I want to let those of you who may not see the Caledonian Record or who may have missed it, there is an article on the front page today stating that Gov. Phil Scott, in his budget address on Tuesday, said he wants to spend $2.8 million for the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. His thought is that investing that amount will open the possibility of another $11.3 million in federal funds, and that amount would be enough to finish the project. He is looking at it as an investment in future prosperity for towns along the route of the trail, especially St. Johnsbury where the economy has been in the pits for longer than anyone wants to admit. St. Johnsbury has people working hard to revitalize the town, so there are many happy souls there - and there are many more all along the 92 mile stretch of the LVRT, I'm sure.

Of course, if the governor is not re-elected, this is all pie in the sky; but in Vermont an incumbent governor has not lost an election since 1962.

 I'm including more pictures from Mary Whitcomb. She has a good eye and I really like her work. These were all taken Monday near Randolph, Vermont.

Fortunately, our weather has moderated and the sun was quite warm today. I intended to get outside, but got caught up working on the history book and never made it out of the house. That happens to me altogether too often, but when I'm working here in my office, I lose track of time. I'm fortunate Fred understands - he gets just as absorbed in whatever he's doing as I do, so it works for us. We do "come up for air" to have meals together (except breakfast when we're each on our own schedule since I like to sleep later and he's up way earlier than I am).

A couple weeks ago our electric pencil sharpener quit. I have not been very excited about the darn thing lately anyway - and it never gave me the nice sharp point I like on my pencils. I found a much less expensive manual one on the Walmart site and it came yesterday. Now that's a real sharpener! I can feel it digging into the pencil and when it's nice and sharp I can tell be the way the crank eases up and lets you know the pencil is perfectly sharpened. It's really nice. It took us quite a while to find a suitable place to  put it up - I'm not a fan of the suction cup type - the darned things always let go at the most inopportune times and shavings go all over the place. This one is securely screwed to the wall and should be good for years. Another reason I like it is because it reminds me of the ones we had at the school on Cabot Plain when I was a kid. And we had one at home. Those things never seemed to wear out. I hope this one is made of the same stuff!