The first night

Well, with Caitlin asleep, Steve on his way back west and Elinor spending the night at the in-laws, I am in my first moments of being "home alone" in Vermont. Time for some slight reflection, some of Beethoven's 9th and a bottle of red wine... While the house is warm and all is covered with snow outside. For these last 6 full days here, it has been quite easy. Of course, I haven't even broached the thought of work, and I have done very little of the driving through this wintry stuff (seemingly, we will be snowed continually for the next 4 or more months, and I did slip and fall twice today) but it has been an easy transition. There are some folks back home who I would like to see, but having Steve here for the first 5 days made the transition easier. And I have met (and re-met) some of Caitlin's friends, which has been good. But the cold doesn't bother me, and it is nice to always have snow outside.

Honestly, I can't believe I live here! being outside of the city on a rural road is like some strange dream come true and there is something very soothing about it. I hope to take some pictures of the village tomorrow (maybe when I trot down to the post office to check the mail, which I haven't done since Monday), as there don't seem to be any online and it is a charming little area. Though I am thinking it would be great to settle in North Danville! Now that's a village! but that's a story for a distant future.

But speaking of places, I had to go into Burlington today (the airport, you know). It was my second time actually in the city and, while it does have some boons of convenience as far as shopping and restaurants go, my overall impression was the same as previously. It isn't Vermont. It is just a standard hip little college town with traffic and hipsters and all of that tiring stuff. Honestly, if this move to Vermont had been to Burlington, we would just as well stayed in Portland. It is nothing like the rest of Vermont and the people seem to be nothing like those in the rest of Vermont. To my eyes, Vermont is endless little villages of a few hundred folks, most of whom have always lived where they live, with little in them aside from a church and maybe a general store. Every twenty or so miles is maybe a town of a couple of thousand people, with some more stuff, a hardware store, maybe a cafe or a Duncan Donuts. And between them? Farms. No pretensions, professional baristas, Starbucks, tattoo parlors, traffic lights, irony, rock bands, nightspots, hipsters or any of that tiring stuff. Just real people, quietly living their lives how and where they always have...

People who bring up Burlington when you mention Vermont are thinking of a much different state than I am. Rolling into Burlington you could be in any small college city in the US. People trying so hard to be interesting is so boring. After living in hip and ironic Portland, the national magnet area for anyone who wants to do something cool... Vermont is such a nice relief. And then Burlington brings it all back again and I want to flee screaming back down route 2 to the Northeast Kingdom again. Sure, maybe my values aren't a perfect match for those of the folks here, but at least the values of the folks here are genuine.

When looking around, I will forget about Burlington, except as some place that I need to go to get folks to/from the airport. East Saint Johnsbury is the village I live in, and St Johnsbury is my town.

Now for some more pictures, that may look just like the last ones. In preparation for our 70 mile drive to Burlington it snowed all night (and all morning), leaving East Village Road a wonderful picture of a winter country road...

Here is the road, from our house in down to the bridge across the Moose River...



And here is a picture of Mom's horse pasture right across the road, something that I never get tired of looking at.