I have been up early these past couple of weeks. The sun rises later than it did at the beginning of the summer. Fog settles over the river most mornings. Sometimes a Great Blue Heron quietly flies past. Or two Great Blue Herons. Here is a sample of what it looked like when I went out.
We live on a dirt road. It might also be called a gravel road, or an unpaved road. I am not a fan of referring to it as “unpaved” since that implies that the norm is paved, when there are more miles of gravel roads in the world than paved roads. In Vermont, there are 1,500 more miles of dirt roads than paved roads.
A gravel road has its charms. Generally fewer people drive on them. Paved roads are faster and usually more direct, so they take the bulk of traffic. People tend to drive more slowly on dirt roads. And they look better, if you ask me, since they feel like they are cut from the earth, even they are often solidly engineered. Nature could take them back, if we let it, or so it seems. A paved road just seems laid on top of the landscape–foreign and immovable.
There are, of course, disadvantages. Our road is open, so it bakes in the sun. Many dirt roads turn to mud in the spring, but ours dries out pretty quickly. Mud season is short on our road. But that sun drying things out? That means dust. When summer comes and we haven’t had rain for several days, passing cars raise clouds of dust. And the wind blows it our way. Our porch can get covered in dust. When we eat outside at the porch table, we need to wipe that thing down or expect grit in our teeth.
We are in the season of dust right now, but it isn’t too bad lately. That is because of another problem–washboarding. We have the worst washboarding we have seen on our road since we have lived in this house. The phenomenon gets its name because it looks like an old fashioned washboard. Wheels bouncing on the road cause ripples to form in the dirt surface, and these get enlarged with more traffic. This means a really bumpy drive. It shakes the dash and rattles the windows. Not good for your car.
However, this washboard situation means that everyone driving past drives a little more slowly. With slower driving comes less dust. So when we leave the house and drive down the road, I am none too happy about it, but when other people drive down our road I am pleased that they kick up less dust.
The town grades our road a few times each year, and they have not done it in a while now, so we are due. I am surprised they have not graded it yet, given just how bad the road has gotten, but I know there are plenty of other projects in town. Grading our road is a priority for me. It may not be for the town as a whole.
One possible delay is the installation this summer of fiber optic cable along our road. It has been buried, like the power cables, rather than strung, so they have been digging. That digging ended a month ago, but maybe they have more to do? It may not make sense to grade the road if more digging is going to happen. Really, I have no idea.
It will be great to have high speed internet, finally. But I sure would like a smoother drive and to prevent some car damage. In this case, I will take some dust. It is easier to wipe down the table than to replace auto parts. Costs less, too.
Earlier this week we went to see a Vermont Lake Monsters game. My son has gotten into watching and following baseball, so we drove into Burlington for our first Monsters game of the summer. It was warm but not hot, with just enough sun, and not too crowded given it was a week night. Perfect for a baseball game.
The Lake Monsters are a “Class A short season affiliate” of the Oakland A’s. The team is as minor league as it gets. I have watched games where they just do not do well, at least compared to a major league team–errors all over the place. But they are doing ok this year–they almost have a winning record.
The team used to be the Vermont Expos. They were a feeder team for the Montreal Expos. Then the Expos left Canada and went to Washington. The Monsters were a Nationals affiliate for a while, and now Vermont serves California. Lake Monsters is a better name than Expos anyway, if you ask me.
So yeah, a perfect night for a game. I got some Cracker Jack and an over-priced beer (side note: they have one great selection of over-priced beer, the majority of options local). The beer did me right but the Cracker Jack had fewer peanuts than ever. I figured the peanuts must have just settled to the bottom–but there might have been half a dozen of them total. Lame, but I enjoyed the popcorn part.
The Lake Monsters did not play terribly, but by inning seven my son pointed out that they were on the way to suffering a no-hitter against them. They did manage to get a runner on first, but that was due to a fielding error, not a hit. The Aberdeen IronBirds scored seven runs, with five home runs mixed in to make it interesting. My son said at the end, “You know it’s not good when the only numbers you have on the board are two errors.”
So we got to see a no-hitter. It was not for the home team, but it was new for all of us. And it was pretty fun to watch some baseball on a fine summer night. We hope to get to Centennial Field again before the season is up. I would like to see them win but I would settle for some runs on the board. And next time I’ll skip the Cracker Jack.
This is the season of storms. Afternoon, the clouds that have been building during the hot day are ready to release some energy. They roll with the wind across the hills and let loose rain. They bring wind. Thunder and lightning accompany them.
The other day we watched a storm come in. The sky turned dark, then darker. My wife was out on a hike. The storm got closer. We could see rain falling on the hills in the distance. We felt a few drops. We stayed in the sun. We were on the edge of it. But it was coming. We knew that.
I texted my wife. I told her I hoped she was close. She checked the radar. She was close. We knew were going to get a whopper. We watched it come toward us. The wind picked up. Those few drops kept falling on us.
My wife came back. And the storm moved on. We stayed on the edge of it. We stayed in the sun. The rain passed over the hills. And then it got calm again. We were wrong about getting that whopper.
But we will get another chance. Many of them. The storms will come again. They will bring heavy rain. That is the theme now. We get few times of slow and steady rain. We get downpours, with pounding rain and erosion, then the sun comes out. The weather is more intense in general, and these summer storms show it.
We had no storms today. It stayed clear enough, although it was cooler than it has been. Crows across the field are mobbing something, calling and calling, raising a ruckus. Katydids buzz. The air is still. I wouldn’t mind a storm. Bring on the thunder. That dusty road of ours could use some dampening. Tomorrow, perhaps. I will be here.
Mercury on the Move 