is her dancefloor and that is where you can find her…or on the roof
Colleen is slowly but surely sugaring and on Sun Night went to Burlington with Avi, Kee and Christine for some kind of electronic music dance thing.
On Sun Nite, April 30th it snowed big wet mashed potato snowflakes, filled the air with them and in the morning all was covered with 2″ of heavy wet soggy slush that looked like snow and was gone by noon.
We watched a movie 2 weeks ago that we totally all loved. It is a musical released while we were away in Belize called the Greatest Showman with Hugh Wolverrine Jackman, Zac Efron and Michelle Williams. Every song in it is good and it is beautiful to watch. The girls are laready working up one of the songs for the talent show next year. We play and sing the soundtrack all the time. There favorite song has Zac Efron in it. He is 29 and 12 years ago he was the star of High School Musical on the Disney Channel. So for family movie night we watched that so we could time travel and see a young Zac Efron and not surprisingly as we are an unashemedly lover of all things musical it was pretty good.
Ambiana is reading the latest book by Melissa Meyer who wrote the Lunar Chronicles, I am not reading anything but magazine articles, The latest New Yorker had a good one about the Rent-A-Family business in Japan. On my drives to Boston I listen to fiction and am now listening to Lian Moriarty’s What Alice Forgot. Alice is 39 and hits her head and forgets the last 10 years of her life. Moriarty is Australian and the book is set there and the narrator has an Australian accent and I think that is 90% of why I like her books so much (I’ve listened to Truly Madly Guilty, Big Little Lies, The Last Anniversary & The Husband’s Secret and really have liked them all. There is always some mystery and the characters are enjoyable as are the situations they find themselves in. On the drive home I listen to non-fiction and I am now listeneing to a book called On Trails, by Robert Moor. Moor hiked the Applachian Trail which sparked a quest to investigate the nature of trails and his book is is exploration of trails in all forms; prehistoric fossilized slug trails, ants, sheep and that’s as far as I have gotten, i love to hike, i love trails so it is an interesting listen which I can relate to.
The girls are going to have bedrooms soon, we’ve been in a family bed for over 12 years…we are a snuggle puddle of cave bears and it’s going to be sad to let it go.
