Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Well, we've made it past Thanksgiving and we're cruising towards Christmas and New Years not to mention all the other holidays that cluster about the ancient solstice demarcation and the start of the relengthening of the day. It's a special time here in Vermont, where it often feels like we're still in 1872 or so. We had our first snowfall but it was just 4 inches, not too deep that we couldn't hike, en famille, along the ridge of Hurricane Hill, cutting back from Suicide Six right down to our toasty fireplace.

We also went to Vermont Country Store, where little items you long since thought had been discontinued, like Mint Julips candy, are still on the shelves. I bought some nice rubber bottom/leather top boots with stretch material near the top, for snow shovelling and wood gathering and garbage hauling, three of my best jobs around the house.

They had the original Monopoly, the original Clue, little bottles of ointment, pure cola for upset tummies, brand new "old bikes" including one made of bamboo. We went down with my brother, his wife, his three grown children and a husband, plus my wife and two kids (19 and 14), so ten in all. It was a lot of fun! Because of my work here at MISys, I looked at everything slightly differently--where was this made? how was it made? was it outsourced? or is the ointment left over from 1935, the last year they actually made it?

Over the next few weeks, please feel free to share your warm little end-of-the-year stories, whether tied back to manufacturing or not! I'm looking forward to hearing from you.