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Losing Lauri (to the PC)

Today was my last haircut with Lauri B. She’s closing her shop and joining the Peace Corps. It’s wonderful that she can do this, but I’m missing her already. It’s going to be interesting trying to find another person who can deal with my locks the way she has for so many years.  But maybe change will be good… Hopefully, I’ll find someone in Portland again because it’s been fun making a day of it when I make the trip down there — do a little shopping, pop into Knit Wit Yarn Shop the Portland Fiber Gallery & Weaving Studio and then the last stop, Micucci’s Italian Grocery, before heading home.

Tired of Cold & Dark

I’ll apologize before I even get started because I’m going to do a little whining here. We lost power again on 12/11 and didn’t get it back until 12/14. This has been happening more regularly lately and its getting very old. We have a small generator that we use to keep the fridge cold and we cook on the gas grill and lobster burner but flushing, showering, washing dishes — anything that requires water — is not happening without a big ordeal. And then there’s the trying to stay warm thing… The whole experience is just exhausting. The worst part, however, is getting the sheep taken care of. Jim goes down the road to a culvert where he can drop a bucket over the edge of the road to get water for them but this takes alot of backbreaking hauling of buckets on top of the snow removal that usually needs doing during a storm like this. The most frustrating part is that the power company doesn’t deal with our road until they’ve turned mostly everybody else back on. Everyone around us had power back in less than a day and here we were…powerless and powerless to do anything about it. When I called the power company, their rep told me that we’re not important because there are so few homes on this line and in order to check it, someone has to snowshoe into the woods and actually climb a pole. In other spots, repairs can be made from a bucket truck. It wasn’t much fun to hear that we’re not important. Apparently we’re important when the bill is due. Well, the holiday baking I’d planned for this weekend didn’t happen but I’ll try to get some stuff done now.

Demolition!

Jim's having great fun up there!

Jim's having great fun up there!

I had no idea this would feel sooo good! Remember those holes in the ceiling I talked about a while back? They’re gone…Now there’s no ceiling at all!! So this is progress? Well, we’re a little closer to a new ceiling, right? Jim did the hard part. My jobs were keeping the fan blowing the dust out without the fan falling out of the window and getting rid of all the stuff that came down. Fortunately, it was a warmish day so we were able to keep the window open and I kept feeding the old ceiling out the window and into the garden carts that stood at the ready. Love those carts! We use them for everything! It took just a few hours and we were all cleaned up by dinner time. The kittens were gone today so it seemed like a good time to make this mess…they were at the vet’s for neutering. Sorry kitties…

Portland Twice in One Month

Nina, Amy & I went out for a girls’ day. First we helped Nina find some nice new glasses, then checked out Williams Sonoma…picked up a couple of Christmas goodies there. Then we stopped in at El Camino in Brunswick, a favorite Mexican restaurant. The food there is always fresh, full of local ingredients and very reasonably priced…Oh! and it’s really tasty, too! Tomorrow we’ll cut a tree for Amy to take home for Christmas.

Why Do We Do That?!

Happy Thanksgiving! There were six of us for dinner yesterday and we all ate way too much…predictable!  The turkey was really tasty — plenty of dark meat on this one and that made everybody happy.  Despite all the hoopla about brining, I resisted and just prepared it the “normal” way — well, the way I learned from my Mom. Yum!  We’re all taking it easy today…kickin back a bit.  Amy, our friend from CT, is here for a few days. Lark is getting up on her own most of the time and starting to be very interested in what’s happening beyond her pen. We’re letting her out in a small yard we’ve set up so she’s able to get some fresh air, sunshine and limited exercise.  She and Spot are getting on really well…I wonder whether they know they’re sisters.  Two beauties.  And Spot will tolerate me scratching behind her ears now…progress!