6/8/08 MADISON Severe crash victim doesn't know quit

Here's a news story, one year later, on my student Sarah who was in that horrible car crash last year. I blogged about it several times and asked for lots of prayers. Shame on me, I don't think I ever reported on her miracle recovery and return to UMF. Inspired by the amazing people that helped her recover, she switched her major from Secondary English (being a high school English teacher) to Rehabilitation. But then her love of teaching kept rising to the top so she switched her major to Community Health, so she's still involved in health and rehabilitation AND she can be a teacher. I'm very excited for her.

Here's the newspaper story, retrieved 6/8/08 from http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5118440.html

MADISON Severe crash victim doesn't know quit
BY LARRY GRARD
Staff Writer

06/08/2008

MADISON -- Don't let her soft, sweet voice fool you.

Sarah Mueller is steely when confronting her demons. She defeats them.

The 18-year-old Madison resident, who just finished her sophomore year at University of Maine at Farmington, was nearly killed in a horrific car accident last year in Mercer. The crash killed the drunk driver with whom she collided, leaving Mueller in critical condition.

That was on the night of May 5 -- a month before Mueller was to ride her bicycle in the annual Trek Across Maine for the American Lung Association of Maine.

But this year, Mueller is back. Not only will she ride in this year's Trek, but on the anniversary of the accident, Mueller rode her bike from Farmington to the accident scene.

"She called me from her cell phone just to say she was alive," said her mother, Lisa Mueller. "That's how determined she is."

Sarah Mueller said she wanted to prove something to herself. Besides, it was a nice day.

"I just wanted to go back and say, 'ha-ha,'" Mueller said. "It felt good to do it. I'm just amazed at what the human body can do. My legs were shattered."

Mueller also suffered other fractures, chest trauma and a brain injury. Rescue personnel flew her to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where doctors induced a coma.

"I can't remember what happened about half an hour before it happened," she said. "I was at the Opera House in Waterville, for a friend's play."

She spent a month and one-half in the hospital.

On Tuesday, Mueller began training in earnest for the Trek. She rode the 40 miles from UMF, where she holds a summer job, to her Madison home, by way of New Portland.

It might be shorter by way of Starks, but Mueller wants to increase her mileage, not shorten yet. The Trek, after all, average sup to 60 miles a day.

"Through New Portland is less curvy," she said. "There are a lot of crazy people on the road. "It probably would have been better if it hadn't started pouring. But I'll go back out again on Thursday."

Mueller, majoring in community health education at UMF, is a 2006 graduate of Carrabec High School. She was still living in Anson when she became inspired to ride in the annual benefit.

"Two years ago, I saw them along the Trek route in Anson," she recalled. "There were hundreds and hundreds. Just seeing so many people doing this, it was so inspirational."

Now, Mueller serves as inspiration. Her older sister Crystal rode in her stead at last year's Trek, but Sarah Mueller will be at the starting line on June 13.

"She was determined from the time she came out of her coma she was going to do the Trek," her mother said. "She worked hard. She has bad days with aches and pains, but she's doing well."

Ha-ha.

Larry Grard -- 861-9239

lgrard@centralmaine.com

5/26/08 - 6/19/08 25 days in the other blog

I'm going on vacation! And once you've paid to get to an airport outside of Maine, you might as well keep going, so that's what I'm going to do. First I'm off to Virginia for a week (a short hike on the Appalachian Trail, my 30 year college reunion at Hollins, a wedding in DC of a Hollins buddy), then Albuquerque for 8 days with family and friends, then Dallas for 7 days with friends, then 2 days in Old Orchard Beach working and playing. So check out the Texas Theresa travel blog for details and come back to check out this blog starting June 20. Happy Summer!!

Who knew I was geographically challenged?

When you live in Dallas all your life, compass directions are pretty easy. Mexico is south, almost all of the US is north, and "East Coast" and "West Coast" make sense because that's what direction you go to get there. When you move to the East Coast, your perspective has to change. I just told a friend, who wanted to know where Farmington was within the state of Maine, that I was 2 hours north and east of Portland. Later, I realized, "You can't be east of Portland . . . that would put you in the Atlantic Ocean!" But how can anything in Maine be "west" when all of Maine was "east" for your whole life?

Lindsay, this is why I make so many u-turns when we travel together on the East Coast. It's especially weird when I'm on Long Island and
I want to go to New York City. There's no way on the map in my head that New York City can be "west" of anything! But it is, in fact, west of Long Island.

5/24/08 Yard Sales and Lawn Sales

I read a book about life in Maine and I went to the Bob Marley concert where he poked fun at life in Maine and they both made reference to yard sales and lawn sales. I must've left last year before the yard / lawn sale season started, but oh my oh my, did I see them this weekend. They were everywhere. Mostly it was individuals, but here's one that was a group having a big tent sale (but they advertised it as a yard sale) as a fund raiser for their organization. Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the summer season and I guess it's the unofficial start of yard / lawn sale season, too.

5/24/08 Vintage Varitek, Papi, and Youk

Oh my oh my oh my. This is what I saw in Hannaford's today. This is a display of 3 California wines. The orange label is Captain's Cabernet and has a photo of the Boston Red Sox's team captain and catcher, Jason Varitek. The purple label is Vintage Papi with a photo of David Ortiz, a.k.a. Big Papi, who is the designated hitter and a hoot to watch play the game. The green label is my favorite, SauvignYoouuk Blanc. Kevin Youkilis plays first base superbly and is just an all-around good guy. When he comes to bat, you think the fans are booing, but in fact, they're yelling out "Yooouuuuuk!" He's my favorite player on the Sox, but I also admire the cleverness of the name of his brand of wine.

And since all the proceeds are going to a good cause, I bought a bottle of SauvignYoouuk Blanc. I don't know if I'll drink it or not, but I had to have it. There goes my minimalist lifestyle!

BTW, this is in the Hannaford's that carded the old lady and made national headlines. I did NOT get carded. Hmmmmmm.

5/24/08 Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Well, you can really only see one of them in this photo, but there are at least 4 American flags here on Broadway in honor of Memorial Day weekend. Way to go, Farmington!

5/24/08 the view is changing

Check out the dogwalking park/river banks of the Sandy River. I think those are all dandelions down there dotting the grass with yellow.

Compare it to the photo from just 8 days ago when I first moved in.

5/22/08 Good Karma Continued

This is a long story that ties up last of the loose ends of the Good Karma story.

UMF announced that it was offering vision insurance to its employees. I received a packet with all the information about the program and how to sign up. I decided to sign up for the program but when I tried to follow the steps listed in the packet for signing up online, I ran into technical difficulties. I called the tech support number for the UMaine System and that person referred me to someone on my campus who then referred me to Rick. But my technical issue was not easily resolved and Rick said he would look into it and get back to me. After a few days I called back and the technical issue still wasn't resolved. I asked if it was possible to sign up on paper or some other way because I didn't want to miss the deadline for signing up due to a technical issue. Rick said I could stop by his office and take care of it in person. I didn't get over that day and in fact, it was a few days later before I remembered to stop by. When I arrived, Rick wasn't there but the woman at the desk next to his said she could help. She asked my name and then smiled and introduced herself as Kathy, the woman who had seen the article with my quotes and had passed it on to Laurie who passed it on to the provost et.al. Ah! So now I could ask how she ever found it. I had guessed that perhaps it was her job to be on the lookout for UMF's name in the media or that UMF had hired the services of a modern-day "clipping service" and she was the contact. But in fact, it was simply that she had msn.com as the default home page on her browser and when she got to work that day and turned on her computer, in the list of headlines for the hour was an article involving technology and higher education and that intrigued her so she clicked on the headline to read the full article. What wonderful serendipity! Good karma really does rule!! And that, as Paul Harvey says, is the rest of the story.

5/21/2008 Rainbow

My first rainbow in Maine. This is taken on Main Street just down the hill from my new apartment.

This is a photo of the same rainbow taken by Heather, one of my students last semester. She posted this to her Facebook. She's a better photographer than I am but we both appreciate a good rainbow when we see one. (permission pending)

5/19/08 Eating Fiddleheads

My first meal in my new apartment and I cooked those fiddleheads! I decided on the boiling recipe that was in the newspaper article. Frank Buckley said he boiled them for a few minutes, then removed all the brown stuff that is a part of the plant (Kathy told me it just comes off in the water and she was right) and then boiled for a few more minutes until done. Eeek. How do you tell when it's done? Well Mary told me that it's like any vegetable and you can eat it raw (some people eat it on their salads raw), al dente, lightly firm, or mushy. So I figured it didn't really matter.

Here's the finished product. There's still some brown on there but I got it all off. Look at the different colors of green depending on how long it's been cooked. They were delicious! I had enough to last for 3 meals, which Frank said he prefers to cook a big batch and then reheat them in small batches, so that's what I did. A little butter and salt and I was a happy camper.

5/19/08 Old Fashioned Road Construction Flag Man Set Up

I remember this from my childhood and was trying to figure out why I hadn't seen it in so long. I guess most of my driving has been on divided highways since my childhood and I just hadn't run into this. But here is an old fashioned flagman who is stopping the traffic in one direction while those of us coming from the other direction utilize the only available lane on the two-lane highway. Behind me was a truck that was part of the construction crew and he was the last one to get through from my direction. The flagman back on the other side of the construction had put up his STOP sign and was halting traffic coming from my direction. As soon as the truck and I get through, this flagman in the picture will turn his sign from STOP to SLOW and allow this line of vehicles to utilize the single lane. As I recall, back when gas was cheap and walkie talkies weren't, the construction truck was the signal of the end of the line and the time to let the waiting traffic proceed. That truck would then turn around and get at the end of the now moving line and follow it through signaling the other side that it was now their turn. I'm thinking it's all done by walkie talkie now but it was a fun flashback.

PS This was on the road to Dixfield where I taught my graduate course this semester. Except this time I wasn't going teaching, I was going to Mexico, Maine, which is just a few miles beyond Dixfield, and is the closest Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles. I got my Maine driver's license today!

5/18/08 & 5/19/08 Blooming Trees

Here are photos of the crabapple tree for Darlene to enjoy since she missed spring at her own house.

5/18/08 & 5/19/08 Tulips At My Door

These are Darlene's 4 new tulips that she planted last winter. She left town before they bloomed (she left May 16) so I promised I would let her know what color they were. I took the first two photos on May 18 when they were just blooming, then it got chilly and they closed back up, which is what is seen in the bottom two photos taken on May 19. This is so weird! It's the middle of May and tulips are just now blooming! It's worth the wait. :-)

5/17/08 interesting sign

As at all graduations that I'm aware of, parking is at a premium and folks get pretty creative at parking, so lots of temporary measures are taken to insure safety for all. This sign, however, baffled me. Are they creating a temporary parking space for handicap parking since there is such a need for a large event like this, or are they creating additional parking for those with temporary handicaps?

5/17/08 In Full Regalia!

Here I am at the reception for graduates with the president of UMF, Theodora (Theo) Kalikow. You can see my full regalia.