Notes from Maine - 2024/12/22
We made it to the turnaround—I’m terribly excited. Today, in the Northern Hemisphere we’ll have more daylight than yesterday, and we will keep gaining each day until June. It’s still morning here, but I feel like I can tell that it’s already brighter outside. I found a website where I can look it up, and…. Yes! We’re going to have an extra three seconds of daylight today. Hmmm. Somehow I thought it would be more. In Maine we go from less than nine hours of daylight to about fifteen and a half. It’s a dramatic shift, but from day to day the change feels negligible.
Outside, our ground is frozen but bare. We lost all our snow to some rain the week before last. The conditions are great for chasing frisbees, according to Albert (dog). He got his bandages off this week and the vet said that his leg healed well. Gradually, he is returning to his frisbee-chasing duties.
This time of year I usually switch over from buying hay to using the hay that’s packed away in the attic of the barn. With no snow, I can still drive the truck around to the barn, so I’m still buying hay each week at the feed store. The later I switch, the less likely I’ll run out in the spring when there have been shortages in the past. Eventually, that feed store will close and I’ll have to scramble to find a new one. It seems inevitable. The parking lot is always empty when I pull in. A lot of people around here have backyard chickens and goats, but the feed store looks out of place behind the supermarket and the train station. The people who have worked there for a decade or more might feel like old-timers, but I remember the old-timers they replaced.
When I was driving through town the other day, I saw that the Italian restaurant (The Great Impasta) was for sale. They’ve been at that location forever. Fortunately, they’re just moving to a larger building across town. We hardly ever went there. The food was very good, but it was often hard to get a table without a wait. Another restaurant that I enjoyed (Hacienda Pancho Villa) is gone forever. I remember when that place opened about twenty years ago. I always liked their food. Our friend group was about 50/50 on it, so we didn’t get over there all that often. I’m sure I know some people who are quietly celebrating its demise. When we go out to dinner each week I’ve found that I’m less and less interested in the food. I’m there to listen to the conversation and enjoy spending time with friends. Over the years we’ve all eaten the same meals a hundred times. It’s not about that.
I hate to admit it, but I might head back to bed after I send out this note. I woke up with a cold yesterday (slight fever, mild symptoms) and I didn’t sleep very well last night. At one point I dozed off with a lozenge in my mouth and I had a dream that I was choking on a giant, broken tooth. When I rushed over to the dentist to get it fixed, I was embarrassed to find out that all my teeth were intact and that the emergency had evaporated.
I’m happy to report that when I woke up my teeth were all in my head where they belong. No sign of the lozenge. So maybe it’s a good day to catch up on sleep while I’m enjoying the extra three seconds of daylight.
