The Early Bird

It's been far too long since I've posted, but since the alarm went off this morning at 5:30 instead of 6:30, I've got a few minutes to spend.

It's been a good weekend so far.  After we took two more loads of cardboard to the recycler on Saturday morning, I mowed the lawn before the pending rain.  I'm starting to understand the pattern of our lawn,which means I'm more efficient and the lawn looks nice and stripey, like a golf course.  I never thought I'd turn into Hank Hill, but I've got to say that the John Deere X300 is quite the machine.  42" mower deck, height adjustable in quarter-inch increments, and two cupholders (one for the working beer and the other for the backup, apparently).  After you send in your warranty information, they send you a card for a free John Deere cap, in classic green with the yellow logo or in... pink??  A PINK John Deere cap??

Wouldn't catch THIS Vermonter in a pink Deere cap! Gotta instill the right values.

We also took friends out for a birthday dinner, planted a new shrub and some old bulbs, read and talked and celebrated our 400th anniversary.

And today, I become a Vermont citizen.  I'm changing insurance policies on Habanero, and then going to the DMV to register the car and get myself a Vermont driver's license.  (Can I just say that one other thing I like better about Vermont than about Massachusetts is that they know that it's DMV, not RMV?  California, Oregon, North Carolina, New York, Virginia, Nevada, Florida, Delaware, Connecticut, Nebraska... all DMV.  But Massachusetts isn't a state, it's a commonwealth; they have a Registry of Motor Vehicles rather than a Department; traffic circles or roundabouts are "rotaries," and every two-dollar construction site has to have a police officer on safety duty, with the car running and the chase lights on.  And the pronunciation of Massachusetts place names is its own post...)

I don't think there's a Vermont citizenship test, but just in case, I do know the name of governor Peter Shumlin and senators Sanders and Leahy (on their own, two outstanding reasons to move to Vermont), the state motto (Freedom and Unity, the same motto as Tanzania) and that Montpelier is America's smallest state capital.  I also bought Nora a chainsaw for Christmas about four years ago, and that oughtta count for something.

I know that I'll never be a Vermonter.  That's a title reserved for multi-generational tenancy.  But I do feel a belonging here that I haven't felt in many, many years.  This is home.

These green hills and silver waters
are my home. They belong to me.
And to all of her sons and daughters
May they be strong and forever free.
Let us live to protect her beauty
And look with pride on the golden dome
They say home is where the heart is
These green mountains are my home.

Okay, I'm ready for my test...