12/16/08 Maine . . . You Can't Get There From Here

I'm out of here! I won't be back in Maine until next year. Meanwhile, I'll be celebrating Christmas as many times as I possibly can. I'm off to Texas for a week, then New Mexico for 10 days, then Oregon for a week. 4 Time Zones in 4 weeks. Check out the journey at http://texastheresa.blogspot.com/

12/15/08 a new kind of sidewalk snow removal device!

You know I love collecting photos of all the different ways you can remove snow. Just when you think you've seen them all . . . This was in front of the bank. It's narrow enough to clean the sidewalks of snow but it's powerful enough to do roads, I'm certain. Look at all the parts! Your guess is as good as mine what they all do. But before I could get my camera out, I saw it removing snow on the sidewalk.

12/14/08 Historical Walking Tour of Farmington

The Walking Tour is coming! The Walking Tour is coming! The Maine Community Heritage Project that Farmington was awarded from the Maine Historical Society was using the Walking Tour as its inspiration and at last the signs for the Walking Tour are going up. This is the frame for the one by the historic Depot. There's supposed to be 8, rumor has it they're only doing 4 for now due to budget constraints. I hope by the time I get back from vacation, they'll be up.

12/11/08 John Deere Christmas

What's in the window of your local Hallmark store? When you care enough to send the very best, do you send John Deere ornaments?

12/13/08 Happy St. Lucia Day!

This is actually a Minnesota and Swedish event, not a Maine event. But Karen, my Needham-making buddy and Games Night hostess extraordinaire is from Minnesota and she decided to bring a little bit of her home to Maine. So she held a St. Lucia party. And one of guests actually came as St. Lucia! I'll never get the names of all the yummy foods correct, so you should read Karen's husband's blog about the event. Read all the details there. But know from me that it was a) a lot of fun, b) quite delicious, and c) a great diversion in this hectic, end-of-semester time of year.

12/13/08 Weather Update

My dad has officially posted a comment on my blog! This is noteworthy. I'm so excited to know my dad reads my blog. And his comment is so dad-like: "On 11/29 you PROMISED to stop talking about the snow. You haven't done it and now my feet are cold all the time! :<("

Ooops. Sorry Dad. And sorry to anyone else who's reading this and wishing I'd quit talking about the weather. I really didn't expect to blog about weather so much but it just has me fascinated. And this week is really doing it. Here are the stats--temps are from Weather Underground:

Monday 12/8: hi-19, lo-5, no precipitation
Tuesday 12/9: hi-28, lo-3, about an inch of snow
Wednesday 12/10: hi-55, lo-30, lots of rain
Thursday 12/11: hi-28, lo-21, snow started around 4 and kept going through the night
Friday 12/12: hi-33, lo-21 precipitation-at least 6 inches of snow before sleet and rain started

From 3 degrees to 55 degrees in 24 hours. What a hoot.

12/9/08 Texas weather in Maine

In Texas we say, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." In Maine, they say the same thing! So far in 18 months here, I haven't really seen any drastic weather changes that would merit that phrase for Maine. But this week, I think we might make it. Today, it started out in single digit temps with snow. This much snow accumulated on my car in the dentist's office while I had my teeth cleaned (and they weren't that dirty so we're not talking about an extended period of time).

Weather predictions are that the snow will turn to rain by evening and tomorrow (Wednesday) the temps will be in the 40's (some predict the 50's) with more rain on the way. If that's not drastic enough. The prediction for Thursday is snow will start after sunset and keep snowing . . . with possible accumulations on Friday of 11 inches! Some are predicting as much as 15 inches!

I'll keep you posted.

12/8/08 More to come

I've been so busy "doing" I haven't had time to blog about it. This is a good thing. Besides finishing up Labor Day Weekend (and Fall 2007 if you want to go that far back), I think all I have left to blog about is Cider Pressing in October, Thanksgiving in November, and Making Needhams (both the first time when I just reference other people's blogs about it AND the second round . . . just recently I made some more Needhams).

Thanks for following the blog! It sure is fun to write, but it's even more fun knowing that you're reading it.

12/8/08 Sunrise Frost

Last night the winds were howling. It was fierce. You knew something was blowing in. This morning at 6:40 there was no new snow on the ground, but it was 3 degrees and I had frost on my windows.

12/1/08 Town Gazebo at Night

I never did find out what the purple lights were for, but here are the Christmas lights on the town gazebo.

12/1/08 Happy December

This was on my walk to school this morning. Today is the first day of December and we've had enough snow that actually stuck that my favorite tiny riding snow blower that's the width of the sidewalk has been driving down the sidewalk to clear it just for me. These are the tire tracks (it looks like an x-ray of a spine). I'm glad to know that the riding snow blower will come all the way up my hill to my new place . . . or at least to the part where the sidewalk ends that's just across the street from my new place.