Where did it go?

It didn't take long to leave my vacation behind me. Get home, spend two days working on the second deck, go to the office on Monday, things start a little slow, not much to do. Near noontime the work has picked up and since then I've needed every minute up to tonight there to deal with what amounts to at least twelve different projects on my time record and countless interruptions. Some minor as in fifteen or thirty minutes and some from three to six hours. And a lot of it with a twist to it that I don't usually come across very often. I've also been working on the the town's website and the church's newsletter a bit each evening and this evening I vacuumed and washed the PT. It was covered with dust and bug splotches from the drive up and back to the camp. Nice and shiny now.

Another sign from a vacation in the rearview mirror, the book I was reading (Pandora's Star) and the book I had ordered (Polity Agent). The latter finally arrived yesterday and I'm terribly eager to dive into it. The problem, I should finish the one I started. I didn't do nearly as much reading as I have in past vacations to the camp. I'm only a third of the way through and haven't read any of it since we left to come home. I am anxious to continue as a particularly exciting part of the story is taking place where I left off and the main character is about to do something that may salvage a bad situation that is taking place. Life though is pulling me in other directions with some pretty set priorities so I'm waiting until the time to read is plentiful before picking up where I left off. I do not want to nickel and dime my way through this part of the story. As for the shipment of my originally intended vacation book I look at it this way - if it hadn't been delayed then I would have never stopped at the used book store and found the book I am now reading, as I'm getting the feel for the characters and the story and I am quite pleased with it.

On another note, I'm still about 3 issues behind on my Asimov's magazines. I'm on the last story (which is the fifth and last installment of a series) in the February 2008 edition. I didn't renew my subscription, I may sometime after I read the last one I have but I do have several books of short stories so it remains to seen what I'll do - I just think that I'll be wondering what I'm missing in the Asimov's that I miss.

Boy, the summer sure does fly by

We get a little taste of how things will be for the fall when Ian heads back to college for his Junior year. He and some scouting friends will be hiking at Baxter State Park which will include climbing Mt Katahdin, returning Saturday. Since his return from New Zealand Ian has had surgery on his left foot then began work in late spring in preparation of his summer job that he finished up last Friday so some getaway way time was in order before returning to the college life. Once he gets home he'll be here for one night and Sunday morning he'll leave a day early for Durham to help out with some Woodsman Club duties before signing into his dorm room on Monday. Classes begin on Tuesday which is also his 20th Birthday. So we'll celebrate that Saturday night.

That coffee groove

One of the many terrific things about working in downtown Portland, Maine is that there are plenty of great coffee places to choose from. Of course there are a couple of Starbucks and three Dunkin' Donuts (the world's hottest coffee) within 10 minutes walking time. There are two specific "internet " cafes though others have some form of internet either free or subscription (Starbucks). For the premium price you pay at a Starbucks the internet should be free, come on! For me grabbing a coffee is as easy as it gets. McDonalds has improved their coffee immensely over the last couple of years. Also in the last few years there have been a number of Tim Hortons (Canadian) opening up in the region. They brew a bold drink indeed as their regular coffee. Gloria Jeans at the Maine mall where there use to be a a Au Bon Pain, gone but not forgotten. There are many other places - Breaking New Grounds, Portland Coffee Roasters, Coffee by Design, Zarras... barely breaking the surface here. Maybe not a Seattle, not bad for a "small" city.

I drink my coffee black, a dark roast if available. No flavored brews, just pure bean heaven. All year round, even when it's hot outside I'll buy a cup and sit in the shade enjoying every drop with the sweat beading on my brow. A long drive sipping a on a tall one. Need to wait for someone at the bus station, joe keeps me company. Got to get up early for work, the coffee maker has a timer, the "beep, beep, beep" greets me as I stumble down the stairs. The coffee life should be good until... I draw a cup at work. It's the worst cup I could possibly find. The company pays for it, a lot of people drink it but to me it has little taste, no body and I don't feel well after I drink it. So I wander out of the office each morning and afternoon and grab a dark roast from one of a couple of the closest places. The nearby Mr Bagel on Congress Street has a Green Mountain fair trade organic french roast that I like a lot. All's good when I have one of those on my desk.

What a difference a hair makes

First day back to work after vacation, this time though I gave my co-workers something to gawk at once laying eyes on me. I had my hair cropped short. Not that it was that long before but at least it had been combable - had I chosen to comb it. This is the shortest I've had it since I was about 4 years old, it's barely a quarter of an inch long. I'd been wanting to crop it for quite a while and with me cutting Ian's hair a couple of months ago with an old set of clippers I bought a new kit at Walmart and had Carol mow it down Friday night after returning from Madawaska Lake. She did Ian's hair last night so we're both cool in the breeze now. So today I received a number of different comments at the office from "did you lose a battle with a lawn mower "to high and tight, eh?" A couple of "it looks good". Some folks make like they don't even notice. There will be a few more days of this as there are about 85 people in the office and I haven't crossed paths with them all yet. I went through a similar situation about 3 or 4 years ago when I had my mullet cut off - don't ask... and no pictures either.

decks-r-us

It took awhile but we finally got out this morning to finish Deck 2. To begin the day I rassled with the some of the deck blocks trying to attain some semblance of them all being close to level. If there is one thing that drives me crazy when watching any of those home & garden TV shows is when they start an outdoor project and make leveling the area they're working in look easy - I've stopped watching those shows and my self esteem has improved immensely thank you very much. Be that as it may once the blocks were in the neighborhood of being level Carol, Ian and I began working on the framing and by lunchtime we were ready to do the deck floor.

For the most part we finished up around 5:45pm though Ian will be applying more deck screws some evening this week.

Once Ian saw how big the area across the two decks combined he thought it would make a terrific mini-badminton court so expect a blog in the near future of my debilitating injuries from that activity.

Back from Never Never Land

Left the lake yesterday. Packed up our stuff and were out the door at 9am. I took a last look out at Madawaska Lake for the summer. Its going to be a beautiful day, best not to think about it. Nice ride home, we stopped at the Medway reststop for lunch. Carol had made sandwiches. We were home before Ian returned from work. His last day on the job for the summer. Back to school on Labor Day.

Today it was back to work on the deck project. We finished leveling and placing the deck blocks for Deck 2 and will build that tomorrow.

Vacation wrap up at Madawaska Lake

The goal today was “read”. In the end I only read about a third of my book but it hasn’t been disappointing. Heavy duty story and character building. I’m guessing there are at least eight subplots going on involving 20 human inhabited planets. I’ll need to find time to keep reading so I don’t lose track of what I can remember. I dropped Carol off with her mother for awhile until I returned to assist in moving a piano Margaret was giving away then Carol and I returned to the camp, did some reading, took our walk, more reading and grilled some sweet Italian sausages for supper. Whew! In the morning it’s pack up and go home day… all too soon but it will be nice to get home to see Ian before he heads out to camp out with some friends. Yeah, I may have missed Patches, E’owyn and Scotia a bit also.

Basic lunch this week, turkey dogs
with black bean and corn salsa.

Olympic reading taking place here.

Nice night for sculling.

SHOUT OUT to Patches – this is his birthday week, 9 years old and still freaking us out. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUP!

Adventure Day, vacation 2008

Beautiful start to the day.

Be that as it may each Madaswaska Lake vacation I like to add in a day where I go someplace and/or do something in Aroostock County that I haven’t done before. In the case of Wednesday’s Adventure Day the activity entailed revisiting a piece of my history – hiking up Haystack Mountain in Mapleton 35 years ago. Back then I was a student at the former Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute (NMVTI, now know as Northern Maine Community College, NMCC) in Presque Isle. The school held a yearly event called “Tech Day” where all the class vocations were open for the student body and staff to visit and view the various projects and accomplishments that they had to offer. Included in the day was a chicken BBQ at a picnic area in Mapleton after which as tradition would have it, many of the students headed to Haystack for a mass ascend to the top as many were inclined to celebrate the student life.

Carol and I loaded up a backpack with sandwiches and water then drove to Caribou and Presque Isle where we had a couple of stops to make then proceeded to and through Mapleton where the trailhead up Haystack is located. Along Rt.163 out of Presque Isle to Mapleton are many of The County’s great classic views and many well appointed houses and yards worth the trip alone to see. Once arriving at Haystack which itself is a very short hike to the top we parked in a pull out area across the road from a gravel drive that lead to the trailhead. We wanted the added steps it would take to get there. The hike to the top began on a rather steep trip and after a short time we needed to stop and get our second wind after which the rest of the short climb to the top as a breeze. Once there we took a few photos found a nice niche in the rocks that cut down the wind and provided a great view and ate our lunch. We finished looking around at the views in all directions and headed back to the car.

Destination, Haystack!

This is looking up the most difficult part of the climb.

Hey?!? That's us at the top.

1993 ft above sea level - dizzy yet?

That's Mt. Katahdin to the east.

Looking to the west.

The adventure continued as we drive to Ashland, Portage, Eagle Lake until arriving in familiar Fort Kent. Then we proceeded to Frenchville turned down Rt. 162 to St. Agatha where we stopped at the Lakeview Restaurant, overlooking Long Lake, and had coffee and pie (excellent). Carol actually had bread pudding and I went with the blueberry pie. Then it was time to head back to the camp where we finished the day with a walk and supper that Margaret joined us for.

Hilltop Restaurant, St. Agatha (St. Agatha is pronounced
nothing like you might think, it's the French)

Looking out to Long Lake.

Oh yeah, the PT made for a great trip.

How does time go by so fast…

…when you’re trying to do nothing at all. Carol and I have reached the half way point of our vacation and try as I might I can’t seem to slow time down. I do boring things like staring at the lake – reading – making coffee – staring at the lake – preparing breakfast, grilling lunch and suppers – walking - staring at the lake and before I know it another day has passed.

We livened things up today by driving to Caribou to pick up a couple of things. We parked at the grocery store and walked from there to a shopping plaza over a quarter mile away where Carol wanted to pick up some yarn for her Swedish weaving project. On the way we passed a small building with an interesting sign…

Just what most of the world needs, “Redemption” and a walk up window to get it. I wondered if we could get a side of “Salvation” also. Yeah, so it was actually a place to bring your returnable bottles for deposit refunds but maybe someone should try that approach and see how it goes.

Anyway, after Carol’s purchase we headed back to the grocery store. Our little trek earned us some steps toward our daily goal of 10,000. We picked up a few items at the store then made our way back to the camp. Its been a cool and cloudy day. After lunch I read and worked on the previous blog then Carol and I went on another walk to fill out the day’s goal. Margaret arrived for supper and we had grilled pork, potatoes and corn on the cob. There wasn’t much hope for a sunset of note but I took a picture anyway.

Shortly afterwards I notice on my pedometer I hadn’t quite reached 10,000 so I left to take a quick walk toward the nearby roadway and as I turned around I saw red in the sky and realized that a sunset was happening. With that I hurried back to the camp, grabbed my camera and headed to the shore where I snapped this sunset for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Weather happens

Monday was a great day for sailing on Madawaska Lake. For me that involved watching someone else sailing. Very breezy and sunny afternoon after a very cold morning start to the day - 38 degrees... gave me second thoughts about going outdoors. I did a little repair work on the floor of the porch later in the morning, Carol and I had some lunch then a short while later we went for our walk along the South Shore road and stopped in at Jim and Jan's place for visit after which we returned to the camp. That made for about a 3 and a quarter mile walk, around 8,000 steps. Then it was back to reading at lake side. Carol has been alternating reading with Swedish weaving. Margaret brought over a turkey stew for supper then returned home to prepare for Jim and Jan's arrival to watch the RedSox game and we would join them soon. In the meantime as warned by the evening news weather report a fast moving storm front was coming our way from the northwest with violent thunderstorms.

This group of loon hatchlings accompanied by two adult females felt it was OK to dawdle on the neighbors boat dock.

This is Monday's sunset photo, obscured a bit by the approaching storm front.

My camera batteries ran low so the following pictures were taken with my cell phone.

Here comes the rain - been hearing thunder for the pass 20 minutes.

It was time to head to Margaret's to watch the ball game and the oncoming storm seemed to chase us into Stockholm.

This is after turning down Lake Street leading into town.

We got to Margret's just as the rain, thunder and lightening hit but other than a single power flash the storm passed over quickly and we watched (a little dozing on my part) the RedSox win a very well played game.

Amazon may as well be in South America

Heading to lake side first thing in the morning.

A large part of my vacations at the camp involves spending a lot of time reading at lake side. With that in mind about two weeks ago Carol and I placed a book order on Amazon.com. Plenty of time to ship stuff as has been our experience in the past. The book I wanted was Polity Agent by, who else, Neal Asher, the fourth book of the Ian Cormac series. Nothing like spending my vacation racing around the galaxy on the knife’s edge of adventure. A couple of days go by and Carol mentions that it’s odd we hadn't received an email shipping notice of our book order. Well, we look it up online and they hadn’t even shipped it yet! In fact, it wasn’t going to be shipped until August 24th – We’d be home from vacation by then not to mention the time it takes to get here. Apparently that’s how long it takes them to get around to packing up shipments. OK, plan “B”. We decide to make a stop at Borders after work one night. Should find another Asher book to fit the bill and I’ll read the Polity Agent later after it finally arrives. So I’m on my noontime walk and I pass a used book store called Annie’s Book Stop. I’d been in a couple of times before but the SciFi selection had been a bit sparse. I decided given the circumstances I should stop in, perused the SciFi shelves carefully and came across a thick paperback titled Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton. Almost a 1,000 pages, a story that spans the galaxy. It’s description sounds promising, I buy it as a backup plan. It turns out the only Asher’s books at Borders are ones I’ve read. So the used book is a good buy, the story is moving along well. Not up to what I get from Asher’s books but top notch SciFi none the less.

Carol and I took a walk today up to the end of Shore Road
then continued along Route 161 a ways where we passed
this farm which has a great view of the surrounding country.

This view of Madawaska Lake overlooks where
the our camp is, on the left side.

Tonight's sunset with a couple guys in
a motorboat hurrying to shore.

Gone on vacation, where else… Madawaska Lake

Yes, Carol and I have found our way to the family camp on Madawaska Lake. We’re here until Friday. Last weekend we built “Deck 1” of the two sections to make the whole deck in our back yard. Since that is a good start we are squeezing in this vacation then finish the deck project when we return home.

The back seats are rolled up behind the front seats.

I packed the Cruiser full, not kidding. It’s not like just stuff we may not need, what made it “stuffed” was bringing our old dishware that Carol is replacing; to replace the odd assortment of dishware at the camp. Don’t ask what we’ll do with the camp’s dishware, we haven’t figured that out yet. In spite of the full load the PT handled real well and we had a nice trip up. A mixed bag of cloudiness and a strong wind off the lake which as usual subsided early in the evening. Margaret stopped by. She was going to spent several nights with us but because of a church activity that she is doing some of the cooking for she needed to stay home tonight to accomplish that.

Front of camp

Margaret and Carol

Afternoon lake view

Sunset on the lake.

Wet times and things to do

We've had another long period of heavy rains. I've had to get outdoor activities done and when the weather does clear for a bit I need to try to cram what I can into a short amount of time before the next system comes through. There have been some real doozy storms with lightning and thunder. Wednesday was no exception. It was raining pretty steady at lunchtime so with raincoat, umbrella and camera I headed to the Maine State Pier as there was a cruise ship in port, Royale Caribbean's "Explorer of the Seas" (3,100 passenger capacity).

I took this shot from the top of a nearby parking garage.

The attending tubs with a flock of ducks.

This weekend's project (if we're not washed out) is to begin the new deck. The delivery of the materials happened today.

The end of our driveway is a tricky place to block a lane of traffic as the top of the hill above and a slope change below give oncoming drivers little reaction time - and of course they go by way to fast.

These are the support blocks we'll build the deck on.

This shows how the lumber will sit in the blocks.

Very soon I hope, this pile of lumber will be shown
on this blog as a deck. Oh the joy!