9/11/08 Hurricane Ike

Wow. This hurricane is as big as Texas itself and heading straight towards Texas. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who is in its path and those who have left their homes behind in order to get out of its path.

9/11/08 UMF remembers

UMF flag display remembers 9/11

By Bobbie Hanstein • Sep 11th, 2008
From The Daily Bulldog: Franklin County's First News

FARMINGTON - The UMF College Republican Club members were up early this morning.

Their mission, which began at 4 a.m., was to plant more than 2,000 small America flags to form the iconic “9/11″ numbers. The display, say organizers, is to remind those walking by of the tragic day seven years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, when four commercial jetliners were hijacked by terrorists and flown into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City, the Pentagon, with a fourth crashing into a field in Pennsylvania.

“We wanted to do something on campus,” said UMF College Republican Club’s Vice Chairwoman Angela Courchesney. “We wanted something to stand out; for people to notice it and reflect on it.”

At noon, students crossing the green from the Olsen Student Center to Mantor Library and beyond, walked by glancing at the long lines of so many small flags. A few people walked up to the sign posted that explained the display was sponsored by the UMF College Republicans and “Never Forget 9/11.” Courchesney said she was disappointed to see someone had taken the sign mentioning the republicans and had crumpled it up at some point this morning. Someone else, she said, came along and tried to smooth the wrinkles of the sign and return it.

“There’s no place for that on a day like this,” she said.

Last spring, a flag display of another sort caused quite a bit of controversy when, as part of an art project, a UMF student placed various-sized American flags on the floor in a maze-like pattern in the hallway at UMF’s student center. The idea, said the student at the time, was to see if students would walk on or around the flags on the floor. The project upset a local veteran and a few others who attempted to remove the display, but were stopped by the UMF administration. That story eventually attracted national attention.

Today’s display, Courchesney said, was the product of much discussion among club members. “No matter what your politics, everyone can understand it.”

Until the display is removed at dusk, at about 7 p .m. tonight, Republican Club members intend to keep an eye on it.

“We’re going to be checking the flags to make sure they’re not touching the ground,” Courchesney said.

Betsy Judkins and her son Sammy of Farmington, walk along the flag display the UMF College Republican Club installed today to remember 9/11.

retrieved 9/16/08 from: http://www.dailybulldog.com/db/?p=498

9/11/08 Road Construction

On the way to Dixfield, I took a detour that Dr. Grace told me about. She warned that the road construction was really bad. I had driven through it before last semester. I didn't imagine it would be that bad, but I took her advice and took the detour 'cuz I didn't want to be late for the meeting. But since it was daylight and I wasn't in a hurry, I decided to take the road construction route on the way home to see how bad it was.

Oh my. They shouldn't call it road construction, it's more like road deconstruction. In fact, where is the road?? See that big silver thing that's as big as a truck? That's going to go under the bridge. There wasn't just one pair of flagmen to stop us and direct whose turn it was on the one lane of driveable dirt, there were three pairs of flagmen over a distance of more than a mile and there was a traffic light at the temporary one lane bridge. Grace says it's going to take over a year to complete. I believe it! I will be taking that detour every time in both directions from now on!

9/11/08 Autumn Scrapbook Page 1

I'm going to teach a graduate course in Dixfield again this semester. Most of the same people that took the last one plus some new folks who heard how much fun we had are going to take it. It'll be a blast, even though I'm a little nervous to create a class totally from scratch all by myself. (I've always started with someone else's syllabus and then made it my own.) This semester we're going to meet in the brand new elementary school instead of the high school. We held our organizational meeting today in the high school library instead of the elementary school, so after the meeting I drove over to the elementary school. Wow. What an amazing facility. And that's just the outside. They're up on a hill with a gorgeous view. I took these 3 photos today and hope I can remember where I took them so that each week when I go to Dixfield, I can park in the same 3 spots and take photos and create a scrapbook of the area over time. The class won't start until october 2, so we'll miss 2 weeks worth of season change, but I still think it will be a cool photo series.

Maine's Fall Foliage Show Expected to be "Magnificent"

Whooop! that's the report from "Maine's Official Fall Foliage
Website". Of course, it's their job to say come see our fall leaves
'cuz we need your tourist dollars, but officials at the state
Department of Conservation "are forecasting a colorful season based
on the current health of Maine's forest. With a few localized
exceptions, the forest statewide is in good health, thanks to the
abundant and relatively well-distributed rain we've had since spring,"

No duh! "well-distributed rain since spring" is their PC way of
saying, "It rained all summer long!"

But that's okay. This is our payoff. It's gonna be a gorgeous fall.

I've already signed up to get a weekly email with the latest foliage
report!

http://www.state.me.us/doc/foliage/

9/11/08 The Closing of a Classic

I just heard a commercial this morning on the radio that Howard's
Rexall is closing. It's a classic downtown business establishment.
Between the current state of the economy and the building of the new
Rite-Aid close to downtown, I guess it was inevitable, but it's still
sad.

Here's the story from the Morning Sentinel:

Howard's Rexall to close Sept. 22
BY BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 09/09/2008

FARMINGTON -- After nearly 70 years, Howard's Rexall, the last
independent pharmacy in Farmington, will close its doors on Main
Street on Sept. 22.

But owners Robert Witt, 47, and his brother, James Witt IV, 53, won't
be far away. They may have sold the business to Rite Aid, which is
opening its new store on Main Street next week, but they will be two
of the four pharmacists there serving customers.

All of Howard's customer records will be transferred to Rite Aid, so
there will be no disruption in service, Jim Witt said.

"They assured us it will be a seamless transition. They are even
absorbing our phone number," he said.

Rite Aid has offered jobs at the same rate of pay to all 13
employees, he said.

In addition to the business, the Witts have sold the property to
Foothills Management owner William Marceau. The Farmington developer
says he is negotiating with a tenant interested in opening a small
grocery store in the 7,000-square-foot space. An additional section
of the building that looks out over the municipal parking lot that is
now used for storage is being eyed for a possible restaurant or
retail space.

Jim Witt said adding to the stress of being a small business owner
has been the reductions in reimbursements from private insurance
companies and federal Medicaid, while paperwork and regulations have
increased.

"Reimbursements are constantly falling. You get paid $5 for something
one month, a month later you get $4 for it and the next month, you
get $3.50. It happens on a daily basis," he said. "We were staying
afloat and could have stayed open but you get to a point where one
day, you aren't making any money and you can't pay your bills. We
were looking ahead to see what could be coming on the horizon.

"It is time for us to scale back and go back to being pharmacists
again," he said. "We figured we needed to get out of the business
while things were still going good."

Howard's has held its own against the chain pharmacies that opened in
Farmington including Wal-Mart, Hannaford and Rite Aid. The
competition forced the Witts to diversify. They tried expanding into
medical equipment and offered video rentals, groceries and beer- and
wine-making supplies. They were also a J.C. Penney service center,
they accept utility bill payments and are a UPS shipping agent.

But it was an uphill battle.

According to a study by the Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis
Center at the University of North Carolina, between May 2006 and
April 2008, 998 independently-owned rural pharmacies in the United
States closed; during the same time, 495 opened, resulting in a net
loss of 503 independently-owned rural pharmacies.

"There is certainly a trend where independent pharmacies are closing
and reductions in MaineCare reimbursement rates are to blame," Robert
Morrissette, president of Pharmacy Group of New England, said Monday.
The organization is a buying group that represents dozens of
independent pharmacies in Maine.

He said there is a trend toward independent pharmacies closing and a
study from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the Food
Marketing Institute indicates more than 11,000 pharmacies in the
country are at risk of closing due to reductions in reimbursement rates.

The Witts typify hometown pharmacists who pride themselves on
service. They know customers by name and have the time to talk to
patients and answer questions, whether about a prescription or a
health problem.

"That won't change," Witt said. "In fact, I think we'll have more
time to talk to customers. We're hoping the majority of our customers
will stay with us."

Howard's was opened by South Paris pharmacist and businessman Charles
Howard in the 1940s. It was originally located next door where Trask
Jeweler's is now. It was staffed by pharmacist Merton Clifford and
then by his son, Gordon, according to local historian Paul Mills.

Kenneth Wiles bought it in the 1950s and it was purchased by James
Witt III in 1972. An earlier drug store, Marr's, was on that block
from the early 1900s and Mills' research shows there was a pharmacy
there as long ago as 1803.

Retrieved 9/10/08 from http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/
local/5391730.html

9/8/08 Guess what time of year it is . . .

This is the featured rack of "stuff" outside of Reny's. You might
think it's Halloween time, but really, it's all about hunting season.
Check out the safety vests and hunting jackets. ;-)

9/5/08 Window Shopping

As seen in the window of the local boutique:

9/2/08 Academic Convocation

Yep, it's that time of year again. Today is the beginning of a new school year. Today is ceremony and meetings and tomorrow is the first day of classes. I love the pomp and circumstance of bag pipe and academic regalia. Note that the bag piper is joined by his grandson who was skipping school to be a part of college life for the morning.

Here's the official sign for Academic Convocation. You don't see many of those white signs with the black plastic removable/movable letters on it around here. You see these sawhorse type stanchions with posterboards on them announcing the event of the day. Across the street and just a little north, the American Legion is announcing their BBQ Chicken event for Saturday with a very similar sign. There's something much more personable about these signs. And since everyone is either walking or driving slowly, this kind of sign is very effective. Gotta love it.

9/1/08 Happy Labor Day

I woke up at 4:40 this morning. I had the alarm set for 5:30 in order to have time to pack everything up and get to breakfast by 7 on the other side of camp, so I was thrilled to wake up earlier than that. More blogging! But even better . . . sunrise! Maine has Texas beat in so many areas of natural beauty, but it's really hard to see a good sunrise or sunset in Maine. Since Texas is so flat, we almost take them for granted. So today I can get the best of both worlds . . . Maine's finest beauty AND a sunrise! I had tried the first morning I got here to blog from the dock on the lake but the only place to sit was on the dock itself and that was too hard and flat plus it was wet. So I blogged both Friday and Saturday mornings from the dining hall porch. But this morning, I knew there were still two patio chairs down by the dock leftover from yesterday's frivolity (or observation of frivolity of others). After I settled into my perfect viewpoint of sunrise, I looked around at the rest of the sky and to the south was Orion! It was barely visible and those were the only stars that were visible, but it was definitely Orion. I don't remember seeing Orion in the morning before, so that was a serious bonus to getting up so early.

I was able to get Internet access on the dock (I'm pretty sure I'm the first ever to do that, according to Rodney and Marcus), so I checked wunderground.com. I was looking for what time the sunrise was going to happen and found out that it is 39 degrees in Jackman, Maine. And they say it's always colder at MRO than it is in Jackman. Brrrrr! I did not bring enough layers for this! But so far, I'm okay except for my fingers. I wonder if anyone sells blogging gloves--something warm enough yet flexible enough to type in. I wonder how big the market might be for that. Here's what I found out about sunrise:

September 1, 2008 Rise: Set:
Actual Time 6:02 AM EDT 7:17 PM EDT
Civil Twilight 5:32 AM EDT 7:48 PM EDT
Nautical Twilight 4:55 AM EDT 8:24 PM EDT
Astronomical Twilight 4:16 AM EDT 9:03 PM EDT

Who knew that there were four sunrise times?! I missed astronomical twilight but I was there for both nautical and civil twilight as well as actual sunrise!

Today is all about departing . . . on so many fronts. Ben and Tracy are moving to Boston area where he will start a 3 year divinity school program and she will take on a temporary career as a nanny since her counseling license doesn't automatically transfer to Massachusetts. Tasha is starting a new job. Jenn, Christine, and I are all starting new school years as teachers. And then there's Rodney. But today is also about the physical nuisance of packing up all your stuff that you've let get spread out in a giant mess around the cabin and loading up the car in time to get to breakfast at 7 and get on the road by 8 for a day of white water rafting!! At least if you have to leave, you can leave on a high note!

Rodney, Marcus, Dale, and Cuz (Heidi's cousin who arrived some time in the middle of the night just to be one of our guides to take us down the river) left at 7am to get everything ready. The rest of us said goodbye to the ones staying behind (Cindy and Carol were staying to babysit the little ones while Tracy was staying behind to hang out with kids, help clean up, and enjoy a good book and some sunshine) and then caravanned to our designated meeting spot. We left cars at the bottom of the river run and then squished into two vehicles to go to the top of the run by the dam. There were a lot of logistics involved and Marcus took care of all of them. What a host . . . what a guide. There's a reason he's the director of a Christian camp that gives retreats and changes people's lives. He is the consummate host, making people feel welcome, and the perfect guide to help you find yourself and strengthen your relationship with God in that amazing chunk of nature that he's in charge of.

The rafting. Oh my goodness. Where does one even begin??? Pictures will tell part of the story. Those are to come. The basics: we had 2 boats--smaller rafts than the typical 12-person commercial rafts that you see in brochures. They were actually "wilder" and more fun than the bigger rafts based on my limited experience (I have rafted 3 times prior to this . . . very long ago but I still remember). The part of the river that we rafted is 12 miles long. The first 6 miles are all the serious rapids with all the white-knuckling, adrenalin-rushing, frigid-water splashing you can imagine. The last 6 miles are more about floating downriver with occasional milder rapids and waves. Though I must say, we were floating pretty dang fast! The entire 12 miles had gorgeous pine trees on both shore lines, crystal clear blue skies above, and sunlight reflecting on the waters all around. Incredible. We stopped at the half-way point (distance-wise, not time-wise) and had a delicious lunch with a fire to warm ourselves. We also picked up Marcus' dad, Ron (second oldest of the 5 C* brothers), at the half-way point (he drove our lunch to us so we didn't have to have extra cargo as we maneuvered the top half of the run) and he got to experience his first white water rafting from the halfway point to the end. He was very grateful (more than he'll ever know) to only have to go on the second half. People fell out of their boats on both halves of the trip, both on purpose and accidentally; no one was injured or maimed during the experience. There was lots of laughter and stories and wonder. All in all, it was a most amazing day.

And then around 2:00, it was all over. We took a group photo and exchanged a lot of hugs, people changed into dry clothes and got into their cars, and then we all went our separate ways.

And so endeth my summer of 2008. It was an incredible summer. Think about the bookends: I kicked off the summer hiking 20 miles of the Appalachian Trail with some of my oldest and dearest friends: college buddies that I've known and loved and who have been a part of my life for over 30 years. And I ended the summer with 4 days of wild adventures, the last of which was the white water rafting, with brand new friends. I've known Ray the longest and that's only been for 18 months, the rest I've really only known for 4 or 5 months and some for only 4 or 5 days. Adventure to adventure; old friends to new friends. And that's just the bookends! Think about what kind of amazing summer was packed inbetween! God is soooo good.

8/31/08 Sunday Breakfast Photos

Tracy and Randy make quite the cooking team. Just 'cuz Rodney's in the kitchen in this photo doesn't mean he was cooking this time. I think he was just getting coffee. Check out the Maine blueberries in our pancakes!! Heidi picked 30 GALLONS of blueberries at the height of the season. We went picking after breakfast but these are Heidi's gift to our yummy breakfast. Hey, who's snatching a piece of bacon?!

Mmmmmmmmm. Here's Heidi serving her yummy pigs in a blanket with brown sugar glaze. This photo is pretty accurate . . . Heidi is always on the move, even when she's sitting down.

8/31/08 The rest of a great Sunday

Aaargh. Not enough time to write about this right now but let me just put the outline here so I don't forget the highlights and I promise I'll come back and fill in details.

blueberry picking
late lunch
boat rides
power turns
Polish ping pong (I outlasted Rodney . . . once . . . by accident)
steamers
putting up the boat
kayaking
the amazing "Kodak moment"
dinner
--Mexican night: taco soup, taco salad, chicken enchiladas
group picture
bye to Shanda, Jed, Bekah, and 3 out of 5 kids
another fire--almost didn't happen, then ended up with 12 folks
--both Ray and Ron making surprise entrances (not to compare to Ron's surprise the night before)

9/1/08 Sunrise at MRO . . . a slideshow

8/31/08 Sunday Morning at MRO

I woke up at 5:15 this morning. I just laid in bed very quietly since I didn't want to wake my roommate. But soon, she got up to use the facilities, so I got up, too. I stayed very quiet in the room and worked on my iPhone and my laptop with the free wi-fi from the office in the basement of our cabin. By 6:15, I figured somebody had to take first shower so I quietly gathered my stuff and took a shower. By 7, I was dressed and ready. (It always takes longer to do that when you're trying to be quiet. Every zipper and velcro opening sounds like a cymbal crash.) I went out to the dining hall deck again to reflect and write. Even though the sun is out today, it's much colder and there was a giant bank of puffy white clouds moving very quickly from north to south. Yep, there's a norther moving in.

I headed back to the cabin around 7:40, knowing that we had to be on the other side of the camp by 8am for breakfast. There were folks stirring around but I did have to wake up Christine so she wouldn't miss the taxi to breakfast. When the 5 of us arrived at the North Lodge, breakfast was well under way. Bacon was cooked and Heidi was passing out miniature pigs in a blanket (smokie sausages wrapped in half a crescent roll) that were oozing a butter and brown sugar glaze. I'd never had anything like that before, but I will certainly have it again if given the opportunity! Yum! What we were all waiting for was the pancakes that were being cooked on the griddle. . . with fresh, wild, Maine blueberries in them. Oh my! And it turns out, we had syrup that is tapped and made right on MRO property!! What a breakfast!!

After breakfast, there was a Sunday morning prayer service in the living room! How awesome is that?!! Ray and Ron are both ordained pastors and Randy serves in church ministry as well. Actually, Ben is going to Divinity School next week and Jed is a former youth minister. Marcus is a director of a Christian camp (MRO) and gives retreats all the time. Practically everyone in this family has been on one or more mission trips and served as a Sunday school teacher. It wasn't surprising that there was a prayer service. But that doesn't diminish at all how special this prayer service was. Little ones wandered around and sat in different people's laps, Marcus played guitar, we all sang, Ron had the service planned and led it but many folks chimed in and contributed. When it was time for the service to end, Ray spoke up and asked everyone to pray for Rodney's new chapter of his life, so we all stood and gathered in a tight circle. Rodney told everyone about his journey and where it's headed and Ray led us all in a prayer for his safety, his happiness, and his strength in answering the call that is taking him to Oregon. It was very special for Rodney and for all of us.

8/30/08 Saturday Breakfast Photos

Our cooks for the morning . . . Randy (in charge), Rodney, and Heidi.

The rest of us are watching and waiting.