Guete Sunntig mitenand!

Went to the Jacksonville churchlet this morning. Found 20 congregationalists, Doug and Mary Lou absent on their trip through Europe, and Rick Gramlin standing in for Doug. I go to that church and I have to rend my clothes and strew ashes on my head for all the bad words I have about the lack of love of the mountain people for us flatlanders. It was a hearty welcome. Like, they went out of their way to shake hands. It is good to be back!

On the way back to the house I stopped at the mail box and found two letters: first one - renew your Sam's  membership or else. Now that I have the mailing stuff here, I can do that renewal, or have you already done it, Kaarin? Second one - the bill from the Jacksonville Electric $17.32. Its going to go up now. Most mornings during this past week I got out of bed while the sun was still "under covers" and turned lights on freely, all over the main floor. Then, the sun gets up and his (you Britishers do think the sun is a male, don't you?) rays come streaming through the windows and the rooms become so bright that one does not even notice those artificial lights are on and they stay on, often until it gets to be time to turn them off at bed-time. But this bill will never reach the wondrous heights of the one in GB, with the heat pump running to pump the heat out of the house. Also, in GB the rooms are so much in the shade that one needs artificial lights almost everywhere, all the time.

With that wealth of communication from the outside world I strolled over to the garden patch. The weeds are growing around the asparagus roots and need some stern constraints. But there are at least a half dozen stems poking up toward the sunlight, not yet ready for a snack and definitely too small for dinner, but they are poking. I will now wriggle back into my overalls and go water the garden :-)

Guete Sunntig mitenand, all you uninitiated, means "A good sunday to all of you".

With loving thoughts, Isa

If you wish to opt out of receiving these sporadic signs of life from the mountain, you must find a good bottle of wine and come here with enough time to to apply for having your address removed from my list.

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Dear, dear Opa,

Do not think for even one moment that my lack of response at this, the craziest time of the homeschool year--the end-of-classes push at KEYS and the editing push for HEAV--means that I do no absolutely LOVE these "sporadic signs of life from the mountain"!   I DO so love receiving them, and I do fine time--even in the midst of the inanity--to read them, and smile, and ponder and reflect and appreciate and enjoy. Please keep them coming!! :)

Did the saved wifi thing I had work?

L.

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Dear Laurie,

Thanks for the moral support. "Us writers" like to know that we are read and your e-mail came at a very timely moment. Your question about the saved wi-fi thing put me on a search in my files, but the most recent note I have there from you - other than the one from today - is dated February 8, way too early to contain a reference to my call for help out of VT.Could you send it again? My iPad is still balking at getting on this network here, even after my prompt and repeated reaction to all helpful suggestions from others: shut it down for a short time and turn it back on - see if that works. It does not. It suggest the network that it could join and lets me put in no other and then says 'can't join this network'. I have tried many things on Apple support and wild-catter know-it-alls, but nothing and nobody helps here. The last options I have is to call Apple and have one of those two-hour chats, and/or call FairPoint - my ISP, but I really "have not been able to find the time for that" :-)

I have the same jammer with my air printer. It worked fine when I left VT last fall but this time around the printer says "can't find computer' and the computer says 'can't find printer'. Both have the addresses of the other. Of course I excuse it from not finding the iPad - it just is not on. But the computer is doing simply excellently on this network. I took the obvious step and linked the two with the USB wire, but that did not help more than the computer advising me that 'the printer is very low on ink' and when I asked HP to analyze they could find the printer alright but said that the ink levels in all cartridges are just fine. Then they wanted to know if their response to my primary question re "can't find the computer' was helpful. It is to crawl up the walls. Here too, the advise came 'shut it down for 30 seconds and then turn it back on'. Well two evenings ago I turned it off one more time and unplugged it from all connections with anything from computer to power lines and have not looked at it again, waiting for some miracle to happen and it suddenly springs to life.

I also took a trip to North Adams to have my hair cut! No mountain-man looks this year, like I endeavored last summer. It is only 25 miles to there, as it is also to drive to Brattleboro, but in North Adams is the most delightful old barbershop remaining on earth. It is exactly like barbershops used to be some 70 years ago when I was still apprehensive about these strangers approaching me with sharp and pointed scissors. And can you imagine the shakes I would get when they came with that open razor knife they used then, first leisurely honed it on that long leather strop and then laid their hands on my neck . . . This one in North Adams is called Gus's Barber Shop and Gus himself is the only one who barbers in there and he must have come out of apprenticeship when they built his shop in the early years of the last century of the past millennium. He walks not any better than I walk but he does a fine job on hair. I can imagine that all his muscles have done their motions around men's heads so often they can do it now even disconnected from the nerve centers and unaided by the eyes.

Then I went to Big-Y to shop for food and my pantry is now stocked for the next few weeks. I am looking forward to shrimp on wild rice, grilled chicken thighs on penne pasta with tomato sauce, grilled burgers made from grass fed beef and stuff like that, if only I can make time to cook all that. The outside keeps me busy. The veggie patch needs attention. I cut grass yesterday and since we are going to have rain in the next couple of days I will do more cutting very shortly. Time up here is lovely and, I don't know why', I feel better here than there.

Hoping that all is well in VA-B also and that the end of the school year's hecticity will lead into a wonderful vacation period for you. Take a break! Come sniff the clean mountain air.

Love, Opa