In the mornings, Red loves to sit on his hill and keep an eye on the pasture. We are beginning to reduce his labor and increase his therapy work. He is content up there, and I make sure he gets an outrun, and this has become a way for the two of us to work together and begin our day.
Red is spectacular animal, he does one single outrun and then comes around to land on his hill. Maria goes out to check on the sheep, Fae takes up her position down to the left, a donkey is out grazing. I l love my life here.
I admit to being somewhat in awe of Vince Vecchio and men like him, the big men in trucks and tractors who can re-arrange the earth, move mountains, alter the landscape. Thanks to him and his son Chad, we are finally ready for winter. The wood is in the shed, the hay is in the barn, the manure pile has gone off to Pompanuck.
Vince came with a mountain of gravel, he put most of it in the Pole Barn, a soft bed for the animals to lie on during the cold winter, he re-graded our bumpy drive-way, expanded our parking area, put dirt around the foundations of the old barn, graded some of the soil so the water would run away from the buildings.
Vince is a master excavator, a Maestro of the field, watching him work his tractor is like watching a dancer at Julliard, the machines are extensions of him, he is graceful and efficient. Life here would not be possible if not for Vince and men like him.
In two hours, he re-arranged our landscape, fixed the ravages of summer. I am very grateful that he lives up the road, when there is trouble, he is the one you want to see come down the road. Vince also plows the snow here during blizzards.
He is Jersey guy, honest and easy to talk to. I do not know how things work, I cannot re-arrange my office, let alone the earth, but watching Vince zoom around the farm on his tractor, I knew I was watching a maestro, conducting his own little orchestra, the art of the field.
I believe my daughter could use some help caring for her new daughter Robin, my granddaughter. So I’m heading to New York City Tuesday to do what I can. I see Robin’s eyes are intense, she seems alert and curious. I hope to take her for a walk, help Emma to rest, take some time for herself.
I found a room in a brownstone In Park Slope, it could be a perfect place for Maria and I to stay in when we come to New York. I’m staying over one night, then returning home on Wednesday. A week from Friday, on the 23rd, I’m going back to New York for one day (this time with Maria) to meet with my editor about my next book and also spend the day helping Emma and spending some time with Robin.
I feel that people are watching me closely for what they see as the inevitable explosion of adoration and affection that will alter my life. If that happens, it will be okay with me, but I think relationships take time and effort, they aren’t just granted with a magic wand.
Emma and I are both working hard and openly to ensure that I am close to Robin and play a role in her life, and that is a great starting point, something to build on. I guess I don’t really do cute and adoration well. But I am excited to be going back to New York, I wish I could stop at B&H Photo and buy the infrared camera I want, but that will take time also.
The first step in all of this for me is to help Emma, not to gush over Robin. That will come in its own time.
I think I will stare back at Robin and see what happens. I want to see if I can make her laugh or smile.
Scott Carrino called me this morning and told me his landlord was insisting that the “For Sale By Owner” signs he took down be put up again, and he agreed. He asked me to return one of the signs I brought home as a souvenir, and I did. The signs will be put up again today.
There was great relief in the town over the weekend that the signs were gone.
Last week, the Round House was closed for the Labor Day week – a holiday – and when the signs went up in the cafe windows, many people in town assumed the cafe had gone out of business. I took the signs down, sparking some praise and disagreement.
Scott relayed the landlord’s request that I apologize for removing the signs.
The taking down of the sign seemed the right thing to do for me, and I do not regret it.
I accomplished several things that I wanted to accomplish.
One, when the signs go back up today, at least passersby and patrons will see that the cafe is open, the rumor was all over the place last week that it had closed. This seemed to me an aggressive and unthinking, if not hostile, thing to do to an established business. I wanted to protest it.
Secondly, I did it, not Scott, and that will make life simpler for him.
And then, I called attention to the importance of the cafe, and the need to think about it and support it. It is in peril.
Any number of local merchants and people messaged me to thank me for taking the sign down and writing about it, not only were the signs ugly and intrusive, they said, but they were damaging to all of the businesses on Main street in that they suggested another empty business had failed and another storefront would soon be empty in our town.
They all said they could not speak publicly.
In addition, I called attention to the ongoing crowdsourcing campaign to help raise money for the Round House so that they can buy the building, currently listed for sale (going into the 10th year) for $250,000. The Round House is a symbol of community here, and elsewhere, people from all over the country have donated more than $60,000 to help the cafe keep it’s building.
Scott and Lisa Carrino and their landlord are entering into negotiations for the property, and while I do understand that it is not my business, I am puzzled by the logic of putting these tacky and invasive signs in the cafe window while negotiations get underway. I cannot fathom how it helps either side to be suggesting that the cafe is going out of business or might have its building sold out from under it.
It is difficult for me to believe that a building on the market for nine years on and offline will suddenly sell because a hardware-store For Sale sign is suddenly up in the window.
But that is for others to deal with. The landlord has every right to put his building up for sale, and every right to ask what he wants. I regret that he did not have the sensitivity to put his signs in a different place on the building, or put up different kinds of signs, or better yet, wait and see what the outcome of the negotiations are. Seems like bullying to me. ( I guess this doesn’t sound like much of an apology.)
A number of people in town – many, I am sure – disagreed with my decision to take the signs down, they thought it was wrong.
I respect their feelings, but I am comfortable with mine. These kinds of things are personal, I do not see the world in a black-and-white way. I’m not running for mayor, seeking approval, eager to argue my positions with others. They aren’t me, they weren’t there, they have not seen and heard what I have seen and heard.
I have no idea if I am right or wrong, I make the best decisions I can, look in the mirror, and see if I like myself. Today, I do.
I don’t take polls or count votes, if people wish to talk to me about it they know where to find me.
This isn’t exactly Watergate, me and the signs are not going into the history books. I am not Martin Luther King standing at the bridge, or a soldier fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan. There are real issues out there in the country. Perspective matters.
The signs came down and I think that was helpful to the cafe last week, the signs are going back up and Scott and his landlord will take it from here. I don’t think history will record this as a seminal conflict or act of civil disobedience.
I will be honest, I completely understand why Scott is putting those signs up, and I will support him in any way he asks – he is a good friend. But I confess – and I am sure he knows it – that I am sorry to hear it, I wish he gave his landlord a different response. I imagine he had no choice.
This, I suppose, is why I am not running a cafe, selling properties, working in business. I hope the cafe stays in our community, we need it – small towns and villages all over America need it.
I will say to the landlord that I am, in fact sorry that he demanded that the signs go back up.
Sometimes you have to follow your heart, not your brain. Sometimes you just have to take a stand, large or small.
I looked in the mirror this morning, and I smiled. I had no reasons to hate myself.
