The Things You See Along the Way: Bangor Edition and One Good Fence…

I’m feeling a bit logy today as the effects wear off from the anesthesia that I was subjected to this morning for my colonoscopy.  But I don't think they meant computer when they told me not to operate large machinery.

Most of you out there who have been in my shoes know, of course, that the colonoscopy itself is far less irritating than the prep day before.  But what gets me even more than that is, in my case, to finish off the prep, I had to take the last dose at 1:00 am.  Then, of course, it’s a good couple of hours before you can actually get to sleep after that.  Since my procedure was at 8:00 am, I was up at the crack of dawn and out the door on about two and a half hours sleep.  Soooooo, if I make some mistakes here today, it’s the fatigue speaking.  BUT, I will say this, it’s all a small price to pay to make sure that there’s nothing untoward going on in the old plumbing down there and I'm free for another five years.

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When we were in Bangor in August, we didn’t have a lot of time to look around, but if you saw my last post, you know that we did spend an hour or so driving around town looking at stuff, which is one of my favorite things to do.

I was very surprised to see that The World’s Best Drunken Noodles are served in Bangor.  But my surprise was mainly because I have no idea what a “drunken noodle” is.  I’d try one though.

I like looking in people’s windows while we drive around.  But I’m not a voyeur.  I don’t want to see the people who live in these places; I’m just interested in their stuff.  I liked the looks of this place with the fan and the orchids in the window.  The building itself was nice and strong looking.

In case you’re driving in Bangor and forget where you are, I recommend driving by this sign.

This is The Thomas Hill Standpipe.  “Standpipe” is just a fancy way of saying “water tower.”  According to the website 10Places Every Stephen King Fan Must Stop While in Bangor, Maine, “The Thomas Hill Standpipe served as the inspiration for the haunted and dangerous water tower in It and it's said King wrote much of the book, published in 1986, on a park bench in the small park at the base of the tower. The Standpipe was built in 1897 and holds 1.75 million gallons of water for the city.”

  It is one of my favorite King books.  He confirms the utter and total creepiness of clowns in this book.  I remember It keeping me awake at night when I was reading it.  I couldn’t get the line, “We all float down here” out of my head for months.  Well, the line is obviously still in there even now.

But I would say that even if you aren’t a fan of Mr. King's work, this is worth a stop if you’re ever in Bangor.  It is one fantastic building.  Made me wish I had brought my wide angle lens along.  Oh, well…

So that I will be able to link up with Theresa’s Good Fences today, I’m throwing in this pic.  If we had had more time, it looked like a place that would be a very nice stop for a draft beer.  Well, at least it would be on a nice day, which it wasn’t when we were in Bangor.  And that’s why my pictures of the Standpipe (above) look like they were converted to black and white.  Nope.  Those shots are in living color.  It was just a black and white kind of day.

Good Bangor Fences…

We didn’t have a lot of time to tour around Bangor, Maine while we were in the vicinity. But we did have about an hour before we had to get gussied up for the wedding we attended, so we drove around Bangor a little bit.

There were some beautiful houses with fences along the main drag like this one:

But of course, the magnum opus of all fences and houses in Bangor is this one:

This is the house of none other than the prolific and brilliant writer, Stephen King.  Pretty neat, eh?

Looks like Mr. King has a pet frog.

Linking to The Run*A*Round Ranch's Good Fences!

A Concatenation of Ephemeralities and Eons…

I don’t think anyone would argue with me when I say that life can be bittersweet.  This past weekend brought it home to me in a very personal way.

On Saturday, Greg, Carrie and I attended the wedding of Greg’s cousin Anne.  Although I am not linked to her by blood, I am very happy that she is also my cousin, even if only by marriage.  She is a unique and wonderful human.  It was an honor to get to spend this special day with her and her new husband, Peter.   The service was lovely, the bride was beautiful and the reception was a truly excellent way to spend a summer afternoon in delightful surroundings with very congenial, laughing people gathered to celebrate this happy new phase of Anne and Peter’s life together.

We committed to this event a while back and before I knew that a room would become available at an assisted living facility for my 87 year old mother.

  The last time I saw my mother, it seemed clear to me that it was time for her to be cared for in a way that was not possible for me or any of my six siblings on our own and my understanding is that things have gotten progressively worse for her since I was there.

  But dealing with the logistics of the whole affair was left to my siblings who live near my mother in Ohio.  We live almost 800 miles away in Massachusetts, so I am not always up on what is happening on a day to day basis or able to contribute in a concrete, everyday way.

Yesterday, my wonderful siblings did what was best for my mother who was not happy or cooperative about her situation and I have an untold amount of gratefulness for them in my heart.  They are the best!

Life is often bittersweet and the moments, both the good ones and the bad ones, are fleeting.  Although when we are experiencing the bad moments often those moments don’t seem to be so short-lived.

Alfred E. Kahn said, “Life is a concatenation of ephemeralities” – happenings linked together that last a very short time.   To me, that seems right most of the time.  Time does fly.

Last weekend in Maine was certainly over too soon for Greg, Carrie and me.  Still, while this past weekend was technically the same number of hours both in Ohio and Maine, I’m sure the weekend must have lasted a very, very long time for my sibs.

Keeping track of time again…

We will be on the road starting tomorrow to find some warmer weather, but for now, I will finish my year in review.

July was uneventful except that our daughter Carrie had her 30^th birthday.  Where does the time go?  Otherwise, we just rambled on like usual. This photo is apropos of nothing except that Carrie and I both like butterflies and it was taken in July.

In August, Greg and I drove north through New Hampshire with a stop to drive up Mount Washington, through Maine, through New Brunswick, Canada and onto Prince Edward Island – a place I’ve wanted to go for a very long time.  Then we came home via Nova Scotia, then Campobello Island and Maine where we stayed a couple of nights with our friends Linda and Brian.  A good trip all around.

Looking out over the lake in Brian and Linda's back yard.

We got lucky with a loon siting right at golden hour.

Aside from the fact that I consider Opening Day of Baseball as the true New Year Day, my year usually really begins in September.  I get busier with meetings and such.  This year was no exception.  But we had some fun, too.  Our neighbors, the McGuires, had a great pool-warming party and that doesn’t mean we all stood in their pool and peed.  It was a beautiful, mild but cool night and a wonderful gathering of neighbors and friends.  But only the kids went in the pool.

This is Walker Pond, not the McGuire's pool.

October was uneventful except for the gorgeous autumn leaves.

I started physical therapy in November for a sciatica problem and though I faithfully attended all sessions and did the exercises, I didn’t get any relief that was long-lasting.  So I was feeling a bit off-centered and old in November.  But we had a very nice Thanksgiving with the kids at a local restaurant and I continue to feel very thankful for so many things in my life with the possible exception of compressed discs in my back that my doctor says is “normal aging.”  Oh, well…

Now, here we are at the end of December and the end of another year.  My mother’s health continues to decline and another good friend has been diagnosed with cancer.  News of the world does its best to try to push me into despair.  But every day, I witness human kindness, small and grand, and it gives me hope.  I’ve been watching out my kitchen window seeing the birds, squirrels and chipmunks going about their daily business.  I think that they know more than I do about the resilience of our Mother, the Earth.  And in our inevitable way, we will join the birds and squirrels and Chip and Dale in going forward into a new year to witness the wonders and splendors of the Earth, small and grand.

My hope for you all as we enter 2015 is that your joys outweigh your sorrows on every count.  Blessed be.

Good Rockefeller Fences…

One of the things I like best about photography is that it allows one to time travel.  That’s what I’m going to do today.  I’m going back to August 28 of this year, when Greg and I were in Maine visiting our friends, Linda and Brian Friedmann.

Linda and Brian own a camp on a beautiful lake in Maine not too far from Acadia.  We were lucky to get to spend a couple nights with them on our way home from Nova Scotia.  We were also lucky that they happened to have four tickets to the opening of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor.  This garden is open to the public only once a week in late July, August and early September, so we were very fortunate to get to go.

I don’t think much needs to be said about the beauty of this place so I will let the photos do the talking.

The walls that surround the garden were spectacular in their own right.  For my purposes here, I’m going to call them fences, because that’s really their function and it allows me to hook up with Theresa’s Good Fences.