Of Baseball, Bicycles and B-Towns

Two things have encompassed about 90% of my energy over the last two months – the house search and baseball.

After Doreen landed a job in town Montpelier, we decided to try to buy or build a house in Montpelier.  We would wait until Spring and then find something in time for our lease expiration in August.  Easy peasy!  Only not so easy – one of our top priorities is energy efficiency, whether achieved through a newly-built Passive House or an existing house that we can retrofit.  And we are finding that land is hard to come by (and expensive), and the houses are big and old (and expensive).  We’re having a hard time finding something that fits our needs.  It’s frustrating.  And the rest of the story is suited for it’s own post, sometime after we have had some success.

Outside of the house search, there is baseball.  I’ve taken up with a senior men’s baseball team, the Montpelier Monties of the Vermont Senior Baseball League.  Since the start of the season in May, I frame pretty much everything in terms of baseball. “I banged my knee!  I hope it doesn’t affect my game on Sunday!”  We only started winning games a couple of weeks ago, but it’s been a blast.  And this also deserves a post of it’s own.

EPISODE 6: WALKING THE WINOOSKI WEST

Back in Montpelier with a day off from work, Doreen and I decided to do a little exploring. I did some research to locate bike paths within the city, because we don’t have a bike rack on the car yet. I did find some interesting information about the Cross Vermont Trail, which runs through Montpelier.  However, we’re looking at off-road trails until we know the roads better, and there’s not much of a loop within the city.

What I did find during my search is the Winooski West Trail, a short (1.3 mile) paved path that winds along the Winooski River.  There is a vision to connect the path the the Winooski East Trail, a half-mile path that runs along Stone Cutter’s Way, but evidently lack of dollars has kept that from happening.