The Retreat Tower in the snow
The Amtrak Vermonter heading south. Yesterday, the engineer tooted Jingle Bells, which was awesome.
Bliss à la belge
Lunch at the Whetstone, featuring some sort of exotic Trappist Christmas ale and a plate of mussels in a rich broth. Yummy!
GingerBrooks House… not the first time this building has looked like a Gingerbread House.
November 20: Merry Christmas
I’ve said before that Brattleboro runs on a very well defined annual cycle, more obviously so than other, larger places I’ve lived. Sometimes I don’t notice all the changes immediately, like when I went online this spring and learned that other people nearby had seen hummingbirds a month before me.
The most pervasive annual cycle must surely be the retail cycle. And so it really wasn’t a big deal to see Costco fully prepped for Christmas when I stopped in on the way home from the airport. But then when I was hunting for a station in the NPR dead zone in Western Mass., I heard a full on Christmas station, and that really made it real. Christmas shopping season is upon us… maybe it’s already been on for weeks but I’m officially in the loop.
Flower bed
This cute display has been outside the Brattleboro Food Co-op at least all summer, but I didn’t actually get the joke till just the other day…
Amaze your relatives with this powerful fashion
We wandered into the Cherished Goods thrift store this weekend to see if we could get a jump on the ugly sweater contest that is planned for our family Christmas in Houston. No joy on the sweaters, but we found this wonderful sign.
Veterans Day 2013
11/11, 11:00 AM
I snuck away from my desk this morning to go to the VFW for a Veterans Day commemoration. Although my own National Guard service was short, domestic, and un-dangerous, it still left a strong mark on who I am today. Veterans Day is one of the lesser holidays these days, but it’s real for me, not least because I work for the US Department of Veterans Affairs part of every day.
There are maybe 150 people here today, most of whom served. These old soldiers are notable for what they have ( a bewildering assortment of caps, jackets, pins, remnants of uniform) and in a few cases for what they don’t (arms, legs).
We stood and saluted as the arthritic color guard posted the colors, we said the Pledge of Allegiance, heard the Star-Spangled Banner, invoked, blessed and appreciated. We heard the big voice of the VFW Post Commander break with emotion as he read his speech. We applauded an awful long list of invited guests, heard the service anthems and then heard more speeches. And then the band absolutely rocked the Sousa medley.
There’s no good reason to go to war, but nor is there any way to avoid it, and so here we are. And military service, wartime or not, surely shapes us as individuals and as a people. All that “I’ve got your back” has to come from somewhere, and to a very large degree I think it comes from having your hair cut short and pondering how you would handle the order to come up out of the trench.
To all those who made it back to Brattleboro for today’s buffet luncheon, and to all those who didn’t, I salute you and offer my heartfelt thanks.
What a good-looking group on the way to the Retreat Gala… Or if it were sponsored by Hallmark it would have been a Funla.
The grand gesture is alive and well at the Latchis
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 