24 months is the same as 2 years, or 730 days or 17520 hours.  An awful lot can happen in that time.   I had a sheep farm less than 2 years ago.  I also got a new job, made new friends, took some graduate classes, got a nice new pair of glasses, gained some weight, lost some weight, ran 5 miles a couple of times, got paid to write, and lived in the moment as much much as I could.

Lots can happen in the next 2 years and yesterday I was a bit down in the dumps first thing.  I had taken refuge up in one of my favorite places with some of my favorite peeps, but still grieving a huge loss.   The waterworks had opened wide and I was allowing myself to mourn.  Later, Lulu and I ventured home to Morrisville and made out a plan.  It was time that I got a real cell phone and time to spend some good times with my daughter.  After doing some research, canvasing face book friends and making some calls, it turns out I get a good discount monthly with Verizon because I work for UVM.

The store in Burlington was jammed and we took our turn in line to finally be helped by Mathew.  He was very helpful and I took my first picture on the camera phone of him.  Really hard to get a good picture from a cell phone.  Not the quality I am used to with my Nikon, but my first cell phone picture none the less.

I got a Blackberry with a purple case.  Lulu helped me to pick it out.  I wanted to be able to have internet, an ability to hook up to my laptop, both here and at work.   When I asked about the contract, he said it was two years.

The really great thing is that so much can happen in the next two years, I felt like the phone is something concrete that I can take with me on this next part of my journey.  I was lifted out of my funk and felt a small sense of security again,  knowing that I will be connected to my most important people for the next two years.  They will always know that they can get a hold of me. 

Lulu knew how to work the phone and once we were set for service, we headed to Church street.  Lulu and I connect on the Sushi level and Sukura is our place.  We were afraid they might be closing at 2:00, but luckily they are open all day Saturday so we were able to enjoy our comfort food.  Tuna and Ebi for me,  a tuna roll for her.  We were refueled and ready to head out.

Victoria’s secret next and the end of the birthday gift cards and coupons. Then to April Cornell’s for a new set of flannel jammies for me.  Last stop the shoe store and a new pair of clogs for Lulu and a pair of black riding type boots for me.  (I don’t need them, but they sure as heck look good and I have wanted a pair for years.  I used to have a set of black boots always, just like a pair of favorite jeans or classic sweater, comfort clothes make you feel secure. )

At the end of the day, a return home and then let the dog out to run.  Start a fire in the wood stove, and then find the movie.  Lulu treated me to the new flick, 2012.  We found Todd Geraci and his dad Anthony there, and sat with them.  Todd and I share the same birthday and he is one of my all time favorite people in the world.  He threw his arms around me and gave me a great big hug.  What more could you ask for?

The movie was wonderfully over the top with special effects of the world as we know it coming apart and the family finding the importance of family and in the end everything works out.  Over the top on so many levels it was great.  Pop Corn and a lemon lime slushy to top if off and home around 9. We stayed up playing with the phone until at some point I fell asleep and she went to her room too.

I slept really, really well last night.  Woke up too late to make church, but feel so much better than I had this past week. I really needed it.

Lulu has gone now, back to NH and it is just me and dog and Mr. Toes.   24 months, 730 days.  Each one is a gift and I have a little purple anchor that will keep me connected.

Jewel will keep watch over me, barking when somebody comes by and reminding me that there are many walks to take.

Lulu is on her way.  Jenny and Jessie too. We are all meeting up in Greensboro, at Jenny’s for tonight.  I am the first to arrive and as soon as I let the doggo out of the car, she took off.  I hope no one mistakes her for a deer.  She has three legs after all.

The girlies are best best best of friends, and so they will disappear to the back bedrooms and be on face plant most of the night.  Jenny and I will knit, spin and solve all of the problems of the universe, because that is what girl friends do.  She will tell me how to solve my issues, and I hers. Then we will tackle all the world issues that are meant to be talked about.

The sun is setting now at 4:19 pm and the night will be dark tonight.  Willies store closes at 5:30 in the winter, so I think there will be a quick run down to get supplies.  I left some stuff here from last weekend.  I think there is some dead lettuce in a bag in the fridge.  The only thing I have done so far, waiting for the crew was to bring stuff in from the car, then make some tea. Pee

I am looking forward to good times tomorrow with Lulu.  I think sushi and a movie. Maybe a trip to Burlington.  Who knows. I just am happy to have my peeps around. Lulu has just arrived!

I could not take it any more and I could not figure any other way to address  it.  I tried, I looked, I sought out advice, then checked in with my moral compass and was reminded of a little thing on face book of all things. Kesha Ram, one of Vermont’s youngest (perhaps brightest )legislators from the Burlington area,  she lists a reminder on her info page:

The Seven Blunders of the World
(A list that Mahatma Gandhi gave to his grandson, Arun, on their final day together, just before Gandhi was assassinated)

Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle

Now my words.

Silence in the face of injustice allows for the injustice to grow and to continue.  Truth, no matter how difficult to hear or how ugly remains true.  Dialog and action will stop injustice.   So when I attended the board meeting of the Lamoille Solid Waste Management District as a board supervisor, I had an obligation to operate openly and honestly and also to challenge unjust actions.

The very first day I was officially on, an employee came to me and disclosed that there has been and was fearful of continued sexual harassment by her boss and by some of the members of the board. She had reported it 4 years ago to the chair of the board and nothing was done.  The harassment had continued.  She was fearful that nothing was going to change.  I brought it to the board and in executive session, I relayed the issue and thought that the board would take steps to resolve the issue.

What I found instead was a board, whose majority didn’t get it.  I was harasses over the next several meetings with crude sexual jokes being told, disparaging remarks and innuendo.  I spoke directly to the offender each time and said the comments were inappropriate and offensive.  Twice I did this. Twice it was ignored.  Third time I sent a letter and submitted that letter for the record.

Shortly after, not only against me but also the employee who brought up the claim up became the subject of a story in the Stowe Reporter.  I was called a horse’s ass, a little lady who thought she is the savior of all women and the employee was identified and disparaged.   I addressed our Chair and asked what actions the board would take.  A sanction was offered, but not for actions against me, but actions against the employee. They are covered by law,  supervisors on boards are not employees and do not fall under the protection of the law.  I asked the Chair how he was going to deal with the harassment I was being subjected to.  He did nothing.  His plan was that perhaps if nothing was done, if silence and time was used,  if things settled down, perhaps, just perhaps the issue would go away.  Apathy.   I continued to serve.

Last week another claim came before the board and I had a hope that the Chair would have the backbone to finally address the issues of discrimination and patterns of harassment that has been imbedded in the culture of the board.  Instead the Chair dodged the issue and sided with the bad actors.  ” if I were Chip and Dave, I would be pissed too” was a statement made in an effort to settle hot tempters.  In trying to calm things down by siding and showing sympathy for the people who committed the bad acts, he led the board away from the issue.  He was asked what the claim was about and his response was that it was about money.  He then drew this analogy with a a qualifier. ” I have been in academia for 35 years and when ever you give an F you can expect some Hispanic Women to file a sexual discrimination claim.“.

Translation:  This new claim is because the employee, who has not earned compensation, but is asking for it, will try and get it by filing a sexual discrimination claim.  Therefore boys, lets focus on how we are going to handle the claim by focusing on the loss of compensation, not the issue of sexual discrimination.

I will not be quiet.  Silence is a tool used to continue the bad acts.   By being on the board and acting a member of one body, I would be contributing to the perpetuation of discrimination.   Because of the history and longstanding attitudes of certain members, for me to stand up in the meeting and speak the truth, in an attempt to create dialog, would not have worked.

We were at the point where there was a burning cross in my front yard, and to go to the cross and try to put it out with a bucket of water, would have had me lynched.

I called the Chair, Victor Ehly the next day, at his college office.  I spoke of my disappointment and specifically questioned him about his comments. He admitted to me that he was wrong and the comments were inappropriate and offensive.  He said he would not do it again.  But he fell short with a complete solution.  It is not good enough to say “sorry, I won’t do it again”. There needs to be a plan of action to open up the dialog about the culture. People need to examine and reflect upon their actions, then make changes in behavior.  I asked Victor what his plan was, to think about it and to get back to me with a specific plan for a change in action.  He never contacted me.  His action was to let things settle down and to hopefully ignore the issues again. Perhaps, he thought, If I don’t do anything it will go away.

Well, It will not go away.  I will not allow it to remain silent and secret.  My only recourse was to speak the truth openly and to do so by resigning and requesting that the town which I represent end their relationship with the district by pulling out.    I went before my town select board on Monday night and spoke the truth.  Openly and on record.   Now the town must decide if it will continue to engage with the district and the community will be watching.  I will continue to work with my town in this time of transition and evaluation of options.

It will be hard for the board of supervisors at the District to continue their tactics and culture of discrimination and retaliation now that the secret is no longer.  They will have to act openly and with transparency.  Kesha Ram put some words up on her face book page. Those words reminded me of the importance to principle.  There were no directions on how to specifically handle the issue, just the basic guidelines given from a very wise man.  Thank you Kesha.

I love having my tea in the morning.  I love tea around 4 in the afternoon.  I make black tea and take it with cream and sugar. Brown Betty is a good little tea-pot.  I have about a dozen other pots, some fancy and old and some funny looking, but Brown Betty has been a constant for a long time.  I also like having tea on this silver tray, with my silver creamer and sugar pot.  I reminds me of my Grandmothers who introduced to tea when I was a child.  Cambric Tea.

Lulu called me yesterday and said that she is now drinking tea on a regular basis.  Both my girls know how to brew a decent pot.   Tea in the morning is part of my routine.  So is writing. So is knitting.  They go together and are the glue of keeping things normal for me.  The world may fall apart all around me, but I am grounded with a simple gifts that my grandmothers gave me.

“I’m a little tea-pot short and stout, here is my handle, here is my spout. When I get all steamed up, hear me shout, just tip me over and pour …. me…. out.”  wise words.

I love watching Deadwood.  One of my all time favorite shows.  When it first came out, I would watch an episode a couple of times in order to understand what the world was going on and half the time, re-watching to try and understand the language.  There are wonderful characters, all really flawed.   Our dog Jewel is really named after one of them.  I sent the first years complete episode out to Jim and Mim in Jamestown North Dakota, they had not seen it yet.   I have the second season on DVD and am loving it.

What is upsetting is when someone with some clout pulls the series, in the middle.  Deadwood never made it past mid-season of year three.  Big mistake for HBO, I canceled my account.   Other good shows that have a glimmer of  some promise are also truncated for unknown reasons.  Ian McShane jumped over to Kings,  and it was canceled just when it was going well.  I saw Gravity this summer and it was pretty good, and just when you are getting into it, poof, it too is gone.  So I have now discovered TV on my lap-top.  ABC.Com, CBS,  Hulu and the like.   So I really don’t need a TV service anymore.  Kinda of liberating to say the least.

The problem I am confronted with is trying to write, without the background of the boob-tube.  Radio suffices at work, but I like hearing words spoken when I write.    The need to multi-task my senses while I concentrate is most likely my brain needing stimulation in one area so that the words will come out correctly.  Dyslexic adaptation.  I also like to knit while I have to listen to stuff in meetings. Just sitting still, I wander.  I can listen to classical music without fidgeting, and wandering is what your mind is supposed to do in that situation.  Sometimes I see colors when I listen to symphonies.   I can’t read and pay attention to what someone is saying at the same time.  My ears and eyes don’t work that way.  But if I am using my hands, then I can listen well.  Most folks around town have come to accept that about me and don’t give me too much flack about it.  Work too allows me to have the radio on while I work.

Now I am under deadline for a story to go into the January-February edition of Livin’ the Vermont Way.  I am writing about Emilie’s buddy Mike Dolan.   Story is due today, and given that it is 8 at night, I have a couple more hours to finish it up.   Putting myself under pressure also helps me to focus my thoughts.  I doubt my editor Kyle appreciates that last-minute, here you go, but so far he has been wonderfully patient.

Deadwood is running on the background and the house is quiet.  Time to proof this blog and finish off the piece on Mike.