2000

We made another trip to West Quoddy in the spring, we did not take this photo (click to enlarge)

  This was the year that started separations, two of them.  One was the search was on for a house for Hollie, so we, the parents, could reclaim ours.  Number two was my getting ready to leave, retire actually, from the City of Brewer.  Both of these really got underway in 2000.  Hollie had become very aggressive by now and could be considered a danger to us, especially Linda, it was time for her to be placed in a safer environment, soon.
  My beef with the City began in about May when the new budget was under consideration (the year starts on July first); for whatever reason the City gave raises to all Union employees (Fire, Police, Public Works, Waste Water, etc.), and for some other reason decided that non-union employees, mostly financial and clerical, wouldn't get a raise.  Now, this was a time of economic growth, the tax base had grown a lot, the National economy was going great guns, the real estate market was very good, so why that decision?  Nobody knows.  The following morning, after the City Council meeting, I sent an email to the City Manager (who had this grand scheme) and the City Clerk (who backed him up).  It was a simple message, "Shame on you!".  It got a rapid response first by the Assistant City Manager, and then by the man himself, his guess was that I was a "people person", I think he was right.  It would end up being my last year working for the City, I'd be 60 and could retire.

Hollie needed some cavities filled, for that she'd need general anesthesia so her school teachers were getting her "ready".

We took a very rare "three person trip" to Vermont and New Hampshire.  In Vermont we drove around mostly on
dirt roads, this photo taken in Victory Vermont shows one of the only buildings in town.  Hollie likes license plates too.

Leaving Vermont for New Hampshire over the Connenticut River, was up in the north country, but not as north
as Maine.