Catching Up

For a week there I lost internet and phone access at home. The least of the flood trouble, but damn inconvenient nevertheless. That was a result of the May 26 2011 storm. It took down most of a tree in the front yard (hard to say if it was lightening or the sheer force of 4 inches of rain pouring down in one hour) of my next door neighbor's house, which took the cable and phone lines with it. The cable went back up the next day but I had to keep on calling to remind them I didn't have phone or internet for 6 days before they got that back up. Like I said, it was inconvenient, but the least of the troubles. Some businesses in Montpelier and Barre (10 miles from here) lost all their inventory in basement storage and had to rebuild/are in the process of rebuilding as I write this some weeks later. Some roads are still washed out in parts of Central Vermont and the river is still running brown with silt. It rained all day today which isn't surprising but rather daunting given how much rain has already accumulated in this half year.

Cultural institutions are going and hopefully coming. The Langdon Street Cafe closed May 28, as did Black Sheep Books. Rhapsody Cafe closed in March and a burrito/bagel cafe has opened to replace it. Hope springs eternal at Goddard with the beginning of plans to create an arts center at the campus where the 1970's era student built buildings are (the Design Center, Sculpture Building, and Painting Building) that will also include active participation with the town of Plainfield.
(photo credit: me - Second floor painting studio, Painting Building, Goddard College, August 2009)

Meanwhile some institutions remain and grow, as does the Montpelier Fashion Show, which had it's seventh annual last Saturday, June 4th, and where I took my current blog title image, above.

Rachael Rice and Dan Haley, the sweetest, most fecund musical/artistic couple in these parts are moving to Portland, Oregon in a month or so. Last night there was a farewell concert for/with Dan Haley, who normally plays guitar, mandolin and banjo, among other instruments, but last night he (only?) sang and played harmonica (major back trouble that may delay their travel plans, with surgery, a bit) but with accompaniment with something like ten different artists, telling the story as they came up to play how he met them and how they started playing together in the past ten years. Wonderful, and I could only stay an hour, as the church pews (the concert was in Bethany Church's sanctuary) were too hard for me to sit on longer than that.

I feel a little like the punch line of that joke about the kid who starts talking when she's 4 years old - her parents ask why she didn't speak before then and she says, 'I didn't have anything to say'. I promise I will pop back in when I have more to say, I just don't when that's going to be. Until then, have fun and take lots of pictures.