Notes from Maine - 2024/08/18
I’m not on a train, or a bus, or in a car. I’m just sitting here at my normal desk in my normal house. The last couple of weeks have been anything but normal. A bunch of cousins arrived last weekend and we had a great time. It’s wonderful to spend time and share stories with them. On Sunday we all went out on the lake with my brother.
Aside from those visits, Mom and I have been here working on projects while my sister and nephew have been in Scotland (the vacation within a vacation). All the interior walls of the kitchen are back to their pre-demolition state. Before she left in June, Mom had most of them with at least one coat of paint. Now everything is patched and painted. The French doors have be rehung once I finish the transition to the foyer and then final trim can be set. These are fancy words—“French doors” and “foyer” for a very un-fancy house. If you sit on the front porch, with the door open, you can see the door’s landing (level), followed by the foyer’s floor (slopes down to the left), followed by the kitchen landing (level), above which you’ll see the beams of the kitchen ceiling (slopes hard down to the left), over the doorway to the living room (level), etc. It looks like a funhouse. All the new work looks askew because all the original carpentry has been so ravaged by gravity and time. That’s what gives the house so much “character.”
I don’t want to make it sound like we’ve been toiling away working while my sister and nephew have a luxury tour of Scotland. For me, staying here and working on the kitchen is way more interesting than seeing a castle. And going somewhere with new tasks is what Mom considers a vacation (as far as I can tell). Taking a break to visit with cousins was awesome. Walking around the art festival yesterday was a great time. But, in general, I belong here.
I had a disturbing call with my sister Friday. Scheduled to fly back on Saturday, she found out that she had Covid. Mom has never had it. The last thing anyone wanted was to spread Covid through the family on her return, so she decided to isolate up at the camp. That was complicated by the fact that her car was at my house and she was flying into Boston (a couple hours away). The situation grew in complexity as her flight was delayed for hours and hours. By the time my sister and nephew landed, it was late and they got a hotel. Today they’re taking the bus to get close enough that I can toss her car keys to her and they can retreat to the camp. I was absolutely miserable when I had Covid. I can’t imagine suffering through it so far from home. Fortunately, the misery of travel is almost over for them.
For a couple of hours I was trying to figure out how to get her car down to Boston and leave for them so they could go home on their own schedule. I bought a train ticket that would have gotten me all the way to within a few miles of my house. It’s not a trip I would take on a whim, but I was actually looking forward to experiencing the train. My friends have taken it many times. A one-way ticket was $35 USD. At any point, I could jump on a train, ride through the state and have the experience that I’m describing, but I don’t think I would enjoy it unless it was an adventure forced on me by circumstance. Maybe I’m wrong. I’ll toy with the idea a little more. When my sister’s plans changed, I returned the train ticket. Instead of driving, dropping off a car, and riding home on a train, I went to an art festival and then came home and watched Oklahoma. Same thing, really.
The upgrade to my electric panel is now scheduled. In October my service will be upgraded to 200 amps. With new electric ovens I was concerned that the old panel would be under a strain if I used too many appliances at the same time. It has never been a problem before, but the new ovens can use up to 40 amps and the current panel only supplies 100 amps. What if the well pump, refrigerator, and ovens all come on at the same time? An electrician told me that it shouldn’t be an issue, but my current panel has been in service for forty years—I think it’s time for a change. Still, it seemed like a crime to have ovens in the kitchen that weren’t hooked up and in use. October is a long time away—the warranty of the ovens is ticking away. Last night, I baked cookies for Mom. They turned out fine. It has been a long time since I baked anything. With a few practice runs, they will get better. I’m happy to report that the ovens performed their part of the task admirably, although it was a bit of culture shock to find that I had to put in my email address before they would be fully operational. There were features that could only be accessed if I was “registered.” Five years from now, I’ll curse those stupid electronics as they begin to fail.
Before bed last night, my phone, the TV, and the new ovens all told me that it wasn’t going to rain today. It was no surprise to wake up to rain. The rain this summer has been largely un-forecast. Maybe I’ll grow accustomed to having ovens that dabble in predicting the weather, but it seems unlikely if they continue to get it wrong. Might as well ask the toaster at that point. It has never lied to me about upcoming precipitation.
This morning, I expected a bright golden haze on the meadow. Instead, we had fog.
