Property Tax Reform, a Beginning

Check out this link to an article in the free press...

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110226/NEWS03/102260302/Vermont-weighs-eliminating-late-tax-penalty

It is encouraging and I urge people to stand up and question their town tax policies.
Vermonters suffer enough and these penalties like the 8 percent are antiquated
and unconstitutional. Thanks to Bruce Cunningham for helping bring reform to light.
Check out his site:

Vermontadvocate.com

Happy to see a beginning,
a lighthouse in the fog.
mary gerdt, monkton vermont 02.26.2011
started new side blog in burlington free press
got a foot of snow yesterday
will post pictures
almost breaking all time record for feb snow

STS-133 and face in Space

https://faceinspace.nasa.gov/index.aspx

I was so excited to hear STS-133 launched OK today. Wishful for a successful mission.
My face went to space today.
Sprachlos.

See my other face in space post when STS-133 was scheduled to launch last fall.

You can still send your face to space.
STS-134 still has room.

Mary
face is in space.thanks for the crew's efforts and Nasa's creativity to enable a middle aged girl
to space travel who longed to travel in space since she could crawl.

Legacy of words

All she had were words
at the end.

A string of words on pages
scribbled at the end of the day
or when she was too tired to write the whole story.

Hoping the words would help her recapture the moment she had that
Aha type moment
at the end of her day.

The next morning, a clear cold sky awaits the next battle,
the next battle scars,
the challenge to help her find the strength
to endure the day after tomorrow.

The scars a memory of stressors past,
now so distant seeming,
but still full of feelings,
things could have gone a better way.

Yes the mean people shall not falter
or fall in front of you,
but wait a minute, you need do nothing,
rest assured, traveler,
they will fall.

The universe was meant to right the wrongs and wrong the rights
and at the end of the day,
perhaps we can find some solace
in that thought.

Space in Between

There



Did you notice that?
The Space in Between?
The Pause, The Gap, the air we do not see.

Will you pay attention if I ask,
to the space in between
end and beginning,
and beginning and end.

Think about it next time,
When you notice a pause, a stop in the
conversation or the moment.

Was there something more in the silence you did not hear?
A hidden message in the air you cannot see?
And listen to the other signs,
Because the space in between is not nothing,
It is real.

Waterworld II

 

 

View from Causeway South Hero.

The Purple Heart Trail.

Die hard ice fisherman in the background.

Stiff winds. Cold front came crashing in.

 

 

Lake Champlain and Winter wonderland

Adirondack Morning



Adirondack morning



Real

Real,
Get real,
Reel me in.

And taxes
are real
Surreal,
Really.

And a man on the radio
Says the taxes are not bad.
A gradual erosion of what we thought
we owned.

Gradually,
like how the minerals leach off the mountain,
slowly,
one grain at a time
until
all at once
it seems,
it all disappears.

Blues the colors

Blue

The Color Blue,
Is said to be cool.

Why does it feel warm to me?


How special blue that color must have been

Seen in in the eyes of

The first space explorers
as they tried to capture that shade of color
and clicked photos of the sky

From above.

Down here, in February in Vermont,
Blue is a sign of
Colder arctic air sitting on us.
Sitting air better than blustery blowing air.
As cold as the air is,
the sun is the reward.

Even in long low rays,
The sun warms our spirits.

And gives us hope for spring.










notes: Blue is my all time favorite color.
We were told heaven was in the sky and Heavenly Blue is a phrase.
Blues Music although often sad, has an uplifting quality.
Turning Blue is a sign of no oxygen
Our blue sky is because of Nitrogen reflection
It is a blue you cannot touch
And hard to capture just what your eye sees.

Ageism

Ageism.

At first glance, It really is a strange looking word.
3 vowels, breaks the normal rules of pronunciation.
To say out loud, say it like 2 words: Age and ism.
What got me going again is how subtle this word's meaning can be.
Hard to explain.
The following are generalities.
I realize not everyone thinks this way and not everyone
in the US has the same feelings or attitudes or prejudices.
But the media feeds us info and we select what we read, what we pay attention to, and what we rant about.
In the US in general, we value youth to a distraction. We are raised to expect to enjoy youth, being young, doing young things. We likewise are bombarded with youthful images that the media feeds us: photos of celebrities, notables, politicians. TV, magazines, advertising, just look around.
I started looking at the recent rash of skiers going off trail.
One after another, a skier would have that fantasy run all alone ending up on the wrong side of the mountain.
Reported like this:
Lost skier found after spending cold night on the mountain in 10 degree weather. Joe Blow from [insert state they are from here-never Vermonters] skied off trail at about 3 pm yesterday. he called 911. rescuers worked to find him. blah blah. cold and tired, blah blah.
how cute.
Not one thing about how he endangered the lives of the rescue patrols, nor that he was negligent nor how he took rescue people away from Vermonters' emergencies, nor how this kid was just being plain stupid. A foolish young man, a
rapscallion, a man who should just go sit in a rocking chair.
They do not even charge these people. Freebie.
What if they had left their junk on the mountain? Does the town fine them with littering?
Now look up the press about Poppa Neutrino. The old man who sailed Lake Champlain on a homemade raft that he had checked out by the coast guard. He crashed on some rocks in a storm. And that is where the ageism began.
The press loved humiliating him, calling him everything short of foolish old man......
I can read.
Now, one skier after another, with likely very little real experience goes lost and must be rescued (unlike Poppa who was an experienced ocean sailor).
And the reporting has not changed.
This morning to WDEV's credit, they reported ski areas are beginning to think about charging for rescues.
But come on,
Poppa was accused right off as simply being too old.
So we baby boomers better get used to ageism. Before you know it, we won't be hip anymore.
As I explain options to consumers, I am reminded we still have to deal with the society we live in.
When I feel ageism is wrong and needs to change,
I also accept that I am a dreamer.
It takes more than me to change all this cultural bias against aging.
When I was younger, I might not have seen this phenomenon.
Guess I am feeling my age today.

Winter Reading

Here are 2 books that came to me.

First, Mississippi River Festival came from Donna who was an usher there

for a number of seasons. This is a fun book, great pictures and stories

about this short lived rare musical bubble. I could not even believe how

many great stars of the day were there. I was lucky to see a number

of these concerts and memories to hold forever.

Then, I was in the lunch room one day at work

(in Vermont, mind you),

and was wearing my authentic replica of a Mississippian

arrowhead, going on and on about Cahokia,

our recent visit and the special-ness of this place.

Penny, my coworker, said, Cahokia?? She had just read this

 book by Timothy Pauketat about Cahokia.

It leaves you with more questions than answers, a well written

honest account of the mysterious culture I errantly thought had died out.

These books sat next to each other.

I noticed the tent looked a bit like a Mound of the Mound builders,

and imagined as they excavated layers of ancient burial mounds,

did they release a puff of energy contributing to the amazing

short lived MRF?

Winter Reading is well worth a day on the couch.

enjoy

Change in the Weather

I have not said much about the dreaded global weather debate.
It is an argument which is as futile and silly as arguing with my cat Tommy.
Oh we have had a change in the weather, in fact as they say wait a day the weather will change.

No this wind, this wind is blowing from other directions.

When I found out my property was on a priority list for eco warriors,
it was too late to really address.
By then, the plan to take my property at a tax sale fell through.
I felt like Mr. Magoo, oblivious to who might have been sitting there,
pen in hand, ready to take something I have worked towards my whole life.
My life blood really.

So when I hear the allegations of warmer climates to come, and how the bats will die
if someone does not take your property, money or lifeblood,
I only can say it is a lie.

The crows are not people haters and loners. We talk to Pa Crow and his family everyday, we throw out bits of bread and stale crackers for them and we look at them, and they look at us.
Caw, Caw, Caw.

I love this land more than just about anything in the world. What it means to me,
They really never cared.
Sometimes I sit and wonder who was sitting there, checkbook in hand, at the tax sale of my property that never came to fruit.
I think they were probably furious their plan failed,
Curse, foiled again.

I tried to get someone to care about what happened to us.
My blog Galaxy people got it, and a few others.

So when I am sore from shoveling and more snow on the way,
I have no doubt there is a change in the air,
a Change in the weather.

Time  for spring, already.

More

 

About a foot more only this time it rained in the middle of the whole

storm.

We had snow, then more, then more.

Banks are getting higher.

Stopped shoveling to snap a few.

  snowflakes

                                            

Blues part Deux

This image 1967 downtown Edwardsville where I grew up.

My Mom painted this and what memories it can recall.

Wish I had been old enough to go to the Blue Note Lounge.

Bet you can pick that out.

Of course true natives would recognize

the Pool hall, Gerhardt's,

Jail Tree and One hour Martinizing.

This downtown is 20 or so miles from St. Louis, home of The Blues.

St. Louis was farther away then if you know what I mean.

It was about 2 blocks from our house.

A little less when you cut cross lots.

Blues

Check out Stefani Crouse and Mojo's Playground....


Mojo's Playground

Woodchuck Day Bizzard 2011

Well, the winter season is gearing up. As it is for a big part of the US.
8 inches of snow here this am for the prequel.
1-2 inches an hour so far since 8 am.

Happy woodchuck Day to all the woodchuck worshippers.
I grew to love our old woodchuck up back. He possibly lived under
one of Ed's old buildings. At first I felt threatened by his large appearance.
He was close to the garden and our main food source.
But then I watched him from the upstairs window. He really stayed up
by the building and did not go to the garden.
We mowed some areas up back to keep the bugs and critters back.
When we mowed it, clover came up, just like Dad said. The sunlight caused the dormant seeds
to sprout. Is that what it means "every thing's coming up clover". anyway, the tune was in my head.
Anyway, woodchucks love clover.
Which is why he did not ever leave his patch of heaven.
And I could enjoy seeing that dog like huge rodent (and they are nearly blind-I do not believe he could see me.)
Now he is gone, another natural consequence of living.
I dedicate this blizzard to him.
Happy woodchuck's Day