A rainy Sunday, good for curling up with a good book in a hammock on the porch, or in my case, a comfy chair next to the wood stove where we have a very small fire to chase out the dampness.

I went to W. Danville this morning to deliver Ice-Out tickets to Joe's Pond Country Store. It was raining pretty hard - again - and ice in the pond is about the last thing on my mind, but the contest does get rolling as soon as tickets are available (in July), so I was glad to slosh through the puddles, tickets in hand. At Hastings, I was "announced" by Garey's talking fish as I entered the store - and again when I left. They have sold quite a few Ice-Out tickets there, too, and there were some returns in the mail, printed from the web site. Everything is working!

In yesterday's Caledonian Record there was a report on the Rt. 2 Project. The Vermont Agency of Transportation has apparently signed off on everything now, accepting the concessions the community and arts council made to get costs down. There will be fewer lights plus fewer and smaller trees. The project is moving ahead with rights of ways and acquisition work, and bids for the actual work will go out this fall and construction is scheduled to begin in the spring and expected to finish by 2010, except possibly for the landscaping. I can hear some of you saying you'll believe it when you see it. Anyway, I guess that's good news - or bad news if you have to travel east from Joe's Pond.

This came this morning from Evelyn Richer:

On Zach Porter - the last news that I have for an update is that now Zach is waiting to see if his blood count and leukemia cells are all in the right proportions… I must say that Steph and Jim are oh so wonderful about all of this… they have the right attitude…. They feel they were brought here to Vermont to be with this community for Zach’s sake… unlike the reason that they had thought… (to come to build a new home)… God’s Plan was a bit different … but it’s all working out for them and that is wonderful… she even feels blessed that Zach has leukemia and not some other horrible disease that has no cure… What a wonderful and faithful outlook…

We continue to pray… and are grateful, Jane, for your help in keeping everyone aware of Zach’s condition too…

Blessings, Evelyn Looking forward to seeing everyone there on the 14^th… [at the benefit - see yesterday's post]

Thank you, Evelyn, for keeping us informed of Zach's progress. We're all rooting for him to be better real soon.