Kym Balthazar My partner got her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine the other day. She sat anxiously in a plastic chair in a makeshift curtained cubicle next to the Polar seltzer cooler in the back of a CVS Pharmacy in Rutland. Instead of wincing in pain when the nurse jabbed her, she had an entirely unexpected reaction. As the needle went in, she exhaled in relief like she was slipping into a hot bath at the end of a long day: Ahhhhh. She then giggled self-consciously, which elicited a chuckle from the nurse. You d be
amazed how many people do that, the nurse assured her.
Damn Good Journalism Chelsea Edgar is an absolutely amazing writer. Reading her [ Mother Load, March 10], I felt this crazy swirl of things: guilty relief that my pandemic life has been relatively stable; anger about how even in Vermont we haven t figured out how to make life not suck for everyone; a rush of empathy and affection for these three brave, strong, nearly broken women. Her writing made it all the way into my heart. That s a mark of damn good journalism. Thank you. Jason Van Driesche
Another Mother Chelsea Edgar s article was outstanding and heartbreaking [ Mother Load, March 10]. All during the months last year, I felt so fortunate to be 59 years old with young motherhood behind me. That s because I knew how awful it would have been to be a young mother dealing with it.
A recent piece by Grace Elletson Elletson, 23, grew up in Cape Cod in Massachusetts and attended Ithaca College in New York. She said she inherited her interior design sensibilities and frugality from her mom. She was just so good at making spaces look beautiful when we had no money, Elletson said. I bring that to refurbishing, because I take furniture that is on its last leg. People are throwing it out. Transforming a large piece of furniture, such as a desk or a dresser, from junkyard-bound to Insta-ready requires some 20 hours of work. Elletson sands and primes every part of the wood, hand-paints, sprays a topcoat, and often replaces the hardware. Some pieces need more repairs, if a drawer is falling apart or a leg is wobbly.
The beer case at City Market, Onion River Co-op In 2011, John and Jen Kimmich, owners of the Alchemist, began building a production brewery to package their beers for retail sale. And they made a decision that some in the craft beer industry thought was strange: They built a canning line. At the time, John Kimmich recalled in a recent interview, craft beer came almost exclusively in 12- or 22-ounce bottles; cans were associated with mass-produced beers. He knew of just a few other breweries in the U.S. using 16-ounce cans, but he had fond memories of drinking pounders while growing up in Pittsburgh.
Cross-country skiing at Craftsbury Outdoor Center Meanwhile, my friend couldn t get her boots into her newly purchased skis. We fumbled around for a few minutes like two toddlers trying to tie a pair of shoes. When she was finally snapped in, we set off. Our pace was more akin to a shuffle than a glide, but that was fine. Cross-country skiing, at its least elegant, is walking, and I m great at walking. It was a gorgeous day, and Craftsbury Outdoor Center was the perfect place to enjoy it. Trails loop through trees and around multiple ponds and lakes. One trail took us past a red barn, set like a pastoral dream on a snowy hill overlooking the valley. On another, we passed over a small bridge. Even on the easiest green runs, which we skied exclusively, there were hills that felt perilous. I could only imagine the challenge expert skiers were facing on black diamond runs.