Daybreak Tuesday 4/4/23

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Probably some drizzle. Otherwise, mostly cloudy. Off to our west, especially in the northern Plains and upper Midwest, they're girding for a blizzard. Here? A front that dropped south overnight may produce some rain, possibly with snow mixed in depending on where you are, before temps climb toward the upper 40s. A chance of rain throughout the afternoon, evening, and overnight. Lows tonight in the mid-30s.What a splash of color on a cold, windy day can do. "Made me smile," writes Janice Fischel of the crocuses on her walk into Hanover the other day.The nun who stayed in touch. She wandered into Dan & Whit's in Norwich once, lost, and the staff got her oriented, made sure she had gas, and sent her on her way. She's been corresponding with the store ever since. And to Dartmouth student Loane Bouguennec, that pretty much sums up the essence of general stores: places where people can "get everything they need, where they see everybody that they know, and most importantly, where they can help each other." The second in this week's podcasts from Sophie Crane's non-fiction for radio class: "If We Don't Have It, You Don't Need It."Mystery over car missing from Plainfield barn destroyed by fire. In the Valley News, John Lippman tells the story: Around 3 am Sunday, Judith Belyea was awakened by what she thought was thunder. Thanks to her neighbor across the road, she quickly learned that her historic barn, on Route 120, was on fire. After crews from Plainfield, Lebanon, Cornish and Windsor got the blaze out—saving Belyea's house—police called a different neighbor to let him know that two cars he was storing in the barn had been destroyed. Only to be told there was a third car, no sign of which can be found. Now, Plainfield Fire Chief Bill Taylor tells Lippman, he considers the fire's cause "suspicious."Enfield-Grafton-area state rep resigns from NH House. Josh Adjutant, a member of the Democratic leadership team from Bridgewater, NH, stepped down as of April 1, citing health concerns, reports WMUR political director Adam Sexton—a move that puts Democrats in the closely divided chamber at 196 House members to the Republicans' 201. Yesterday morning, the Twitter account @JoshAdjacent put up a workers comp form showing that Adjutant—a security officer in the DH system—suffered a head injury last week in an assault by a patient.SPONSORED: You can improve someone's life right now! Hearts You Hold is a VT-based nonprofit that supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees in a concrete way. We believe that only the individuals themselves know what they want or need and that it is critical to take the time to ask them. Currently, there are many requests waiting to be funded for people who are trying to rebuild their lives in the US, including for prom clothes and shoes from high schoolers from Guatemala and El Salvador. Hit the link above, pick an item (or more) to fund, and make a difference now! Sponsored by Hearts You Hold.For homeless individuals living in motels thanks to federal pandemic funding, time ran out on Sunday. “It’s incredibly frustrating,” Lebanon Human Services Director Lynne Goodwin told the VN's Jim Kenyon for his Sunday column. “The money could have been better spent on investing in infrastructure for more permanent housing solutions.” In all, she estimates, 20 people in the city lost their rooms this weekend. Kenyon notes that the program, overseen in northern NH by a Berlin-based agency, spent millions on motels but did "little to help the people at risk for homelessness to find permanent housing."New child care centers in Randolph, Woodstock move forward. The Woodstock center, writes the VN's Nora Doyle-Burr, will be the first to open, possibly as soon as June. It aims to have 18 slots and already has a list of 40 people who are interested. The Randolph center, near the I-89 exit in what used to be a VT Tech building taken over last month by the Green Mountain Economic Development Corp., anticipates 88 spots but won't open until the fall of 2024. “My heart goes out to any parents looking for care right now,” says the director of the Orange County Parent Child Center, which will run it.“She knows no boundaries with political figures." So many people you could think of who might fit the bill, but in this case it's not a person. It's Fern, Dartmouth professors Julie Rose and Herschel Nachlis' mini-Australian shepherd, who among other things goes on field trips with policy classes to DC. In the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, writer Claire Callahan and photographer Rob Strong profile a series of professors' dogs, along with their likes, dislikes, and quirks. Really Zuzu? Biting bees?SPONSORED: Events this Spring at Left Bank Books. April 19th at 5:30 pm: the Bloodroot Literary Magazine Launch Party! Join us for a reading, an open mic and snacks. On April 26th at 5:30 pm, it's Ukrainian literary translation featuring Hanna Leliv, Lada Kolomiyets and Veronika Yadukha. On May 3rd at 5:30 pm Annabelle Cone reads from her new graphic novel, Empty Nesting II. And May 10th at 5:30 pm, John West reads from Lessons and Carols and Ewa Crusciel from Yours, Purple Gallinule. All events are free and open to the public. Mark your calendars now! Sponsored by Left Bank Books.Welcome back, This Week in the Woods!!! It's been well over a year since Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast last published her weekly guide to what's going on out there in the woods and fields—but as of yesterday, it's back. This first week of April, so are hooded mergansers and American woodcock (Elise helpfully points out that you can find the male woodcock dance-strut set to "Staying Alive" and "Uptown Funk", among other tunes), plus what seems to be a burst of long-jawed orb weavers, who not coincidentally like to snack on the springtails that have been dotting whatever snow is left.How to tell who's been tearing up your lawn. You can see the little raised pathways that moles and voles create, but skunks and raccoons are pretty fond of going after grubs in the lawn, too, writes Mary Holland in her latest Naturally Curious blog post. The difference: "Skunks typically root around with their noses in the soil and then dig individual little funnel-shaped holes in the ground. Raccoons tend to use their paws like hands, digging, lifting and tearing off chunks of sod and flipping them over to inspect for grubs."NH hiking fundraiser aims to honor Emily Sotelo, raise money for hiking safety. Sotelo was the young Massachusetts woman who set out to hike Mt. Lafayette last November and was found dead after an intensive three-day search. Now, reports the AP's Holly Ramer, the nonprofit group Hiking Buddies NH 48 is organizing a July 29 multi-peak hike to raise funds for hiking safety initiatives, search and rescue teams, and the Emily M. Sotelo Persistence and Safety Charitable Foundation created by her parents in her memory. "We’re going to finish Emily’s hike,” says Hiking Buddies' founder.NH consumer advocate wants public utilities commissioners disqualified from considering state energy efficiency plan. In a motion filed Friday, reports NH Bulletin's Hadley Barndollar, Don Kreis argues that a January PUC report "expresses unabashed hostility toward fundamental aspects of the NHSaves programs" and signals a bias against state efficiency programs. Kreis, efficiency advocates, and state utility leaders all have argued that efficiency programs are "under threat," as Liberty Utilities President Neil Proudman said at a forum last week.After pandemic bump from 2020-21, Vermont's population barely grew in '21-'22. That's according to new Census Bureau estimates, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko. The numbers show a change of fewer than 100 people out of more than 640,000 residents—a far cry from VT's 4,800 net gain in the first year of the pandemic, Petenko notes. She adds that while it's possible the data may be skewed by the peculiarities of the 2020 Census, it mirrors trends in other rural states.Rats. There isn't a new perfume called King Arthur Fleur? With the tagline, "The only perfume you knead"? Every year, The Washington Post collects and then debunks April Fools pranks foisted on the public by what it calls "corporate marketing specialists who use the occasion to deceive their customers with fictitious announcements in the name of 'humor.'" But you know what? There were some okay ones. Turns out, Pennsylvania is not sawing off NJ to gain a shoreline. Tinder isn't banning pics of people holding fish. And GasBuddy is not getting in on the perfume craze by introducing Pump No. 5. (Gift link.)The Tuesday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.

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And the Tuesday poem...

Do not lose hope.We found new hope.There is no hope.You have no hope.It’s my last hope.There’s always hope.It grows on trees.

— "Timepiece," by Jana Prikryl, from her collection,

The After Party.

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The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.

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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt      Poetry editor: Michael Lipson    Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt   About Rob                                                 About Michael

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