Wednesday, February 3, 2010




Anyone that lives in Williston knows Tom and his truck. Her name is Rosie and she is very popular. This is probably because she is handy for friends to get things to the dump. But Rosie might also be popular because there is a bottomless supply of really unhealthy snacks Tom stuffs into the cab space behind the seats. If you are brave enough to eat anything that has been in that truck it is entirely at your discretion. And don’t think of cleaning it up as a favor to Tom. Think boys dorm rooms that have not been cleaned out for 10 years. For indeed Rosie is 10. And that is 10 Vermont Vieth years. (Double the real years for Vermont winters, double it again for the way Tom uses a truck.) But she is a very proud girl, a 2000  black Nissan pickup. Before her was another black Nissan Pickup, also named Rosie. When Tom got ‘new’ Rosie he only paid $500 dollars more for her than he had for the ‘old’ Rosie. He is so proud of that fact. Old Rosie’s tailgate was falling off and the garage simply could not pass her for inspection without it being way too obvious that they were cutting Tom way too much slack.  Now ‘new’ Rosie is listing to one side, she handles like a sled, and you don’t go into intersections too fast. Maybe because of the shocks, maybe it's the springs, goodness knows about the brakes. One’s teeth bounce together with the frost heaves* this time of year as there is no buffer between passengers and the axels. Rosie's tailgate fell off as a friend returned her and I’m sure she will not pass the next inspection. So what does one do? We decided to move to France before the cops could ticket the poor old girl.


**(Frost Heaves, for our southern friends think of a choppy day out on the ocean in a very small, fast speedboat and make that your daily drive around town. The frost heaves do go away sometime the end of April, if we’re lucky.)

Tom's transportation in Bourdeilles.

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