The State of Maine
Portions of this Connecticut Yankee entry are brought to you by:
Magnolia White Port, a product of DiGrazia Vineyards
...and readers like you.
Chapter One
Did you know Maine is dark at night? I know. I know. Everywhere is dark at night, but not like this. Maine is like secret chamber in an Egyptian Pharaoh’s tomb dark, or ‘wicked daak’ as they like to say up there. I admit I’m a city kid with yearnings of living in the country, but man, Maine at night is Stephen King scary dark.
I have been to Maine a few times. As a kid my family even vacationed there once on Messalonskee Lake, which is somewhere near the middle of the deceptively large state. Maine for me conjures up the memory of hearing the loons (a medium-large bird that has a call that sounds like crazy person laughter) which was cool. I kinda remember it also as ‘woodsy’, but not to the extent it was of late.
I had a conference there a couple of weeks ago and the location of the conference was ‘about 10 miles from town’. Well sir, they weren’t kiddin’. I like to think it was a place I had never been to before that others call ‘the sticks’. I still have trouble dealing with the concept of, well, if you want anything, you have to drive ten miles, no exceptions. I know 10 miles in the big picture is no big deal (Alaska comes to mind) but it was a real surprise for cityboy. I’m not sure why this had become so problematic because I’ve lived in places with no telephones (Philippines) but it was a shocker. Maybe it has been to long since I was doing that kind of living. Cell phones did not work there. Did have a great time, though. Good partying. Discovered this port wine that I know not the name of but have devoted the rest of my life to trying to find again, however long it takes. I do regret not having packed a fishing pole, because whatever they were, trout, whatever, they were just jumpin’ out of the water.
Chapter Two
Let me preface this chapter by saying I’m not a church guy but my kids are in a couple of major church choirs so by default I show up to hear them sing but that is as far as it goes. I don’t discuss my religious beliefs because they’re well, my beliefs and I don’t impose them, I just let you go on believing whatever your heart desires and that’s fine by me. Anyway, my son is also an acolyte (I have no idea what that is but he does it with religious fervor) and this past weekend there was (of all things)an acolyte conference/gathering at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and I agreed to chaperone so that mine and some other kids could go to the gathering.
Ha! Fools with the best laid plans of mice and men rush in...
So Friday afternoon rolls around (The church business end of this thing is to take place on Saturday morning at 10) and we figure about a 4-5 hour drive to DC and to leave about five pm to avoid rush hour traffic in New York. Armed with the minivan (full tank and fresh oil change) myself, me wife, me daughter, and three young teenagers (two girls and a boy I had never met before) load up and we’re off to the nation’s capital.
Heavy traffic right off the bat. About an hour into the journey and we have just hit New York (the next state)the young ladies begin inquiries about restrooms. I thought they were kidding. Picture three lanes of bumper to bumper traffic (your three lanes over to the left) and you’re hearing, “Can we get off at the next exit?” The ‘next exit’ being 6 miles at a rate of 13 miles per hour. The math here means you’ve got about half an hour before you can even begin to negotiate any kind of bladder recognition time. Don’t get me wrong I had just downed a 2 liter bottle of diet pepsi twist so I know from where they come but the timing was so poor. We were also heading onto one of the major bridges in New York (Tappan Zee) so it wasn’t even like in an emergency pull over and run to the side of the road. Until we made it to the Home Depot in the generic mall located west of the bridge in New York it would be ugly.
Because of the aforementioned traffic, the five hour trip turned into the ‘wow that took hours longer than we expected’ trip.
Along the way we heard the Kerry/Bush debate, which tickled the kids to no end and during our time on the Garden State Parkway (New Jersey), one of the kids and I saw a meteor come down. Not just a faint streak across the sky either. Not a man made flying machine gone amok. An honest to goodness, “holy shit, did you see that!” meteor came flaming out of the sky and it the earth off in the distance. I thought in fact we would have heard something about it because it seemed newsworthy. But we didn’t
We finally, after many rest stops, made it and during the course of our visit saw the National Cathedral, which was awesome, and sightseeingwise we took in the WWII and Viet Nam Memorials. Foodwise we wound up at this Mexican restaurant which had decent food, including a local brew called Foggy Bottom Ale. It was quite tasty and I was saddened to learn it was not available where I am available. A very cool thing also happened during dinner. The next table over from ours had six college kids partying with pitchers of drinks and eating, which in and of itself is not remarkable. What was different about it was that they were all deaf. Gallaudet University (for deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing students) is located in Washington, and as you would expect these college kids were out partying. I had someone that worked for me who was deaf and my workplace sponsored classes in sign language (which is very cool to learn). This situation was kind of like going to the country you learned the language of, and now you can see it in real life.
One other thing about this was an oddity of nature, if you will. Out and about in Washington, and I know from searching the net it is kinda rare, but, there were black squirrels. Not super dark grey, but in fact, jet black. Again, in the big picture, no big whoop, but it was just so odd.
Chapter Three
Zoot. If you, gentle reader, are a first timer here, then if you do nothing else in your life, click on the link to Zoot and be charmed. If you are already familiar with her then you know that there is no way that I can say enough. She is just so cool. I was going away and asked her to guest script for me and she endured hardship (Blogger sometimes really sucks) and stepped up to the plate and made entry’s in my absence, which I am not here to question (I did note having to pick up some girlie items left behind on the floor of the blog) as I am grateful. She is the best blogger ever and sporting a new ‘do even as we speak.
Chapter Four
Have been living a lie, sort of, of late. I haven’t been running at all. Which makes me feel so bad as I closely follow Pam’s amazing progress. She is a true inspiration and I write here right now that I am hitting the road in the AM to get back on track.
Chapter Five
Scrubs. There are shows that blend comedy and drama (dramadies) and included in that would be shows that have a penchant for many ‘inside’ jokes. St. Elswhere was famous for that. Northern Exposure was another one, and Picket Fences. They tend to have during there times powerful episodes that put them over the top and create a kind of feeling of amazement about how you were entertained or for lack of a better, less overused word, touched deep down.
I know that when Emmy time swings ‘round again, the John Ritter dedication episode should win multiple categories. I wish I had the critical expertise to dissect this episode as it should be, but I can only go with what I saw, and I’ve watched it a few times now.
The show used to be a deftly written comedy, not a dramedy until this episode. It sounds stupid to me to say it this way, but the entire cast acted just like real people do when somebody dies. JD never smiled until the end. Cox and Dan were assholes until the end, but it was obvious they were trying to be helpful, held back by there own tragic flaws. Janitor didn’t break JD’s balls. Elliot, tongue-tied (I ma the same way about death). What draws us in is Turk’s Type-II diabetes. Which as a topic is comedy death and what makes this turn the corner to become a dramedy. Because it is a real condition, and not really funny. Although Turk and JD joke about how each of their situations would steal the thunder of the other’s. The funny part being how the illness make the fictitious death more real and a way to make John Ritter come back to life at the end since it was all about him.
Chapter Six
I was gonna write recaps about the Apprentice and some other stuff but the Scrubs thing wiped me out. I’ll do something about the other things later.
Magnolia White Port, a product of DiGrazia Vineyards
...and readers like you.
Chapter One
Did you know Maine is dark at night? I know. I know. Everywhere is dark at night, but not like this. Maine is like secret chamber in an Egyptian Pharaoh’s tomb dark, or ‘wicked daak’ as they like to say up there. I admit I’m a city kid with yearnings of living in the country, but man, Maine at night is Stephen King scary dark.
I have been to Maine a few times. As a kid my family even vacationed there once on Messalonskee Lake, which is somewhere near the middle of the deceptively large state. Maine for me conjures up the memory of hearing the loons (a medium-large bird that has a call that sounds like crazy person laughter) which was cool. I kinda remember it also as ‘woodsy’, but not to the extent it was of late.
I had a conference there a couple of weeks ago and the location of the conference was ‘about 10 miles from town’. Well sir, they weren’t kiddin’. I like to think it was a place I had never been to before that others call ‘the sticks’. I still have trouble dealing with the concept of, well, if you want anything, you have to drive ten miles, no exceptions. I know 10 miles in the big picture is no big deal (Alaska comes to mind) but it was a real surprise for cityboy. I’m not sure why this had become so problematic because I’ve lived in places with no telephones (Philippines) but it was a shocker. Maybe it has been to long since I was doing that kind of living. Cell phones did not work there. Did have a great time, though. Good partying. Discovered this port wine that I know not the name of but have devoted the rest of my life to trying to find again, however long it takes. I do regret not having packed a fishing pole, because whatever they were, trout, whatever, they were just jumpin’ out of the water.
Chapter Two
Let me preface this chapter by saying I’m not a church guy but my kids are in a couple of major church choirs so by default I show up to hear them sing but that is as far as it goes. I don’t discuss my religious beliefs because they’re well, my beliefs and I don’t impose them, I just let you go on believing whatever your heart desires and that’s fine by me. Anyway, my son is also an acolyte (I have no idea what that is but he does it with religious fervor) and this past weekend there was (of all things)an acolyte conference/gathering at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and I agreed to chaperone so that mine and some other kids could go to the gathering.
Ha! Fools with the best laid plans of mice and men rush in...
So Friday afternoon rolls around (The church business end of this thing is to take place on Saturday morning at 10) and we figure about a 4-5 hour drive to DC and to leave about five pm to avoid rush hour traffic in New York. Armed with the minivan (full tank and fresh oil change) myself, me wife, me daughter, and three young teenagers (two girls and a boy I had never met before) load up and we’re off to the nation’s capital.
Heavy traffic right off the bat. About an hour into the journey and we have just hit New York (the next state)the young ladies begin inquiries about restrooms. I thought they were kidding. Picture three lanes of bumper to bumper traffic (your three lanes over to the left) and you’re hearing, “Can we get off at the next exit?” The ‘next exit’ being 6 miles at a rate of 13 miles per hour. The math here means you’ve got about half an hour before you can even begin to negotiate any kind of bladder recognition time. Don’t get me wrong I had just downed a 2 liter bottle of diet pepsi twist so I know from where they come but the timing was so poor. We were also heading onto one of the major bridges in New York (Tappan Zee) so it wasn’t even like in an emergency pull over and run to the side of the road. Until we made it to the Home Depot in the generic mall located west of the bridge in New York it would be ugly.
Because of the aforementioned traffic, the five hour trip turned into the ‘wow that took hours longer than we expected’ trip.
Along the way we heard the Kerry/Bush debate, which tickled the kids to no end and during our time on the Garden State Parkway (New Jersey), one of the kids and I saw a meteor come down. Not just a faint streak across the sky either. Not a man made flying machine gone amok. An honest to goodness, “holy shit, did you see that!” meteor came flaming out of the sky and it the earth off in the distance. I thought in fact we would have heard something about it because it seemed newsworthy. But we didn’t
We finally, after many rest stops, made it and during the course of our visit saw the National Cathedral, which was awesome, and sightseeingwise we took in the WWII and Viet Nam Memorials. Foodwise we wound up at this Mexican restaurant which had decent food, including a local brew called Foggy Bottom Ale. It was quite tasty and I was saddened to learn it was not available where I am available. A very cool thing also happened during dinner. The next table over from ours had six college kids partying with pitchers of drinks and eating, which in and of itself is not remarkable. What was different about it was that they were all deaf. Gallaudet University (for deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing students) is located in Washington, and as you would expect these college kids were out partying. I had someone that worked for me who was deaf and my workplace sponsored classes in sign language (which is very cool to learn). This situation was kind of like going to the country you learned the language of, and now you can see it in real life.
One other thing about this was an oddity of nature, if you will. Out and about in Washington, and I know from searching the net it is kinda rare, but, there were black squirrels. Not super dark grey, but in fact, jet black. Again, in the big picture, no big whoop, but it was just so odd.
Chapter Three
Zoot. If you, gentle reader, are a first timer here, then if you do nothing else in your life, click on the link to Zoot and be charmed. If you are already familiar with her then you know that there is no way that I can say enough. She is just so cool. I was going away and asked her to guest script for me and she endured hardship (Blogger sometimes really sucks) and stepped up to the plate and made entry’s in my absence, which I am not here to question (I did note having to pick up some girlie items left behind on the floor of the blog) as I am grateful. She is the best blogger ever and sporting a new ‘do even as we speak.
Chapter Four
Have been living a lie, sort of, of late. I haven’t been running at all. Which makes me feel so bad as I closely follow Pam’s amazing progress. She is a true inspiration and I write here right now that I am hitting the road in the AM to get back on track.
Chapter Five
Scrubs. There are shows that blend comedy and drama (dramadies) and included in that would be shows that have a penchant for many ‘inside’ jokes. St. Elswhere was famous for that. Northern Exposure was another one, and Picket Fences. They tend to have during there times powerful episodes that put them over the top and create a kind of feeling of amazement about how you were entertained or for lack of a better, less overused word, touched deep down.
I know that when Emmy time swings ‘round again, the John Ritter dedication episode should win multiple categories. I wish I had the critical expertise to dissect this episode as it should be, but I can only go with what I saw, and I’ve watched it a few times now.
The show used to be a deftly written comedy, not a dramedy until this episode. It sounds stupid to me to say it this way, but the entire cast acted just like real people do when somebody dies. JD never smiled until the end. Cox and Dan were assholes until the end, but it was obvious they were trying to be helpful, held back by there own tragic flaws. Janitor didn’t break JD’s balls. Elliot, tongue-tied (I ma the same way about death). What draws us in is Turk’s Type-II diabetes. Which as a topic is comedy death and what makes this turn the corner to become a dramedy. Because it is a real condition, and not really funny. Although Turk and JD joke about how each of their situations would steal the thunder of the other’s. The funny part being how the illness make the fictitious death more real and a way to make John Ritter come back to life at the end since it was all about him.
Chapter Six
I was gonna write recaps about the Apprentice and some other stuff but the Scrubs thing wiped me out. I’ll do something about the other things later.
posted by Rick | Sunday, October 17, 2004
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