Living

Living story sections

Christmas This Year

by Lise | Spiritual
Solstice 2020

Every year at Christmastime, our household goes a little crazy with holiday and seasonal preparations. We play Christmas music from Thanksgiving on, make presents, shop, bake cookies, eat cookies, put cookies away so we’ll stop eating cookies, make chocolates, see above, wrap presents, plan meals, shop some more. Truth is, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure. It makes you a little corny to love Christmas, especially the way I do. But this year seems different. I believe we have a valid excuse to try to keep up good cheer. To do otherwise would be morbid, and morbid is not what you want to be during a global pandemic. But it’s not easy, especially with all the grim tidings we’ve been treated to lately.

New Year’s Resolution: Volunteer with Youth Services’ Court Diversion

by Nanci Leitch | Activism

Youth Services is seeking volunteers to serve on its Court Diversion panels in the New Year.  Court Diversion is a voluntary, confidential alternative to court proceedings for certain juveniles and adult cases referred to Court Diversion on an individual basis by the State’s Attorney’s Office.

According to Sally Struble, Youth Services’ Director of Restorative Justice Programs, its underlying intent is to repair harm that is caused by the crime and to address underlying conditions that led to the offense. Youth Services relies on community volunteers to represent community values to hold the person who offended accountable for his or her conduct.

12 Local Organizations Collaborate on Wellness Care Packages for the Community

by HBLozito | Health

Brattleboro, VT — United Way of Windham County has released funds in the amount of $90,322, via a Vermont Department of Health Grant, to 11 area organizations in support of the Collaborative Care Package Project. The participating organizations are: The AIDS Project of Southern Vermont, The Brattleboro Community Justice Center, Brooks Memorial Library, Community Asylum Seekers Project, Deerfield Valley Community Partnership, Elnu Abenaki, Greater Falls Connections, Out in the Open, The Root Social Justice Center, The Susu Healing Collective, United Way of Windham County, and West River Valley Thrives.

HB Lozito, Executive Director of Out in the Open says of the project: “we want to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, both those that are direct and indirect, on our most impacted community members—those who are rural, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQ+ by offering care packages that are supportive of people’s whole selves and families. Our goal is to source as many of these items from locally-owned, BIPOC-owned, LGBTQ+-owned businesses as possible. We are happy to live in an area so abundant with local producers!”

The Much-Needed Snow

by cgrotke | Nature
snow person head

I think we all needed this snowfall. There’s something calming about a big blanket of snow that keeps people inside, vehicles off the road, and so on.  

It purifies. Think how happy Dorothy and friends were to have Glinda cover them in snowy flakes. It took away the witch’s spell.

Winter Farmers’ Market – Updates to Curbside Service

by Sherry | Food

As you may know, the Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market is currently 100% online pre-orders for Curbside Pick up. To effectively manage the volume of orders and items that our market producers need to make, bake, pick, pack and label for your Saturday Pick up, and so our Curbside Team can better serve you at pick up time, we are making a few changes:

1. Market orders will close at 9 AM on Thursday starting this week.  This will be especially helpful as we have two Friday holidays in a row coming up! So shop early!

COVID Forever?

by RDavis | Health

Some people are delusional enough to think that humans will eradicate the COVID 19 virus. That is not likely. Consider the fact that the only infectious disease affecting humans ever to be eradicated was smallpox. That disease was declared eliminated on December 9, 1979.

Since then we have been exposed to a number of new and old diseases such as HIV, Ebola as well as the seasonal flu that we have learned how to control but not eliminate. It is estimated that about 35,000 Americans died from the flu during the 2018-19 flu season. That is an average number of deaths according to statistics from the past ten years.

VFW $7 Lunch Specials To-Go’s only Dec. 14 – Dec. 18th & Pot Roast Meal Dec. 19th Open to the Public

by LisaL | Food

Effective immediately, we are open for take-out only Mon to Fri from 11:30 am -1:30 pm, and the occasional Saturday. Please call 802-257-0438 for your to-go meals. Follow our VFW Post 1034 Facebook page for more information.

No Wednesday breakfast until further notice.

$7 Lunch Specials Dec. 14th – Dec. 18th
Mon – salisbury steak, mashed potato, gravy & veg
Tues – stuffed pork chops w/ sweet potato casserole and veg
Wed – beef stew w/ homemade bread
Thur – chicken cordon bleu w/ baked potato & veg
Fri – fried haddock w/ french fries

VFW $7 Lunch Specials/Pot Roast meal – To Go’s only – Public Welcome to Order 802-257-0438

by LisaL | Food

Effective immediately, we are open for take-out only Mon to Fri from 11:30 am -1:30 pm, and the occasional Saturday. Please call 802-257-0438 for your to-go meals. Follow our VFW Post 1034 Facebook page for more information.

No Wednesday breakfast until further notice.

Pot roast to go meal is still on for Dec. 19th. Call in for reservations by Friday Dec. 18th. There are limited free meals available for the pot roast dinner, so when you call in, please leave a message asking for the free meals, and you will receive a call back.

Brattleboro and Vermont COVID-19 Dashboard Summary – December 2020

by cgrotke | Health

T’is the month of December. Here is the continuation of daily COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

You can find the November numbers here,  October stats here,  September numbers here, August numbers here,  July numbers here, the June numbers here, the May dashboard reporting here, and the April numbers here.

Will a COVID Vaccine Be Safe and Effective?

by RDavis | Health

It is difficult for the average person to understand what they need to know about a COVID vaccine before they decide to be inoculated. The vaccine will be available within weeks or months and public health officials are urging people to get vaccinated.

Government health officials are saying that the vaccines developed have proven to be safe and effective and that the best chance we all have for moving on and living in a world not controlled by the behavior of a virus is to continue to use masks, social distance and to take the vaccine when it becomes available.

According to Francis Collins MD, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), it will take 80% coverage (vaccine administration) to get to herd immunity, and that is not likely to happen until the summer of 2021if all goes well.

VFW $7 Lunch Specials Nov 30-Dec. 4th and New Post Rules, Hours-To-Go’s Welcome

by LisaL | Food

VFW $7 Lunch Specials Nov. 30th – Dec. 4th
Mon – goulash w/ a salad
Tues – soup and sandwich of choice
Wed – breakfast 6am-9am
Wed – chicken salad BLT w/ garlic fries
Thur – asparagus stuffed bacon wrapped pork w/ roasted potatoes
Fri – beer battered cod & shrimp w/ fries

Opening update: Beginning Monday Nov. 30th, the VFW will be re-opening with many new restrictions in place. We will be open to all VFW Post #1034 members and #1034 Auxiliary members who are current with their dues. We will also allow VT residents inside, but you must have a VT ID. (Please consider to-go’s to support the VFW if you do not feel comfortable coming inside, and call in early)

VFW $12 Pot Roast Meal Curbside Pick up Saturday Dec. 19th 4pm-7pm

by LisaL | Food

Saturday Dec. 19th pot roast meal at the Brattleboro VFW located at 40 Black Mountain Road. To-go curbside pick up from 4pm-7pm. Stay in your car, pay in your car, receive your meal/meals, enjoy!

Pot roast, mashed potatoes, brown sugar carrots, gravy, roll, coleslaw and apple turnover with maple icing for $12. Please call in to reserve your meal….might be too early for people to call in actually remember that the DID call in. 802-257-0438

Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market Pivots to Curbside Service Only

by Sherry | Food

As of Saturday, November 28, the Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market is pivoting to CURBSIDE PICK UP SERVICE ONLY. There will not be an in-person walk up and shop market at least through the holidays. With COVID19 cases rising rapidly in Vermont and all around us, the market Steering Committee has decided that continued in-person indoor operations, while significantly modified for safety, poses too great a risk to the safety of all in our market community – our customers, market vendors, staff and volunteers. We chose not to wait until we were forced to react to the report of a positive COVID case within the market community.

But the good news is, that you will still be able to safely and conveniently shop from all of our regular market vendors in one place from the comfort of your home. Just as in the physical market, our new online ordering system puts all that our producers have to offer in one place for you to browse and choose.

Medicare Disadvantage

by RDavis | Health

Every year during Medicare’s open enrollment period, which is from October 15 to December 7 this year, millions of Medicare beneficiaries are bombarded by private insurance companies looking for their business. The advertising makes it sound like these benevolent companies are looking to offer you a pot of gold for free. If it sounds too good to be true then it is too good to be true.

Here’s the story. In 1997 congress authorized the creation of Medicare C which has come to be known as Medicare Advantage. It was an effort by Republicans to privatize Medicare and make it less of a government-run program. It was also a gift for the private insurance industry which continues to haul in huge profits when people switch from traditional Medicare A to Medicare C.