Stranded in G-Vegas

So for my first post, oh my gentle reader, I will start with where I am. As of right now, your humble narrator is in G-Vegas, better known, or perhaps less infamously known, as Gardner, Massachusetts.

Gardner is an odd place. Presently, the state senatorial race for this district is between a 22 year old and the incumbent whose most significant job description has been that of a substitute teacher. Nothing wrong with being 22 or being a substitute teacher, but I think the present race for state senator speaks volumes about how little there is to fight for around here.

Gardner (a/k/a G-Vegas) is not without it's charms. But that is not saying much. There is a big state penitentiary. There are FOUR dunkin donuts. Three, count Em, THREE traffic lights. I believe the high percentage of devoted law enforcement officers accounts for the population of donut shops exceeding the traffic light quota

There is a giant chair that is like 15 feet tall. The chair symbolizes that G-Vegas is Chair City. It is also the furniture capital of New England. Home furnishings were big here until after the civil war when furniture went south to places like Tupelo, MS.

My mothers family is from here. In the early 1900s my great grand father bought a dairy farm in south Gardner. He had saved his money working in the mills of Lawrence, Lowell, etc. Straight from Lithuania, he spoke Lithuanian, Polish, German, Yiddish, and a little English. He had two sons and a daughter: my grandfather, great aunt and grand uncle. My grand uncle died in northern Italy 2 weeks before the end of WWII as a staff sargeant in the 10th mountain division. My grandfather is now 92 and still living on the farm, after a career as an educator and professional football player. But I digress...

I have crash landed here in the land of donuts and three stoplights after giving up my apartment in Boston in anticipation of going abroad to teach. I arrived up here in G-Vegas in the beginning of September and expected to be departing for overseas by the 15th, alas, I have not received paperwork for my visa.

So I have been navigating the tedium of this ville, counting the political signs of the 22 year old candidate and the signs of the incumbent ex-substitute teacher.

I hope I get my visa soon...