Got a bad case of climate dysphoria today. It’s about 40 degrees colder than yesterday; Burlington saw new record high temperatures each of the past two days; in less than 24 hours we went from flood watch to gale force winds to freezing cold; and the newly-formed ruts on my dirt road have frozen into fascinatingly unpredictable configurations. It’s like art that can screw up your suspension.

Otherwise, well, there’s very real concern that we’ll have a mass unhousing tomorrow, Governor Nice Guy is turning heel, and Our Leaders don’t seem to have the vision to meet the various crises besetting us on all sides. Meanwhile, I’m sitting in my home office wearing a jacket. Indoors. I can’t imagine what it’s like for the involuntary “campers” our state’s policies have scattered across Vermont.

Oh, and I’m working on a really depressing story about the impact of bigotry in a Vermont town.

So yeah, third cup of coffee so far today. And by “cup,” I mean “22-ounce travel mug.”

Used to be, dirt roads worked pretty well. Less prone to potholes, held up pretty well throughout the year except for mud season. Now we get mini-mud seasons popping up at random. So far this winter, my town has had to regrade the roads twice. I’m sure a third time is in our immediate future, since we’re due for more record high temperatures in a couple days’ time. Looking forward to chatting with my town officials about what this is doing to the budget.

Just another little piece of what climate change is doing to us. Can’t imagine operating a cross-country ski business or snowmobile trail system. And how many times have we had midwinter sap runs this year? Three?

Meanwhile, as the weather hops up and down like a kid on a trampoline, we might or might not be unsheltering thousands of Vermonters as of tomorrow night. If you follow the social media feed of housing advocate and former gubernatorial candidate Brenda Siegel (currently d/b/a End Homelessness Vermont), you know that the freshly-brokered motel voucher deal has been in danger of collapsing. Legislative leaders, who ought to be reminded of the old saying “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”, accepted at face value the Scott administration’s assurances that it could successfully negotiate drastic reductions in voucher rates with motel operators in a matter of hours.

The same administration that lied to their faces last winter about the simplicity of ending the voucher program that spring. Yep, same folks peddling the same story.

According to Siegel, negotiations with motel operators were not going well at all as of Wednesday morning despite administration sweet-talk to the contrary. By Wednesday evening Siegel sounded much more positive, reporting that most motel operators had come on board but 11 were still saying no.

So let’s say those 11, or most of them, come around and we avoid mass chaos on Friday afternoon Why in hell did we have to play a game of chicken with the unhoused at risk? Why do they have to go through all this fear and uncertainty? Why do we treat them like pieces on a board, not as human beings with skills and intelligence and potential?

And why in the world do legislative leaders believe a single word from this administration?

Especially when the person formerly known as Governor Nice Guy seems to have done a complete and very believable heel turn? To judge by his behavior of late, someone must have pissed in Phil Scott’s cornflakes. We’ve got all the lying, previously documented. On the supposedly critical housing issue, Scott has gone from promising to work with lawmakers across the aisle (oops, we’ve heard that one before) to taking potshots at a reform measure resulting from rare cooperation between the environmental community and developers. It’s almost as if he’d rather sink all that hard work instead of accepting a bill that meets him halfway.

He has also, in the last week alone, complained about the Legislature’s work on criminal justice, labeled them out-of-control tax-and-spenders, whined about a school funding bill even as he signed it, put out a ridiculously inflated cost estimate for the Renewable Energy Standard, and accused lawmakers of “overpromising” and “underfunding.”

Did I miss anything? Probably. I haven’t watched this week’s gubernatorial presser, which seems to have been one long bitchfest. Whatever our climate madness will mean for the flowers that traditionally bloom in the spring, it seems certain that we’ll experience another bumper crop of gubernatorial vetoes this spring. You know, if Phil Scott was (1) a leader and (2) a nice guy, he’d be working with the Legislature to create policies that might reflect the mixed allegiances of the Vermont electorate, who are firmly in the habit of electing Democratic supermajorities and a Republican governor, instead of standing off to one side as if he has no role in managing our state.

Otherwise, maybe he should use his substantial political muscle to refashion the Vermont Republican Party into an organization that can be competitive across the board, not just when his own name is on the ballot.

The Legislature is working about as hard as it can, albeit not always as effectively as it could. The governor seems to be disengaged from its efforts instead of seriously negotiating on supposedly critical issues. We’re probably headed for a bumper crop of ventoes followed by a few overrides plus numerous good bills abandoned as not worth the effort it takes to override. (Or, as with the Bottle Bill, vetoes upheld thanks to centrist Democrats voting againt their caucuses.) We’re deciding it’s easier to ignore PCB pollution in our schools than to pay for mitigation. We might be in for an unprecedented wave of school budget rejections next week. Town Meeting Day might also bring a win for reactionaries in our biggest city. Heck, Rutland might take a step back into the 19th Century by banning fluoride.

So. Pardon me if I feel a little sour. I realize that my feelings are nothing compared to the issues we face. But sometimes you’ve just gotta get some stuff off your chest.