Ode to Pbville

Yes, folks, there is still a place in this country where you can get your horoscope and your weight read for just five cents. If you are pretty sure about your future, you can just get your weight for one cent.

At 10,152 feet above sea level this is the highest incorporated town in the United States (no problem with sea level rise here!) You feel sort of light headed and giddy all the time. The sky is blue, sun shines every day, there are wispy clouds and mountains are always in view.

election day!

return to sender

address unknown

by Anne Lambert

At the Waltham artist studios I thought I had found an old friend in this mailbox. I love the letters sticking out the side. We like what we recognize.
Here is our mailbox from a year ago, flatted by a tree brought down by Hurricane Irene. I was amazed that the mailman was undaunted by the crushed mailbox and stuffed the mail in there anyway. This lasted for days until we got a new box. I appreciated not having to go to town to get my mail.

This year we got  Hurricane Sandy. As the winds gusted and the rain sheeted horizontally and branches fell last Monday, schools and municipal services were closed and there was not a car on the road. I looked out the window at around 1pm and there was the small white boxy Postal Service truck pulled up to our mailbox delivering the mail.
Intrepid! I put on boots and raincoat to walk the short distance down the driveway to get the mail and came back soaked (and I couldn't dry my clothes in the dryer, no power.) What is etched on the USPS building in Washington is true. They get the catalogs to us not matter what the weather.

Waltham Mills artist's open studios

I particularly liked the installation below called

THE WAY THINGS GO

by Anne Lambert

wash away, wear away, disappear, break

flame out, burn up, implode, explode

fade, unravel, corrode, rust

run out, wind down

Soar out of sight.

The words on each shingle might make good writing prompts.

it's november!

Hello everyone, welcome to my kitchen windowsill.

Today is the first day I have really known that winter is coming. It was chilly walking down the driveway to pick up The New York Times. I could see my breath. 

I hope you have all put your clocks back one hour. Day light savings adjustment.  Here in Massachusetts it will be lighter in the morning and dark by four pm. 

post Hurricane Sandy

The woods are different. Huge trees snapped in two, the forest floor is covered with pine branches, pine cones, and the paths are blocked in many places by trees that have been uprooted.
Along the roads, the NSTAR trucks have been a permanent fixture in town with men in cherry pickers fixing the lines, piles of tree trunks and branches lie in twisted heaps along the road.  The sound of generators is a constant reminder that many in town still how no power almost a week later.  Halloween was postponed (as it was last year) due to the danger of walking on streets. Wind was the main problem here, not water.

....and poor New York. Hurricane Irene last year, Sandy this year. Flooding in subways and roads. People without power still. Rising death toll. Everyone wonders, is this the "new normal?" Politicians are finally connecting  this extreme weather to the affects of climate change. Warming oceans cause hurricanes, sea level rise causes flooding.

November 3

Happy Birthday, Carrie!