Maine Day 4

 On Tuesday, the fourth day of our trip, the sun came out and it was a beautiful, bright cool day.  We took the opportunity to drive over to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to enjoy nature in all her splendor.  The drive there was scenic in itself, though I was mostly occupied with paying attention to driving on the narrow, windy two lane roads.  But we arrived, just in time to join a guided walking tour focusing on native Maine plants.  Our guide was a volunteer with the botanical gardens who was obviously very knowledgeable about Maine's native plants.  I learned more about ferns than I ever thought there was to know.  And before the day started, I couldn't distinguish a fir from a spruce...but now I can!  It was an extensive tour and hike, as the gardens encompass over 350 acres, ranging from open manicured lawns to forest trails with rugged slopes, to breathtaking waterside paths.  Along the way, we encountered some of the botanical garden's giant trolls.  These are huge wooden art installations by the Danish artist Thomas Dambo.  It was an enjoyable and educational visit.

After the hike, we were ready for a hearty meal, and headed to nearby Damariscotta where we found a restaurant that had been recommended to us by a friend.  The King Eider's Pub lived up to the promise, and we had a delicious meal of pub food- bangers and mash, and fish and chips.  Our timing was perfect, as we arrived for a late lunch/ early dinner, and managed to get a table quickly at what can be a very busy restaurant.  The drive home was a quiet one, and we reflected on all the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the day.

Guided walking tour of the botanical gardens

One of Thomas Dambo's giant trolls

Bangers and mash

Fish and chips

King Eider's Pub- highly recommended

Maine Day 3

 Today began overcast, and ended up being wet for most of the day.  So after a morning of reading and writing postcards, we ventured out to do some indoor things.  Our intended destination was the Owl's Head Transportation Museum, which was just a short drive away.  But when we got there, it turned out to be closed, despite a published schedule of being open 7 days a week.  So instead, we went into town in Rockland and roamed around, exploring the town.  Our first stop was a wonderful small bookstore called Hello, Hello.  We browsed around among the books, new and used, some autographed by the author.  Kathy selected a book she'd long been interested in, and I found a pack of postcards by a local artist.  We then went up the street to the gift shop of the Farnsworth Art Museum.  More postcards there, showing work of Wyeth, the family of famous painters.  Finally, a stop in the Grasshopper Shop, which had a large selection of Maine postcards.

It was then time to head home for dinner.  Today, we got to try the restaurant just down the street from our house:  The Happy Clam.  It's a humble looking little joint, but we found that in addition to standard seafood and pub fare, they offered a selection of German dishes.  Apparently, one of the married couple who are owners was born in Germany, which explains these choices.  Kathy sampled the schnitzel, and I tried "Frikadelien", a sort of German meatloaf with brown gravy.  Both were excellent. Service was also friendly and efficient in the small eatery.  We'll most likely be back before our vacation ends.

Hello Hello bookstore

Rockland Maine on a wet day

German schnitzel

Frikadelien with German potato salad and red cabbage

A wonderful little place, near our house

Maine Day 2

 On our first full day in Maine, we awoke at a decent hour and continued to explore our rental house and the surrounding area.  In the late morning we went over to visit with some old friends who we have known for 30 years.  They joined us in a group of friends who travelled to the republic of Georgia in the mid 1990s.  Since then, we have only seen them once or twice, so there was much to talk about in our all-too-short Sunday brunch. Perhaps we'll see them again later this week.  Then Kathy and I returned to the house and planned our next move.  Did a little reading before deciding on a dinner destination.  Our first plan, a casual clam shack just down the street from the house, was postponed when we learned Sundays was their day for live music.  And when I say we learned of this, it was because we could clearly hear the garage band music from the house.  Since we were in the mood for something quieter, we took a short drive to nearby Rockland and tried out the Park Street Grille, mostly because it was open on a Sunday.  The meal was perfectly pleasant, and included a warm mortadella sandwich and french fries (the fries were especially good) and tasty haddock fish tacos.  A local Maine Beer Company IPA was the perfect compliment to the sandwich.  And along our drive, we gathered future activity possibilities for week, including a planned stop at the Owl's Head Transportation Museum. Then home for a lazy night watching tv and doing our regular Duolingo language lessons.

Rental house living room

Park Street Grille fish tacos

Maine adventure

 It's been several years since we've been on a real vacation (excepting a quick weekend getaway to NYC last October), so today Kathy and I head out to the little seaside village of Tenant's Harbor, Maine to spend some days in a rental house and enjoy life in New England.  We've anticipated this trip all summer, and at last the day is here!  It began early, with final packing and a drive to the Birmingham airport.  As is so common with Delta Airlines, the major carrier in Birmingham, we fly to their Atlanta hub for the connecting flight that will take us to Portland Maine. My anxiety always climbs at bit at this stage of the trip, since our luck with air travel generally is not good.  Delays, and other mishaps seem to be the rule rather than the exception for us.  But by the end of today, I am happy to report that both flights were smooth and nearly ontime.  The flight from ATL to PWM was even long enough for us to be served a meal, which I can't remember happening since our trip to London over five years ago.  I sampled the marinara-braised meatballs, while Kathy had a sort of green curry chicken.  Hers was definitely the more tasty meal.  We landed in Portland and met the local moose at the airport before picking up our rental car and driving the last leg of our journey to Tenant's Harbor.  The drive was scenic and beautiful, with frequent glimpses of nautical scenery: harbors and boats could be seen from the road in multiple locations.  Just before sunset and after 12 hours of travel, we arrived at our destination.  Made a quick stop in the quaint nearby Tenants Harbor General Store to pick up a light snack, and then we settled into our home for the next few days.  We explored the beautiful and cute house and started to unwind from the trip.  With high hopes for many happy memories in the coming days, we nestled in for a good night's sleep.

Early morning departure from BHM

I'm always mesmerized by the flight tracking screen

Surprisingly good green curry chicken

Pretty decent meatballs, but needed a pasta or vegetable to accompany

The moose greets us in PWM

Nearby general store- I suspect we'll visit here often

Take the long way home

 Not for the first time, USPS tracking has provided me with some entertainment and not a little frustration as I've followed the path of a package as it travels to my home.  This time the package is a shipment of new stamps from the USPS itself.  All went well as the package travelled the familiar route from Kansas City to central Alabama.  It covered that distance in a single day, which is unusually fast (I buy a lot of stamps via the USPS web site, and I'm familiar with this route and the normal transit time.  In the Birmingham sorting center on the Friday before the Labor Day three day weekend, I reasonably expected it to be delivered on Saturday the 30th of August.  But instead, the next tracking update showed the package - less than 20 miles from my home; So close, USPS! - next showed up in... San Franciso, California!  Yes, according to the tracking info, the package made it across the continent in a single day.  Whether this is a tracking system anomaly, or the package physically travelled to northern California is unclear.  The package languished there over the holiday weekend, and part of this past week before returning to Birmingham a week later than when it had last been there.  It is now supposedly safe at the Helena post office, and will hopefully be delivered to my home in the next hour or two.  What a roundabout way to get stamps!

Typewriters strike back

 These sorts of articles are written pretty regularly, but it’s always nice to read them.

Click-clack comeback: Toronto shop thriving amid typewriter renaissance

August Postcrossing stats

 The numbers are in for Postcrossing in August.  Despite many other activities occupying my time, I sent 106 cards this month, bringing my all-time total to 11,525.  This is the first time in several months that I have reached my goal of 100 or more cards.  My national ranking by sent cards is holding at 28th out of 76,916 Postcrossing members in the USA, and I am still the #1 Postcrosser in Alabama. I'm looking forward to building on this improvement in September!  Write on.

Rare card alert

 This morning, the first card I have ever sent to the South Pacific nation of Brunei was registered.  Brunei's official full name is Brunei Darussalam and is a small nation in Southeast Asia on the island of Borneo.  The country has only 79 registered Postcrossing members, and the total of cards sent from Brunei is 4,733, well below my personal total of 11,464.  This is the first card I have sent to Brunei, but I received one from there in November 2016.  Write on!

Next up

 The next book in this year's list of the Trollope Society's Big Read is The Three Clerks. This is Anthony Trollope's sixth novel (out of a total of 47), written when he was 42 years old.  The book was published amidst his familiar six book Chronicles of Barsetshire, which detailed life in an English country cathedral town.  In contrast, this current novel is set in London and deals will a trio of government employees.  Trollope, himself an administrator in the Royal Mail, would have been quite familiar with London office life, and perhaps for that reason, the author always spoke proudly of The Three Clerks.  I look forward to diving into this well made Trollope Society edition.

On this day...

 I was born 60 years ago.  Leading up to this landmark birthday, I've given a lot of thought to the state of things, past and future.  On the whole, I have little to complain about; it's been a wonderful life in which I've been very fortunate.  And I certainly hope it will continue for a few more years- there's still a lot I would like to do!

In 1965, the year I was born, a lot was going on:

• At the end of January, Winston Churchill died and was given a grand funeral.  I missed overlapping the life of that historical figure by only a few months.
• In February, Canada adopted their now familiar Maple Leaf design for the national flag.
• March was a tumultuous month, with Rolling Thunder bombing missions going on in Vietnam, and Bloody Sunday civil rights protests happening in Alabama.
• In April, Julie Andrews won an Oscar for her performance in Mary Poppins.
• In May, Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston with his "Phantom Punch" in Lewiston, Maine.
• Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to send home photos of Mars in July.
• On August 4, a newborn struggled for breath in a hospital incubator in Normal, Illinois.  He would go on to become a research scientist known for his lack of notable accomplishments, as well as an enthusiastic hobbyist baker, wooden boat builder, and postal mail booster.
• In September, the final session of the Second Vatican Council began.
• Pope Paul VI, in October, became the first pontiff to visit the USA and conducted a mass at Yankee Stadium, New York.
• American auto racer Craig Breedlove set a new land speed record of 600 mph in November.
• And in December, A Charlie Brown Christmas aired for the first time on CBS.

So, my life so far began in rousing fashion.  Since that first year, man walked on the moon a total of six times (family lore has it that I was asleep in my crib while my parents left to visit neighbors who had a better TV to watch Neil Armstrong take his first step), the last couple of which I have a memory of seeing.  In my lifetime, computers have exploded into a ubiquitous revolutionary force that has drastically altered society, sometimes for good.  Scientific knowledge, broadly, and medical knowledge, specifically, have made great strides during my life.  Indeed, technology in all facets of life have barely retained any recognizable features of when I was born.  The human side of life's equation, however, has not perhaps made such gigantic leaps.

My own life has also seen many events, both notable and mundane.  My happy childhood was certainly the epitome of a benign suburban upbringing.  I was blessed with devoted parents, a stable home life, good education, and a sufficient if not lavish lifestyle.  With all the advantages of gender, race, education and opportunity, I was able to accomplish... very little.  Certainly, less than I could have if I'd exhibited more initiative, diligence, and hard work.  In spite of a glaring lack of ambition, I bounced back from an abortive attempt at a career as a Coast Guard officer and instead studied to become a research scientist where I've built a very modest CV and a scientific record unalloyed by achievement.  But in at least one endeavor I can be proud: I've enjoyed a long, happy marriage to my wife Kathy.  Tomorrow we will celebrate 36 years of wedded bliss.  So if there is nothing else, I can at least look on our union as one of my life's great accomplishments.

What lies ahead?  That's a little less clear, but I am hopeful there are still some pleasant memories yet to be made.  I have enjoyed good health up to this point in my life, with a small episode earlier this year marring a record of otherwise trouble-free corporeal operation.  There's nothing to indicate today that I might not yet enjoy a few more years, so perhaps I can at last summon some ambition to do something notable with my life.  If I ever manage it, I'll be sure to let you know all about it right here.