Final random notes on the Vermont "vacation":

1) One day we used a ferry to cross a narrow portion of Lake Champlain to get to New York. My mother-in-law noted that some people use the ferry as part of their regular commute. After waiting 15 minutes for the ferry to arrive, and then another 10 minutes to travel the 1/3 mile distance across the lake, I asked the logical question.

"Mother in law, why don't they build a bridge here?"

"There's a bridge 30 miles north of here."

"Yeah, but maybe a bridge every 30 miles is correct. It would save people from driving an hour, right?" I asked "Wouldn't that make more sense that a ferry that only runs during daylight and rare Vermont good weather?"

"We like the ferry."

I know that "Freedom and Unity" is supposed to be Vermont's motto, but perhaps a better one would be "Inefficiency and Lake Champlain Infatuation and Maple Syrup Addiction". I'll contact Bernie Sanders.

2) There was a scale in my mother in law's house. I don't stand on scales often because no news is good news. I don't want to hear that I weigh less (less muscley!) or more (fatter!), so what are the odds that I weigh the exact same thing? Slim.

But, I'm a gambling man (as shown by the abysmal performance of my baseball blog), so I stepped on that bad boy. The digital display "spun" for several seconds computing force vectors and whatnot. It soon reached its conclusion and displayed...

"ERR"

Err? What the hell was err? Was I too fat or too skinny for the scale? Apparently my mother in law had purchased some sort of Heisenberg Uncertainty Scale. The mere act of measuring my weight made it unknowable. Awesome.

3) We made a trip to Walmart to purchase a fishing rod for Daisy. It was my first trip to a hunting/fishing department of a store.

It was surreal in there. Entire aisles of hooks. Purchasable ammo. Camouflage for days. I can't recall when I've felt more out of place. Is this how people from Kentucky feel when they walk into an SF gay porn shop?