This night before Christmas

The season is finally upon us as Carol and I are spending a quiet evening while waiting for Ian's second arrival of the holidays. He lives and works in the Portsmouth area about an hours drive from here. His first arrival was to attend family get togethers Saturday with my side of the family and Sunday with Carol's side before heading back to work today. Friday night shortly after 11pm he quietly entered the house in what's become a traditional effort to make his appearance without the dogs noticing that a friendly intruder has breached their mighty defenses while they napped. Once coming to the realization the presence of someone who wasn't there earlier it takes an almost 30 seconds before it fully dawns on them who it is and their excitement becomes a whining chorus of adoration. We like to say that the rock-star has arrived. Let the countdown begin.

 Downstairs security.

Upstairs covered.

Protection against any home invasion.

with and under the weather

Finally managed to pick up a cold after about a two or three year clean period. It kind of went along with the weather, cloudy, damp and cold. Stayed home today just to give it some rest and limit myself from spreading it around the office. A few weeks ago my cube neighbor spent a couple of weeks coughing, sneezing and wheezing then about a week ago he seemed to have gotten over it. He had a ton of work and a demanding project manager he was working for so he had to be in the office for that time. I wouldn't say I acquired my cold from him but mentally I could have. Then again he wasn't the only one in the office with a cold which isn't usual in this time of year especially if you have kids. Of course unless you're washing or sanitizing your hands every time you shake someones hand, accept a piece of paper, grab a doorknob or stair rail your bound to pick up something that will get in you mouth, nose or eye. Then it's up to your body's resistance. In this case resistance was futile.

Despair tire and times

There's a automotive repair and tire place nearby to where I work. I like the convenience of dropping the car or truck there for my tire work first thing in the morning then walking the 3 or 4 blocks to the office on streets lightly trafficked before the morning commuters thicken. I'm afraid though by next Tuesday I will have been making my third trip there for what was supposedly the simple goal of having a tire replaced. The first visit was last Tuesday, made the arrangement for the tire replacement, walked to the office, a little later received a call - the rear two tires needed replacing as they'd suffered a parabolic warp or some such thing as the rear end of the car, the PT Cruiser, was out of alignment and in a manner of speaking the car had been dragging the tires along thereby warping them. Well call me out of touch but I never knew that the rear end of a car could get out of alignment. So I OK-ed the new tires and now need to add an alignment. Couldn't schedule it that day as they were booked up and I was off work and out of town the next day I scheduled for today. Dropped the car off, walked up to work, an hour later got a call... the lower front control arm bushings were worn out and will need to be replaced or the realignment would be useless. The catch, they'd have to order the parts and reschedule me in. Could have been Thursday or Friday but with things to do it would have been inconvenient so I went with the following Tuesday. I have no doubt that the work is needed, god there's 95,000 miles on the 07 that we bought in 08 with 12,000 miles. A lot of winter/pothole driving has passed below the suspension. I just wish it could have all come together in one long fund draining day so I could forget about it and move ahead. Now, twos weeks of driving with the new tires and needing a realignment/bushing replacement do the tires go bad again???

Thanksgiving Day weekend leftovers

Holidays that include time off from work I'd easily claim to be my favorites for that obvious reason but Thanksgiving and Christmas are automatic family and friends get together events that trump the other well deserved dedicated observances. Thanksgiving Day itself was terrific - we arrived at Ian and Ali's apartment around 12:30 greeted by Ali, her mother Mandy and her grandmother Rose Marie resting in the living room. Ian had gone to the nearby airport to pick up Ali's Dad, Victor and her older brother Victor John. This was the first time Carol and I had met Victor John who throughout our visit was a lot of fun to talk with, as was everyone else in her family. They had flown in from upstate in Victor's Cessna 182 (hope I got that close). I'd already had a beer going and a couple of the appetizers when they arrived. After we had been talking a short time Victor offered to take Ian and I up for a plane ride around the nearby region which I quickly accepted. Barely a five minute drive to the airport and we were in the parking lot adjacent to the FBO hanger facility. I'd never flown in a small plane before and as it had turned out the weather couldn't have been better - mild temperatures and very little wind with nary a bump or dip the entire flight. Victor is a very good pilot and I never realized how extensive the pre-flight was not that I thought we'd just jump in and take off. Well that went by too quickly but all was well back at the apartment with plenty more conversation before finally settling down to eat the fabulous traditional meal Ali had prepared with a perfectly cooked turkey, stuffing,  whipped potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, green bean casserole. There was plenty of wine to pass around, more food brought/prepared by Carol, Mandy and Rose Marie. Dessert were both apple and pumpkin pies with coffee and a couple of bottles of honey mead that Carol and I had brought along. By around 10pm things were breaking up and as it often happens I'm amazed how fast time has flown by. We spent the night in a local inn and then picked up Ian and Ali for breakfast a local restaurant before we headed home. Most of the remainder of the weekend involved odd jobs around the house with continued cool but fine weather to be outside. All said and done it was a fine holiday.

Never did take any pictures of the dinner but the way things were flowing the thought never crossed my mind but here are a few from the flight and breakfast.

Victor doing the pre-flight.

View over the hood.

 

Victor, myself and Ian. these photos are screenshots from a video clip.

 

Ali and Ian at breakfast.

Myself and Carol.

Where the turkeys roam

Almost enough of a frost this morning to make me think it had snowed over night is how Thanksgiving Day welcomed me this morning. Usually I'll step outside with the dogs first thing so it's been a strange overnight as I'd had them in the kennel yesterday for a two night stay. This morning Carol and I will be away for the holiday and spending the night at an inn. We'll be going to Ian's apartment for dinner with Ali and her parents and grandmother. Another one of those twists in routines that comes as your adult child lives their life on their own. We've been looking forward to going to their apartment and enjoying time with them. Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Technology bites

Well, sometimes. Yesterday afternoon I was dragging an email from my inbox to a folder then looked back at a blank box where there had been a bunch of emails yet to be sorted or discarded. Checked by backups - no help there, I'll have to look into that. I use Mozilla Thunderbird for  my email, no help in their support webpage. I seem to be having a lot of techno snafus lately, Thunderdud for the time being.

Great works of literature

That time of year has rolled around again. The foliage season is in it's waning days, apples are bountiful and I have the town report on my computer as I wrap up the page layout of all the submissions from town departments, boards, committees and organizations. And let us not forget the ever popular "Delinquent taxes report". Here's this years front cover picture:

Chosen by our town clerk this is called Panther Run where Panther Pond's water runs out. Informal location that people launch small boats, canoes, kayaks. Kids will rope swing out over to drop into the shade chilled water and a little fishing takes place also. You can see the remains of an old dam of sorts, I don't know the history but behind where the person who took the picture was standing is a narrow paved road the water runs under and then through a small modern dam used to control the water level of the pond. I'll forgo sharing the delinquent tax list here as it's more then just enough for this blog.

Seattle East

Drizzle, cloudy, damp, sunny. Windy with clouds, rain, more sun followed by drizzle. No pattern here, just weather chaos. It's probably par for course this time of year yet the haphazard nature of the weather and the meteorologists attempts at forecasting leave no expectation of confidence to look ahead for what the next day brings much less the moment of the day I'm occupying. The best that can be said for the recent climate is that it doesn't involve a shovel. I do wonder if  living in Seattle is anything like this, weather-wise. I hope to find out someday.

37th Anniversary

To celebrate our 37th Anniversary yesterday Carol and I went to the Black Bear Cafe, and Irish Pub in Naples. First time there, it was a good choice.

My wonderful wife ready to dig into
AUTUMN COQUILLE ST. JACQUES -
grilled scallops, acorn squash “shell”,
champagne cream sauce, fried
gnocchi, lemon micro greens

Go figure, a Guinness at an Irish pub.
I can do that!

My choice was the HONEY
GUINNESS BRAISED SHORT RIBS -
cinnamon sweet potato mash,
grilled asparagus, braising jus.
Excellent!

For dessert BAILEY’S IRISH CREAM CHEESECAKE -
Cookie crust, creamy cheesecake topped with
chocolate mousse... hey, it's my anniversary,
it's justified!

Damp Camp

Time to close out the campering for the year, Carol and I chose not to do the NH Highland Games or Deerfield Fair this year. We still wanted to get one more weekend using the new RV so we picked a campground barely an hours drive from home, brought both dogs along and in the midst of rain and heavy drizzle headed for gloomy Richmond, Maine. The basic plan was to just hangout, read, watch a movie, drink wine while wrapped up in the remaining newness of the Cougar. We did trek out to Whitefield to locate and photograph from my side of the family old headstones that Carol could put in our genealogy records. Found who she was looking for. Since we were in the region we stopped by my mother's, for coffee and caught up with what's going on with her then back to the campground. It had actually stopped raining or drizzling long enough for me take the dogs on a short hike on the campground's trail that let to a nearby lake. One other ulterior motive was to use the campground's facilities to do a thorough cleanout of camper's sewer system before I antifreeze the plumbing for the winter. With the chill in the air of late winter may be on it's way sooner than later.

a walk for a cause

Carol and I joined Lois and Elaine for the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk. We registered earlier and started the walk before the pre-walk ceremony, busy day ahead.

Back row, left to right: Lois, Carol, Elaine
Front row, left to right: E'owyn

Camera malfunction.

Finishing strong.

Great at 58

Yes, yesterday I turned 58. Carol asked me what it felt like. Well, nothing in particular, maybe another number closer to 60. I did get a robo call from the auto dealership I have my vehicle maintenance done at. Wished me a happy birthday and mentioned how much they appreciated my business and were looking to continuing to provide me more of the same. I was touched. My Birthday gift from Carol is the Samsung 7inch tablet that I wanted. Handy item and a nice size for portability. This is also a birthday that I had to renew my drivers license and as fate would have it I didn't get into the DMV until yesterday. Like a lot of things I do it comes down to the last minute and always will no matter how old I am.

Always on the move

Whether I like it or not most days seem like one thing constantly leads to another until I reach 9pm then it's a gas of wine, a book and/or some TV. Generally I don't think it's a bad thing to be busy depending on the definition. There are the daily tasks, the project(s) of the weekend, catching up on news/email/internet. Activities and events usually dictate if much of the former gets addressed - mix in a married life that keeps the forward momentum going in the proper general direction, add in overall family stuff, shake well and have at it then watch time fly by. Upon frequent reflection it amazes me how the weeks seem to fly by more so than in my youth just when I reach that point where I realize that I need to better grasp the concept of living in the moment. I do think I'm getting better at it.

Dancing madly backwards

Once again life is getting ahead of this blog though I'd posted a few other things. I've missed posting about the Swedish cousins-in-law visit. Wish we'd had more time to spend with them, hard to believe it was three years ago when they were last here. Greetings to them as they visit the blog regularly.

Another summer get together at brother Dennis and Deb's place for family, food and rousing competition in this case "beersbie". Also a round of team extreme croquet, course laid out by yours truly.

Another Labor Day weekend exploring a portion of Mt Desert Island and visiting with cousin-in-law John, Linda and their neighbors Inga and Lester.

 Climbing Mansell Mountain.

The beginning of another NFL season that began with a season opening home loss for my Green Bay Packers, followed the next week by a home victory against historic rival Chicago Bears.

Then there's the 85th birthday celebration for my mother as we gathered at sister Kathy and Jay's lake cottage last Saturday.

So that's the catchup version of somethings I hadn't had time to put together and a couple of more recent events. Always hopeful to do better in the future. My next chance will be the Commonground Fair this coming weekend with Ian and Ali.

Fix it weekend

That was the plan and I managed to stick to it for the most part though the originally planned scheme was to finish the weekend off with some kayaking. That didn't happen but the rest of the weekend was on the upside. Saturday was planning out what we needed for a supplies shopping trip through Windham. Started at Lowes then Walmart to Pet Life, Lee's RV and finally to Aubachon Hardware for what we couldn't find at Lowes. The smaller hardware stores do carry a lot more of the odds & ends variety than the big box stores. Finished the day grilling two steaks and couple of ears of corn, washed mine down with a Harp. Began the day replacing one of the garage door openers for the second time this year, third in two years. Hope it wasn't the installers fault. Then with Carol's help moved on to replace the oven fan vent on the camper, re-chalked a trim piece along the bottom front, then followed up boring a hole though an interior panel of the camper's entertainment center to run the power cord and HD cable for a BlueRay/DVD player out of sight within the cabinetry, also fixed a wobble in the dining table. Next was combing out the dogs and trim their toe-nails, not a popular activity for any of the participants. With several other smaller tasks the weekend has run out of time - we're definitely over due for a camper get-a-way.

just a little sweat was enough

Work, errands, task, projects, weekends, vacation - the road blocks to a workout but I got stubborn and made it to Planet Fitness after work today. Almost feel guilty leaving the office though it's been maybe three and a half weeks since the last time I was able to do a routine. I have the resolve to workout regularly but time for it has been a rare commodity. Targeting Friday, that and a couple more scheduled sessions and I may be trending.

August vacation wrap up

Thursday morning Ian left to return to Portsmouth, we had a send off Swedish pancake breakfast at Margaret's. Ian worked at perfecting his skill at cooking Swedish pancakes focusing on flowing the batter to the edges of the traditional circular skillet, "well done" lad! When Carol and I returned to the camp we began our projects for the week replacing the "hall" ceiling and touch up painting in the bathroom. While removing the old ceiling I was assaulted by dried up raccoon scat, forunately no raccoon was in residence. Followed that by going back to Margaret's and locating an air mask and goggles. Once that problem was remediated we were able to finish the job though it took the better part of the afternoon. one consolation to the time spent was that it was a cloudy day which gradually  became light rain followed later by heavy rain. This night's grilling - Brats.

Raccoon nasty place to be, poly covered and new ceiling in place.

Friday is get it all in day and the weather cooperated completely. Reading, kayaking, reading, biking, reading. Grilled sirloin for supper.

Carol is quite a paddler, I could barely keep up.

Lonely boy, still having fun though.

Carol and I with the fine additions to our camp vacations.

Not much of a sunset but if that's the only problem today so be it.

So Saturday is upon us as we say goodbye to another vacation at Madawaska Lake. I'll be back in October with Lois and Jim to shutdown the camp for the winter.

Loaded to leave, Patches is in there somewhere, in the cab.

Vacation at Last

Truck loaded up for the week

Mid-August and here I am at Madawaska Lake again, this time with Carol and Patches. We arrived Sunday and Ian pulled in Monday morning after driving up from his new apartment in Portsmouth, NH. We’d hoped Ali would have been able to join him here but a possible job interview had nixed that plan. Leading up to coming this week the weather has been forecast as a mixed bag. Cloudy and spots of brief light and heavy rain escorted us during our trip her. Margaret was on board for the ride as she’d been down our way for a short visit so hitching a ride home with us was nicely timed.
Monday began very foggy – the lake was entirely shrouded in it. As the day progressed the sun came out and mostly clear skies dominated the remainder of the day. After Ian got settled in we all took a bike ride along South Shore Road. Late in the afternoon Carol and I made our first Madawaska Lake foray with the new kayaks. Grilled some steaks for supper. Shortly after we walked out to nearby Route 161 which gave us a clear view to the northern sky where we were able to view a 4 minute passing of the International Space Station.

View towards the east of the camp

First tee and fairway at the Caribou Country Club
(Panorama view)

Patches hanging out during
the afternoon reading and
nap time. We celebrated
his thirteenth birthday a
few days before.

Tuesday was a near perfect day, Ian and I made it out to the golf course in Caribou for 9 holes. I lost only two balls, one irretrievable and the other vanished off the face of the earth right beside a forward tee, a wayward shot to be sure. Not to matter, just great to be out on a nice course with Ian. Afterwards he changed into bike riding gear and got on his bike which he’d thrown in the back of the truck and peddled his way back to the camp 14+ miles. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent reading and napping lakeside. Supper was grilled chicken thighs with a garden slaw Carol put together the she uses vanilla yogurt to bind together.

Passing canoeists enjoying the calm water

Sunset

Ian beginning our morning's kayak trek.

Wednesday began with clear skies, Carol went off to accompany her mother to a PT session so Ian and I took the kayaks along the south shore camps until getting to an uninhabited section of woods and then drifted along there until getting to a wetland and a thin rock outcropped area that we can see from the camp across the lake.

Seagulls with no sea to be seen and
a tern for good measure.

Hung around there a bit watching a nearby loon and a small colony of “landlocked” seagulls that a tern seemed to tolerate keeping company with.

We then crossed the lake directly back to the camp. By noon Carol had returned so the three of us took a drive up to Fort Kent for lunch at Shirley’s Diner where my mother and I ate during last year’s vacation. The return trip was along Route 1 to Frenchville where we turned off to pass through St. Agatha (pronounced san-a-get), Sinclair and Cross Lake. As we neared returning to the camp we ran into a thunderstorm barreling through the region and once back at the camp found the porch had taken in a lot of rain through the screens soaking the padding of the chairs and everything else left there. Margaret and her sister Carolyn stopped by for a visit bringing freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. For supper I grilled a couple of pork loins – Carol did up a batch of her homemade raspberry ice cream for dessert.