Rain, Rain, Go Away… I Think.

 

By G. E. Shuman

 

Last spring, I bought a new, lightweight, electric lawn mower. Didn’t everyone? I did this, not entirely or even partially because I preferred electric ‘things,’ but because my older gas powered one was getting a bit hard to push up the hill in front of our home. It was just showing its age a bit and wasn’t fully helping me when I wanted to mow, I thought. I reasoned that my mower was, after all, a bit older, and that the wheels, the ‘moving parts’ of the thing, were probably starting to fail in the realm of cooperation with the person doing the mowing. So… okay.

Axels of inexpensive and even not so inexpensive wheel assemblies just get rusty; I have always suspected. What I knew for sure was that for the past few years it was definitely taking me longer to get the lawn mowed than it used to. I was spending more time mowing and also more money on gas for the mower, and so I put the blame squarely on the gas motor and the present administration. Unfortunately, after discussing this with my wife, it was ultimately reasoned, here at the Shuman home, that perhaps it was more the lawn mower than the lawnmower that was getting rusty.

When this awfully rainy summer began, I was totally okay with it. “Oh no,” I would say on a rainy day when I had planned to mow the lawn. Yes, I do have that new lightweight mower, but it rained all day yesterday, so, even though the sun is out today, I have to let the lawn dry a bit before I try to mow it. Remember, I would subconsciously say to me and Lorna, the mower is electric, and I don’t want to take the risk of electrocuting myself.

And so, our unusual weather has continued throughout the summer, throughout Vermont. I have mowed the lawn a few times, but really don’t care at all if that new lightweight lawnmower rests the rest of this year. I do intend to do the same.

By the way, I have not experienced many recent summers when some person or other has not come up to me and extolled the fact that, even if we have just been drenched from heaven, “We need the rain, we really do.” This summer I haven’t heard that admonition once.

Have a wonderful and (hopefully dry) end of summer. The rain should stop soon. It will definitely prevent me from raking the soon-falling leaves… At least I think it will.

 

 

 

Do Something ‘Normal’

 

By G. E. Shuman

 

          In the old 1977 movie ‘Oh God’ the main character, the late comedian George Burns, played the part of God. This, to me, was always a stretch. Although I remember enjoying that movie way back then, I also remember hearing a bit about that person’s personal life, and placing him in the role of God seemed odd, to say the least.

          I mention Mr. Burns only because of one line in that movie that I have always remembered. At one point in the film ‘God’ met another character who was shaken tremendously by the encounter. (Who wouldn’t be?)  The Burns line was that the man should shave. “When you don’t feel normal, sometimes doing something normal helps you feel normal.”  It was a simple thought but seemed somehow true.

          Lorna and I just spent a weekend in Maine. Our reason for going was not to get away from Vermont, in the situation it’s in; our short visit there was to attend a memorial service for my very favorite aunt, Jean. We then spent a gorgeous day in the Camden/Rockland area of that state’s beautiful coast.

          Upon our arrival back in Central Vermont I began to feel a bit depressed. I probably had little good reason for this. Our family is all safe and well and none of us suffered loss due to the flood, (which happened to occur on my birthday, July 10th.) For this I am truly thankful. Regardless, I felt somewhat down as we traveled into East Barre and Barre, over still unrepaired roads, and past piles of destroyed belongings. The mud slides were still there. Why wouldn’t they be? All of this made me feel guilty at enjoying our very scenic time on the New England coast.

          I realized on that arrival back here that the efforts at normalizing, at getting our area back to some semblance of how it was ‘before’, will be continuing for some time into the future. I, admittedly, shamefully wished that I could just turn around and go back to the sailboats and safe harbors of the place we had just visited. Still, although in some turmoil, the great state of Vermont is our home, and has been for most of our married life together.

          I began this column with the quote from that old, outdated movie for a reason. The idea of getting things back to the way they were just wouldn’t leave me, and I felt stressed by it all. So, the next day I did something ‘normal’, to help myself feel more normal. I love making soups and stews, so I made some soup. In fact, I made a huge pot of a beef barley type of soup from a recipe I have had for years. I think that doing so helped me a lot.

          So, if you’re feeling a bit down or depressed because of the present state of our state and your place in it, my suggestion would be to just try doing something ‘normal’. It won’t change your situation, which I pray is improving, but it may change your attitude. Your thing might be to work in your garden, or paint your fence, or read a book, or bake a cake. Mine was to make soup, and the soup was delicious.