Vermont Visitor

A note to PigDog's daughter, TLC, in Vermont...

Dear TLC,

Hope your New Year is going well in cold Vermont! I wanted to drop a quick note and let you know that we had a surprise visitor last night—Flat Stanley finally arrived. I admit, I was beginning to worry… I wasn’t sure when I’d have to head off to the airport to pick him up. Imagine my surprise when he showed up, curled up in our mailbox! Apparently his flight got in a little early and he hopped a ride with a postal worker who was heading out to Clackamas County. “The only rule,” he told me, “is that I have to ride in a white envelope.”

I didn’t have time to make up the guest bed so he slept on the couch by the fireplace. “It wasn’t too bad,” he said the next morning. “Every time I got up to take a look outside, one of the cats would come by and ask for a scritch or kitty treat.” He then looked a bit pale and added, “I hope they didn’t think I was the treat!”

I am planning on taking F. Stanley, Esq. to work with me today as Critter has some things she has to do at school today. She just finished a big paper on Beverly Cleary, an author who was born in McMinnville, Oregon. Maybe you have read a book or two of hers? She wrote the Ramona books and a lot of her stories take place in neighborhoods filled with Oregon references like Tillamook Street and NE Sandy Blvd. Grant Park, mentioned in her books, actually exists and has a sculpture garden for children with life-size renditions of Ramona “the Pest” Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ribsy the Dog.

It’s been rather cold and rainy here—I’m a little concerned that Stanley didn’t arrive with a suitcase. Our weather people have predicted snow off and on the last few days but we never seem to see it. We love seeing snow here—it’s so rare that it sticks. In fact, we Oregonians (at least the ones who live in the Willamette Valley) will often shut down school for the day because the roads get bad and the buses have trouble. When we get snow, we get ice. And that means lots of sliding around. Here's a famous video from a snow storm just one year ago.





Critter and I will probably take Flat Stanley shopping over the weekend and show him a bit of the town. Perhaps we can get him some gloves and warm hat in case it decides to snow (I'm not holding my breath though. Sigh.).

I hope all is well with you. Please give your parents a big hug and tell them we said hello. I'll be sure to send more pictures in the coming days!

Lots of love,

JewelGeek