Green Ice & Yam

Spring is here. We've had several days and a few nights above freezing. The ice in the water ways and snow on the ground are slowly receding. The weather people keep stressing how this is a good thing, as a sudden thaw could bring about dangerous ice flows and flooding. We've seen flocks of robins, and today I saw a budding pussywillow! The ice falls, yes, even the green ones, are all but gone. So's the yam, for that matter.
It's been a half a year since I moved to Maine, so it's time for a little review. As with most of life: it's been a mixed package. We enjoyed the autumn and got through the winter with some expected adjustments: snow is pretty, but a pain to shovel, especially early in the morning as a prelude to going to work! I miss our favorite stores: Changing Hands, Bookman's, Lee-Lee's, House of Rice, etc., but I should be conserving as much dough as possible for when we get around to buying our new house. We've found some fine grocery stores with some old favorites and new delicacies, but food is more expensive in Maine. Work could definitely be improved for both of us, but in this economy we're both aware that having a job is something and any benefits are a plus. I'm looking forward to spring's advancement with flowers and birds coming back, but I'm dreading all the mud. I'm looking forward to seeing fireflies again, but I'm dreading blackflies and mosquitoes. I'm looking forward to going all over the place with Keith and Pandora and trying my hand at sea kayaking, but I'm dreading having to fight all the summer tourists for space. Well, we'll see...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Before I Forget...

A bunch of things are going on here. I just joined Facebook in order to see pictures and stuff from an old college friend. Either he doesn't have much up, or I don't really know my way around Facebook. Not that the two are mutually exclusive. But anyway, if you're on Facebook please feel free to friend me and we'll see what we shall see.

On Friday while getting ready to take the tiara photo, my tripod let go of my camera. It fell to the floor with a resounding thud and I haven't been able to get it to work since. I haven't given it a good going over yet, but fear the worst. Luckily I had my webcam to take the shot, but I may go into withdrawal without my regular camera. I am not quite ready to get the cameras I want (yes, plural) but may have to get the small portable one just to feed my habit. Maybe the next item will provide me with funds to get the bigger, semi-pro camera I also would like.

I am going for a job interview for a State position on the 24th. It is not my dream job, but it would be better than 2 part time jobs, one of which I dislike greatly. And it would get my foot in the door for all the current-State-employees-only jobs I see listed a lot. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, in Tarzan news, Darkhorse Comics is releasing hardcover reprints of the early Dell Tarzan comic books. The first one is out and available on Amazon.com for less than cover. I think the $50 book was listed at about $35. I will definitely be getting this, and the next several at least. I have a lot of Tarzan comics, but the early years are not well represented in my collection.

And I rejoined the Yahoo group that posts scans of Tarzan comics. I have started saving the scans to my computer rather than just reading them. I had planned on printing out the ones I didn't own and putting them into my comic collection, but never did bring a list of what I had in to work where I had access to a color printer. Now I think I will just save them to disk and not worry about having more paper cluttering up the house.

As big a fan of Tarzan as I am, I'm surprised that the only time I seem to draw the character is for the rare occasion when I'm doing a special envelope with some connection I can pull to him. And that hasn't happened more than a half dozen times.

Happy Kemmer Tiara Day!

Inside Out

My friend, Luisa, has asked to see the inside of the house. It is most certainly not the best part of living here. The setting is. But here's a few pictures from before we actually moved in.


First up is the view of the kitchen area as you walk in the front door. The stove isn't in place yet at the time of the pictures.





And here's a better view of the kitchen area of our kitchen/living room. Yes, one big room for the dual function. But it has a nice hardwood floor.






Here's a look back at the entryway as well as the opposite corner of the living room.





That's it for this post. If I'm up to it, I'll post some more shots next week when I get another day off without Carrie.

As always, if you have any interest in it, you can click on a photo for a larger view of it.

Prana Salad

Or: Sacrifice Another Shrimp!

Happy 50th, Barbie.

Sunday Toppings

Carrie and I had Sunday off together again, so we did some grocery shopping then took Pandora and headed up to look at the Basin Cove Falls off South Harpswell on the Harpswell Peninsula. They look more like some very short rapids than falls. But it was an interesting beach covered in shale and mussels.

Solomon Grundy

As predicted in our last post, it snowed on Monday (the 2nd) when Carrie and I would both have to go to work. We got up dark and early and started clearing out the several inches we'd already gotten so we could more easily get out of the driveway and go to work. Carrie went off and I went back in to shower, change, etc in preparation for work. By the time I left for work, we had more snow in the drive than I'd cleared earlier.

Arriving at Staples, I heard some exclamations of relief that somebody from Electronics was in at last, the store having been open 2 hours already without one. After I clocked in I went to see who it was that didn't show up that morning at 8:00. It was me! They changed my schedule without telling me. And didn't call to ask where I was when I didn't show up for 2 hours. Nor say anything about it to me when I walked in. I made it plain to the store manager what had happened and if I was late, he SHOULD call, because something would be wrong. I am NEVER late under normal circumstances.

So, since I was actually scheduled for 2 hours earlier than I had thought, I got out 2 hours earlier than I thought and got home in time to snowblow the driveway again before Carrie got home.

Then we had more days of very warm weather this week and lots more snow melting away. I think it might actually have hit 50 once. And they say snow tomorrow, Monday, again.

Where's Waldo's Mailbox

Our mailbox is across the street from the house. This is the view of it from our driveway.

I spent my day off this week clearing snow off the front of our roof, as much as I could reach, which was a lot, with the new roof rake Carrie bought me. Then we had a couple of days of above average temperature and melted all the rest off. At least on the front, so I'm still glad I worked it. the back still has a bunch, mostly over the porch where it doesn't get the house heat.

A couple of days of cold weather and more snow on the way. We were hoping we would have it by now so we could both be home to clear it away. But, no, it's now supposed to be hitting us Monday, when we'll both be at work. Eight to twelve inches.