Fully Monty

I have landed – if you have noticed my absence from blogging at Trust the Universe, I had good reason. Over the last few weeks I have been busy packing and storing, managing final bill payments, cleaning my old place for the new tenants and preparing for my move to Montpelier.

Even a temporary move is time consuming. Because I am only renting a room, most of my possessions had to go to a storage unit. It sounds easy. But first I had to hire strong men to help me. The quotes from moving companies for the two-mile trek to the storage unit made me wonder how others could afford to move cross country. My whole point behind the move was to reduce my expenses, so paying the equivalent of a month’s rent didn’t make sense. Enter Craigslist. I hired two guys with the same name and crossed my fingers.

I decided to take some of my things up to Monty on the weekend of Martin Luther King Day. All went well – I set up my bed and desk and hung a few clothes, and got Fae used to the new digs. The next morning, we headed into town. On the way, Spike the truck began to complain. The front wheel began to grind and squeal. I got out to check, thinking a stick may have gotten wedged in the wheel area. Nothing. I drove slowly into town, wincing with the sound the wheel continued to make. At one point, I pulled into a parking lot to check the wheel again. A man stood at his work truck and watched me pull in, then approached and asked if I had trouble. He checked the wheel, then looked under the hood. I had already done those things, but since I have little to no knowledge of vehicles and the whys and hows of their innards, I was comforted that someone else was looking at Spike’s owie.

The man looked, and looked again, then stood and scratched his head and rubbed his beard.

“Just drive it,” he said. “It’ll work itself out.”

Again, knowing nothing about vehicles, I believed him. And I drove back to my room outside of town.

By the time I pulled into the driveway, the front right wheel was bent at a 45 degree angle, smoking and angry.

Spike was sent off to the hospital. A kind vehicle doctor told me the news – Spike’s bearings had given out, and the wheel had bent inward, damaging the rotor, brake pads, and bent the axle, along with a few other things that have escaped my memory. But, he said, Spike was worth saving. To replace it with another car, even an unreliable wreck, would cost more than fixing the problems.

So that month’s rent I refused to give to the moving company went to Car Doctor, and Spike is now a happy truck. C’est la vie. Money can be replaced – the old truck took me 100 miles at 60 miles per hour without a problem, and didn’t give up until I was in the driveway, safe and sound.

And now I am in Monty, waiting to see what the Universe will bring in the way of adventures. Stay tuned  - and stay happy!

Soup for You! Next!

This year I am committed to eating seasonally (and local), so fresh salads are out and cabbage and kale are in right now. After a week of cabbage though, I have more than the scent of a woman, so I start throwing other vegetables into a broth to make soup. I am fortunate to share in the soups of friends. Every time I visit my friend Byron, he sends me home with a freezer bag full of his spicy soup that fills the belly and clears the sinuses. And I am saving a frozen container of homemade venison soup that my friend Otter gave me for a great last meal here before I head for Montpelier.

You know, there is something almost cuddly about receiving homemade soup from someone who cares about you. The whole idea of someone creating that warm concoction – good things that may be otherwise forgotten in the fridge or not big enough to stand alone are blended together to make magic. And when soup is made, it is with the idea that someone else will share in it. Let’s face it, soup is great, but it gets less interesting after the fourth or fifth day of eating it. So you make soup and you share it.

So with soup – and barter – on the brain, I found this very cool site that tells about a neighborly meet-up called Soup Swap Everybody makes their favorite soup, at least 6 quarts, and brings it and freezer containers to the home of one of the participants. Then everybody swaps for the soup others have made. Some people up the ante and create cute labels and add side dishes like cornbread to their offerings. Way better than a party for the same containers, only empty! Check out the site on how to organize a swap – there is a national soup swap day coming up on the 23rd of this month! But…no bread for you!