Are you a true Vermonter?

If you are a TRUE VERMONTER:

1.Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on route 7.
2. Vacation means going to Burlington for the weekend.
3. You measure distance in hours.
4. You know several people who have hit moose more than once.
5. You often switch from heat to A/C in the same day.
6. You use a down comforter in the summer.
7. Your grandparents drive at 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
8. You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.
9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
10. You think of the major food groups as deer meat, beer, fish, and berries.
11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them.
12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the K-mart store at any given time!
13. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
15. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and flannel pajamas.
16. You know all 5 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, mud, and construction.
17. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item even when you're in a rush because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town.
18. You actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your friends from Vermont
19. Your idea of a graduation party is a keg in the backwoods with some friends.
20. 10 degrees is considered a warm day.
21. The christmas lights are on the house year round.
22. You know the three ways of hunting deer: sitting in a tree stand (boring), stalking the deer (hard as hell), and hitting it with your truck (by far the easiest and most full proof way).
23. You know February vaction was first made for people who sugar.
24. You think the bigger the truck the better
25. You say idear and milt'n
26. You think a winter with only 2 feet of snow at a time is a mild winter.
27. You or your parents don't fully grasp the concept of internet.
28. You know you can buy a bong legally and you know where to get them.
29. You are used to the smell of cow manure.
30. You learned to drive when you could first reach the pedals.
31. You wait up all night just to shoot pesky racoons
32. You or your parents own more then 3 guns.
33. You have to travel for at least 30 minutes to get any good clothes.
34. You think camo clothes, suspenders and flannel are "in style".
35. You get annoyed when people think Vermont is part of Canada, but you yourself think New Mexico is part of Central America and its the updated version of Mexico.
36. You make some of your own furniture.
37. You've at least tipped one cow in your life.
38. You've skinny dipped at least once in lake champlain.
39. You get immense fun out of setting off any kind of firework.
40. You know the few roads into canada no-one appears to know about.
41. You drink water from your own well.
42. Within a mile of where you live you can find a cow.
43. Ain't is part of your common vocabulary.

Homesick

I am so fucking homesick right now. All I want is to be back in Vermont. Back among the mountains. With out them around me I feel lost. Exposed. I'm terrified that I might never get back. So here's to the Green Mountain State, and the piece of my soul that will always reside there.


"The mountains are calling and I must go." (John Muir)




"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life." (John Muir)




"No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied - it speaks in silence to the very core of your being." (Ansel Adams)




"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." (Albert Camus)




"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." (Albert Camus)





"In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me." (John Fowles)








"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. " (John Burroughs)







"Marry a mountain girl and you marry the whole mountain. " (Irish Saying)









"Once you have heard the lark, known the swish of feet through hill-top grass and smelt the earth made ready for the seed, you are never again going to be fully happy about the cities and towns that man carries like a crippling weight upon his back". (Gwyn Thomas)





There you have it folks- my photo tribute to Vermont.

Hello from the Green Mountain State!

Hello Everyone! I thought I'd give a mid-week check in while I'm at the library checking my email. Yes, I know, the whole point was to go a whole week with out all of the distractions of my normal life, and a whole week with out the Internet. I just can't do it though! I'm weak, I know.

Everything is good here. I'm enjoying my time at home. I really did need this chance to just get away from everything & think for a while. I still have a lot of thinking to do, but I'm getting there. It's been really good for me.

The weather has been the only think that's not so wonderful. It's been rainy and gray the whole week. :( I did get to see the stars on Saturday night though, so that made me happy!

Other things also checked off of my list of Things To Do While In Vermont:

Go to Rocket J's & get a Cheddar Dog & Fries. Put salt & vinegar on fries, consume. (This quest may be completed more than once, and probably will.)

Buy some Magic Hat Beer, drink it. (This quest may also be completed more than once, and has.)

Buy some Long Trail Blackberry Wheat (seasonal beer), drink it. (This quest may also be completed more than once, and has.)

Hang out with Tiff.

Go to Burlington, walk around Church Street.

Go to Star Root, get custom mixed fragrance.

Go to Bove's, get a huge bowl of pasta, enjoy.

Walk around downtown Northfield. (Started at least, I'll walk around some more after I leave the library.)

Sit outside and relax.

I still have things to do, but the week is only half over, so I'm confident I'll get them done!

I've really enjoyed having the mountains all around me, & the nice, fresh, green smell of everything. I don't want to ever leave! Then again, it'll be nice to get back home to the city! I miss my family. (And my computer! But I miss my family more, honest!) I should end now, my time is almost up. I'll try to write more about my wonderful trip when I get home.

Where the jobs are in Central Vermont? or Why I don't live in VT

Where the jobs are in Central Vermont
Or perhaps, where the jobs aren't in Central Vermont.

Montpelier is the municipality that hosts the largest number of jobs in Central Vermont, but Berlin can make a case for "region's largest employment" community.
Berlin has ousted Barre City as the municipality with the second most jobs, and its ratio of jobs to residents far exceeds Montpelier's.
Overall, Central Vermont has a job for every two residents. Berlin has 3.6 jobs for every two residents, or 3.6 times the regional average. Montpelier has 2.2 jobs for every two residents, and is the only other municipality with more jobs than residents.
Northfield and Barre Town each have just over 1,800 jobs, but both are well below the regional average of jobs to residents.

As a side note, there are 1,800 jobs in Northfield, but 5,756 residents. Even once you factor in children and retired residents, you still get more residents than available jobs.

This is why I am not going to be moving back home anytime soon, despite the fact that I miss Vermont terribly.I'm so homesick for the mountains, the fresh air, the little ice cold streams, the fresh air, the people, being able to see the stars, and so many other things. Someday...