I am writing this now and know that I won’t post it immediately. I cannot. The words however are here, rolling around in my head and they need to be put down on cyber “paper”. For those of you that follow the blog and know me personally, you know that I often write about the White Dog. The White Dog and I have a relationship that is love/hate or hate/hate or something in between. There are many times in frustration and anger that I might have wished she were dead or words to that effect spewed from my mouth. It was only words uttered in the heat of frustration or anger, after a can of garbage was emptied on a newly mopped floor or dinner was eaten off the table. I never really meant them and I hope that anyone would know that.

Yesterday we lost the dog that my boys knew for their entire lives. Suddenly and without warning, the most horrible type of death for survivors. Hopefully, the most peaceful for her. She was playing outside in our yard with a friend’s dog, which is considerably smaller than she was. The small dog ran under her owner’s truck and Juno, caught up in the heat of the fun, followed her. Full speed. The best we can figure is that she cleared the body of the truck and broke her neck when she slammed into the frame underneath. She died only a few minutes later in my husband’s arms. Needless to say, we all suffered a very real and very painful loss yesterday. The boys are a mess, Tom is a mess, I am a mess.

During the next couple hours, we did what we had to do. We dug a hole and we laid her to rest after saying our last goodbyes. Many tears mixed with many fond memories.  Here are some:

For all our differences, she will still hold a very special place in my heart. She was a part of our family and our lives will not be the same without her. It will be hard to be without her, since our memories are many. She had a long, full life and I’d like to think, a happy one. She was well when she died, not sick or in pain. She was playing and happy and I guess that’s the way death should be greeted if any of us have the choice. Dying doing what we love. For her, it was playing and running. She loved the snow and this morning, it was all over the ground. White dog, rest in peace.

Juno 1998-2009

Photo: The Institute of Heraldry

“Godspeed” a word, a wish, a hope. It is a wish for a speedy, successful, safe journey. The phrase is used in the launching of naval vessels and during NASA space flights.

It is our wish for those Vermonters, 1210 in all, who will be deployed to Afghanistan for Task Force Phoenix. The task force is established to help train Afghan Army and Security Forces to combat terrorism within their borders. There are 33 troops deploying alone from Rutland and 4 from our own town. These are neighbors and friends, familiar faces as we go about our daily lives here in a small town in a small state, who will be conspicuously absent in the next year. We appreciate their dedication and their bravery. Their families will undoubtedly have a “blue” Christmas without them and all of our lives will be emptier without them.

All we can offer in return for their efforts is a promise that as a community, we will help their families where needed, keep them in our thoughts and prayers and hope, just a little, to temper the hole their absence will create in the lives of their families.  We wish them Godspeed, a safe and quick journey on their appointed tasks.

Today, November 5th is Guy Fawkes Night. It is an annual celebration of the night that Guy Fawkes and a group of others, known as the Gunpowder Plot of 5, attempted to blow up the English Parliament. It is celebrated in England, Newfoundland, the British Caribbean, New Zealand and South Africa.

The celebrations include fireworks and bonfires. We have some very good friends from England who recount stories of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations which include lighting barrels of oil on fire and carrying them through the streets, sounds like a far more dangerous “running of the bulls” type tradition.

In Ottery St Mary, in Devon, burning barrels of tar are carried through the streets:

“Ottery St. Mary is internationally renowned for its tar barrels, an old custom said to have originated in the 17th century, and which is held on November 5th each year. Each of Ottery’s central public houses sponsors a single barrel. In the weeks prior to the day of the event, November 5th, the barrels are soaked with tar. The barrels are lit outside each of the pubs in turn and once the flames begin to pour out, they are hoisted up onto local people’s backs and shoulders. The streets and alleys around the pubs are packed with people, all eager to feel the lick of the barrels flame. Seventeen Barrels all in all are lit over the course of the evening. In the afternoon and early evening there are women’s and boy’s barrels, but as the evening progresses the barrels get larger and by midnight they weigh at least 30 kilos. A great sense of camaraderie exists between the ‘Barrel Rollers’, despite the fact that they tussle constantly for supremacy of the barrel. In most cases, generations of the same family carry the barrels and take great pride in doing so. … Opinion differs as to the origin of this festival of fire, but the most widely accepted version is that it began as a pagan ritual that cleanses the streets of evil.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Our friends who live in Ottery St. Mary have often told us that coming for Guy Fawkes Night there would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. While I don’t know if we will ever make it there for the burning barrels, being a part of such a longstanding tradition would be rather interesting.

As coincidence would have it, we are having a bonfire here at the Ts tomorrow night. (So, we’re a little late for Guy Fawkes, but what the heck-actually we just have a huge brush pile to burn and figured we’d plan a party around that). We planned on a bonfire with munchies and hot cocoa for the boys and some of their friends. I am however perfectly certain that there will be no lighted barrels of tar and children carrying them, running through our yard.

The traditional foods served in England for Guy Fawkes Night celebrations include:

• Jacket potatoes or as we call them here, baked potatoes wrapped in foil and cooked in the coals of the bonfire;
• potato pie with pickled cabbage (now tell me the boys wouldn’t just love that! – and I would be evicted from motherhood duties forever as they died of embarrassment)
• groaty pudding (I am sure another teenage boy favorite)
• toffee apples

Our, much more non-traditional bonfire menu will include:

• chili
• nachos
• tacos
• chips and dips

The Ts’ version is more of a “Guy Fawkes meets Juan Valdez”.

Happy Guy Fawkes Night to you all!

Everything old is new again…isn’t that the way that the saying goes? We have a collection of the Calvin and Hobbes books on our bookshelf. They have been a part of our family right around the time we became a family or at least since we became a married couple. I always enjoyed the humor of  little Calvin and his all-knowing Hobbes.

One of my favorite pieces of furniture in our house is the bookcase in our living room. It is a simple, too small, crammed glass doored bookshelf. It holds memories and fantasies, love stories and breakups, horror and history all within its shelves. Nestled in there are the collection of Calvin and Hobbes books. Since we have had the boys, the books have come out many times. More often than not, a cycle will come where a boy will pull out one of the books and it will become attached to him for days, weeks even a month or two. They pour over the strips, laughing out loud to themselves, enjoying these comics, just as I did, well before they were even a desire, much less a reality.

Well, the books have made their way out of the bookshelf once again, now being enjoyed by my youngest son. He pulls the book out and sits and reads, laughing to himself and recounting for me, whenever I might be able to listen, about how funny this or that strip was and how he giggled at it.

Bill Watterson should enjoy knowing that his work, almost all of it penned well before they were even born, is entertaining a whole new generation of readers, my sons.

Here is video footage of Tim’s team’s Odyssey of the Mind float that participated in the Rutland Halloween parade. It was a rainy night, but these kids spent 2 hours in the rain, some of it pouring to participate. All three of my boys wound up helping out. Tim’s the one driving the car (on the float, not the truck pulling it!)

Video courtesy of PEGTV through Tim Vile

Photo courtesy: Motor Trend

So far, 23 states have banned texting while driving. New York State became the latest state to do so when its ban went into effect on Sunday, November 1st. There are three more states in which the ban against texting while driving will become effective on January 1st, 2010. Vermont unfortunately is not one of them. Presently, Vermont has a bill pending which would preclude use of cell phones at all while driving a motor vehicle. As presently written, this bill if it becomes law, would preclude anyone (regardless of age) from using a cell phone for any purpose (other than 911 calls) while operating a vehicle on any roadway in the state. The bill is absent an exception or provision for hands-free use, making one wonder if driving a car in Vermont will mean put that cell phone away completely. To see where your state fits into the mix, click on this NPR link to go their interactive state map.

Research shows that 93% of drivers favor a ban on texting. See Motor Trend article here. Where do you stand? Where would you stand if you were completely precluded from using your phone as a result?

Everyone associates Vermont with certain things – maple syrup, fall foliage and skiing. But Halloween? Vermont boasts the country’s largest and longest running Halloween parade in the country. The parade takes place every year, like clockwork on Halloween night at 6:30 p.m. This year the Rutland Halloween Parade turns 50. The parade has run every year  with the exception of one year, 1962 when it was canceled due to the weather. Last year, one of the original founders of the parade, Tom Fagan died on October 21st. He desired not to miss the parade in the event of his death and there was serious talk about putting him in the parade – despite the fact that he was dead. I kid you not. Ultimately, he didn’t make it, but imagine what sort of stories that would have created for generations to come? A parade so good, you even come when you’re dead.

The parade, some would argue, lacks the glitz and glamour associated with that other famous Halloween Parade, the one that takes place in Greenwich Village, NYC. Others, like myself, would disagree. The parade takes community to another level, only the way Vermont can do it. Hay wagons and manure spreaders are transformed into floats, school bands, community groups and even the sheep and cows march in the parade. Everyone can march and everyone participates, whether you are the one throwing the candy (Mardi Gras style) or the one in the crowds, collecting it. The streets are lined with people, more people than one would see at any other time in Rutland or at any one place in Vermont for that matter.

We have been attending the parade for years now, even before we moved here permanently. Once the boys found out that you could stand in one spot and collect an entire sack full of candy and assorted goodies, all while being entertained, they were hooked.

This year, Tim’s Odyssey of the Mind team will have a float in the parade. This means that two of the boys will be parade participants. I promised them that somehow they wouldn’t miss out on the candy, and I guess that I should get cracking on that one, since time is a wastin’.

If you are in the Rutland area, I would highly suggest that you endure the Vermont-style crowds and take in the parade, it is well worth it.

As I started this post I was writing from my phone sitting in the dark. I was sitting in the truck outside of the scout house, waiting on Tom after having dropped the boys off. It was pitch black around me, with the exception of the soft glow coming from the scout house and the few dotted lights in the mountainside from some homes in the area. It occurred to me that it was such a stark contrast to the many nights I may have also been sitting in my truck waiting on Tom or the boys while we were in New Jersey. There, darkness was an expensive commodity. Everywhere was lit, streetlights, house lights, car headlights. The glow of the New York city skyline always cast a glow on the night sky obstructing any possible view of stars, except for maybe a select, bright few. Here, by contrast, you’d be hard pressed to find a place on a clear night that you couldn’t see a skyful of stars, similar to those indoor planetarium shows. The sky twinkles and when it is dark, well, it is really, absolutely, pitch dark. I sent out a twitter while I was sitting there in the dark, that I was pretending to be invisible. It is easy in this complete darkness to be absorbed by it and feel a part of it. It is quiet and peaceful – a stark contrast to that place from which we came.

That’s not just my opinion, mind you. It is the result of the 2009 National Geographic Best and Worst Travel Destinations. The decisions were based upon six criteria: environmental and ecological quality, social and cultural integrity, condition of historic buildings and archeological sites, aesthetic appeal, quality of tourism management and outlook for the future. Vermont ranked 6th in the world and the highest in North America.

As stated in the magazine:

“More than any American state, Vermont has worked to preserve those qualities that make it unique,” such as scenic countryside, lively small towns, historic streetscapes, local businesses. A tourist magnet in summer, it nonetheless “never seems overrun by visitors.” Scores well for “environmental- and social-sustainability practices.”

Additional comments listed the following:

“Vermont, more than any other American state, has worked to preserve those qualities and characteristics that make it unique. It is one of only four U.S. states that completely prohibit outdoor advertising (i.e. billboards). It has a very effective statewide land trust and the state-funded Affordable Housing and Land Conservation Trust that rehabilitates historic buildings, like old mills, for low-income housing, and purchases conservation easements on farmland and forests. It has limited the spread of big-box retailing and works to retain locally owned retail, such as village stores. If you want to see New England as you imagine it, go to Vermont.”

“Many areas of Vermont continue to show leadership in environmental and social sustainability practices relative to much of the U.S. An important but sublime value has been added by the increasing application of Total Economic Valuation tools that measure social capital and natural capital, as well as market capital, at several scales in the state (driven by the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute of Ecological Economics).”

Congratulations Vermont!

I came across this one thanks to @sCartierLiebel on Twitter. A little six year old girl who was diagnosed with brain cancer and given 135 days to live wrote hundreds of little notes to her parents and baby sister and hid them all over their house before her death. The child, who was deprived of her ability to speak shortly after her diagnosis, began to write notes to her parents and younger sister. After her death, her parents found these notes all over the house, tucked in to corners, drawers, cds, china and glassware. Each parent has one note that is still unopened.

Photo: From Notesleftbehind.com

The story of the little girl was started by her parents as a journal for her younger sister to remember the six-year-old after her death from brain cancer. The family agreed to publish the journal and notes into a book called  Notes Left Behind where all the proceeds would go to The Cure Starts Now a cancer foundation. The story can be found at Channel 5 News .

Thought for the day: Love is where compassion prevails and kindness rules.

The much awaited results of the Swiss study on the risks of Yaz and Yasmin has evidently been released. There is some controversy over the results of the study. Bayer is stating that the results show no difference between the risk of developing potentially fatal venous thromboembolisms associated with its two products and similar contraceptive pills. Meanwhile, other authorities are stating that the study doesn’t say exactly that, and the Bayer products are not off the hook from a liability perspective. The problem evidently stems from the fact that the results of the study are in German and translations (like your mileage) appear to vary. According to bnet.com the risk associated with the so-called third generation birth control pills such as Yaz may be double those of 2nd generation birth control pills and can be affected by a woman’s weight, smoking history and genetics.

To date there have been approximately 125 court cases filed in the United States alleging injuries from Yaz and Yasmin. Advocates on behalf of these litigants were awaiting the results of the study, which was commissioned following the death of a Swiss woman after she started taking the Bayer birth control product.

Until the document is completely released in English, it appears that the actual wording of the results of the study are open to interpretation here in the United States depending upon your translation.