1871 Schooner race

The schooners Lewis R. French and Stephen Taber

  Each of these schooners, the oldest working ship in the United States turn 140 years old this year.  They are still an active part of Maine's 13 member "Tall Ship" fleet, and hundred of visitors have spend a week or two on board during a summer.
  To celebrate the birthdays a race was held from Camden to Rockland, Maine recently, it's a short distance to drive, but for this race the course was set a little longer.
  I just thought that we would take a break (Congress sure has) and write about something different today.  So, sit back and relax (make believe you're in Congress) and enjoy looking at the two fine schooners.  Why, if you were a member of Congress, you could enjoy spending a week or two on board one of these fine schooners.

Making a turn under full said.

A schooner rounds Rockland Breakwater, the breakwater extends about a half mile out from shore.



Anchors Aweigh, or whatever.



Congress changes a tire.

Which party is each of these guys in?  Take your pick!

The U S Congress were traveling in a car (I know, I know-that's far fetched, but so is congress), suddenly a tire went flat, it would need to be changed.

The Democrats wanted to call a repair shop and have someone change the tire.

"Nonsense" said the Republicans, we will save money (cut spending) and change it ourselves; so they formed a committee. The "The Flat Tire Replacement Method Committee"; it consisted of several sub-committees, one of them The Joint Orderly Kinetic Enterprise Committee (JOKE Committee), and the other The Fixing, Lifting And Tire Sub-Committee (FLAT Sub-Committee).

The sub-committees could not agree on a meeting place; one place, the regular one, was okay, but the others would have to meet in an upstairs room. Going upstairs was beneath them! We will not go upstairs; the leadership had to form another committee to facilitate the sub-committee meeting arrangements. Meanwhile Congress was out in the hot sun, getting more than half baked!

Suddenly the Speaker of the House had an idea (that in itself is strange), "I'll lift the car, all you guys have to do is get your ass in line and help". Some wanted to help him, but far from everybody, some still wanted the committees to figure things out.

Someone declared "we better hurry up, lunch is served at two, on the second of the month"! Still the committees argued over who would use which meeting room, some of them wanted to call the President for help, others wanted to ask the National Tea Party Headquarters, what could possibly go wrong they wondered. Since no one could decide, they just sat there!

So for the want of a FLAT JOKE agreement they were left stranded.



Going about Congresses most important work - reelection. Also notice he's having someone else do the "dirty work".

 

That "head" tire hmmmmm! Wonder who that could be?

A day in the life of a Member of Congress

8:30 Wakeup call

10:30 Call limo, Go to office

10:35 Phone call from BZD a defense contractor, invitation to dinner

11:30 Take one call, but only one, from a constituent who is a fiend

1:00 Lunch with A2X president of WDR a government contractor

2:30 Lunch over, deposit twenty-five thousand dollar check from ADRSuperPAC

5:00 Meeting with friends

6:30 Dinner with BZD vice-president and receive a twenty-five thousand dollar check from
BZDSuperPAC.

8:00 Time to go home, call limo, call it another hard day at work. Missed four votes.

End of day: Complain about how hard you work, that'll help.

Need I say more?

The most important job is running for re-election!

2011

Elizabeth Lynn - out with the old, in with the new

  My how time flies.  This series sure didn't seem to take long, but put in perspective it's probably just about right.  Most people don't have much of an impact on the way things work out.  We just vote and hope for the best.  I'll have a message about that tomorrow.
  2011 started with me still with pneumonia, it was finally over in early March.  That happened to be just in time for my mothers funeral, she died before I was really well enough to visit.  She lived 97 and a half years and in her view it was time to go, so she went, she really had been waiting for quite some time.
  If it started in a sort of sad way, we end with a sort of happy way, the birth of my first great grand daughter just two weeks ago.
  We also moved again this year in May, just about 10 miles from the other place in Carmel to Levant.  The place is all on one level, there are no steps out front, or in back, just a curb and a doorway.  We were growing weary of going up and down stairs, so we said goodbye even though we really liked it over there.  So it's been a busy couple of months, moving here, it's quite a bit smaller storage wise, there's no basement to put things, and no extra closets, but Linda has done her very best, as usual.
  Thanks for dropping in.  My life was never something to be excited about, but, at least I was never appointed to rule to world - so you're the lucky ones.

Linda at the new addition to Lisbon High School (where she graduated)

Larry with wishful thinking at Treworgy Farms (orchard and vegetables) a mile from our new home.

Hollie celebrates the Boston Bruins championship.  This was the first time in many years we got a photo without her holding something.

2010

Lysle, the Head of the Clan

  The year started out pretty well, the winter was "normal", meaning the normal of 20 years ago, I think.
We got lots of snow, as did other areas of the country, so we didn't suffer in silence.  Just by way of a bench mark my 70th birthday was in 2010, and the "old cyber hobo" still can't keep my mouth shut.
  Things went really well; I took Darlene and her friend Nicky, up to meet the Appalachian Trail just south of Millinocket, Maine to walk the remaining 50 miles of the Trail.  Tough sledding was the report I received; on the fourth day Darlene was unable to continue and I drove back up to the Jo-Mary Road and brought her back; Nicky continued the hike alone and she made the summit.  Later, in the fall, I drove up that way with Linda to see the foliage, have lunch and just go for a ride.  I didn't feel to well after, had a cold, and things went downhill from there.  Several days later I went to the "Walk-in Clinic" and started antibiotics, after those ten days were up I went to my regular doctor got more pills and took them, then I went to my Respiratory doctor and he had me admitted - for pneumonia.
  I stayed in the hospital for four days and went home for several more rounds of pills, then went back in to the hospital for another day.  This stuff lasted from October to the following March.
  The part of the family that had been in England came back to the States, Cheri, Lita and Amaroq, where Cheri (Doctor Bond) will be employed by East Tennessee State University, as the Associate Director of a research lab at Quillan Medical School.  There are a lot of words there with more than four letters, whew!

Darlene (l) and Nicky (r) "hit the bricks in the sticks".

Rocky all dressed up.

Rhonda and Stu at a Florida park.

2009

The boys of summer-Stuart in the middle

  This series is rapidly closing up, now we're at the years that are hard to remember, I'm a lot older than I was when we started with 1940!
  2009 was a pretty good year, Rhonda came to visit for 2 weeks in March, she was able to catch a ride as far as Sanford, she got in late at night and the lady brought her right to the motel where I was "camped out".  It was good to see Rhonda as it had been a couple of years, she is divorced now and only working part time, so things could be a lot better for her, but she is trying hard to make the adjustment.
  The winter weather has cooperated this year, in fact when Rhonda got here is March it was already warming up for most days, so she didn't freeze up here in the frozen hinterland.
  Hollie is still Hollie; it sometimes seems she hasn't changed at all, and then I realize how much she's changed, she is working hard to lose weight, and has learned how to read labels and about portion control, she could teach me a few things.
  When Rhonda came up Hollie was glad to see Sister and Jon and Darlene came up to visit for a day so we had almost everyone here, Jeff still up in the far frozen north of Alaska.

Linda and her girls, at Hollies house





All but one present and accounted for, Jeff wasn't here



Before and after pictures of Amaroq, a lot of hair to cut!

2008

More spring snow..I'm wearing the Red Sox hat for luck. Hmmmm...

  Another year with nothing to do, not quite.  I think I've been busier retired than I was when I was working, or maybe I'm old and it just seems that way.  There was a lot of snow over the winter and spring did little to stop it, some years are like that.
  I bought a "new" used car in May, it was only a year old, the other one was hard to get in and out of; now, three years later - this one's the same!  I didn't know cars did that when they got older, age I guess.
  In August we helped my mother celebrate her 95th birthday, she was still getting around pretty good, and my brother picked her up and we all went to his house, she was tired before it was all over.
  I started marching in the Memorial Day and Veterans Day parades in Bangor/Brewer last year I think, anyway I walked in both in 2008, it's not bad at all.  The Memorial Day one is short anyway, just around downtown Bangor and up Main Street.  The Veterans Day parade starts in Brewer and crosses the bridge and goes down Main Street in Bangor, lots of people watch both of them, and I've been publicly thanked for my service many times.  The parade is grouped, there are groups for World Wat 2, Korean War, Vietnam, and Iraq and Afghanistan, plus the bands and scouts - so altogether there must be 300 marchers.
  After Veterans Day it's time to go through another winter, and walk the snowmobile trails!

The replacement for comforts sake.

Geneva Grant, age 95

Talking during a pause in the Veterans Day parade, the woman was the person in charge of Hollies house, the Army Special Forces guy is Urban Vitas a Brewer resident.