Confessions of a Grandma

 New Orleans was hit by another hurricane. Louisiana's governor was on the news urging everyone to not go out into high winds and flooded streets, flying debris and downed power lines. Well. How dare she impose such restrictions on people? We have RIGHTS to our individual freedoms.

  Animatrons Granny knitting -- the way grandmothers are supposed to act. (according to my daughter) Dane wondered if these were toys since they were is a house filled with dolls and dollhouses. We decided that this opium smoking (the smoke coming from a candle under the robe) figure was not an approriate child's toy on so many levels.  Steamship that cruised Lake Champlain until the 1950's. The hunting camp was a favorite. The Circus Barn was amazing--posters, carousel figures and "miles" of carved parade figurines. There was a special Currier and Ives exhibit. At first it was a disappointment because Dane had heard Currier Knives and expected a whole different display.  But he does enjoy art exhibits -- I have been dragging him along his whole life. It sparked a good conversation about history and how history gets written or represented. Romanticized New England farm life, yes, but let's talk about these pictures of happy, happy life on the plantations. CRT -- c...

I took my grandson to the Shelburne Museum. There were many exhhibits that we enjoyed immensely. The Steamship Ticonderoga, the circus barn, the Currier and Ives art exhibit, old school house. country store, Adirondack cabin, stagecoach tavern, railroad station. It was a full day. Dane's favorite was the Adirondack hunting cabin. And what did grandma enjoy the most? Flowers -- the colorful grounds!  Masks were required. There were limits on the number of visitors that could be in the buildings at one time, but on a weekday there was not a large crowd and we enjoyed our leisurely tour.

 We have been having some hot and humid weather.  I do have a window AC unit, but somehow the idea of dragging it out of storage in August seems wrong. I will suffer through although I do confess that my energy has been badly sapped. The only thing I crossed off my to-do list yesterday was to go out for soft-serve ice cream -- a creemee to us here in Vermont. Fortunately, I can set up a fan by my desk and shop on line. I haven't done any crafting all summer but that didn't stop me from putting in a big order for card making supplies. There is way too much truth in this to be funny: And yet: True Story: I took my grandson to a card making group get together a couple of summers ago. At the time there were seven or eight of us who routinely got together to make a few cards, have lunch, laugh, and generally solve the problems of the world in our own minds. My grandson was a fly on the wall as he made a card or two and spent some time on his computer. As we were driving home he sai...

 I recently read a poem, " In the Museum of Lost Objects " by Rebecca Lindenberg.  Apparently there are such museums. Anyway it got me thinking. Does anyone else feel as though they have lost the entire year, 2020? It's been occuring to me that even though 2021 is more than half over, I am still have a hard time putting the '21 date on things. I think I want a do over, a time reset. It just doesn't seem fair that we have to be a year older when a year was wasted. Consider this my official letter of complaint to Father Time and I am definitely leaving a poor review on YELP.

 The HOA hired a tree company to clear out the dead trees behind the condos. There were a lot of dead trees  and brush grown up around them. They got right to work on Tuesday morning. View from my deck There was a lot of machinery and a lot of activity all day. I was amazed at how fast they could whiz around with the machinery. It did kind of look like prehistoric dinasaurs gobbling up the vegetation. In the evening there was one very confused looking squirrel running back and forth. I hadn't seen a squirrel in the back before but he must have had a nest and store of winter nuts in one of the dead trees. He looked pretty frantic.  By Wednesday early afternoon the work was done. I am not sure if the plan is for expanded lawn or if new trees will be planted. I am also not sure that the view has been all that improved during the day, but we do see an expanded sunset and a much better view of the night sky. I will say the work crew did their job very well though. They knew wh...