Joan of Acre

Thanksgiving glitch

2009-11-30T14:30:52Z

Some how we ended up locked out of our house on thanksgiving day.
We stumbled home after a long day of eating, talking and visiting. It was cold and dark and rainy.
T got to the door and didn't move. He turned back to me and said the door was locked.
Oops.
Don't ask,
We don't normally lock the door, I mean, why bother we are in Maine and there is literally nothing to steal. But do to a new door insulation panel that we put in we have to make sure the door is not going to get opened into it and brake it.

To make a long story short, we did eventually get in.
After spending the night in T's sister basement with lots of little mechanical lights.
A day of calling Locksmiths. AH, like there were any out there.
Around 4 we put T's little niece through a basement window, (she was in Boston all day)
There we were standing around in the cold, dark, rain trying to get this dinky little window open and listening to the Cats howl of how much they have missed us, or were quite possible very hungry.
On the plus side we got to spend the day with one of T's latest nephews. the very cute one year old who can change moods faster then his father can change diapers.

First Snow

2009-11-05T14:43:10Z

It is the first snow fall of the winter. It is those big fluffy flakes that you can watch fall slowly to the ground.
I don't know why I am so excited by this. I don't actually like the snow, but this seems Ok.
I'm in a warm house, drinking my tea and watching the snow. And the ground to still warm so that the snow can't stick.
It is all very surreal.Snow in the air and Leaves on the ground.

Cold news

2009-11-03T16:43:14Z

I seem to be mostly over this nasty head cold. Thank goodness. the nasty part of the cold wasn't the sweating or the congestion, of which I had very little, it was the cough. the racking cough up a lung kind that would happen if I did anything too strenuous. Like walking.

The part that really got me was, when I would start coughing as I was trying to go to sleep. It is very hard to sleep when you can't breath. And it is hard on T who was trying to sleep next to me. and I may have scared the cats a couple of times too.

But that is over and done with. On to a voice once again and singing. Although I kind of liked that I sounded like Loren BeCall. Very deep and chesty. I never sound like that in real life.

New Computer

2009-10-15T01:50:25Z

That's right, this time I really have a NEW computer.
It didn't cost an arm and a leg, but alas it is not a notebook.
But it has the biggest monitor I have ever worked with, it is fast and silent and has internet.
This pretty much has be my problem in the last year when my cute little mac ibook died.
I had internet but it was slow (my mother claimed was the same speed as her dial up).
or I had another machine that could run every thing I wanted but... didn't have an internet card. (not going there.)

I am joyfully downloading all the juicy programs I want.

Best part of all this.... is every thing looks right on the monitor.

Squirrel Antics

2009-09-30T22:01:28Z

Ah, fall; the time of the year that the little vermin come down from their hidey place and start to hunt for food for the winter by raiding our yard of every little drop of food they can find.
I don't really begrudge them. No really. Better they eat what all the pine and oak trees drop. I know I wont.
What made me stand up and take notice this year was there was one cute red squirrel that had more balls then brains.
It was during one sunny day last week when I was on a pie baking roll, that I saw him. A little red squirrel was trying to pick up this huge pine cone he would pick it up with his little paws and wrestle it until he had a good grip then he tried to run, only to have the pine cone fall. He did this a couple of times until he solved the problem. He stuck the tip in his mouth and then bounded off for the tree line. and I do mean bound.
I ended up laughing here was this little squirrel with this too huge pine cone jumping up and down. I couldn't even image how he got it up the tree. He did this all afternoon, every time I looked out the window the little guy had a new pine cone in his mouth.
Now mind you we have cats, wonderful hunters and catcher of little red squirrels. I don't know for sure, but I have not seen the squirrel since. Maybe he has just found a better, safer source of pine cones. Maybe.

All Day GreenField MAss

2009-09-10T14:55:45Z

In the last weekend of August, my mother and I went to our first big sacred harp sing out of state.
We drove to the most north western part of MA. 4 and a half hours. We started at 5 in the morning and it was raining, so, through darkness and rain we drove. Happily we made it with only getting a little lost, (bad street signs) and we made it with time to spare. There had to have been close to 200 people there. People from all over the country, from other countries. People of all ages and back rounds.
It was a little overwhelming. I really have been in Maine too long that a mear crowd of 200 makes me feel... crowded.

But once we all sat down and started to sing, it didn't matter. I got to sing in the Treble section.
We sing the top line of music sometimes it is very high. Of late have been singing in the Alto section because it seems like we never have enough Altos.

I rather like the Treble section. although we are the high voices the section often has men singing in it but down the octave. As does the Tenor section, or the melody, has both male and female voices in it.

So there we were with 200 voices doing something like 6 part harmonies. It was amazing.

One thing I noticed that was different with this sing than our little local sings was they went FAST. I mean the music went fast, calling the leaders when fast, tuning went fast. I was hard pressed to just find the right page in time. It didn't help that many of the leaders didn't call out the page number very loudly. With 200 people even if they are attentive they are still bound to be noisy.

If I heard the count right we did something like 120 songs. with 109 leaders.

Oh not only did we sing, we ate. I swear it seemed like if I wasn't singing I was eating and talking. More good conversations to add to my collection of people. Even with the rainy weather it was a very enjoyable day.

Then there was the drive home. I was tired and I know my mom was pooped, she let me drive.
But I told stories to her to keep her awake until then. We made it back to Maine around 7 and back home around 10. My mom had no voice and she had to sing in church the next day. She said she sounded... like a frog. :) Maybe there is such a thing as too much singing.

Saving the boat

2009-09-04T23:56:07Z

While we were all standing there watching the storm, (I tried to take pictures) Someone noticed a boat floating by on it's own. We all pretty much wondered who would be out there in that storm trying to sail.
Next thing I saw was T and his dad rushing to down to the dock to save the boat. It was a pretty nice boat from what I could tell, If that thing hit the rocks it would have been bad. more than likely a very expansive repair at that.

We watched as the two of them took the little put-put out and motored over to the boat. I know I was not the only confused person there when next we saw this guy in a row boat pumping away after them. I was amazed that he could keep up.
We watched at the three of them caught the boat and boarded it.

From our part we couldn't tell what was going on by T later, after he was dry told me that the guy in the row boat was the owner and he hadn't set the anchor right, so when the storm with it's strong winds pushed out of it's place.

the Storm didn't last too much longer after that. in a half an hour the clouds had passed and we able to head back up to finish up prepping the grounds for the wedding.

the next day, When T and I went sailing out on his Father's old catamaran the boat owner came by, in his little row boat and thanked us. I guess he was lucky that the people who saw his boat were sailors themselves.

Recsuing the Kayakers

2009-09-04T02:48:51Z

So, back to the wedding, right.

The bride and groom got a lot of flack for
A. waiting so long
B. giving everyone only 2 months notice.

But other then that the wedding was great. There were a couple of hitches, I wouldn't even call them that.
One of the was the thunder storm that blew through on Thursday afternoon. There were a number of nervous glances as the skies turned dark in record time. One minute sunshine the next it was twilit as we watched the storm run across the Damariscotta River.

The were fingers pointing at the kayakers who were padding like mad upriver against the outgoing current and with the wind pushing at them.
Someone sent the kids down to the dock to wave them in, as we all could tell they were never going to make it to town in time. I, along with a number of others, hurried to get as much stuff under cover before the rains started. checking cars for open windows. I forgot to check my own an had a wet seat on the way home that night.

We had everything pretty well done by the time it let go. And it didn't just give us a light sprinkle with some pretty lighting, no it poured hard and heavy.

My mother and I watched from my in-laws big bay windows as a bunch of very wet people came running up to the porch and slipped into the house with us. It was a very nice family of 4I have never met before. At first I assumed that they were wedding guess here early. but no that was not the case. They were the stranded kayakers. A husband and wife with two little boys. And wow they were grateful that they had got waved in. The older boy was a dear he chatted and made us laugh. He acted like it was nothing to be standing on some strangers living room. the younger one was far more shy.

The place was packed with so many people that at first, like me, everyone thought the family was here for the wedding. we even joked about it. Just whose side of the family were they from.
My niece passed around some crackers and we passed the time watching the storm. Once the storm had passed The family said their good byes and of all things went back to their Kayaks. :) I guess they liked kayaking even more than I thought.

August 09

2009-09-03T00:28:17Z

Wow where did August go? I asked myself as I changed the calendar. August was fun and action packed. And SUNNY.
to re cap. T's baby brother got married. the wedding was blast. Great fun, great food. and lots of great conversations.
I found that if I have at least one Really good conversation the memory will stick with me and I will remember the person much better in the future.
Even though the wedding was the second week end of August it seemed like it took a week to prep everything. Much to the work and planning that went in to this wedding was done by family and friends. I gotta say Jordy and Gretchen have the best friends.
And then there was the wedding. All in all it went well. One really bad thunder storm on the Thursday of and then sunny skies. Gretchen really lucked out, if she had gone for a June wedding she would have been sunk.
My mom and I helped out with some of the food prep for my in-laws. They gave the rehearsal dinner.
There was so much food left from the wedding T and I freeloaded on his family for a couple of days afterward. that next week.

The rest of this month as far as I can tell has been taken up by T and me just getting out and visiting folks. We didn't make it to Pensic this year. so I guess we didn't get our fill of large crowds. :)

T's older sister and her husband when on this epic hike with some family from some ones side of the family. we looked in on their kids.
And o' woe is me they suffered. they suffered from boredom. :)

We had dinner with our neighbors and some of their family visiting from California. they were great. and wow brothers no doubt about it.
The idea behind the dinner was to share our home made beer. and to try some of the other local breweries. All good. but I am really a 1/2 glass kind of girl. I was reminded by T by beer number 3. Oops. I was sick the next day. No not praying to the porcelain goddess, more of what was the name of that truck that hit me.

Funny but very useful in that I kept myself busy by coming up with 3 more plot outlines and then wrote a whole new story from it last week.
Oh and MY mother and I drove to western MA for another all day sacred harp sing. More on that later.

Honey, let's go for a bike ride today.

2009-07-30T22:36:18Z

I looked out the window and see that it had turned sunny. and I said OK.
We did a little over 6 miles, over the bridge to Wiscasset and up a great big hill to visit our favorite farm stand.
Took a lot of breaks. but we made it, just as a big black cloud came through. so we stopped and rested at the farm stand, said hello to the folks there, and waited.
It did indeed rain. hard. then cleared up within minutes. so we turned around and head home, More or less using the same route to get home. By-passing a large chunk of down town Wiscasset.

This was a mostly painless ride, as they go. certainly better than last year's torture to get up one stinking hill for our mail.

The only thing about today was.. that big black cloud. it was not done with us. As we headed home crossing the 2 bridges the sky opened up. within seconds we were drenched. I found this rather amusing. Here we were trying to miss the rain and we ended up biking too fast and catching up to it.
But no worries. we were within sight of our turn off. other then getting a couple of pitting looks while it rained we did OK.
had to change when we got home.
Now my thighs are killing me,

I feel... tired.

Maybe a treat for dinner. Pudding!

Weekend of Music

2009-07-29T14:01:38Z

Sigh long weekend of not traveling,
Instead there was a lot of eating out and music.
This was the weekend of the Maine Sacred Harp All Day Sing.
And, oh boy was there singing. !!
An informal dinner on Friday night w/ singing afterward
Saturday, set up and singing in Damariscotta, Maine.
Followed by a Social, I bagged out early, I simply couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.
Sunday was packing and set up for an out door concert. (As an attendee)
And that's right folks more singing, in Damariscotta. It was an awesome concert even with the abysmal weather. :)
But it was also a weather intensive kind of day as well. I had about a half an hour warning before it would start to rain. (Yuck) But with enough good sprits I made it through.
Now I am off to pick more raspberries. They are almost too ripe.

Age old question

2009-07-22T20:53:24Z

I find myself asking, Is it too early to have a beer?
No that I am a big drkiner or anything , but the alcohol does help with lessing the massive weather induced headaches that I get. And this spring has been a doozy. I find that I wake up with a headache much of the time, and it can go anywhere from a dull pound behind my left eye or it can escalate to a sharp spike being jammed into my brain. I go for the advil and a nap at that point. But I try not to take a lot of advil, or anything for that matter. I am not a big fan of drugs, over the counter or other wise.
But half a beer seems to help. And an hour later I am almost human.(I never started out as human so almost is pretty good.)
There is something that keeps me from reaching for a beer at 9 in the morning. To me it just seems wrong.

I guess I will keep on asking the age old question. Is it too early to have beer?

Pennsic miss, again

2009-07-09T17:48:27Z

So it looks like we are not making Pennsic this year. other the the finances which are abysmal, T's other brother is getting married first weekend of August and I have signed up of a singing convention at the end of July. Things are kind of booked.

This all would have worked much better if they hadn't changed the dates to the middle of the summer. I mean who do they think they are kidding, Every thing happens in the middle of the summer and the the middle of the winter. it is event city.
So everyone who is going have a drink for me and kiss all the pretties. (that goes double for you Allie)

It Can Rain All The Time

2009-07-08T03:06:12Z

Alright who ordered the rain for July? It is no longer cute or even funny. The rain in June provided some amusement and helped the growing season but come on people It should not be this wet in July.
This is the month of Barbeq's, boating, biking. Picking flowers. NOT slugs out of my garden.
The Blinding head aches are not helping either. I am not fond of having to curl up in a pained ball for 3 or 4 hours before it starts to pour.

Linux box of doom

2009-07-07T15:11:09Z

Linux box. Yes the box works. After 6 months of playing and fiddling and passing it off and testing I now have a linux box out of my brother-in laws old Think Pad. Tuns out there was nothing wrong with it. I was doing everything right the start, the boot disk was bad/ corrupted- too fast. Who the hell knows, who cares.
What I did was borrow the nieces boot disk on the off chance it might work. It worked on her machine, which is almost as old as mine. And low and behold it worked.
it did take me something like 4 hour to complete the boot. I had to restart a number of times a mystery as to why.

so now I have linux but no internet. the machine is so old it doesn't have an ether net port. It has these funky card slots. So I am down to using a wireless card. Now I am just wondering how I am going to find a card that will work with this beast. I am afraid to by a new one on the off chance that it will not be compatible. I am not really keep on an old one as they don't have the greatest life expectancy. Grrr, Argg, I am so close to having a notebook computer again. But it seems always to be one thing or another. I am not sure that I have the patience to keep dealing.

Rubbing the wrong way

2009-06-23T16:44:26Z

I must say after 3 days of a splitting head ache thanks to the weather, I have had better days.
But on the up side. We have dodged the bullet on the by pass, again. I got the "think pad" to work, i e it is now a happy little linux box. now all I need is a to hook it up for inter net and I am good to go. well go(sih) as the thing needs a new battery.
We went to a cook out on Saturday and I had some really great conversations.
Oh and we finally have ripe strawberries. not a lot my you, but we have some.

Writer's Block: Places to Lay Your Head

2009-05-26T22:04:39Z

How many different places (cities, houses, apartments, dorm rooms, etc.) have you lived in? Which is your favorite? And your least favorite?

View 503 Answers

I have moved very few times in my life. I hate to move. Passionately.
I think my mother feels the same way as she has moved even less than me. As children she moved her family from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Some railroad apartment on E 29th when I was about 2. All I remember about that place was this really cool mural on the play ground wall across the street. It is the only way I could find the place. If they ever paint over that wall I will be lost. Oh and the dog died.
We moved a couple years later to W89th street, right across from the Claremont stables. One of the last riding stables in Manhattan. It was kind of cool. We grew tomatoes on the fire escape. I remember there was a fire one night. I don't think it was at the stables but our apartment building. We couldn't wake up my brother. (that boy has no sense of self preservation) When we did finally wake him we all ran outside. And the fire trucks came, really fast. there was smoke every where, my mother wouldn't let go of my hand.
The next big move was from 89th street to West End Ave. farther up town. It was a really big apartment 6 big rooms 2 and 1/2 baths. a dinky kitchen. but 24 hour door man service. And there is where we stayed for the next 20 years.
After college I moved in with a boyfriend, back to the lower east side. E23rd or something. needless to say that didn't work out. about a year and a half later I moved out. and in with some friends in Brooklyn, and made their life interesting for a year or so.
Around this time my step father died. To say that I was up set would be an understatement. We all still miss him.
So I decided it was time for drastic changes. I convincted my best friend Allie that she and I needed to move to Boston, with my then current boyfriend, this really tall guy called Brokk. We spent a year or so in Framingham. I am now very bias against the town.
Sigh Brokk and I broke up and I found a place by myself in Dorchester. Well, there were a few other people in house too. And thus became part of the second SCA house in Dorchester. The wonderful Melville Keep. Where I stayed and had stories for 10ish years.
But now I am in Maine. With my great husband, who also hates to move. so we are not going to move every again. if we can help it.

The Mail Box Saga, part 1

2009-05-14T19:02:04Z

This is our spanking new mail box. Standing not more that 300 feet from our door. yeah.!!

It has taken us 2 years and 2 post masters to get the damned thing off Route 1 and on to our road.

At first we were content to wait, until spring to re post our mail box, after it took nose dive into the snow bank and down the hill behind it. Not that it was doing great to begin with. It kind of listed off to one side and the door had a tendency to hang open. It kind of looked like we had the village idiot of mail boxes.
Well spring rolls around and our then post mistress says she was going to work on getting all those (unsafe) mail boxes off Route 1 and on to the Englebrekt Rd proper. Maybe even one of those spiffy Rural route boxes the kind that has iron stands and 50 boxes in it.
In hearing this, it is decided that we shouldn't bother putting our sad and pathetic box back up. We were content to go to the post office to pick up mail. (only a short scary bike ride up the road)
We wait. fall comes round and we are told something should happen, soon. (maybe before it snows) Thanksgiving comes around we get snow. no mail boxes. The word is, no money for it this year. sigh. we go back to picking up our mail at the post office. (we get a special box.)
Then come January our postmistress is gone. No longer to be seen. After a couple of interim people they settle for one person. Yeah!
this new post mistress starts asking us when we are going to put our box back up. (I didn't scream, but sure felt like it) Poor lady, she had no clue what we had been through.
Well I guess she got the full story some where and then worked like the dickens to help our little road.
So 3 weeks ago we hear there is a petition (needed to start process) We go, OK and start to find where it is to sign and all that jazz.
2 weeks ago as we are on our way out of town I stop in the post office and low and behold.. We can put Mail Boxes on our road and all the more better the route carrier will come all the way up to our house. (we are at the end of the road) and the petition is there , so I sign it for good measure. Then we go about our business. Slowly putting together the parts we will need.
A new box yes. a new post a the last one is... well gone to a better home. And a place to put it.
Moving dirt in Maine is tricky business. All in total about 2 days of work in the middle of our week.
Last week. T stops by to pick up mail (hopefully for the last time) and the new Post Mistress is in a - dare i say it - a tizzy. We have to get our box up ASAP. no more delay. Her job is riding on this.
Well we do have all the parts. but getting them together, well that could take some doing.

Family stories

2009-05-14T17:31:22Z

I am looking family stories. I have a character who talks about her family all the time. She and her cousins got into trouble all over the place. I can only think of a couple of good stories from my family. Alas most of my stories consist of my brothers doing something really stupid and I get a nice life lesson out it. (IE, don't drink more than your body mass in one sitting otherwise it will all come back up)

I was thinking it would be great if she had a story or a tall tale for any occasion. a fire side tale. a bed time story. She has a large family and misses them very much.

Chronos' has got music

2009-05-14T17:24:30Z

I have at last found Chronos' song. At first I was going to go with Mysterious Ways by U2 but decide that was far to cliche. Now I have a song that really fits her. It has an ostentatious name and is the most almost chaotic sound to it. (baring Phish; with the whole and the band is drunk sound)
Too review- I was watching one of Corwyn_ap' s nephews playing Guitar Hero. He was playing the end credits because he won the game. (yes Z-man is very good at Guitar Hero) This pice went on for 10 minutes. There were a lot of credits to that game.
Anyway, watching the scrolling bars of colored lights and listening to the song zip by; I kind of tuned it all out.

Until now.

Tonight I was listening to this song on the ipod and for the first time paid attention. I thought 'Wow this would be the kind of thing Chronos would listen to.' You can't really dance to it, other then in some kind moshepit, jumping all over the place with enthused arm motions. But if you listen you realize there is a lot of technique as the guitarist zips up and down the scales. It sounds fast, it sounds unplanned yet it is not. Even the words are planned, they could have been that bellowing shooting angry young man that many of the schools of fast music use. but it is understandable and even relevant.

If you think of Chronos in terms of music think of her playing "Thru the Fire and the Flames by Dragon Force in Sonic Firestorm. (isn't it pumpus sounding.) :)

The Monolith

2009-04-27T03:13:52Z

the Monolith
I was reminded, recently of a time When AlexK came home to Melville keep with the most interesting purchase. Well it was him and a couple of guys in a truck. He had bought this monster Television. Any one who has been to Melville keep will know; the thing draws the eye to it.
It was over 5 feet tall and black. Even Kestrel was impressed. She took one feel of it and dubbed it "the Monolith". I have not seen a TV of that size out side of Melville keep since.
this is until Today.
Our neighbors ( the ones with the famous napping couch) 'needed' to get rid of their old TV. the thing was too big and had some minor mis-functions. Corwyn_ap and I looked at one another and said sure we would take it. The one we currently have is very old and the picture tube is failing. You have to do some percussive matiaince in order to get a picture. Very annoying.
well I get home after an afternoon of singing to find... Someone stole the monolith and brought it up to Maine. This thing is 5 feet high, black and works on some different picture generation technology It is the Monolith. Cue scary music.

Moving strawberries

2009-04-25T02:07:35Z

As for the strawberries. We have this wonderful patch of them, only we have problems getting them harvested fast enough. After much reading and thinking, corwyn_ap and I have decided to take a page from Melville Keep and move them closer to the house. We have plenty of southern exposure and a hill that could take up the extra. and there are extra, as I have added to that patch every year or so.

Funny thing about strawberry plants, they seem to multiple like bunnies. :) Over the last two days my mother and I have moved, what seems like hundreds of them. I lost count after the second bucket.

so it is out with the strawberries and in with the Golden raspberries. Yummy.

Gardening word of the day

2009-04-25T01:56:58Z

The garden word for today is Asparagus. That's right our asparagus is popping it's little heads up. (finally) I have been checking the bed for the past to weeks. there has been nothing but dandelions. So after a week of glaring at the Dandelions I decided that today, was the day to pull them up. And in doing so I found the purple headed asparagus coming up. I am very excited.
This is our second time in trying asparagus. The first time all the heads got eaten by the slugs. It was a very rainy spring into summer, if I remember correctly.
I am not use it we will have enough to eat this spring but all the signs are good that next year it will be good eats. :)
and now on to the strawberries...

Keeping busy

2009-04-21T01:26:26Z

I can't seem to come up with anything to write about. this is kind of funny as there is so much happening lately that I am soooo busy.

I have spring plantings to do. My mother keeps on ordering me more flower bulbs. so I am working hard to get them in the ground before it gets to disgusting out there.

The Bill that a Midcoast Green Collaborative has proposed is now being looked at by a/the state committee. (can't remember the name of the committee)

Midcoast Green Collaborative just finished it's third Energy Expo here in the mid coast of Maine. There were lots of good exhibits. Lots of good talks and we once again had a really beautiful day.

Our 2 adorable cats have found the great outdoors again and are working hard at bringing it back home with them. Sigh, more dead vermin, seaweed, seaweed and my favorite worms.

We just finished bottling our third batch of beer. Using the new bottles I bought. They are a beautiful cobalt blue, flip tops. way to expensive but I fell in love with them.

My mother and I did our spring concert with the Sheepscot Valley Chorus. A moving piece by Kodiy and some cheerful Menddelson. So now I must sustain myself with just the shape note singing. :)

Oh and the cherry blossoms are in bloom. :)
Ok, I forced them. :)

It's time to dance..

2009-04-09T17:09:29Z

Finally after a dreary month of March as past and we make our way out into the spring sunshine of April, I can start to think again. Dream and Dance once again.

The blah days of March were not helped by the fact that my favorite flower show didn't happen this year, something about lack of funding. sigh. so I went to the one in Portland instead. It was... better then last year but sill not enough.
Also March was filled with numbers as I was trying to work out our taxes for last year. I am not good with numbers. but on the bright side I am getting better, only 25% of the time am I wrong rather then 50%.
My ablitltiy to think, write, and be creative seemed to take a nose dive. All I wanted to do was sleep. I would go to bed at 9 and sleep till 9 the next morning yet feel like I had not gotten my 8 hours. Blah. :{
And pretty much every thing was an exercise in frustration. But that is over, we are in for a very exciting week next week... more to come
Happy Passover too.