10/13/08 Maine Monday part 1

Today was a fabulous wonderful amazing day of Maine traditions. I started the day making Needhams. You've read about them, I've heard about them, but who knew I'd have a chance to make them?! I haven't had time to formulate my own blog entry about it yet (I have tons of photos and so much to say) but my friend Karen who was my hostess for my Needham-making morning wrote a blog entry, so for now, you can go read her blog. :-)

http://thirdfury.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/2008-10-15-2/

That's how I celebrated our Columbus Day Holiday from 10am to 2pm. Wait 'til you see how I finished out the holiday. :-)

10/12/08 Gifford's last week

JUST as I was taking this photo, they turned the lights out on the sign. So I'll tell you what this is a picture of. ;-) It's the Gifford's ice cream store and the sign says, "7 days until closing". This is one of the last seasonal ice cream stores to close for the season. They get a LOT of busloads of peepers through the autumn leaf-peeping season. Farmington is just a little past peak now, so the buses will stop coming through soon.

Last week the sign said "apple sundae" which means vanilla ice cream with homemade apple pie filling on top. I knew I wanted to stop and have some of that. But I didn't get by last week and tonight when I stopped in, they were out of that. But they did have apple pie ice cream so I got that. Oh yummmm! They ground up apple pie filling and a sweet crust-like crumble and put it in their award-winning ice cream. AND it was the special flavor of the week so I saved 50 cents. I hope I can stop by one more time before the 7 days are up. I'll even pay full price! Supposedly on the weekend (their last 2 days) they offer "buy 1 get 1 free" so I need to find someone to go with me. Of course, there is the alternative. ;-)

And then Gifford's will close and winter won't be far behind. Sometime in March the Gifford's sign will change from "closed for the season" to "opening day [insert date here]". That first Friday night they have free ice cream. I've never been but I hope to make it this time. 2009!

10/10/08 embarrassing before photos of the office

I swear I'm going to clean this place up. This is about what it looked like when I skipped out of town before Memorial Day. I was planning to clean it up and get it all organized this summer but elected to do Celebration Tours instead. (Smart smart move on my part! Hindsight tells me that I made the wisest choice.) So it still has that disheveled look.

See that flat box on the floor in front of the basket of magazines? Probably not, but there is one there and inside is an Ikea file cabinet begging me to put it together. I better get to it pretty quickly because pre-registration starts next week and I need a chair for my advisees to sit in while we talk about the upcoming semester!

10/10/08 falling leaves

This is kind of a funky photo. It's of the side of the tree. I was trying to capture how blue the sky was. But look closely, you'll see I captured the blue of the sky, but I also captured a falling leaf! I definitely was not attempting to capture that, it's just a coincidence. When I got to school and emptied my book bag, I found a leaf in the book bag. Murphy's law must be running rampant right now. What are the odds of either of this leaf-catching events, much less two in the same day!

10/10/08 Moonshadow

I remember the Cat Stevens song, Moonshadow. The lyrics included "I'm being followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow." I liked the song, even though I had no idea what any of it meant.

Tonight I figured out what must be a moonshadow. I was walking home and there was a shadow next to me most of the way. There was an additional shadow that kept coming in and out. I finally figured out that the one constant shadow was a shadow caused by the moon! I don't think I've ever seen my shadow created by moonlight! The second shadow was caused by the street lights which was why it kept moving. As I moved into the streetlight, the shadow was behind me. As I started to walk towards the light, the shadow moved to the side and got very small; as I walked away from the light, the shadow was in front of me. I only got startled a few times. ;-)

10/9/08 Autumn Album Entry 2

Well, this brilliant plan of documenting Autumn every week from the same place is out the window. We had our initial meeting back in September, but the group decided to skip two weeks before we started, so that killed my kickoff. The first class ended at 5:45 (early) but I stayed for the ribbon cutting ceremony and it was dark when I got out. I was able to get this photo today after class but it's getting dark pretty quickly now. By next week when I get out of class at 6:15 (the usual ending time, we just got out early last week due to the ribbon cutting ceremony), it'll be too dark to take this photo.

Oh well! Hope you enjoyed this album of two pages. ;-) If you can't tell from the photo, autumn is gorgeous in Maine this fall!

10/6/08 Autumn at sunrise

Well, it wasn't quite sunrise, but it was before 7:30am and it was beautiful. There are two banks on Main Street that each have a time and temperature sign. When I walked by (about 3 minutes before I took these photos), the one to the north said it was 30 degrees and the one to the south said it was 31 degrees. I guess it could be that the one further south was a little warmer. Frankly, all I know for sure, is that it was C O L D for October 6. But it was a great brisk walk on a crisp autumn day that was beautiful.

10/5/08 Apple Store comes to Portland! (Maine, not just Oregon)

This is big news. Now you don't have to drive 4 hours to Boston to get to an Apple Store. You can do it in 2 hours by going to The Maine Mall (get it . . . the main mall?? and it pretty much is the only big mall in the state) in Portland. I'm part of a team from Farmington that was awarded a grant called the Maine Community Heritage Project. It's very exciting and I promise to blog more about it later. But we needed a computer, so I volunteered to go pick it up. w00t!

10/4/08 Autumn from my driveway

That pretty much describes it. If you stand in my driveway (or near the driveway), you can see this view to the south . . .

...and this view to the north...

and this is the view to the west, or down the sidewalk to my humble little apartment (The Verandah). The Verandah is closed for the season. The landlady gathered up the plastic lawn chairs and table and the cute little grill they loaned me. I have folding camp chairs in the house and plan to sit out there on any unseasonably warm days and maybe even on a cold day or two, just to soak in that view. But otherwise, like the ice cream stands . . . when summer's over, you settle in for a L O N G winter's nap.

10/4/08 storm windows and jackets

It's beyond brisk today. It's still gorgeous sunshine and autumn leaves blowing, but the high was only in the mid-50's. The landlady came and replaced the screen in my screen door with a storm window. I guess my screen door is now a storm door. I went through the house and traded out screens for storm windows in all my windows. I wore a jacket most of the day and it was very chilly in the house this morning. I put flannel sheets on the bed several weeks ago and I'm already sleeping under a down blanket and a comforter. But I haven't turned the heat on yet. It's definitely about time for that. It's not quite hot chocolate time but it's definitely hot apple cider season.

10/3/08 Autumn colors

It rained this afternoon while I was teaching my class. I didn't even notice it while we were inside, but when I came out, the streets were wet and there were raindrops on the cars. I walked to a grant meeting at The Farmington Public Library and had the chance to see these gorgeous autumn colors against a bright, clear, blue autumn sky. How gorgeous!!

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.

10/2/08 Ribbon Cutting at Dirigo Elementary School

Today was the first official day of the graduate course in Dixfield. I was supposed to take photos for my "Autumn album" but instead, I stayed at the school after the class was dismissed in order to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new school building. It's a beautiful building. In this photo, Dr. Tom is speaking. He's the superintendent of schools for this district. He's a great person to work with (I've been working with him directly and indirectly on the two graduate courses I've taught here) and is a great community builder. What came through most in this ceremony that was intended to be a thank you event for everyone involved in creating this school (builders, contractors, teachers, community members . . . everyone) was the great sense of community that abounds in this area, especially under Dr. Tom's leadership.

9/30/08 Mystery Lights at the Gazebo on a Tuesday Night

This morning on my way to work, I noticed a woman wrapping Christmas lights around the trees at the town gazebo and another woman standing outside the gazebo, holding a camera, watching and chatting with the woman wrapping the Christmas lights. It seemed an odd scene and I couldn't imagine who they were or why they were there.

Tonight, on my way home from work, I saw these purple lights on the trees and the gazebo. I had to assume it was the lights being put on this morning. The mystery seems even greater now: who were they and why the lights?

I ventured across the street to get this closeup photo and could hear voices coming from inside the gazebo. Apparently, a couple was sitting on the floor of the gazebo having a conversation. I quickly took my photo and left. I didn't want to disturb them. I don't know if the woman in the couple was the same woman as this morning. The mystery only deepens.

9/29/08 Today's weather report

From the verandah, fog over the Sandy River was visible, probably the last remnants of Tropical Storm Kyle. We never did get the bad weather we were warned about, though there was a constant gentle rain for almost the entire weekend.

By 9:00 the fog had burned off and sunshine through the clean rain-washed air was the norm. These were photos taken on my walk to work showing not only sunshine but autumn in progress.