I was up early again this morning,
but not for the usual reasons of sheep checking or cow chores. Today, with two
friends, Gretta and Nora, I went to the State House to lobby our representatives
for divestment. It was still dark when we climbed into the car, and we wasted a
few minutes being extra careful not to let our black dress pants touch the
muddy, salty, grimy Vermont-mud-season car as we climbed in. We stopped in town
at Mike’s Store to pick up bagels and muffins to eat in the car. Mike’s is
always hopping. People come in early for their coffee and doughnut, mid-morning
for their coffee and doughnut, and at lunchtime for a sandwich and doughnut.
The early morning crowd is made up of people dressed in Carhartts and
camouflage hats with heavy boots. We were certainly the odd ones out with black
dress pants and wool coats. We purchased our breakfast and were on the road. We
met up with our ride in Woodstock. We were carpooling with our friend, who used
to be one of our neighbors, Deb.
When we
arrived at the State House, we got out of the car, once again going to great
lengths to avoid getting mud on our pants. We got back into our coats, which
was just as difficult as getting out of the car. For anyone who has not had the
experience of wearing these coats before, let me explain why. The material does
not stretch which means that once you are in the coat, your range of motion is
about half of what it was without the coat. You can’t raise your arms and fold
your collar, you can’t bend your elbows more than 40 degrees and worst of all,
it is quite tricky to reach your buttons to get yourself out of the coat, so
once you are in, you are in to stay.
