Beautiful day here most of the day. Nice sunshine by mid-morning. We walked early - the time change had me up way earlier than normal, so we walked on West Shore Road and then came home for breakfast - old fashioned oatmeal with cinnamon, raisins and maple syrup. Fred just goes with the maple syrup, but I like milk on mine, too. Reminds me of when I was a kid growing up on the farm on Cabot Plain.

We spotted one lone fishing boat at the far end of the lake. That was about all the activity there was. Hardly any traffic on the road, no walkers and not many folks in evidence. Fred got a picture of Don Encarnacion as we went by. We could barely see him. I keep telling Mary she keeps her windows so darned clean we can never see in, but we always wave anyway, and this time we could just barely see that Don was waving back. This shot is the best we could do with all the reflections going on. There seemed to be a ghostly figure looming over Don that we didn't see when we took the picture, but I still can't make out anything that looks like Mary.

Woody was guarding the house when we got back to our place. He was wary until we started up the driveway, then he seemed to recognize us. It's hard to tell because sometimes he simply ignores us like we don't exist. He looks pretty regal in this photo, kind of like king of his domain, don't you think? There's no doubt that he rules our household.

After breakfast we got the spot where the wood was dumped all cleaned up. I say "we" - Fred had finished stacking the wood yesterday, but he had to tidy up some loose ends and cover it, so while he was doing that, I raked up the wood chips and bark that always come with it. So now the lawn is back to normal, wood is neatly piled and covered, and about all that's left is to move the snow blower into the garage ready for duty.

Fred decided to go to Littleton this afternoon to pick up his computer, done or not. Staples had promised to call before closing on Saturday, but didn't, and when Fred called them this morning they said there had been a power outage from 6:30 on last night . . . so we went to pick the computer up thinking it wouldn't be done, but when we got there they had "just finished it." Turns out they weren't able to fix it, but Fred had new information from on line and after working on it a while tonight, it is now working fine again.

On the way home from Littleton, we stopped in Waterford to see Bill and Monika, but they weren't around; then we stopped in St. Johnsbury to see Bob and Theresa. They were watching football, so we hung out with them for a while.

When we got to Danville, the sun was low in the west and we got some interesting shots. The sky changed very quickly as we approached West Danville, and by the time we got to West Shore Road, the sun had disappeared but there was a beautiful full (?) moon in the eastern sky.

It's still quite mild, but the forecast is for colder weather tomorrow and as much sunshine or more than we had today. That's nice to look forward to. Maybe we'll get the flag pole set back up after all . . .

*****

I had an e-mail from Andy Rudin today. Andy had contacted Ken Hoeppner who had addressed our members at the fall meeting of Joe's Pond Association. Ken is helping to raise funds for the rail trail. Here's Andy's message to him and Ken's reply:

Hello Ken,

I have been back in Philadelphia since 9/24. I looked at the LVRT website and the most recent minutes seem to be from 8/09. Are there more recent minutes that might describe the current situation with the rail trail? I looked into making a donation. The donation page seems to donate to VAST rather than to the LVRT. Why is that? I also could not see any indication that my donation would be tax deductible. Would it be?

Thanks, Andy Rudin

Hi Andy..Thanks for the response. Let me answer your questions in the order that you asked them. I have also attached our latest PR plan for your perusal. [Note: The plan is too long to include here, but I may have Fred post it on the web site or we'll give you a link if it's on the LVRT site.]

There are more recent minutes but they have not been posted to date. One of the recent developments is that two of the county coordinators have reversed their opinion of whether the project needs to go though Act 250. The arguement stems from whether the project is seen as "repair and maintainence" or "development." The former does not require the Act 250 process and the latter does. All of us including the state are perplexed at their reversal. VAST and the Attorney Generals office are coappellants before the Environmental Court to reverse that decision. It does not negate the project but it will be more time consuming and cost more if the decision prevails. The probability is that the decision will be appealed and the first decision will be upheld.

When you access the www.lvrt.org web site, the donation will go to VAST accounting for the LVRT. Your donation is tax deductable since VAST is a 501c3 organization. You will get a letter in the mail after your donation is made.

Andy..again, thank you for your support on this and keep in touch.
Ken