Birthday weekend

It started out with a cold. Nice, eh? I pretty much did nothing on Saturday except for a few errands. I did get a hanging rack for my clothes and managed to clean the kitchen and bathroom. I did clean the livingroom but ended up watching DVDs from Netflix. Nothing worth reporting there. Bad night sleep with lots of coughing.

Sunday morning, there was a marathon going past the church I have been attending so I slept in like a heathen. I was still feeling a bit crappy. I managed to pull myself together and get over to meet Carrie, Mary and Elissa for dinner and to see "Madagascar". Dinner was good. The movie was so-so. Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer pretty much played into their caricatures of themselves. The penguins were hilarious. There could have been a whole movie about them. Better night sleep, but still too much coughing to feel rested.

Monday I also slept in, still not feeling that great. Got a little more of my house in order (cats should be coming in a few weeks... that's the excuse. Not just to have a clean place to live.) Then I decided that since it was the weekend to remember those who died for our country, I should do something instead of sit around and watch tv all day (I also had finished watching my three Netflix by this point and there wasn't much on in daytime tv anyhow...) I decided to have a bit of an adventure. I got out a book that Los had given me about off the beaten path places in Vermont. I called around and made my decision. I drove about 2hrs south on Route 7 to see Ol' Calvin Coolidge's birthplace and homestead. (pictures coming soon) On the way, I stopped at a flea market and got two books and a coin purse. It was a lovely drive down Route 7. Lots of green. Lots of trees. Lots of green. Did I mention the green? The weather was nice with a growing pile of clouds. I got to the homestead at about 4pm.

I had about an hour to walk around and explore the tiny Plymouth Notch village. (Is is a village? Not sure, but it was damn tiny.) Charming town nestled in the wee top mountains. There was a lovely pond nearby. Calvin Coolidge was our 30th president. Harding had died in office and Coolidge happened to be at his hometown when he got the news. He was sworn into office in the middle of his family's kitchen. He was fond of Vermont, so they say. There were only a few houses on the land I explored. There was also a small cheese factory. It is set to open for production this week. I am going back to check out the cheese, that's for sure. As I stood looking at the pond, I noticed there were lots of really dark, menacing clouds rolling in. Then the thunder banged through from one end of the cloud formation to the other. It was amazing to hear the thunder roll like that. (Yes, I have heard thunder before. It was just so cool to hear...) Anyhoo, I was mesmorized by it. I just stood out there watching and listening. Finally, I went into the gift shop for a couple of postcards and was on my way back home.

The drive home was also really delightful (pictures coming soon.) There were windy roads, rainy roads, straight roads, hilly roads and gorgeous waterfalls. These are all along Route 100, should you perchance want to explore it. I saw more green, more trees and some cows. No deer or moose, though there were signs warning drivers. I got home at about 8pm. I watched some telly and had another restless, coughing night sleep. But it had been a truly lovely day.