Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Thursday, The Gryphon and I drove up to Vermont to see my brother and his family. The drive took a lot longer than we anticipated. We left around noon, thinking it would take us eight hours, but we got into Vermont and gave them a call to let them know we were getting closer. They told us we still had hours to go.

Not only that, but when they asked us what directions we were taking, they told us we were going out of our way and the route we'd chosen would take us an extra hour.

So we pulled over and looked at the map as they told us a more direct route. It was really just because I got confused over what my brother said on the phone and wasn't looking at the map that carefully. I was in a real rush last week, trying to get ready for the trip.

My brother warned us that one particular road had a lot of moose along it and to watch out for it. I was careful; I've done a lot of country driving at night and know how to look for movement in the periphery. I was getting a little silly, and when The Gryphon suggested I put the brights on, I said, "Yes, then the lights can glint off the moose eyeballs." The Gryphon failed to find this amusing.

Arriving without a moose-related incident, we fully expected everyone to be in bed when we arrived, since they get up early for work. But they must have heard the car pull up, because they were all downstairs to meet us, all with smiles, especially my little 9-month-old nephew. We gave them all hugs and talked to them before going to bed.

Friday morning I got up early when I heard my brother and his wife stirring, getting ready for work. I had breakfast with them and saw them off. My brother's wife told us she'd be back around noon, so we just decided to hang tight around the house until she returned. When she did, she had my nephew with her. He'd been in day care that day. As usual, he was cheerful.

She told me that at daycare they fill out a sheet at the end of every day that updates the parents on how the child did. There's a sentence where one fills in the blank, "Today my mood was." Most often, they fill in "happy."

My nephew had to have his lunch and then take a nap. When he eats, if he likes what he's eating, he gets extremely happy. He raises both hands in the air and rotates his wrists with glee. My brother calls this movement the "magic conductor." All weekend long we were imitating the movement when we ate something we liked, a little inside joke that made all us adults laugh.

After his nap, she and I took him outside for a little while. She swung with him on the hammock, and then we took a short walk to see a very expensive house going up across the street. My nephew seemed unimpressed.

We hung out at the house until my brother got back home at 4:30. For dinner, we had a delicious jambalaya my brother's wife cooked. Then afterwards, they wanted to show us the cabin her parents own. They are currently back in Florida, their permanent home since retirement. Everyone was stressed out all weekend because they refused to evacuate from their home which was on the Gulf Coast very near the place where Hurricane Wilma was supposed to hit. As it was, they got lucky and it hit the town next to them instead. They didn't even lose power.

The cabin was tucked back a little side road in the woods, very rustic looking, very much the sort of cabin used in Pennsylvania as hunting cabins. My brother started a fire in the wood stove, using some papers that he and his wife wanted to dispose of, such as paid bills. Every once in awhile, his wife would jokingly say, "Oh, no! I wanted that one!" and my brother would pretend to yank it back out of the fire.

We could watch cable, since it hadn't been turned off yet. My brother's wife turned to a channel that was doing a ghost story marathon. The first seemed highly unbelievable: a group of people in the 80s who had supposedly documented paranormal activity in their house. Of course, it's nearly all off camera and usually happened to one specific man who happened to be alone when they occurred. I was highly skeptical.

The others were a little spookier, so when we stepped outside to leave and it was absolutely pitch black, compared to the bright lights inside, I froze in place. My brother laughed at me, city mouse that he says I am, seemingly forgetting that I, too, grew up in a small, rural Pennsylvania community.

On the trip down to the cabin, they'd told me about the "haunted trailers," which were trailers that had been condemned and were now empty. They sit across the street from an old, empty farmhouse. None of these bothered me when we drove by them in the twilight, but returning on those narrow, tree-lined, pitch black roads, I could see why he calls them haunted.

I told him that I can see now why Stephen King bases so many of his stories in New England. With the historic houses and the low rolling, tree-lined hills, one can imagine any sort of ancient beings floating around the valleys.

What used to be the guest room has become my nephew's room, but we sleep on a fouton in the library which was just as good. We pretty much had the room to ourselves all weekend unless someone needed to use the computer.

I could tell my brother and his wife have been doing a lot with their house. The transformation from guest room to nursery involved a lot of work with the walls and with a walk-in closet. They've also completely refitted the bathroom, bought some new furniture and a rug for the living room.

When they bought their house, it was a bargain because it was a fixer upper. It's looking more and more like a comfortable home.

My brother has become interested in home repair and real estate and is taking a correspondence course to become certified to be a home inspector. For this reason, for a birthday present The Gryphon and I got him two books. One was practical: The Idiot's Guide to Starting a Small Business, which he can use once he gets his license. The other book was Harvey Pekar's latest, The Quitter.

My dog, Una, had a little trouble learning the rules. She wasn't allowed on the couch, which she obeyed without too many problems, but she also wasn't allowed on our bed, which was harder to enforce. We had to keep pushing her off onto the dog bed until she gave up.

Una did fairly well around my nephew for a dog that hasn't spent time around kids. Generally speaking, we kept them apart from each other, and most of the time she was very good. There were a couple times, though, when he made a sudden movement and she barked at him. She was immediately disciplined. Most of the time, she was very calm around him and obeyed us when we called her and told her to lie down on the opposite side of the room. Hopefully, over time she'll get used to him.

I've noticed that my brother and his wife are teaming up well, taking care of their son. I've always thought they bring out the best in each other, and I can certainly see that as they tend their baby son. While they're still working out exactly how to break down tasks, it did strike me that they complement each other's skills well.

My brother's wife is very good at quiet nurturing tasks like bathing the baby or getting him to take his naps. My brother does well feeding him and playing with him. The baby laughs even more than normal as, for example, my brother says, "Did you see the baby in the mirror?" and holds my nephew up to see. "Hi, Mr. Baby!" my brother says, and my nephew giggles.

It's good to see them so happy together, that little family of three.

More on our trip to Vermont:

October 27, 2005 - Foody Heaven

October 28, 2005 - Snowy Surprise

October 31, 2005 - Montpelier Shopping

November 4, 2005 - More Vermont Pics

My last Vermont journey:

September 30, 2003 - Green Mountain Journey

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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