Daybreak Tuesday, 9/1/26

Cloudy, a chance to a likelihood of showers. Yesterday’s high pressure has come and gone, and now there’s a ridge hanging out off to the southwest with various disturbances set to ride along its edge over the next few days. Today will be mostly overcast, with shower chances all day and into the night and noticeably cooler temperatures—highs in the mid 60s. Winds from the east, lows tonight in the mid 50s.

That end-of-summer look. Two beautiful photos, one sunrise, one sunset, that just have that feel to them.

Tubes’ clues. In DB Johnson’s Lost Woods this week, Auk and Eddie follow a trail of scrunched-up tubes of paint, trying to read their meaning as, up ahead, Lydia wanders with her paint-box.

Too many off-ramps! A note and correction about the I-89/I-91 ramp closures. Yesterday’s item about NHDOT work at the I-89/I-91 interchange misinterpreted an ambiguous reference. NHDOT engineer Andrew Silovich offers some—but not total—clarity. While work on the CT River bridge will close a lane of I-89 south through at least Wednesday, two off-ramps will be affected: The ramp from I-91N to I-89S may need to be closed through Thursday (“We have to pre-notify people in case we have to close it,” Silovich says); meanwhile, the Exit 20 southbound off-ramp from the bridge to the West Leb strip is slated to close 9-5 for paving tomorrow or Thursday, depending on weather.

Meanwhile, a milestone… For nearly six years, through thick and thin, Nelson Rooker has been maintaining and tending to the Spotify playlist of songs featured in Daybreak. Friday, with Leenalchi’s “Bird,” it reached 1,000 songs. That’s a lot of good music. My profound thanks to Nelson for keeping so many years of music within our easy reach. For your part, you can thank him by checking out his handiwork at the link.

Possible gray fox attack at Centerra. On Sunday, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, a man loading his car in a parking lot off Lafayette Street in Centerra was attacked when an animal “came up behind him and grabbed ahold of his shoe or pant leg and he kicked it off,” in the words of NH Fish & Game officer Eric Brown, who responded after he was called in by the Lebanon Police Dept. Based on interviews, Brown believes it was a gray fox; in its press release, the LPD identified it as possibly a fisher. Anyone who observes a wild animal “acting aggressively, unusually, or approaching people should avoid it” and get in touch with the LPD or Fish & Game, the LPD wrote. If you’re bitten or scratched, get medical attention immediately. 

Paid parking in WRJ got off to a bumpy start. Things appear to be fixed now, but “even with an eight-month lead time, the new system wasn’t working properly when it officially launched last week,” reports Sofia Langlois in the VN. The problem, which lasted several days after the metering system got under way last Monday, appeared to stem from payment issues with the system. Initially, Langlois reports, police issued warnings—not tickets—on the launch date, but stopped after the problems were discovered. “It would be silly for us to walk around and be dropping warnings on these people’s cars who can’t pay,” Police Lt. William Furnari tells Langlois.

SPONSORED: No one should have to worry about food. As hunger grows in our community, LISTEN’s Food Pantry distributed 15 percent more food, and our Community Dining Hall served 24 percent more meals this past year. You can make a difference right now—and thanks to two generous anonymous donors, your gift will be doubled up to $20,000. Together, we can help more neighbors across the Upper Valley access the food they need. Please donate here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by LISTEN Community Services. 

Art within reach. “Hankering for some art but feeling the pinch?” asks Susan Apel in Artful. She’s got a raft of suggestions for finding arts experiences you can afford. For one thing, the Upper Valley Arts Alliance has just launched an “Arts for All” campaign that’s full of events and offers, many of them free. Both Northern Stage and Shaker Bridge offer “pay what you can” performance dates. You can always check out individual venues’ websites, Susan adds, “and art galleries in White River Junction that, particularly during its First Friday celebrations, provide free gallery crawls.”

Amid a string of pharmacy closures, the Upper Valley adds two. They’re being opened inside North Star Health locations in Springfield VT and Charlestown NH, reports Clare Shanahan in the VN. The moves come in the wake of the closure of six Rite-Aid locations last year, as well as the shuttering of the Smilin’ Steve pharmacy in the Ottauquechee Health Center in Woodstock this past May. “We want everyone to have a trusted pharmacy nearby, with a friendly, knowledgeable pharmacist who knows them and is connected to the rest of their care,” says Joshua Dufresne, CEO of North Star Health, in a news release. “That is exactly what we’ve built.”

SPONSORED: For a unique and locally made acoustic guitar, visit Eric Furstenberg in Lyme, NH. The longtime Lyme resident is a full-time guitar builder specializing in traditionally built acoustic guitars. Eric’s guitars are built one at a time using both locally sourced and exotic materials. Contact him to discuss available guitars or a custom order, or to schedule a visit to his shop in Lyme. Hit the burgundy link for photos and more information, or check out his Facebook page. Sponsored by Eric Furstenberg.

It’s a bug drink bug world. Those ambush bugs are sneaky! In her latest Naturally Curious, Mary Holland posts a photo of an ambush bug that had “patiently been waiting in the flowering Joe Pye Weed to capture an unsuspecting pollinator.” They can slowly change color to match blossoms, and take on insects ten times their own size. So when an unfortunate Common Ringlet butterfly happened by, the ambush bug “[lost] no time in grasping and seizing the prey with its muscular front legs and using its piercing mouth parts to stab its prey and inject toxins and digestive enzymes into it before drinking its insides.” Oh. Whoops. Sorry about breakfast.

VT continues to lose primary care docs. The rate of decline has slowed a bit, reports VTDigger’s Olivia Gieger, but it’s inexorable: According to a new state report, VT had 529 people working as primary care providers in 2024, compared to 569 in 2022 and 634 when the survey began in 2004. The percentage of primary care providers working full-time has also dropped. Meanwhile, the ranks of specialists are growing. The statewide primary care numbers also mask real regional differences: 85.7 primary care physicians per 100K residents in Chittenden County, compared to 23 in Essex Co. (that’s 1.4 full-time-equivalent actual docs), 44.8 in Windsor Co., and 47.3 in Orange.

Green Dolphin Drive. Butternut Gutter. Old Shincracker Lane. It could only be Brave Little State’s “Brief History of Vermont Road Names”! In the 9th edition of the yearly guide to odd road names—names so good that people regularly abscond with their signs—Burgess Brown looks into S. Burlington’s Green Dolphin Drive, or as he puts it, “a road named for a marine mammal — taking real liberties with color — smack in the middle of a suburban neighborhood in a landlocked state”; Sarah Bokelberg tackles Arlington’s Butternut Gutter (the steep dirt road gets pretty wet); and Josh Crane looks into not just Old Shincracker Lane, but the town that hosts it: Baltimore. Baltimore, Vermont. As always with BLS, the true fun lies in the journey.

At 91, Grey Beard reclaims AT title. At 11:44 yesterday morning, Dale Sanders reached the summit of Mt. Katahdin in Maine, becoming—once again—the oldest person to thru-hike all 2,198 miles of the Appalachian Trail. He first set the record in 2017, when he was 82. Then 83-year-old M.J. Eberhart, trail name “Nimblewill Nomad,” came along and took it away—though he did not, like Sanders, go on to paddle the length of the Mississippi River at 87. Now Sanders has the AT crown back—despite, the AP reports, falling 71 times along the way, including 200 yards from the end.

“You don’t expect to get licked when you go to sleep in the woods.” In California’s Sequoia National Park, there’s a real risk to leaving your car in the lot as you head for a trail: the sharp teeth and bravado of yellow-bellied marmots. They “crawl inside vehicles to chew hoses and lap up fluid, sometimes disabling cars,” writes Jim Carlton in the WSJ. The giant ground squirrel isn’t just focused on vehicles. “You have to treat your shoes like bear food,” says one hiker; backpacks and hiking poles, too. “One Colorado marmot sneaked into a car and hitched a ride to Arizona,” writes Carlton. He was ID’d by his ear tag and flown home in a state plane. (Just hit the tiny down arrow if you get the WSJ’s popup.)

The Tuesday Crossword. It’s Laura Braunstein’s highly topical “mini” for the week.

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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HEADS UP

Just a reminder: Hunting season kicks off today in both New Hampshire (ignore that “Monday” at the link) and Vermont. Right now it’s black bear and gray squirrel season in NH, black bear season in VT. Archery season starts up Sept. 15 in NH and Oct. 1 in VT. Three words: Blaze orange time…

The Hanover Garden Club presents “Of Plants, Packets, Pots & Promise: The Buying and Selling of Seeds and Plants in America with Kevin Bragg.” Bragg, former manager of horticulture at Canterbury Shaker Village and a commercial plant grower, will give an illustrated talk about the history of seed and plant commerce in America and the people—Bartram, Burbank, Burpee, and Ball—who drove the development of the nation’s plant industry. 1 pm at the Montshire and via Zoom.

The Thetford Arthouse Cinema begins the second half of its 2026 season with Election. It was supposed to be 1966’s Blow Up, but for only the second time in the history of the series, organizer Art Kahn yesterday made a last-minute substitution. After rewatching it, he explained to followers, “the issue I had with the film is its failure to integrate the critique of inane and feckless mod London into a film that isn't, itself, inane and feckless.” Election, Alexander Payne’s “high school-situated comedy” starring Reese Witherspoon, is “the rare comedy that successfully takes itself seriously.” 7 pm in the Martha Rich Theater at Thetford Academy.

Honky Tonk Hoedown at the Champlain Valley Fair. It’s a long way away and you might not care, except that they’re trying again for the world’s largest square dance after last year’s mighty attempt got rained out. It’s a benefit for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of VT. The current record is 1,600, and “the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds dance floor can hold twice that or more and we intend to fill it!! Renowned VT square dance caller Mary Wesley (VT FolkLife) will call the dance and lead the crowd, accompanied by the string band stylings of The Faux Paws.” 7 pm.

The Tuesday poem.

I grew up fast and wild and I never felt right
In a garden so different from me
I just never belonged, I just longed to be gone
So the garden, one day, set me free
I hitched a ride with the wind and since he was my friend
I just let him decide where we'd go
When a flower grows wild, it can always survive
Wildflowers don't care where they grow

— From “Wildflowers” by Dolly Parton

See you tomorrow.

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