Family

It occurs to me that I don't spend much time talking about my family. I grew up in Northeaster Vermont and moved away right after I finished college. Over the years I've returned back less and less to the point where now I only see my family at holidays. In part this is because of stubbornness. My folks don't get out much, at least not down to the big-city of Bedford, MA. In response, I don't tend to get up there all that often either. My folks were always 'quirky' which I think is a 'real Vermonter' thing and is in part, probably why I am the way that I am as well. ears and years of inbreeding. that is a joke of course, though we did have some cases with 'brousins' and 'bruncles' not far from where I grew up. This is very different than the perceptions of the 'I-Heart-Vermont' tourism campaign of years past. In truth, Real Vermonters not only don't milk goats, (I had Frank Bryan as a professor at UVM) they would also prefer you keep your flatlander ideas and attitudes back in the flatlands of MA, NY and CT.

One of the 'quirky' phrases that my parents always used, beyond the response to the question "what are you doing?" perpetually being "making fools ask questions, and it's working", they also delighted in stating "the road goes both ways" and "if they wanted to see us they would come visit". I guess that the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Anyhow, my mom sent me a picture recently of my dad with both of my brothers and my niece on the porch of their camp. My parents built the camp a few years back. My dad has been retired ever since he stove himself up (crushed hip/pelvis) wiping out on the ice in his snow racers trying to unload a bunch of 'free pallets' he had gotten from work, with which he intended to add another wing onto the barn. These days he is building another truck, from scratch, based on a modified Ford Ranger frame and rear end, a GM V8 and a late 30's truck cab. My younger brother builds absolutely beautiful furniture, which we have the good fortune of owning some of. My other brother is the town barber. If you are ever in the area, possibly riding Kingdom Trails, the best XC MTB trail system in the country, you should stop by and get a cut. He was locally trained right here in lovely Malden. He also has the distinction of being the most foul mouthed person I have ever met. He has been known to weave "a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know is still hanging in space". and he also has an affinity for "A Christmas Story".

Anyhow, the holidays are coming and I look very forward to seeing everyone.