Even Librarians Don't Know

This story has a Maine twist to it, but it's also about another state I love: New Mexico.

New Mexico is the only state in the country that has "USA" on its license plates. The reason being...there are many Americans who don't know New Mexico is a state. You think I'm kidding, but it's very true. I've witnessed it myself many times. In college, when I told people I was going to New Mexico for Christmas, I would get asked, "Do you have your passport?" I overheard a tourist at Old Town in Albuquerque say to a shop clerk, "I'm surprised how many people speak English in your country." This news story actually doesn't have anything to do with the fact that people don't know that New Mexico is a state, the story just reminded me how poor some people's understanding of geography is.

So here's the story from the Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel papers:
By Kaitlin Schroeder Staff Writer

"Twice this month, books bound for the Farmington Public Library have taken a wrong turn and ended up in Farmington, N.M.

"Assistant director Jen Scott said patrons frequently request books from other libraries through an interlibrary loan.

"The Farmington Public Library in New Mexico was accidentally sent books — twice — meant for Farmington Public Library in Maine, so the New Mexico library sent them on to Maine with the notes shown here.

"On April 9, a package arrived at the library from the library in Farmington, N.M. In it was a book that had inadvertently been returned to the southwestern state.

"'The package was from Farmington Public Library to Farmington Public Library, which was kind of comical,' said Scott.

"Later in April, a different library lending the Farmington library material made the same mistake and sent its package to Farmington, N.M.

"Scott said she isn’t sure what states the senders lived in.

"She said she sent an email to the New Mexico library to thank them for returning the books, and the staff wrote back saying they couldn’t remember this ever happening before.

(photo linked from http://www.centralmaine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/388699_864803-library-note.jpg)

Surviving Nemo

View from my apartment door on Thursday Feb. 7, 2013 around 1:30 in the afternoon.

 View from my apartment door less than 48 hours later on Saturday Feb. 9, 2013. And this time, I could barely get the storm door open 'cuz the snow had drifted up against it. (I just opened it far enough to stick my arm out and take the pic.) We actually only received about 7" here in Farmington. The further east and south you went, the more snow they got.

"There's got to be a morning after..." And fortunately it's often sunshine and beauty for us. And all our snow was light and fluffy so shoveling was pretty easy, too.

 

Go Mount Blue!

Mount Blue Cougars, our local high school Football team, is in the playoffs tonight. Very exciting around town all week long. This sign has been sitting at the corner of Main Street and Broadway for a couple of days now. It's all anybody can talk about. The game, that is, not the sign.

I turned on the local radio station around 8:55 tonight and caught the last four minutes of the game. Oh my goodness! I'm not sure I could have handled listening to the whole game. The score was 44 to 35 in favor of Mount Blue. Then Marshwood made a touchdown and got the extra point. Now it was 44 to 42. Too close! Mount Blue had the ball and made a drive down the field but Marshwood stopped them on their own seven. With under two minutes left to play Marshwood fumbled and Mount Blue recovered! You should have heard the announcers on the radio. They went berserk! It was a very long two minutes as Mount Blue took a knee four times in a row to win the state championship.

Congratulations, Mount Blue cougars!

7/7/2011 Castine Update

Check out this article in the Castine Patriot about the 4th of July. And pay particular attention to the photos and the photo credits.

Mrs. C's daughter-in-law got a phone call at 7am on the 5th of July from a local reporter who told her that the camera of the paper's photographer wasn't working right and they didn't have any photos of the parade. The photographer knew Mrs. C's d-i-l and had seen her taking photos, so she called to ask her if she had any that she could use. Mrs. C's d-i-l said Karen had a better camera and had been taking tons of photos so she should ask her. So the reporter called Mrs. C. who came and got Karen (who was just getting out of the shower), apprised her of the situation, and put her on the phone with the reporter. Karen actually had over 1,000 photos from the day but was able to pick out 30 or so to send to the reporter and the rest is history. :-)

6/27/2011 Helicopter Hovering on the Horizon

For most of the morning today, this helicopter has been flying over the town of Farmington. In the late summer, we're used to a day or two of a helicopter flying low over the area looking for marijuana. We're not sure what this one is looking for. Later in the morning, it wasn't flying over anymore, it was hoving . . . low and long.

WinteRush

When I went to pick up the candidate at The Comfort Inn, I arrived earlier than we had planned, so I hung out in the lobby. I watched the news while I waited--that's a rare treat for me since I don't have any television reception in my apartment and I refuse to have cable. The ending story was on WinteRush in Portland. They were interviewing a team that was doing a snow carving and told of all the fun family activities that would be in Deering Oaks Park that day. It looked like fun but I didn't think much more about it until I happened to drive by Deering Oaks Park. So I pulled over and found a parking spot and checked out the snow carvings. Pretty fun!

After I voted for my favorite (I'll never tell which one), I headed back to my car and ran into Marisella, a friend from UMF! It was so great to see her. She was there with her family. Her little one had done the sledding on the hill and also the "book trail". There's a children's book about snowshoeing and they had made an enlargement of each page (poster-sized) and put them all around the park. The kids borrowed the snow shoes provided and followed the trail, stopping to read the book at each station along the trail. There were also snowball fights and hula hoop contests and many other fun events planned.

4/23/09 Things you didn't know you would ever have to worry about

Rumford is not very far away from here. I stopped there on my way to Dartmouth last fall. I drive alongside the Androscoggin River on my way to Dixfield. It's a scenic drive. I'm glad someone was able to take care of this problem before it took away from the scenery and before it created a really bad stench. There was actually an article last week lamenting the problem and the fact that there didn't seem to be a solution. Hurray for public works employees who go above and beyond! The headline to this story tells it all.

Town breathes easier: Bull carcass removed

RUMFORD -- A public works crew in Rumford has retrieved the bloated carcass of a bull that had floated down the Androscoggin River and over a waterfall before landing on some boulders weeks ago.

Crewman Dan Peare told the Sun Journal of Lewiston that he convinced his bosses that he and fellow crewmen could and should remove the animal before warm weather arrived for the weekend.

On Wednesday, Peare climbed down the river bank and attached a rope to the bull's legs. They then pulled the 800- to 900-pound Hereford up the bank with a bucket loader, lifted it into a dump truck and buried it behind the town garage.

The animal was first spotted in early April when it went over the falls and landed in a seemingly unreachable position atop a rock pile about 100 feet below the top of the river bank.

retrieved 4/23/09 from http://updates.mainetoday.com/updates/town-breathes-easier-bull-carcass-removed

4/29/09 "The Way We Get By" movie

Finally! I got to see this movie. It was in Farmington over spring break and I was so excited to see it and knew I'd have the time to see it. It sold out all 4 nights!! I was so disappointed. Then they brought it back for 2 more nights. I went with my friend Nancy that I first met by Walton's Mill Pond my first winter here but have now spent a ton of time with and become good friends with through the history project. We went extra early, got tickets, and had a blast. It was an 8-kleenex movie for me but so worth it.

The film focuses on three troop greeters in Maine. But it celebrates all troop greeters across the country. I know there are similar groups in Dallas that greet the hundreds of thousands of soldiers that go in and out of DFW. Thank you to all Americans who are so supportive of our troops. This is a great country that we live in and we all need to do our part to appreciate it and support it.

Bangor's troop greeters film in Farmington

Submitted by Betty Jespersen on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 10:51

• Central Maine Newspapers

FARMINGTON - A documentary film that showcases three senior citizens who belong to the Maine Troop Greeters, volunteers who welcome every returning soldier from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan at the Bangor International Airport, will be shown at the Narrow Gauge Theater in Farmington at 7 p.m. tonight throught Thursday. Tickets are $5.

The film's executive producer is Warren Cook of Kingfield. The award-winning film, "The Way We Get By," is being shown at screenings across the country to wide acclaim.

Cook said, “This film touches on the themes that I think are most important in life: service to community, service to country, and honoring our elders.”

The documentary is directed by Old Town native and filmmaker Aron Gaudet and produced by television journalist and film producer Gita Pullapilly. It had its Maine debut on April 9 at The Collins Center for the Arts in Orono with Governor John E. Baldacci, Congressman Michael Michaud and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree in attendance.

It has been honored with the Special Jury Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival and the Audience Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. At the Cleveland Film Festival, it beat out 28 films to win the Greg Gund Memorial Film Competition, which recognizes films for their social conscience.

In Boston,movie critic Kerry Skemp called it, “A remarkable reminder of just how much we have to
learn from our elders.”

Yellow Light Breen of Bangor Savings Bank, which is providing the major financial support for the Maine showings,said the troop greeters are "quiet, homespun heroes in their own right. Their commitment has been ongoing for more than six years and hundreds of these volunteers have greeted over 850,000 U.S. soldiers, meeting every plane that arrives at Bangor International Airport."

"It is an inspiring and heart-wrenching film that had to be made and which needs to be seen," he said.

David Cornelius, a nationallty-known film critic who covered the South by Southwest Film Festival, summed it up in his 5-star review of the film by saying, “How many films are this effective, that with so few words, the viewer can become heartbroken? Gaudet’s film is a marvel of humanity, celebrating life (and lamenting the end of it) through its little moments. I adored every frame of this movie and every person in it.”

The film is slated for national broadcast on PBS later this year on the program POV. The film was made in association with American Documentary, Inc./POV, ITVS, MPBN, WGBH. Fiscal sponsors are Documentary Educational Resources and ida. Additional sponsors are Bangor Savings Bank and Manatt, Phelps & Phelps. To view the trailer and to obtain more information, visit www.thewaywegetbymovie.com.

retrieved 4/20/09 from http://updates.mainetoday.com/updates/bangors-troop-greeters-film-in-farmington

2/26/09 Maine's economy

There's no surprises in this newspaper article. These things were true about Maine long before the drop in the economy.

AUGUSTA (AP) -- A new report says Maine has some work to do to strengthen its economy but also finds areas in which the state already excels.

The Maine Economic Growth Council released an annual report Thursday that analyzes a number of indicators of progress toward sustainable, long-term growth.

Its report praises the state with gold stars in four areas: research and development spending, health insurance coverage, efforts to address chronic disease and a low rate of on-the-job injuries and illnesses.

But it also hands out red flags in several areas, including personal income, high-speed Internet access, manufacturing productivity, health care and energy costs, and state and local tax burden.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
retrieved 2/26/09 from http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=101199

11/16/08 Am I local now?

I've been here long enough that I can give directions by saying, "Where the Rite-Aid used to be" or "What used to be Howard's."

When the new Rite-Aid was built, they moved from the old one pictured below. And the new Rite-Aid is enough closer to town and enough bigger than the old one that it was pretty much the demise of Howard's drugstore. At least they hired the folks at Howard's when it closed. Progress?

10/2/08 Price of gas is falling

This morning I got up early to get to the dentist by 8:30. He's replacing the old silver fillings in two of my teeth that have started to go bad. On the way to the dentist, I noticed that the price of gas at the local Irving station was $3.49 a gallon. On the way back from the dentist, I was too focused on the Novocain that was wearing off and I didn't notice the price of gas. A little after 2:00, I drove by the Irving station on my way to Dixfield to teach the graduate course. The price of gas at the same Irving station was now down to $3.48 a gallon. After the graduate course, I stayed for the ribbon cutting ceremony and it was nearly 8:00pm when I drove by the same Irving station on my way home for the evening. Now the price of gas was $3.47 a gallon. I wonder if it will continue to fall.

7/23/08 ANOTHER Python in Maine

What?! Not just "a python" in Maine, but "another" python in Maine? And this is happening in Wilton which is just down the road from Farmington! In fact, this incident took place in the parking lot of Shelly's Market which is the landmark for when to take a right to get to Rodney's family's farm.

Here's the article from the AP:

LEWISTON (AP) -- A Wilton man is having trouble sleeping since he found a python snake about 9 feet long under the engine of his pickup truck.

Harley Burgess's shocking discovery Saturday is the second of its kind in less than a week in Maine. Last Wednesday, a Gorham woman found a snake -- also identified as a reticulated python -- in the washing machine. In Wilton, Burgess says he's still shaking when he thinks of the python found under his truck. He's had nightmares about the snake getting his grandson, who was with him the day the python was discovered.

Burgess has been searching for clues as to how the snake got loose in his truck. Reticulated pythons are illegal in Maine without a permit.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

retrieved 7/25/08 from: http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=90581

If you do a Google search on it, you can see the story has been picked up in a lot of cities 'cuz this is news! Here's the original story from my favorite source, The Sun Journal:

9-foot snake in pickup shakes up Wilton man

By Donna M. Perry , Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

PHOTO GALLERY

« Previous | Next »

thumbnails | gallery

WILTON - Harley Burgess hasn't slept well since he discovered an 8- to 9-foot reticulated python under the engine of his pickup truck Saturday morning.

"I'm still shaking about it," Burgess said. "I hate snakes!"

Burgess, who lives on Weld Road, said he and his 9-year-old grandson had stopped at a store in East Wilton to get something to eat before they headed to Chesterville.

A friend came into the store minutes later to tell him he wouldn't believe what had just crawled out from under the engine compartment of Burgess' truck.

The friend thought it was a muffler pipe hanging down at first, until he looked closer.

"It was a huge snake," Burgess said. "It was unbelievable. I parked over a mud puddle and that's when it came down. The clerk at the store thought I was going to have a heart attack, I was shaking so much."

Burgess, a hunter and fisherman, said he has had nightmares that the snake could have gotten his grandson.

"This bothered me a lot," he said.

Burgess said he has been searching for clues to find out who had the snake and how it got loose to get in his truck.

The reticulated python is illegal in Maine unless permits are obtained, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The only pythons that are legal in Maine are the ball, jungle carpet and children's python.

Wayne Atwood, Wilton's animal control officer, was called in to catch the snake.

Atwood said when he arrived he saw the snake lying under the vehicle.

He thought it was a boa constrictor but learned later it was a reticulated python.

He used snake tongs to pick it up, and the snake wrapped itself around the pole. He put the snake into a pet carrier and brought it to Sue Metzger, a state humane agent, in Livermore Falls.

It was the first reticulated python he has come across in 19 years, Atwood, of Jay, said.

It is the second python of its species to be found in Maine in less than a week. A Gorham woman found a reticulated python in a washing machine on Wednesday.

Metzger said when she received the snake she contacted Rick Teele, who is familiar with snakes, and brought it to his home in Fayette.

He identified the reptile as a reticulated python.

The snake had injuries on its upper jaw from being dragged.

Metzger said she contacted Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and then a rehabilitator.

Teele told her the snake would be better off traveling in a pillowcase, so he put it in one and tied it off and then put it back in the carrier. This species of snake can grow to nearly 33 feet, Metzger said.

She brought someone with her and the two drove the python to Lewiston to a rehabilitator, Jen Lewis, of Mis-Fit Rehabilitation.

"This is one reason people should read up on what they're buying, not that it would have made this one legal," Metzger said.

When people have to move or no longer know what to do with snakes as they get larger they will let them go out in the woods.

"This is when there can be problems," Metzger said. "People need to educate themselves to make the right decision, if a snake is going to be the right pet for them. If they do have a snake and no longer want it, they should call a rehabilitator, or (Maine Inland Fisheries) to find other options than to just let it loose."

retrieved 7/25/08 from http://www.sunjournal.com/story/275325-3/Franklin/9foot_snake_in_pickup_shakes_up_Wilton_man/

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.

5/16/08 Pandas!

Imagine my surprise walking into WalMart to see this sign at the front door. The greeter gave me a funny look when I pulled out my phone to take this photo, but she let me do it anyway. I have no idea what this is about, but if it's pandas, I need to investigate.

5/15/08 Good Karma

Today I received the following email from our provost:

Hi Theresa:

See below. Not only are you becoming famous, people at UMF are recognizing you!

Bravo! And thanks for the good publicity for us.

See you at commencement,
Allen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below that was an email from the Director of Human Resources and Administrative Services
Hi,

See below for an article Kathy found that quotes Theresa Overall.

Laurie
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/AdultLearning/?article=EducationUpgrade&GT1=27001
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And all the hoopla was over an article in which I was quoted. But how I got asked to be quoted is the fun part. The reporter is the sister of Misty, a faculty member at UMF who is a friend of mine. Lorna (the sister and reporter) called Misty all in a tizzy because she had less than 48 hours to get out this article on The Horizon Report and she knew nothing about it. Misty contacted me to see if I knew anything about it or knew anyone her sister might interview about it. But I had just read The Horizon Report and in fact, had assigned it as homework to my graduate class! So I agreed to be interviewed and helped out. Lorna didn't know if it would ever get printed and if it did, she didn't know what it might look like (my quotes might get edited or deleted) or where it might get printed. To make it into the Encarta Encyclopedia on MSN is not a bad place to end up. ;-)

Here's the article (retrieved 5/15/08 from the website above):

Education Upgrade

Colleges shake their reputation as late adopters

By Lorna Collier

Imagine a college classroom where all the students have iPhones ready to receive documents and other information from the professor: surveys that can be immediately answered, lesson texts or videos and weblinks to supplement the current lecture.

As of fall quarter 2008, Abilene Christian University will be the first school in the United States to equip all its incoming freshmen with iPhones. The school has developed about 15 applications for these phones, including course registration, 3-D campus maps, surveys, podcasts and emergency alerts.

Using Internet-connected smartphones is just one example of how mobile broadband technology is expected to make a significant impact on education in the near future. It's one of several trends explored in the 2008 Horizon Report, an annual review of emerging technologies in education produced by The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, in cooperation with 36 education and technology experts around the world.

"These technologies can radically influence the way schools serve their increasingly diverse students, creating the potential for a paradigm shift in education," says Donna L. Russell, assistant professor of education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, who was part of the team developing the Horizon Report.

Theresa Overall is an associate professor of education at the University of Maine at Farmington. Like many educators, she believes using such tools helps students to "think at a higher level and produce better-quality work."

She uses a classroom "wiki" (or communal Web site) for student assignments. "It's about allowing students to use tools that they are comfortable with," says Overall.

What else is on the horizon for teachers and students? Take a peek into the classroom of the future.

Mobile broadband
Abilene Christian University may be taking the lead by offering iPhones to every student, but the Horizon Report predicts smart phones will be more widely adopted in the coming years because they have so many potential educational applications -- especially with the recent release by Apple of software development tools that allow users to create custom iPhone programs.

"The big surprise is campuses haven't started to pay much attention yet," says Larry Johnson, chief operating officer of The New Media Consortium, especially since smart phones can be used to collect data, record and upload sound and video, take notes, answer polls and view video podcasts. Slowly, however, the technology is catching on as a curriculum aid.

Grassroots video

Colleges and universities are making use of custom YouTube channels and "iTunes U" to place videos of lectures, scientific demonstrations and campus events for students to easily download. Technology-forward educators say that video helps them demonstrate concepts that are more easily shown than written about, such as life-science lessons.

"If you look at grassroots video produced in the academic environment, the proliferation is more in the life sciences than anywhere else," says Jerry Sheehan, manager for government programs development at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.

This is because, says Sheehan, students studying life science "have to have ways to visualize it -- you can't understand it without visualizing."

This fall at George Fox University in Oregon, all students will receive Mac laptops equipped with Apple's iLife software suite, which includes video-editing capabilities. The school's chief technology officer Greg Smith says this uniformity in software and hardware will make it easier for teachers to incorporate things like grassroots video into their curricula.

"The students' increased ability to express themselves via video will allow them to more accurately describe what they have learned," says Smith.

Educational wikis

Becoming quite common in schools today are wikis -- collaborative, usually topic-specific Web sites to which a group of people can contribute. Like the University of Maine's Theresa Overall, many teachers set up a wiki for a unit of study or a course, and then require students to post what they've learned and collaborate on entries that include text, pictures and videos related to the topic. Professors can review the students' work in progress and leave notes.

Wikis can be even more far-reaching than a single classroom. For instance, the Flat Classroom Project brings high school students in the U.S. and Qatar together online for discussions and to create video or other projects.

Rochester Institute of Technology created a Digital Entrepreneurship "Ning" site, which lets undergrads connect with venture capitalists and business owners from around the world.

"The whole idea was to create something out in the open ... with students aggregating information in a way that was valuable to the community, and the community contributing by offering insights to the students," says Vic Perotti, associate professor at RIT, who directs the "DigEnt" site.

Since the site began in March 2007 with 24 RIT students, says Perotti, it has grown ten-fold, which Perotti attributes in part to its hosting on Ning -- a "network of networks" visited by other network creators worldwide.

"What is special about this community is that it approaches learning in a very open way. We conduct the process of entrepreneurial education in the context of real-world entrepreneurs and investors, and invite them to participate however they choose."

Overall keeps her classroom syllabus on her wiki, and uses it for everyday classroom sessions. "If we're brainstorming a list as a class, I don't write it on the board; I make a new wiki page and type as we brainstorm. Then when we're done, we have the list in a place where everyone can access it later. Before, someone had to write it down on paper or else we lost the list."

Data mash-ups

Data mash-ups -- which are expected to become more common in schools within the next two to three years -- combine information from multiple data sources into one tool.

Purdue University currently "mashes" Google Earth with historical data to create "Visible Past" -- a site that allows students to see a rendering of how historical sights may have looked in the past.

Professor Susan Smith Nash -- a mash-up expert -- used a combination of sociological databases in an interdisciplinary course at the University of Oklahoma this spring. Nash had her students probe the connection between rural poverty and cultural isolation in the U.S. by mixing census and zip code data with Yahoo maps of restaurant and retail locations.

Programs such as Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft Popfly let students or teachers easily mash together a variety of resources.

"Students can drag and drop together media from various sources, such as YouTube, Google Maps, the New York Times, Flickr and any other Web site with an RSS feed," says Perotti. "The hybrid feeds that they create are truly novel forms of communication that offer unprecedented linkages."

Collective intelligence

Every time you type a search question into Google, you leave a "search trail" that goes into a database. This is one example of collective intelligence, what the Horizon Report describes as "information stores created in real time by thousands of people in the course of their daily activities."

Collective Intelligence isn't expected to impact education for a few years yet, but Johnson says it is coming. "We're seeing more and more data collections and collections of papers incorporating folksonomy -- the idea of people putting tags on how things should be categorized, as opposed to the way an expert might," says Johnson.

Another technology just beginning to emerge in schools -- with more usage expected in the next four to five years -- is social operating systems, says Johnson. This technology is an expansion of today's social networks like Facebook, which will allow teachers and students to evaluate the reliability of academic data they find online, and find research partners for collaborations.

UM Farmington education professor Theresa Overall believes the new technologies in the Horizon Report are here to stay. "I can't imagine going back."

4/4/08 Out the Classroom Window

It's Friday so here's more snow for the weekend. This storm was actually more than a dusting. It was about 2 inches and it really stuck. It was in a slush state for a long time on the ground making for pretty bad driving. The reaction from my students when we saw the snow start out the classroom window was NOT "Oh goody! Snow!" But it has made for a nice and extra long ski season (and snowshoeing and cross country skiing, but snow mobiling is pretty much over--a man died when he was going home after a day of snow mobiling and crossed a frozen river that wasn't frozen anymore).

3/15/08 The Farmington Diner is Still Moving

Apparently they ran into issues moving the diner to its new home down the road (it's just moving to Wilton which is the next town west and south of Farmington)--all those permits and having to lift power lines and all those other hassles. Meanwhile, life must go on, so that's the framing for the new Rite Aid going on in the background.

3/14/08 front page photo

A pair of ski patrollers head around the back side of the snowfields at Sugarloaf/USA Thursday afternoon to check out the terrain. With nearly zero wind at the top and bright sunny skies, conditions were perfect not only for riders and skiers, but also for workers getting the mountain ready for next week's US Alpine Championships.

retrieved from http://www.sunjournal.com/story/256203-3/LewistonAuburn/Snow_fields_forever/

3/9/08 The Farmington Diner is Moving on

Ah, the Diner. Farmington has had a good, old-fashioned "diner" since the 1950's. Made in that classic all-aluminum exterior, it has the booths and stools that you would expect in a classic diner. Mother and Daddy and I ate there when they came to visit last October. I've been there with MRM and her parents for breakfast. But the land was sold to Rite-Aid along with the plot next door and a new shiny sign of progress will be built in that location. There are many stories about who bought the building of the diner, but it didn't get demolished. Here it is, hooked up to a truck, ready to be moved to its new home, wherever that may be.

12/13/2007 Crime Spree in Farmington

My quaint little town had an unusual series of crimes in the past two weeks. The front page of today's paper (Thursday 12/13/07) had two headlines about them:

Farmington bank robbed
and
Assault suspect arrested

There was a mugging on campus Sunday night and the bank was robbed in downtown on Wednesday. Pretty scary. But they do have the suspect in the assault arrested and it looks like they know who robbed the bank. It is unusual to have any crime in Farmington, much less two big ones in the same week.

Here are the stories:

Jailed teen allegedly tried to rob student at UMF
By BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 12/13/2007

FARMINGTON -- Three days after a University of Maine at Farmington student was beaten and kicked in a robbery attempt near the UMF student center, Farmington police arrested a man they believe is the assailant.

On Wednesday afternoon, police arrested Caleb Hupper, 18, of 439 Zions Hill Road in Chesterville on charges of robbery and aggravated assault, both felonies.

According to an intake worker at the Franklin County Jail, Hupper is being held on $25,000 cash bail.

The mugging of the 18-year-old freshman from Duxbury, Mass., occurred at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday as he was walking in front of the Education Center on High Street on his way to the Olsen Student Center.

Farmington Police Chief Richard Caton III said Wednesday evening that police followed up on several leads and arrested Hupper at his home earlier in the day.

He declined to comment on whether Hupper has a juvenile criminal record.

Caton said he has no idea why the student was attacked. In an interview Monday, UMF Director of Public Safety Ted Blais called it a random act of violence.

The victim was attacked after he refused to hand over his wallet, police said.

He suffered cuts on his face and bruises on his body where the attacker punched and kicked him and continued to strike him while he was lying on the sidewalk.

The attacker ran off to a waiting car when another student who witnessed the attack from his dorm room at the Mallett Residence Hall rushed out to help, police said.

The student was taken to Franklin Memorial Hospital by NorthStar EMS where he received stitches for facial cuts. He also was treated for a mild concussion, according to UMF officials.

Wednesday was a busy day for Farmington Police. Caton said that as a press release on the Hopper's arrest was being prepared, he and his officers had to rush off to respond to a robbery at TD Banknorth on Broadway at 3:25 p.m.

"We were all excited about the arrest and I was planning on getting the information out when the robbery call came in," Caton said.

Retrieved 12/15/2007 from: http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/4560307.html

AND:

Farmington bank robbed
By BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 12/13/2007


FARMINGTON -- Police are looking for a man who robbed the TD Banknorth branch on Broadway Wednesday afternoon.

The suspect, whose image was captured in a surveillance photo although his face is partially covered by sunglasses, is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall with a husky build. He was wearing a brown jacket with a hood, according to Farmington Police Chief Richard Caton III.

"He passed a note to a teller indicating he had a firearm and to give him money," Caton said.

After pocketing an undisclosed amount of cash, the man left the bank on foot, police say. The bank's doors were immediately locked and the staff called 911. Caton said police were there within minutes, including officers with a tracking dog.

Anyone with information on the robbery is asked to call Farmington police at 778-6311.

This is the second robbery of a Farmington business this fall. On Oct. 5, a man claiming to be armed demanded narcotics from the Rite Aid pharmacy in West Farmington and then escaped on foot.

Wednesday's robbery was disconcerting to local employees and merchants.

"It was pretty scary, being so close to home," said Patty Bessey, an employee at the Renys department store on Broadway, who also works across the street at the Farmington Thrift Shop. "A lot of the girls are upset because they have to walk home after dark."

Ron Gelinas, owner of Mainestone Jewelry next door to the bank, said he had been in the bank a few minutes before the robbery.

"It shocks you and makes you nervous. I am just thankful no one was hurt," he said. "The police did a very good job controlling the situation and kept a low profile. People on the street and in the shops didn't even know there was anything the matter."

Retrieved 12/15/2007 from: http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/4560089.html