Meanderings and Musings

Tuesday was a road trip day in my house. My wife and I headed to Manchester from our home in Norwich because of all the stores clustered in Manchester instead of NONE of the stores clustered on our side of the Connecticut River.  

After thirty-three years of living here, she and I still haven't gotten used to the number of Connecticuts inside our state boundaries. There's the Gold Coast from the NYC line to just about New Haven, whose crowning achievement is the Merritt Parkway, a 'controlled access highway' designed and built before the Second World War when White Men ruled the Earth. 

There's a lot of money in Fairfield, New Haven, and Litchfield Counties in our state and not so much anywhere else. Tolland, Windham, and New London are kind of like the Jersey Pines in my estimation with New London being of the most interest because both Native American casinos in the state are located here. 

All are located on the far side of the Connecticut River which serves as a semi-demarcation line between between where Lance and Buffy keep their polo ponies and where otherwise you might hear banjo music (And I wonder why the Connecticut Tourism Office doesn't hire me to write copy).

Not my photo, but from Mother Earth

Anyway. We were making our pilgrimage to the Hobby Lobby store I detest not just for its politics but for its simple existence while my wife loves it. Every holiday season (don't tell me you haven't started preparing already? Slacker!) we journey there to get all the fixing for the gifts she creates for each of our neighbors. 

The stockings, the ribbons and bows, the fake holly, the trim for the stocking, and of course the contents all assembled into personalized packages, each one different for each of our neighbors. I am always impressed. I don't know most of these people's names and she knows their food allergies. Guess which one of us they all wave to, using their whole hand and not just one finger.   

This time of the year the drive along Route 87 is breathtaking when the weather is nice, as it has been (fire hazard nice as it happens as we sure could use some rain) and the leaves that have started turning in our neighborhood are in full fall foliage along the route. And as lovely as it all is, I'm dispirited because I know what happens next, winter. And no amount of Happy Holidays Cheer can change that.
-bill kenny