Category: The Softer Side

The following will be some do’s and don’ts regarding, what for many a woman, is the 5th season of the year the dreaded “car show” season. If you are just starting out and introducing her to the car show, this will prove to be the easiest time to cultivate a love or at least a…

Cars are bedded down for the winter, holidays are over, there are still remnants of cookies and fudge and decorations, so now you would think that we could all settle in for the cold and snowy days ahead. Maybe catch up some of the reading you have wanted to do or some “winter” project that…

If my memory is correct, I believe it used to be the twelve days of Christmas. This year the Christmas “stuff” started to appear in two local stores at the same time the Halloween candy appeared in August. Back “in my day”, the Christmas season started when the Sears Christmas catalog appeared around Thanksgiving. Many…

…As the leaves are falling, old cars are being readied for their winter rest, gardens mulched and the lawn mowers put away, I watch farmers trying to get in their corn, chop the last loads of silage, and, of course, spread that aromatic slurry, I marvel at their tenacity in keeping their family farms intact…

Have you noticed that there are things that you know, that other people don’t seem to? Gary and I have discussed this from time to time. We can’t tell you why or how we know things but seems that we have always known certain things. This was brought to my attention recently, when my left…

Trying to think of a “Softer Side” topic, I initially drew a blank, so I picked up a new, yellow, lined pad of paper for inspiration. Hmmm, not so inspiring after all. Then came tropical storm Irene and the havoc it wreaked on Vermonters. We were in northern Maine that weekend for a family reunion,…

Gary and I just returned from a 6 week vacation. I used the term vacation but perhaps it should be more like an Odyssey. It really wasn’t what I would term a “vacation”. Gary drove (and I rode) over 7,000 miles. That isn’t 7000 miles of new road, it is 7000 miles, some of which…

There has been a lot of complaining in the media, diners, coffee shops, etc., about poor road conditions, from pot holes to mud bogs, now flooding. We live on a dirt road, and, in fact, with each new Town Manager, we bring him or her a copy of a piece entitled “Dirt Roads”. A quote…

You’ve all seen that sign that says, “Unless you are naked, don’t touch this car!” Years ago, when I first saw it (back in a time when I was trying to impress my soon to be husband), I wondered why anyone would take and put such a sign on their beautiful car. Was it a…

As a one-time “old car widow”, I have experienced an epiphany! When my husband first joined the Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts, one of my friends suggested with great sympathy, that going to meetings and events would be just old car “stuff” and boring talk about old car “stuff”. I tended to agree with her, so Wendell…