Mainelife...thru the eyes of someone from away

Happy Halloween, Y'all

The Village of York Trick or Treated last night (for reasons that I don't understand, we always TOT the night before).
The below has nothing to do with Halloween, but it's brilliant, so I thought I'd share it with you.

This Doesn't Play Well in Ohio

Joe refused to appear on stage with Palin at PSU, but none-the-less, she's not beneath sucking up to the crowd by invoking JoePa:

“Here at Penn State, you know the value of a seasoned leader with experience and with guts because last weekend when the Lions were down, the game was on the line, Coach (Joe) Paterno knew how to lead your team to a comeback win -- and that's exactly what we need you to help us do on Election Day," Palin said.

Uh, Sarah--Joe and coaching had nothing to do 

with it.  Our Freshman Quarterback, who was smart enough NOT to play ball for Joe the Coach, made a freshman mistake and fumbled the ball.  If he doens't drop it, the Buckeyes win. And Obama is not going to drop the ball. 

After the event, Palin refused to meet Penn State President Graham Spanier, because "he's a big Democrat."  Nice.  I guess that doesn't play too well in Pennsylvania. 

The Atlanta Journal Covers the Lobster Crisis

You know it's a crisis when out of state papers are covering the situation.
Governor Baldacci has convened a task force to consider options for helping ease the crisis. 

In the meantime, the fishing communities all along the coast are pulling together and doing what they can to help the fishermen, and a lobsterman has been lost at sea. 

Sign of the times

We had a lovely weekend in the midcoast with RG's brother and sister-in-law and I took some really nice photos to prove it. Unfortunately, I've managed to misplace the battery charger for the camera as well as the USB transfer thingamajiggy, so until one or the other is found, the photos remain in my camera. 
This was an iphone shot, so it's able to be liberated......

I swear that I spend half my life looking for things I've misplaced.  It's ridiculously frustrating, but I seem to be unable to break the cycle. 

UPDATE: Village Soup covered the "Buy a Lobster Day" event, held throughout the St. George region:

PORT CLYDE (Oct 27): Buy Lobster Day, held Oct. 24 throughout St. George, has been deemed a success because many more lobsters were sold locally at the retail level than could normally be expected at this time of year.

Buy Lobster Day was cooked up by a group of St. George residents as a way to show support to the lobster fishermen. It was also hoped that the promotion would increase demand for lobster, and that the resultant increase in sales would lessen the glut of lobsters and help the lobstermen keep fishing.

Amanda Davis, assistant manager of the Port Clyde General Store, works at the checkout counter. (Photo by Michael Dworkin)

"I think it was a beautiful day," said Anne Klapfish, one of the organizers of Buy Lobster Day. "A lot of people turned out."

Amanda Davis, assistant manager of the Port Clyde General Store, said 425 pounds of lobster were sold at the store on Oct. 24, compared to the usual 30 pounds. The price was $3.25 per pound.

"We had people from New Hampshire and different parts of [Maine]," said Davis. "We had a family from Belfast buy 100 pounds." The people from Belfast told Davis they planned to share the bargain catch of lobsters among their extended family.

On Oct. 24 at the Fisherman's Co-op in Port Clyde, 450 pounds of lobster were sold at $3.50 per pound. Donald Schwab, the manager, said customers "were pretty happy."

"We didn't do it to make any money," said Schwab. "Just for the PR."

An unusual phenomenon for Wildcat Lobster in St. George was reported by Stephanie Simmons, who owns the lobster pound with her husband, Travis.

"There were times when people were standing there waiting in line," said Simmons. "We had a really successful day — I had people coming in who would buy 20 at a time."

The special price of the day was $3.25 per pound.

Simmons said a lot of the lobster buyers were local people who came to support their lobstering neighbors. But Simmons said some customers came from Lincolnville and beyond Augusta.

Harborside Market and Gardens in Martinsville reported much better than usual lobster sales despite charging $4.25 per pound.

"We're very small, but we sold our record number of lobsters," said Terry Bomba of Port Clyde, an employee of Harborside who was working there on Oct. 24. "People came in for that reason — to buy lobster — they wanted to help. Everyone who came in was very positive."

Donna Dearborn, the owner of Harborside, said the special promotion for the support of lobstermen did make a difference.

"It was good," said Dearborn. "For this time of year, it was really good."

Other businesses that participated in Buy Lobster Day included St. George Marine, Simmons Wharf and Witham's Lobster.

I love Maine and Mainers. We're self-reliant, we help each other and we know what's right and what's wrong.  I'm not a native, I'm from away, but I love this place like no other.

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From the Archives

Beautiful Kezar Lake, taken in October of 2006. 

The job that pays the mortgage has had me working like a mad-woman, immersed in really big spreadsheets, responding to the Economic Crisis, and managing new direct reports and it's left little time for photo-taking.  Not to mention, our bad fall weather (warm, rainy and really windy) had the foliage in less than prime condition this fall. 

We're off to Cushing for the weekend and I hope to snap some good photos tomorrow before the rain moves in and the Buckeyes kick-off against PSU in the Battle for the Big 10.  

Then I'm headed to the heart of McCain Country Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon for the work week, returning late Friday night to what I fear will be RG in a Halloween Candy Coma (he's a one for the trick-or-treater/one for the house kind of guy).

It's Never Too Early to Talk Smack....

....about Michigan.
The Game isn't for another few weeks and the Buckeyes have a huge challenge coming up this weekend versus the #3 Nittany Lions, but I'm not afraid to get this thing started.

Go Buckeyes.

Blue Hill Kind of Weekend

We headed up the coast this weekend to Blue Hill for the Blue Hill Harvest Festival (blowing off our usual ox sandwich and bean hole beans at the York Harvest Fest).  It was a spectacular fall weekend in Maine, with our first two frosts, crisp temperatures and gloriously blue skies.

Blue Hill isn't far from Cushing, but the terrain on the peninsula is very different from ours. There's very little farm land. Instead, blueberry barrens cover most of the land.    This time of year,  the leaves are a bright crimson. 

The Harvest Fest included the high school jazz band--who were very, very good and  a tent featuring $4.00 lobster rolls.  We had two--just doing our part to help the fishermen (more on that in a minute).  There were art exhibits and a wine tasting.  We tried a very good ice wine and a not-so-good sparkling rose'. 

Along the way, we were encouraged by the overwhelming numbers of Obama signs.  Down to York, McCain is winning the yard sign poll by a large margin.  Like our area and many other parts of the country, Obama signs seem to disappear in Blue Hill. 

As I mentioned in the last post, we're seeing fishermen pulling in their traps at the time of the year that much of Maine's lobster is caught.    The situation is dire:

The economic infrastructure on shore, from bait and boat building to grocery stores and children in schools, is dependent on the health of the lobster industry, said Hoskins.

In his statement Oct. 17, the governor said he has directed the Department of Economic and Community Development, the Department of Marine Resources and the Finance Authority of Maine to meet with financial institutions and agencies to expedite measures to help families in tough financial straits.

"This crisis involves thousands of families spread along the coast,” Baldacci said. “We’re talking about the very lifeblood of many small towns.”

For the state of Maine, the impact could be huge.  There are 7, 435 commercial lobstermen and 3600 of them employ a stern man.  Lobstering's related industries employ more than 5700 people in the state and the annual catch is worth more than $300 million. 

Blue Hill Morning

A field in Blue Hill, ME, shows some fall colors of the finest kind.

All around the mid-coast  we're seeing signs advertising cheap lobster and reminding us that it's time to help the fishermen, who are struggling.  Demand for lobster has dropped severely due to the economy.  Lobster prices have plummeted in recent weeks, while fuel and bait costs remain high.  Some lobster processors have stopped buying lobster and much of the fleet has pulled their traps and stopped fishing. 

We're doing our part with a full New England Clam Bake tonight: Steamers, Lobster, Baked Potatoes, Baked Beans, Blueberry Pie. Hey, it's the least we can do.

The Miracle At Fenway

The Red Sox came back from a 7-0 deficit in the seventh inning to beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (yes, I know they're now officially just "the Rays" now, but they've been totally Devilish to the Sox this post-season).  With only seven outs between them and elimination, they came back and won 7-8 on a JD Drew 9th inning single. 

Of course, being the superstitious freak that I am, I saw none of it.  When Dice-K gave up runs 5 & 6, I changed the channel, watched The Office, SNL and then Rachel Maddow.  I didn't check the Sox score until 2:30 am.   Others stood in a specific place in the family room, still others clutched bags of Fenway Dirt.  Whatever it takes, Red Sox Nation. Whatever it takes. 

UPDATE: I'm not the only one who went to bed--but I didn't give up.  I went to bed to change the Karma, so I'll quibble with this Boston.com poll

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Ah. Fall.

Fall is my favorite season of the year....until winter, when I love winter the most...until spring, when I adore spring...until summer when summer is my favorite season.