Oct 15

It was a good and easy birthday hike to the top of Ossipee Hill. The old fire tower has been torn down and a cell tower stands in its place. Two OTT workers were manhandling a bucket truck, trying to attach wire to a new pole on a steep part of the trail.

There were many mobile calls during the walk; calls of good wishes, happy days and questions regarding cake. For breakfast we had German chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. For lunch it was hot cocoa and string cheese at the top of the Hill. For supper it was ice cream cake. So where are my presents?

Happy Birthday!

The cake baked yesterday, so today is reserved for hiking in the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness. It is forecasted to be beautiful, graceful, strong and have unyielding determination.

Sweet German Chocolate Cake -cooling on the stovetop

First Birthday

Blueberry Ridge Trail , bottom right center

Oct 13

A visit from a first cousin once removed brought us to a Wildlife Park so she could see a moose. The foxes and coyotes were more interesting than the moose. Skittery, nervous, and suspicious is more interesting than chewing, meandering, and staring; towing a tail like a banner more captivating than bearing a rack of antlers.

Oct 12

The place in between,

The twilight hour, the exact moment of dawn,

The place where land meets water,

Mist meets air,

Reflection meets substance,

Mirror meets light;

The very space, point, time and place

Where thought becomes action

And deed becomes something to hold in the hand,

You can find me there.

Columbus Day

There was a rumor that a group of people were going to create a video of each person's day to be called A Day In The Life Of... for the auspicious day of 10-10-10. These videos were to be placed in a time capsule for the next round of auspicious dates.

Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day and Pleasant Mountain called once again. So I made a 49-second video at the top of the mountain for my Day in the Life.

Today, the midwest guests return from their northern sojourn. We shall hear of their adventures and hope that the leaves don't turn even redder with the stories.

Ten Ten Ten

A Dolce Kind Of Day

Instead of the usual banging on the piano keyboard, playing forte, Forte, FORTE!!!, this piece came up from Clementi, to be played sweetly.

And it was.
And it is.

Oct 9

Yesterday a little Ganesha package was mailed, requiring a review of the Sanskrit alphabet for the consonants G, N and SH and the vowel E (pronounced A).

There is surely a way to put the Sanskrit alphabet in this blog. Just haven't figured it out yet.

Moving on; today relation from Iowa are meeting me at the Maine Wildlife Park so they can be assured of seeing a moose during their short visit. How would you say Moose in Sanskrit? Melinda gave me a huge 10-pound Sanskrit dictionary while on one of my visits to NE. It was tough packing in the 50-pound suitcase. There's Moola: The lowest part or bottom of anything; the basis, foundation or origin. There's Moosh: a thief, a mouse.

M-OO-S. And what does it mean? A big ol' can a whoopass.

Oct 8

The yellow pine and the voluminous yellow and pink sky last night brought forth melancholy.


Maybe it's the color yellow.
So this morning I am making a list of smiling or laugh-out-loud items to use, from the ridiculous to the sublime (not necessarily in that order), whereupon concentrating on one item, it will transport me from the state of melancholy.

1. Stevie, the Montrose dog
2. Performing on circus silks
3. Keith Panko, an 8th grade boy, singing in a soprano voice, "That's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh."
4. Tom tiger dancing while driving home after a long hike
5. Diagnosing Osborne waves at Harborview Hospital
6. Peter saying hi at Skyhaven airport
7. Dr. Who
8. The vision of Vidya in her pale sky blue shirt walking with Ramesh along the Ganga
9. Hundreds of origami peace cranes stirring up the entire laboratory office at Christmas
10. Mike mincing around in camp wearing a red bra while drinking up all the fine single malt and slur-shouting, "You don't know me!"

Quest Day

This morning while browsing the Akashic Records in the meditation closet, I came across this photo. And I can identify Numbers 1. and 4., but what does Jean-Claude van Damme and Scott Bakula have to do with entering the ether (also known as akasha in Sanskrit)?

Oct 6

Yesterday we found a birthday cake so full of candles that it looked like a sweet neon porcupine or a pin cushion. There was no way to safely light them all. So we bought donuts instead.

And ate only the choice ones.

Today we are having breakfast at the airport with the old pilots who groan, complain about climbing into airplanes with their increasing inflexibility, smoke, and eat corned beef hash. I'm there.

Jimmy's Birthday

The Wendell Foss was a working tugboat out of Lake Washington. During one of the boat parades in Seattle, we witnessed the Wendell Foss do a 360 degree turn in the Montlake Cut. There was maybe a foot to spare on either end of the tugboat, people crowding the shoreline and road crossing the water, thundering applause, engines straining forwards and back, flags waving. Jim still talks about the Wendell Foss, and that happened a few years back. Like 22 years back.

Today we'll go for an airplane ride, eat donuts and breakfast sandwiches and read thrillers by the fire.

Oct 4

All Things Lobstah

Stained glass in the ferry terminal to Vinylhaven and Matinicus Islands

Lobster boat in the harbor outside of Wiscasset

Somewhere along the train ride to Rockland

And finally, Lobstah club sandwiches at the Brass Compass

Oct 3

My teacher from Pennsylvania says that when Ganesha visits, he always brings a gift. Just two days after Mary bought all those mini Ganeshas, we found a grand Ganesha.

We were walking down Main Street in Rockland looking for all things lobstah and came upon a Prius all decked out in a coppery colored paint job, complete with dancing Ganesh hood ornament.

"I must have that!"

The person who owns this car probably never has a problem finding parking, never gets a ticket, always pays the registration on time, and gets the advertised 50 mpg.

Oct 2

On our visit to the Delorme Map Store, Eartha showed a strange circular lake in Canadian territory north of the Saint Lawrence River. It looks like a watery crop circle, a donut cutter, a burning ring of fire. Any clues without looking up on google? No, me neither.

Rabbit Rabbit

Heavy rain, from 2-4 inches, expected today!

Yesterday we took the ferry to Peaks Island accompanied by the fog horn blowing and mist forming on the glasses. Many of the lobster buoys have been replaced with plastic Tide bottles and Clorox bottles.
Mary bought many little Ganeshas to put in the Ganesha box made with semi-precious stones and sand. Maybe these Ganeshas will keep all that rain away from our leaky roof. Oh great remover of obstacles, keep us dry during this flood watch and let us remember how to hear the rain as music.