The week’s decline all started, we think, when we received an e-mail which said: "I don’t want you to think you haveáa corner on the provocative!!!" We were somewhat surprised as we had never considered ourselves to be provocative. After all, we are from the Midwest. So we can’t possibly be provocative. Being provocative is a coastal condition. We could understand if we had been accused of being inciting, stimulating, inspiring, motivating, teasing, energizing, galvanizing, vitalizing, angering, enraging, maddening, upsetting, aggravating, annoying, bothersome, exasperating, galling, irksome, irritating, or vexing. But we just don’t see ourselves as provocative. However, if others do, we shall have to work at correcting that impression.

Then, not long after our provocative e-mail, we received a newsletter from a local organization which, for whatever reason, chooses to list the names, along with the death dates, of deceased members. Since this arrived two days before the eighth anniversary of the he-we’s death, we fell apart. Quite frankly we have enough trouble getting through July 20th without having a reminder sent in the mail, particularly since we are completely clueless as to the reason, or value, of listing an organization’s dead members. We don’t get it, but then there is so much anymore we don’t get.

Our next misstep was to discover a piece we had written after the Hall of Fame game in May but had never used. In reflecting on whether or not our driveway would be blocked by a parked car, we wrote: "We were not disappointed. A rather large boat of a sedan parked with its back wheel squarely at the edge of our driveway. Ergo, all of the car behind the back wheel was across our driveway. No doubt we could still have gotten out. But we don’t really know because we didn’t try. Nonetheless we think the driver of the car was rude, thoughtless and no doubt a boor to boot. We do not understand such thinking on the part of anyone parking a car." We did not use this piece in May because before our column deadline came up, we realized the car in question was a habitual parker on the street and not in anyway connected with the Hall of Fame game. However, it does, once again, make us wonder if we will be able to enter or exit our driveway should the need arise on Induction Weekend.

We then discovered, thanks to an induction day parking brochure that we found online, that the Village of Cooperstown has issued permits allowing local organizations to vend food and beverages from residential homes. Since one of these permits was issued for upper Pioneer Street, we were none too happy to have discovered this particular bit of news. We have come to the conclusion that once again concern for the tourists has vastly outpaced concern for the residents. Exactly why the vending of food is being permitted in strictly residential neighborhoods is beyond us. But at least the map on the brochure has the location on Pioneer Street correctly marked. Someone living on Walnut Street will quite possibly discover that the food vending location on that street has been indicated incorrectly on the map when someone shows up at the wrong place looking for food.

We next learned that the Village of Cooperstown evidently feels it is appropriate to do the paperwork necessary to declare a state of emergency during the Hall of Fame Weekend. At best we found this confusing as in the normal course of things, a state of emergency is a reactive, not a proactive, measure. The idea that a state of emergency has become proactive does not, in our opinion, inspire confidence about the upcoming weekend. And since we were already somewhat concerned about this weekend, we are now really beginning to wonder what we might actually be in for. Is it really going to be worse than we imagined? Have we perhaps not worried enough? Do we need to make an emergency trip to the store to stock up? It is a quandary.

And finally, in closing, we were stunned when we discovered in a local paper the headline, "�Snoopy’ blimp expected over C’town." Isn’t being inundated on the ground enough?áDo we now have to take to the skies as well? We can’t help asking what will be next?áWe have also have asked the question "When will it all end?" to which we were told "Monday." We can but hope.áBut until then, we suspect we will do our best to stay put. In fact, since a friend told us earlier in the season that the summer is meant for reading, we think we shall take her advice, retire to the basement and curl up with a good book or two until sometime in the fall.áGoodness knows that between the he-we and the wee-we we have a collection of books that could easily keep us reading straight through until the fall of 2010.áAfter all, thus far this year, the wee-we has read 48 books, with number 49 well underway, with each and every one eventually finding its way to our house.áWe fear it may take us days to simply decide which one to read first.

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,

The Ellsworths

The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer St., Cooperstown, N.Y. 13326, by telephone at 547-8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you.