100 or more reasons, huh?

Vermont colloquialism of the day: "I weren't sure I'd be able to deal with it."  We heard this twice in the past week, once at the recent annual town meeting, and just this morning from an electrician friend of ours.  Richard had to write it down to make sure he remembered it.   The person will be going along, speaking just fine, and then one of these local phrases will pop out as if it had quotation marks around it.  It's almost like a dialect, something ingrained, natural, thoughtless.  I like it.  It brings to mind one of our first encounters with local folk here when we were doing some demolition work on the place.  Two trash collectors showed up, a lanky toothless yet smiling self-professed "yankee" and his tough diminutive wife, to give us an estimate on all the old plaster and bricks and boards we needed carted away.  They were really quite friendly, apologizing for having shown up late (they were 2 minutes late, tops) and assuring us that that would never happen again.  As they rooted around we all conversed amiably and Richard and I told them we were moving out from Los Angeles.  "California!" the toothless man pronounced jovially, "The land of fruits and nuts!"  Richard and I nodded, smiling, not really knowing what to say next.   (I'm not sure whether that fits into the category of a Vermont colloquialism, but it certainly popped out thoughtlessly.)

So 100 or more reasons I'm living in Vermont.  I don't know if I'm going to keep count, don't hold me to it; I just thought it was a catchy title, so sue me.  But to satisfy you literalists I will do a bit of a rambling list today, not in any order of importance:

1)  The seasons.   Granted, Vermont's winters last a little bit longer than we born and bred midwestern boys are used to, but still, all and all, it suits us.  There's something that stirs our spirits, feels natural and right about experiencing all 4 seasons.   I find myself appreciating each one with much more sweet fierceness.  Autumn is magnificent, my favorite season, but I love spring and summer just as much because the balance experience of winter helps me be more present and grateful for every day of the green.   One more winter note, we did learn from Vermonters last year that if you're able to break up the cold months with little trips to warmer climes, it does cut back on vitamin D deficiency, cabin fever, and general stir craziness.  Winter here really stretches from mid-November through most of April.

2) Change and adventure.  Richard and I were both fortunately in the same mood, an amorphous itch to just take a leap somewhere, to answer a pull, to go for broke. We were both tired of living in deserts (LA and Arizona).  I wanted to move back East, I loved New England, and I wanted to infect Richard with that love.  Richard took that initial infection and created an epidemic.  I can sometimes wander into the question "And why the hell are we living here?" but mostly I'm just enjoying the ride.

3) No advertisements on the interstates.  We wondered what was different at first and then it hit us, there are no signs, no ads, just scenery.  It's amazing when you take the marketplace bombardment out of your visuals.

4)  Canopies of sugar maples versus cement and concrete.  This didn't hit me until I was here for awhile, but though I did love living in LA, I realized what an energy drain it had been to block out the endless miles of concrete and cement and shopping centers and outlet stores and buildup.  Here there's mostly nature.

5)  Our elusive moose.  There's a big bull moose that comes and drinks at our pond and I've yet to see him.  Richard's actually spied him, but I've only seen traces of him, huge hoof prints mushed into the soil and meandering from our pond up the rise behind our house.  I cringe a little when the pops of guns echo around our woods during deer season and wonder how something that big will be able to find shelter amidst all the mayhem.  Still looking out for him.

6)  Proximity to Hanover and Dartmouth.  Okay, not officially Vermont, just over the river from Norwich, but, oh, what a lovely setting, sparking romantic images of ivy-covered college walls.  Hanover is the closest hub for co-op shopping (more particulars on that later), movie theatres (35 minutes away.  I'm sure LA denizens are grasping their hearts right about now), decent shopping, other arts performances and exhibits (the Hood museum and the HOP series), fun restaurants (the Canoe Club, Molly's, Murphys, Orient, Umbleby's, and the new Korean/Japanese place that just opened), and EXCELLENT coffee (Dirt Cowboy).

7) Annual Town Meetings.  We've only experienced 2 and we hear they're not nearly as rambunctious and dramatic as they used to be, but still there's something quite moving in an entire town showing up (for the most part) to take an active part in the welfare of their community.  People are articulate, thoughtful, colorful, friendly.  I'm proud to be a part of it.

8)  Our house and land.  The history behind the place.  The sturdy original construction.  The pitching in on reframing of the barn, the building of the porches and mud/room, painting, upkeep.  Walks in all seasons up the rise in back, seeing signs of the wildlife all around, letting the silence in.  It's all indescribable in its beauty and embrace.  Note: Richard, in the flurry of his New England infection, has done the lion's share of the work on this place from the very beginning.  It tapped some hidden well of certainty that he was to be here and the work on the place gave him purpose and direction.  He just went for it completely from the very beginning and it was awesome to behold.

9) Co-ops, farmers markets, naturally raised meats and vegetables.  I know this was readily available in California, but here -- maybe due to the state being smaller and food paths simpler to keep track of -- I have more of an awareness of how good food sources are an embracing part of most everyone's lives.  With very little effort you can find out where your meat is raised and how it is raised and support that farmer's methods.  You can buy local produce and support your local farmers.  You KNOW your local farmers.  And getting back to the seasons, you much more readily eat the vegetables that are of that season and feel a closer tie to the land.

10) An independent spirit.  There's a pioneering spirit here.  People can come here and reinvent themselves.  There's a history of free thinking, it's in the air.  This is where secessionist meetings have been held.  I believe there's something written into the original constitution that states if a single legislator brings up the issue of secession from the United States that the topic must be debated in the State legislature.  (Again, don't hold me to this, I need to do a little more research, but I don't think I'm too off the mark.)  Socialism and helping take care of one another is not a dirty word here.  

11)  Just being in New England.  I was a history nut growing up, a real nerd, and there's something that conjures up through my bones knowing I'm spending most of my time traveling throughout Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut where the country first broke into revolution and began wrestling with the ideas and ideals they wanted to make manifest into a United States.  I love living here knowing that, especially in these equally revolutionary times.  It's so interesting to me that people seeking something new and daring came to this place and called it "New England" which implanted this schizophrenic divide inside, a split between the NEW planted in the soil of the old, ENGLAND.   

12)  Close to nature.  This fits into the seasons and the canopies of trees versus buildings, but there's something whole-making being here where the pace of nature is still king.  We're not imposing our pace.  To that end, we don't have television.  We do have wifi and listen to some radio, but television -- bye-bye -- and 95% of the time we don't miss it.

12 reasons, not too bad.  A bit scattershot, but there you have it.  Gotta go, I'm off for a drive down to New York.  That is one of the slight drawbacks here, the distance in driving from here to NYC, a place I dearly love.  However, the distance and seclusion that can make it seem so inconvenient also makes this place special.  Go figure.