Later this month I’ll be joining a bunch of friends and neighbors on the Brattleboro Boys and Girls Club’s annual fundraising bike ride. Please visit my donation page and give anything you can. It’s a great cause, the kids need the help.

Our 5th, closing in on the residential longevity record we set for ourselves in Missouri 1993-1998. Everything went off exactly like we remembered it from last year, although that sameness did make us worry a bit about stagnation on the part of the organizers.

Friday night street party was well attended.

The parade seemed to have more cows and fewer floats/bands. We confirmed last year’s observation that the parade is more fun after mimosas.

One congressman in surprisingly cool shoes, a couple of pageant winners (one of whom was seen the day before wearing her sash and pushing a stroller around town, not quite sure what to make of that) and of course evening gown-clad Alfred, seemingly born to be an honorary grand marshal.

Alpacas always a hit.

Hard work for everyone, go home and rest, see you next year!

Saw these stretched and modded Honda Ruckus in Hartford the other day. Lots of craftsmanship, but lots of ridiculousness at the same time.

The Moto Guzzi Eldorado is pretty much a factory product, on the other hand, but very impressive to look at. I would love to have heard what it sounded like.

I lost my computer screen glasses a couple weeks ago. I can get along without, but it’s more comfortable to wear them. So, I made an appointment to get an updated prescription. 

But then I went outside from my desk to watch the train go by, and voilà! I kept the appointment anyway, and am now trying out multi focal contact lenses. 

Remember the Bartles and Jaymes wine cooler ads? I think that was the first time I ever heard that phrase, and the first time the idea of “supporting” a business entered into my consciousness.

Now, the idea of supporting a business, of being loyal to a business, has become commonplace. Some businesses make a point to thank you for your support during the normal course of things, but it seems all too common to hear this for the first time when they are closing their doors.

This kitchen store in Keene was a nice place to walk through, and we have bought a few gadgets there. However, the $200 frying pans, $500 coffee makers, and so on that seemed to make up the majority of their inventory are not things we buy often, if ever.

On the one hand, seeing our local retail shops close leaves me with a sense of guilt… Each failed business, each retirement without a sale, hastens the economic decline that seems inevitable and inexorable in the region. If only I’d spent more money there…

But on the other hand, it leaves me with a sense of anger… each time these business owners failed to support their community by providing what people wanted, at a price they were willing and able to pay, left another opening for the Walmart and Amazon takeover that has surely doomed many small towns before ours.

Of course, neither my guilt nor my anger will slow the great economic forces created by the magic of the Internet and the magic of global supply-chain management. Small stores who sell the same goods as the giants simply can’t compete, and nor can those who delude themselves with higher priced “handmade” goods typically of lower quality. For the sake of the people I live near, for the sake of my property value, and just in general, I hope the remaining business owners, and the next generation, find some way to make a living that doesn’t rely on me “supporting” them out of either guilt or anger…

If I were a person who liked old stuff and also liked to check things off lists, then making a pilgrimage to the Brimfield Market woulda been something I really wanted to do. 

Oh wait… I am. 

Awesome. And completely overwhelming. We wandered around for about 4 hours, and maybe saw 5% or so. 

I’m sure a lot of business gets done, but the only actual crowd we saw was at the food court. Hmmm. 

  
This prosperous looking fox enjoyed a rodent in the snow outside the window today. 

  
Preparing for the weekend, we stopped at the big liquor store in Springfield — kid in a candy store doesn’t begin to describe how much fun that is. But buying booze for the label / bottle is risky. The golden monkey Riesling was pretty good, but Yumberry liqueur, even artisanal Yumberry, wasn’t. 

Well, bronze and iron anyway, from a lunchtime walk around the Riverfront area.

Mary Todd gazes into Abe’s eyes.

The Hartford Water Works has its own documentary and even its own fan book…

The Hartford Electric Light Co. turned into the Connecticut Light and Power Co. in 1958, so these covers are at least that old…

Most of downtown Hartford was heated by a central steam plant at one point… although very few buildings are still hooked up to it.