Catching Up and A Mystery!

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It's been a few days since I blogged, and it seems like I've been really busy; that said, I can't actually say I accomplished much. I avoided going out in the cold, windy weather we had last week, but of course there were a couple of appointments that had me out regardless, and at least one extra run to Cabot for milk and a Manghi's Bakery re-stock. I've also discovered that the doughnuts from Connie's Kitchen in Hardwick are pretty darn hard to resist, too. 

When I went into Cabot for a meeting on Monday, it was still blowing and cold, (see picture left, the Plain at Dubray Rd.) but not quite as cold as it had been over the weekend. There are only three members of the original Cabot Oral History Committee left - Amanda Legare, our editor Caleb Pitkin, and me. We needed to tidy up some odds and ends regarding the book we published in 1999, Cabot, Vermont, A Collection of Memories From the Century Past. I know, that's a mouthful. But it sort of says it all. We hadn't met as a committee for literally years, but now all but one of the nearly 100 individuals interviewed for that book have passed. The other author, Barbara Carpenter, passed away a few years ago as well. We still have copies of that book available and it's interesting that there seems to be some renewed interest in it, mainly I think by people new to town
who want to know some of the history. 

Ten years ago, I put together all of the transcripts of those interviews in a hardcover volume in order to preserve all of that history. We had only a few printed as the book is nearly 800 pages and cost quite a bit to produce. Now, there is also some interest by some family members of people interviewed in reading the whole interviews with all the hiccups, bloopers, and secrets exposed. We were very careful about what we used from those interviews for the 1999 book as we didn't want to offend anyone orcause problems. Now, with everyone gone, it is what it is! We are reprinting the hardcover book with all the transcripts - word-for-word, no editing, and copies should be available in a few weeks. 

My kitty house guest, Thor, went home on schedule. I still find myself looking down at my feet before I move so I don't trip over him, and I really miss his warm purring body stretched out on my
lap every evening as I watch TV. He was good company, but also extra work. I noticed this morning when I raised the blinds in the guest room where he camped out, there is "kitty spit" on those windows just like the ones in the living room. I'll get to those later. This is a picture of my granddaughters Jo-Ann and Tangeni when they were in Jamiaca. Tangeni is only 13, but she is already a good bit taller than her older sister - and still growing, I expect! They came home to frigid weather, which they were not quite ready for. But it's back to school and work for everyone, and Thor is back home with Tangeni, getting lots of petting and belly-rubs, I expect. He has a hard life!

Now to the mystery: Yesterday I received a small package in the mail, but no indication of who sent it to me. It was correctly addressed to me, but the return address was Guangdong, China, with a phone number under my address that I Googled, and turns out this is some sort of scam. Lots of people have experienced the same sort of mysterious packages - some like mine with actual products, some containing only mysterious seeds. I'm not sure how it works, but I will be watching my accounts carefully to be sure nothing is charged that I haven't ordered. The information on-line is that the phone number (1-347-448-3190) is always the same, although the extension number varies, apparently. Scammers are in NY, Texas, California - all over, and the products come from China. I actually thought someone was sending me a gift when I opened it and found it was a small silver bracelet. Since I've opened the package, I'm not going to try to return it, at least not for the present, but I will mention it to the post office. If I receive any similar mailings in the future I will not accept them. Now I'm wondering what will happen next. This is apparently connected to Amazon.com in some way as they deal with sellers all over the country and lots of items come from China. This is apparently called a "bad buyer" scam by someone who has somehow hacked into Amazon's accounts for addresses.

Here is a link that explains the above scam practice and seems to make at least a bit more sense about what is going on.

Be safe, be warm, be healthy!