Reminders

 I just want to remind you of a couple of things going on here in the next few days. Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 26, the Danville Historical Society and the Danville Women' Club have collaborated to bring you a very interesting program, "Patriots in Petticoats." This will be at the Congregational Church (next door to the historical society's Sias House) on Hill Street, at 1 o'clock. (See poster.)

Then, on Sunday, March 30th, the Cabot Historical Society is presenting Civil War historian, Howard Coffin doing a presentation, "Patriots in Petticoats," at Willey Memorial Hal, Main Street in Cabot, at 2 o'clock. Howard always is very interesting to hear and I'm sure he will be happy to chat and answer any questions after his talk.

Yesterday afternoon, I was glued to my laptop watching the annual Vermont Principal's Association's state-wide spelling bee. Granddaughter Tangeni was competing - I think this was maybe her third or fourth time representing Waterford Elementary School at this contest. This was her final contest as she will be entering high school next year. She told me Sunday that she is  relieved that she will not to have to study for the competition again. Had she won, she would have gone to the national spelling contest held in Washington, D.C. I was very proud of her - there were some very difficult words as the contest moved through the rounds. She made it to to the third round when there were only about 20 students left from the starting group of close to 75-80 I'd guess from looking at the group. 

I was never a very good speller and always kept a dictionary close at hand back in the day, before we had computers and spell-check. I still have the dictionaries, but seldom open one because it is so easy to check spelling and meanings online. However, there is nothing that quite compares to holding an volume of the Oxford English Dictionary in one's hand and reading all the fine details of words presented there. I used that resource when I worked for Bill Lederer in Peacham, and always thought it would be great to own a set. Just as well I never did - I have a set of encyclopedias and a thesaurus or two in my office that I seldom crack open now. I would love to give some of those treasures away, but nobody is interested. I suppose they will end up in recycling eventually.

 

Just a brief weather note for Ice-Out Contest folks - today has been a "slow melting" day with temps in the 30s and low 40s. There have been pretty consistent snowflakes in the air, but mostly they melt on contact. However, my lawn was white early this morning. I measured half an inch of new snow, all of which was gone by 9:30 or so.

 

Our road got fixed yesterday morning - several truckloads of staymat were needed to fix where the road had mud holes, so it is pretty good now. However, there will no doubt be more breakouts as the frost continues to come out. This has been one of the more troublesome mud years - we have been pretty lucky for several years. It will be a while before the road is smooth and really good again, but the Cabot road crew is on top of the situation and doing their best to keep things moving. 

Don't forget - April 1st is the last day you can purchase Joe's Pond Ice-Out tickets! Be sure to stop by Marty's 1st Stop, Hastings Store, any of the other outlets in the ares (listed on the website) or go online to buy them.