Spicy Soup

The spicy soup is working its magic. Yesterday's batch had even more cherry peppers in it and some pepperoncinis also.
I went for a short walk. The sidewalks are not plowed so I walked in the street. As I was returning home, I met another elderly man coming the other way. We both smiled and I mentioned that it was unusual for the sidewalks not to be plowed. He said "It's better to cut back on the snow removal budget than to cut back on the school budget.".
That was typical of this small, sensible town. Here was a man undoubtably too old to have children in school stating the obvious. He doesn't mind being inconvenienced by walking in the street. He would mind if the children of the community weren't receiving a proper education. He has his priorities in order.
I also noticed that, despite the snow laden sidewalks, all of the fire hydrants had been shoveled out by the residents of the streets. This is a small town. There was a Wal-Mart but they moved out as the residents prefered to shop in the small stores of their neighbors. There is no video store but there is an excellent library which is funded by a trust fund established many years ago by a local resident. There are two very large senior citizen complexes. There is a senior citizens center that insures that senior citizens have transportation to medical appointments and grocery shopping. There is a hardware store and a store that sells only hot dogs. There is a music store that gives violin lessons but there is no computer store. These stores are all located in an area that is not even one hundred yards long.
This town and the people in it definitely have their ducks in a row. The town hall and the police station and the fire headquarters are all in the same building which is right in the center of town. There are a lot of churches, even an Evangelical church whose message board is in Spanish. All of the churches seem to have bell towers and when noon time strikes, the sound of bells sweeps across the valley. This town seems to be a microcosm of what America used to be, self-sufficient and sensible.