Punxsutawney Phil...

We made it through Winter Storm Juno (the Blizzard), after which Winter Storm Kari was more or less a non-event.  Now we are looking ahead tomorrow to Winter Storm Linus (I think that's the name the media have assigned.) A few photos.  First, a photo from mid-storm.  The blizzard winds - up to 50 mph - kept piling snow on our back porch.  We shoveled it three times during the storm.  This is right before one of those times.

Next, David shoveling his car, which the drifting snow buried.  It turns out the blizzard blew snow INTO his engine compartment.  His car wouldn't start that day.  He had to open the hood the next day and let the sun dry it out.

The scariest part of Winter Storm Juno was BEFORE it, when I got home that evening from a synagogue board meeting and David pointed out that although our thermostat was set at 66, the temperature was 57 and going down.  I couldn't believe we were heading into the storm with a malfunctioning furnace.  I called the emergency line of our fuel oil company - with which we also have a service plan on the furnace - and a human being answered.  Amazing.  More amazing, they said they'd send a technician.  About an hour later, he showed up.  He did his thing, worked on the furnace and bled all the radiators (the one radiator we have upstairs is now working - for the first time since we moved here!), installed a new thermostat that David had bought just that day.  Amazing - actual customer service on the night before a blizzard!

It's February 1st, and the forecast is for 8-12 inches of snow tomorrow during the day, with another 1-3 tomorrow evening.  That would be okay, but I'm not sure where we are going to PUT it.  When I thought about moving to Maine and specifically when we bought THIS house, I knew we would get cold weather, I knew we would get snow, but I didn't really think about where we would pile the snow.  Anyway... the mechanics of living in Mid Coast Maine in a house on a SMALL piece of land and getting multiple 12 inches snowfalls. 

A few photos from around the neighborhood:  First, my next door neighbor's back porch with the snow drifts.   Next, Maverick Street, the main street leading from our street, Birch, down to the water, where Ella and I walk every morning, at dawn the morning after the blizzard.  The sidewalk with a wall of piled snow on the right.  Finally, the sun coming up over the water that same morning.

I know anyone still checking in to this blog from time to time just has to be waiting to hear what's going on in Mid Coast Maine, so here is your sample for the day:

•Search for Snowy Owls, Scoters and Other Waterfowl, Mid-Coast Audubon's annual all-day field trip to south coast of Maine. Meet at Damariscotta Hannaford 7 a.m. FMI: 563-8439.
• English Civil War Game in Belfast, 12:30 p.m. Game Loft, 78 Main St. Players and spectators are invited to a miniature battle gaming event using miniature soldiers. Limited to 10 players, for whom registration is recommended: 338-6447.

• "Portland's Black Abolitionists: The Story of the Abyssinian Meeting House," 2 p.m., Maine Irish Heritage Center, Portland. Historian Amy Smith gives the talk. $5. FMI: 780-0118 or MaineIrish.com.

• Talk on Edible Sea Vegetables, noon, Tuesday Talk series at Merryspring Nature Center, Camden. Talk by expert Sarah Redmond. $5/members free.

I wish the Black Abolitionist talk was in Rockland and not 90 miles away in Portland.

Well, that be the news for the day.  Keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow.

Peace.

A new year and a fixed computer

We're back, me and my Mac.  I can't believe my computer wasn't working for 4 months and I didn't deal with it.  4 months!!  It wasn't until my iPod had problems this past week that I was driven to get my Mac looked at.  Turned out not to be a big deal.  There's a lesson in that, but likely I ain't gonna be learning it.

Anyway, it's a new year.  It's been cold as hell.  (What kind of a metaphor is that?)  To start the blog year off, a couple of pics:

This was Ella and me on January 1st - below zero morning.  The photo was (I can't believe I'm going to use this term) a "selfie."  I had on a turtleneck, a fleece, a sweatshirt, a hat, a scarf, long johns, jeans, wool socks, boots, mittens and a coat - while Ella went out in her birthday suit.  Now that's a real Mainer!

Another from our morning walk a day or so later:

More soon.  A lot to catch up on:  new Belfast Poet Laureate, 2 ukulele classes at Bay Chamber Music School, trudging along in my synagogue duties, and always dark, dire and dastardly world news to make you weep and beat your breast.  More than one pent up rant waiting to be let out ... but not tonight.

Tonight just glad to be typing on my good (and not that old!) Mac again!  

Peace. Peace.  Far and Near.

Ella

Yesterday began as any Saturday generally would.  David had to work.  Ella and I began our walk.  We've had 4 or 5 days of rain - heavy rain, light rain, intermittent rain, occasional showers, more rain and always overcast.  Yesterday was supposed to be the beginning of a new weather phase.  But here's a photo from our walk a couple of days ago:

It actually looks more threatening than it was on that particular morning. 

So anyway, yesterday we got down to Front Street on the water and I threw the ball for Ella.  If I haven't mentioned that, I usually take a ball and when we get down to the water, we stop by one of the businesses there - a company selling bait to fishermen.  They have a big open grassy area on the north side of their building and somewhat smaller grassy area on the south side.  The south side has a small (2-1/2 foot) concrete wall between the grass and the street, and I like that because I feel Ella is less likely to be distracted by squirrels or dogs and run into the street.  But the north side is bigger with more room for throwing the ball.  So we stopped and I threw the ball for her on the north side.  Because it was the weekend, I thought we could have a longer walk, so we went down by the shipyard and Pro-Steel fabrication shop - which are directly on the water. 

From there we've discovered a very short path through some skimpy woods to the beach.  If the tide is low, or lowering, I can throw the ball on the beach for Ella and she can run around there, sniffy seaweed and other interesting things.  So we went there.

I'm not sure what she ate, but while I turned my back, looking for the ball she hadn't brought back, she must have eaten something or at least licked something ... very very icky.

A few minutes later, as we left, she got that glassy look in her eyes, her gait stiffened and slowed, and she threw up.  Nothing terribly unusual in that.  It's my guess that because Ella lived on the streets of St. Louis for at least weeks if not months before her rescue, she is a creature who wants to lick and if possible eat anything organic that isn't tied down.  It's probably one reason she has such a sensitive stomach.  Anyway, I wasn't terribly worried by her throwing up.  A few moments later she threw up a second time.  Again, not that unusual.  But then she just stopped.  She didn't want to walk up the steep incline from the street that leads to the beach back to the main street.  I had to more or less drag her.  I got her back to the main street and we crossed it to a local restaurant called Hole in the Wall.  There she threw herself down on the grass in front, stretched all the way out, head down.  She didn't want to move.  She didn't lift her head, her tail didn't twitch, her ears didn't perk when I spoke to her.  A very sick puppy.

I finally got her to get up.  She slowly walked up to Cedar Street, from which it is about a 1/3 mile walk back to our house, mostly uphill.  With constant encouragement she made it about a block, and threw herself down right on the pavement of the street.  I was freaking out.  I left her lying in the street and knocked on the door of the house we were near.  I hadn't brought my phone but I thought if someone would let me use their phone I would call my neighbor, Melissa, who along with her son Tobias, loves Ella almost as much as David and I do.  There was no answer to my knocking on the door.

With constant encouragement, I got Ella to get up and we went about another block.  She lay down again, but I got her to do so on the grass.  A woman came by, someone we've often seen on her morning walk while we were on our own.  She stopped and asked what was wrong.  While we were talking, a cab pulled up at a nearby house, picking someone up to take them to work.  The woman offered to ask the cab to take us home.  Which the cab driver did, with the agreement of the passenger.

At home, I called the emergency vet and left a call back request. I then called Melissa - she's a nurse - and asked her to come over.  Meanwhile, once again Ella flopped down on the floor.  Same thing - head down on the floor, no ear or tail twitch or other sign of life - except she still breathed.  I was sure that somehow Ella had eaten poison and was dying right there, right then, in front of me. 

Finally the vet called back - Dr. Lee, Ella's own vet who happened to be on call.  He immediately made me feel somewhat better.  He said there was no poison he knew of that could act so fast.  He told me to give her water, no food for a while, watch her, let her rest.  If she showed signs of distress - panting even while resting, or a swollen belly - to call him back, but he thought she would be okay. 

But when Melissa came, then I REALLY felt better.  For the first time since she threw up the first time, Ella got up on on her own and went to the door to greet Melissa.  (Ella loves Melissa and Tobias almost as much as she loves David and me.)  She came back and lay down again, but this time by the couch where Meliss and I sat.  The fact that Ella got up on her own to greet Melissa finally made me believe that she would be okay.

I rearranged my day and stayed home with Ella, leaving only later in the afternoon when I was sure she was okay - after she started playing with her ball (which she likes to "bury" in her "rug" by putting the ball on her little rug, and then scrunching up the rug around it so the ball is hidden, and then she "finds" it again).  She also was clearly hungry, and in the early afternoon I gave her some cooked rice that I had in the fridge.  She ate it with no problem.  By the evening she was totally fine, back to normal.

It was one of the hardest days I recall in a while.  To see your usually active, playful, happy, healthy, curious, outgoing, loving dog lay down in the middle of the street and not only not be willing or able to walk another 10 feelt, but also fail to respond to you - I really thought she was going to die.

But Ella's okay.  So I'm okay.  We had our walk this morning.  No ball.  No beach.  I tried to keep a close eye to make sure she didn't eat anything untoward.  She had breakfast.  And now she's curled in a ball, sleeping.

I am grateful.  To the woman who stopped to help.  To the cab driver and his passenger who brought us home.  To Melissa who came immediately when I called her.  To Dr. Lee and PenBay Vet's 24-hour hot line.  To Ella, for coming back to us.

Peace and brighter skies.

Stream of whatever... a rant, with apologies in advance...

A police officer who kills a young black man not resisting arrest must not look enough like a ham sandwich to get indicted in New York City.  Eric Garner and Michael Brown and too many others.  Black Lives Matter.  Metropolitan police departments armed with tanks, machine guns (including here in Maine, a state with 1.3 million inhabitants spread out over 35,000+ square miles—population density, 43 persons per square mile (surprisingly 38th in the country).  Who is raking in profits from arming those police departments?

2,000 Palestinian and Jewish Israelis marching peacefully in Jerusalem after an Arab-Jewish school is attacked.  Moshe Kahlon for Prime Minister?  Could someone in the early 21st century actually compromise?  Not in America.

 

Guantanamo still open, hunger strikers force fed.  I signed another petition.  One, two many petitions.  Obama – Yes, We Can - keep Guantanamo open - expand spying on American citizens by the NSA - renew and extend the Patriot Act .... etc. etc. etc.

Syria - 50% of the population displaced, outright refugees or home abandoned.  3 million Syrian children not in school.  What are they learning instead? Who to blame?  I try to imagine 50% of the American population being displaced, even 10%.  Why can we never put ourselves in anyone else’s shoes.  Someday, someone is going to rise up and take our shoes away and we’ll be walking in bare feet on broken glass in this country.

 

Ebola - 6,000 dead in Africa. Gay men still not to be allowed to donate blood.  To the Red Cross - who appears to have exaggerated or outright lied in their endless harping on how 91% of every dollar donated goes to programs.  It turns out 91% of every dollar SPENT goes to programs.  Why is the Red Cross making money and what are they doing with it?  Hey, worthless piece of shit Congress, how about investigating that?

 

Two sad pieces of news lately - a lovely woman, Tamara, finally lost her battle with cancer after a long hard fought battle.  Fifty years old and gone a year after diagnosis - if you can call it a diagnosis when they never determined what kind of cancer it was.  A woman beloved by her family, her friends, her synagogue, her community and basically anyone whose life her life touched.  You will be missed, Tammi.  This week I learned that the 23 year old son of a co-worker complained of knee pain over the Thanksgiving holiday, couldn't figure out when he strained it.  It was swollen and really hurt.  Visit to the hospital - bone cancer, requiring surgery and chemo at least.  Still don't know what stage it is.  Will someone tell me how a person who has a lucky break in life can say "I owe it all to God"?  Hey, God! Why Tammi?  Why a 23 year old young man?  In fact, why cancer?  And I'm not even warmed up or looking back at history...  Maybe we all need to read The Sixth Extinction.  Dinosaurs were on this planet for 10's of MILLIONS of years.  We've had 50,000 and we're really screwing things up. 

 

In this world, in the darkness swirling all around us, if you find the slightest glimmer of light, of hope, of love, of joy, of peace - hang on tight.

 

 

One two many photos

As I may have mentioned last post, we've been cleaning up from the October snow storm that happened while I was visiting Atlanta.  David used his new chain saw t cut down the big branches.  I used our "lopper" to lop them down to more manageable size and then I piled them in front of the house.  The city is supposed to come by people's homes (were supposed to be here by now, but presumably are extending the time) and pick up yard waste - leaves, branches, etc.  They do that twice a year, fall and spring.  Here's our pile (it is now somewhat reduced because a very ancient looking man came by over the weekend and stashed the wood in the back of a very ancient looking car.  I hope it helps him heat what is probably a very ancient looking home, wherever that is):

 

 

 

 

Ironically - the city came and picked up the debris while I was writing this!

 

Meanwhile I owe photos of the boys since I didn't get to take any while in Atlanta - I didn't take these but this is how they look. First, Halloween - the Green Ninja and Mr. Pizza Slice:

 

 

  Followed by gorgeous Cello:

And Mr. handsome personality, Cachao:

 

 What else?  My new treasurer responsibilities at the synagogue are wearing on me.  I know part of it is that I don't know what I'm doing yet, so it takes me a long time to do what is probably ends up being not a great result.  On top of that, being treasurer puts me on the board of a Jewish organization.  The old saying - Two Jews, Three Opinions - is definitely in play here.  The only thing I dislike more than corporate politics is politics within a Jewish organization.  And yet, I am deeply committed to being a Jew.  It can be painful, frustrating, and in general it is very like what it means to be part of a family, in this instance, a very very extended family.  I don't come from a very extended family, and my own "nuclear" (probably a Freudian usage of that term) family was broken apart before I was conscious.  I'm sure that's part of what sent me on a search that ended with my becoming Jewish more than 31 years ago now. 

 

Something I read in this week's New Yorker short story struck a chord with me.  I'm going to quote a long bit of it.  It is from "The Alaska of Giants and Gods" by Dave Eggers:

 

"She had been born a blank. Her parents were blanks.  All her relatives were blanks, though many were addicts, and she had a cousin who identified as an anarchist.  But otherwise Josie's people were blanks.  They were from nowhere. To be American is to be a blank, and a true American is truly blank. So Josie was truly a great American. 

 

"Still, she'd heard occasional and vague references to Denmark. Once or twice she heard her parents mention some connection to Finland. Her parents knew nothing about these nationalities, these cultures. They cooked no national dishes, they taught Josie no customs, and they had no relatives who cooked national dishes or had customs. They had no clothes, no flags, no banners, no sayings, no ancestral lands or villages or folktales. When she was thirty-two, and had wanted to visit some village, somewhere, where her people had come from, none of her relatives had any idea at all where to go.  One uncle thought he could be helpful.  Everyone in our family speaks English, he said. Maybe you should go to England? ..."

 

I think perhaps that the basis for the success that right-wing jingoist (and racist) propaganda by Republicans and other so-called conservatives have with mostly middle-aged to older white people, especially men, is tied to such persons being "great American ... blanks" who are looking for that tie, that connection, and are being offered it as "American" culture. 

 

Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about.  But Sunday morning on our walk, Ella and I went, as usually, to the Apprenticeshop's pier and watched the sun come up,  We stopped across the street afterwards and I took this photo.

 

 

 

Peace.

 

 

 

 

Fall into winter?

I am back from my visit to Atlanta - a good visit,  little longer than usual.  The highlight, of course, was Cachao's 8th birthday which falls on Halloween.  That morning I went with Sam to Cachao's school to watch the Halloween parade.  All the kids dress up in costumes (ostensibly as a character from a book which each child carries) and parade through the school with parents and family there to watch.  Cachao went as a green ninja, but  I couldn't get a clear photo of him - the kids moved so quickly.  I did get a slightly blurry one of a kindergartner dressed as Audrey Hepburn (I wonder what her book was?):

The visit was also good as Corinne is now in Atlanta and I had time with her, as well as time with Sam.  I was able to get to know Cello better, and even saw John.  On Sunday we played whiffleball in John's backyard - John, Sam, Corinne, and Cachao - Cachao can really hit that ball.  Corinne, Cachao and I visited the Eastlake Community Garden to tend Corinne's plots.  Cachao got to feed Egbert, the pig, and various goats, first some tasty specialty cabbage leaves from Corinne's gardens, and then kudzu when the creatures would have eaten Corinne's garden down to the last shoot of green. 

Here's a picture of Cachao at the farm that Corinne took:

Meanwhile, back in Maine, we had our first snow of the season - reminiscent of the big October snowstorm in Connecticut that left 3/4 of the state without power for days on end (for us, 11 days). This year in Maine, as in Connecticut then, there were still many leaves on the trees. While our town only got about 6 inches of snow, there were very high winds and David lost power for about 12 hours or so. Some places lost power for days, so we were lucky I guess. A tree in our back yard fell on our neighbor's garage. Apparently there was no damage to the garage, but the fallen tree now has to be removed (David now has his own chain saw - once the tree is removed, perhaps he'll sign up for chain saw carving classes!)

Our forsythia bush in the front was somewhat abused as well:

 

Well, that's the news from NoRo.  Oh, I hear you ask - what's NoRo?  Apparently there are a couple of artists who are trying to turn their home - which was first a church down the street from us in our neighborhood, then an apartment building, and now a very large home - into an art gallery.  They are trying to art-ify (you know - art-i-fy, to make art-sy) the north end of Rockland, which apparentlyhas had a less savory reputation historically.  Hey, we live in the north end and we like it here.  Anyway, ergo ... North Rockland = NoRo.  So...

 

Peace, Peace, from NoRo to all points of the compass and beyond.

It slips away...

Time goes by, fall arrives.  The weather is ... odd.  A Nor'easter parked in the Gulf of Maine dropped 4-5 inches of water over 4 days.  Finally the sun came out this weekend. 

Friday night was "Uke Night" at a local music store.  David and I went.  There seemed to be about 20 or 25 people there, including kids, younger people and, of course, our generation was well represented.  We took turns suggesting tunes from the Daily Ukulele (a songbook with 365 tunes), and then strumming them.  We were likely among the less accomplished players, but it was still fun.

Saturday night we went to the Rockport Opera House to a concert of local Maine folk musicians to support a local Maine organization - We The People (wethepeoplemaine.me) - which is part of a larger national movement to repeal the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision through a Constitutional amendment.  The hall was packed (again, our generation well in attendance, actually very over-represented), the music was good, the feeling was upbeat.

 As we were driving home last night, I asked David if it seemed to him that there was more "going on" here - culturally, politically, etc. - than there had been in Connecticut, or if we are just more attuned to it. He thinks there is more going on. I think in Connecticut the "goings on" seemed to be targeted at the wealthier - Hartford Stage, Hartford Symphony, etc. - while here there are a lot of smaller, more locally based happenings happening. Not a very scientific analysis, I guess.

So here's another sample from the Free Press "Miscellaneous" section of the local Calendar of Events:

• "Extreme Savings: A Crash Course in Couponing," 6-8 p.m., Great Salt Bay School, Damariscotta. $24: 563-2811 or clcae@aos93.org.
• "How & Why to Keep Bees in Top Bar Hives," 6-8 p.m., Medomak Valley High School, Waldoboro. $20: 832-5205 or msad40.MaineAdultEd.org.
• "History and Myth in Russian Foreign Policy," 7 p.m., Camden Library. Prof. Seth Singleton gives the free talk.
• "Tugboat Work & Seamanship," 7 p.m., Rockport Opera House's meeting room. Talk by Captain Ron Hawkins.

I like how you have to spend money to learn about "extreme savings".  Do you think you have to bring your own bee or bee hive to the bee class?  The tugboat event sounded interesting, but I think we missed it already.

Today was chore day - vacuum, rake leaves, mow the lawn (dare I hope for the last time this season?), clean up a couple of the garden beds and mulch.  Hard work, especially the raking.

I am getting ready to travel to Atlanta this coming week for Cachao's 8th birthday and birthday party, to which I received a handwritten personal invitation informing me to come in a Ninja costume, to bring a present and my invitation, and in so doing, I will be able to join a Ninja dance, have dinner and Ninja birthday cake and go trick-or-treating.  Sound like fun?  Photos to come post-trip.

MPBN - our local public radio station, sponsored a contest recently, asking the question "What to MPBN listeners look like?" - and asking listeners to take a photo of themselves listening to MPBN and send it in.  Many were posted on the MPBN website.  Here's the one I sent in:

I wish you bright autumn leaves, chilly nights, frosty mornings, and Peace.