Vermont, with Patsy in My Pocket

The fellow who led our  B&J factory tour [$4 per person] joked about
showing us a short MOOOOOvie and riding
 the Vanillavator if you didn't want to take the stairs.

It's felt a little funny to be away b/c Dad isn't doing well. I saw him Wednesday morning, the day I was leaving, and he seemed very good, very clear. I asked what he wanted me to bring him back and we arrived at maple candy or maple fudge of some kind. [This is Vermont, after all.] Say hi to Meg, he said, just like his old self.

But yesterday, in a secondhand clothing store on Church Street in Burlington [under the remote influence of my friends Anne and Elly, and their thrift shop thrills], my cell phone rang and it was Dad. As I stood amidst slightly battered heels and cashmere sweaters, he told me he's in the hospital for two weeks [he  isn't], that it was Thursday [right], that he needed to know the name of the hospital in Montclair [Mountainside] and checked in about when I'd be back [Sunday].

That wasn't so bad; I told him Sis was going to see him today. But then at about 7 P.M., I got a call from Pam at the nursing home. Dad had been calling "O" for the front desk about every five minutes all afternoon and getting confused, eventually saying he would be calling the police because no one came in to see him unless they were bringing his medicine. Pam and I agreed that we will have to limit the time he can use the phone, maybe hone it down to a certain timeframe every day. Sis agreed when I called her. I saw this coming, feared that once he realized "O" reached a real person, he would call every time he wanted or needed something. Poor Papa Bear. [But Sis, Don and H. saw him today, and Will is going tomorrow.]

Patsy in My Pocket
I did bring my Patsy in My Pocket with me. [See link: http://insearchoftruthandbeauty.blogspot.com/search/label/fitness.] She's been pretty helpful. I told the real Patsy after boot camp Wednesday morning that I was driving to Vermont, and planned to take walks and hike.

Don't go to Ben & Jerry's, she said with a smile. Or if you do, exercise first and then get a small. Unfortunately, eating is a big part of it.


Um, how was I to know that the one special request Figgy had so far [in addition to taking a nice hike tomorrow, can't wait now that the rain has stopped] would be to go to the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury? We've done that tour on many of our Vermont visits, but I guess she must like it. [I would have thought she had outgrown it.] On today's 4 P.M., 30-minute tour, we saw them packing Peanut Butter Cup on the line and sampled rich little medicine-size cups of Triple Caramel Chunk. Figgy bought presents for her friends in the gift shop. I got Sis a pretty bookmark and for me, The Official Vermont Maple Cookbook, a pamphlet-like edition published by the Vermont Maple Foundation for $1.50.


How many pencils did you buy? I asked when we were situated in Meg's backseat again. [Hadn't wanted to pry earlier, in store.]
Twelve, she said. That made me feel good. My bubbly little Figgy is still in there--still talking at length to people and sharing her thoughts and her goodness. I also enjoyed watching her watch the mountains as we drove by today. When I took Fig and her friend to New Hampshire this summer for their weeklong hiking adventure, they talked about how they love to look out and daydream on long drives, wondering how it would feel to live there, in the places you speed by on the other side of the window glass.


So Pasty in My Pocket was there when I chose to get a single scoop on a sugar cone. Originally toyed with idea of hot fudge sundae in chocolate-dipped waffle bowl. Yay for me. I was actually perfectly satisfied, spent way less money and besides, I remember being underwhelmed by the B&J hot fudge topping when I got it once on Cape Cod.


And last night, when we ordered pizza, I ordered a big, fresh, crunchy garden salad, too. That helps, right?


R&R
Meg and Greg--skiers and athletes to the core--headed over the border to Canada just now to go curling with friends, as they do every Friday night in the winter. They both learned to ski at about four years old or something. Fig and I couldn't join them b/c Fig doesn't have a passport. 


So tonight, Figgy, who is really into her self-started novel-writing challenge, will tap away for another few hours. I'm going to walk Sug, take a hot shower, read, maybe polish my nails in pretty Vermont-leaf brown. 


P.S. We went to Lake Champlain Chocolates yesterday on Church Street in Burlington. I can't lie, that brand is awesome. Can't believe I forgot to put it on my chocolate snob list. They sell it in Whole Foods Montclair. The gold-foil-wrapped Maple Crunch is excellent [90 cents, I got one] and the perfectly refined square of Almond Butter Crunch is $38/lb. and I chose one @ $1.90. But what I really loved was the hot chocolate made in store. Soothing and sweet. lakechamplainchocolates.com Good night. Being kicked off Meggy's laptop so Figgy can write.


Note on Maple Crunch from company's website:
Autumn's stunning foliage is featured on maple leaf-embossed dark chocolate surrounding a maple syrup buttercrunch center.