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downtown Gloversville
Sunday, July 4 2021
location: 800 feet west of Woodworth Lake, Fulton County, NY
We managed to have enough non-rotten food for a reasonable breakfast, and for the dogs we had some mac & cheese that we'd decided we didn't like (it hadn't gone bad), as Gretchen I hadn't brought enough kibble for the number of meals they'd be eating. After a little preliminary packing, we walked with the dogs down to Ed's palatial log cabin on Hines Pond to retrieve our Chevy Bolt one last time. We found Ed sitting in a chair in front of a flower he was planting in a pot. Before we left, he regaled us with at least two stories: one about a daughter who had given up on vegetarianism because it was too much of an imposition on hosts, and another about a spicy red-headed woman who used to work at his company who was a lesbian, something none of the guys knew when they'd hit on her. For some reason our car had only gained about twenty miles of range overnight, which was less than half what it should've.
After locking all the doors and dismantling the doggy ramp, we started our drive back homeward. First, though, Gretchen wanted to go into downtown Gloversville to check out a co-op grocery store that might become an essential resource when we start spending time at our cabin. We paked on Gloversville's wide Main Street and checked out a few store fronts before looking into the co-op (which was closed, of course, it being both Sunday and the Fourth of July). There were several places that, were they open, would be selling bizarre sculptures, paintings, and social realist posters. The co-op had a juice bar, though we couldn't tell from the street whether or not they stocked tempeh. As for downtown Gloversville itself, it has a good stock of attractive buildings dating from when it was among the richest cities in America. Now, though, since the collapse of the American glove industry, it's more run-down than any comparable Main Street I've ever seen in the United States. There weren't all that many people on the street, though I saw two different men pushing strollers with babies in them.
Our next stop was the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany. We did a light shop, getting a fair amount of things for a big belated birthday party Powerful would be having at the West Hurley Park. Gretchen wasn't all that hungry, so when it turned out the deli no longer had what was required to make an Asian tofu sandwich, we decided to get lunch somewhere else. And then out in the parking lot, we decided we weren't all that hungry and should just go home. Meanwhile Ramona had gotten up into the front passenger seat, usually a Neville move. But with Ramona there, I thought she looked comfy, so I climbed in the back with Neville and rode all the way home that way. With the two pillows and the dog bed, I was comfortable despite the lack of seat; with all that space, I could just lie flat, as if in bed. I was still drinking a cup of coffee from the Honest Weight deli, listening (along with Gretchen) to a the first episode of a three-part Radiolab series on the vanishing of Harry Pace, who founded an influential recording studio for Black musicians. The speakers aren't that great in the back of our Bolt, so I had trouble hearing it over the road noise (the only kind of noise an electric car has).
Back at the house, the cats Oscar and Diane were so excited to see me that they climbed on me the moment I climbed inro the bed (it was cool even down here, and I wanted to get under the covers even though it was only late afternoon). But I didn't want cats on me, so I eventually fixed myself a drink and went down to the greenhouse. Diane and Oscar eventually found me down there, though they were content just to be nearby and not actually climb all over me. As for Celeste, I started wondering where she was. At some point I even went down to Powerful's room to look for her (he was gone), and she wasn't there. She wasn't in any of her spots in the laboratory either. Had she been eaten by a coyote? If so, what a shame! In the last few days she'd suddenly become friendlier than she'd ever been, even sleeping on the bed (something she has almost never done). But perhaps these behavioral changes reflected a problem in her brain, and she'd walked obliviously in front of an oncoming cement truck.
Inside the new cabin, looking west.
Inside the new cabin, looking northeast. Note the kitchen cabinets are already in place.
Neville and Ramona in front of the new cabin, looking east.
Outside the new cabin's west end, looking south at our Chevy Bolt, Gretchen, and the site port-a-potty that neither of us used.
Outside the new cabin's north side, looking east.
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