Who's afraid of Virginia?

Virginia
www.facebook.com/GottIslandMail
 

  Virginia is a moose who, unfortunately, has taken up residence on Gott Island, Maine.  Gott Island is about one mile offshore of Mount Desert Island home of Acadia National Park.  There's no ferry service so Virginia must have gotten there by swimming.
  The trouble is she has a fondness for the fruit and trees one resident is preserving in a 100 year old orchard.  She eats the apples and cherries but also has eaten the graftings done to preserve the old strain of fruit.
  Everyone leaves the island in the winter and with most of the vegetation bare it is thought that Virginia might swim back to the mainland.
  Virginia was name for Virginia Woolf who needed an island to herself in fiction.

Beautiful Maine Apples
Photo: AP

Different ways to spend days

Penobscot County Building, Bangor, Maine
www.penobscot-county.net photo

   The former "County Courthouse" now houses the County Commissioners, the Registry of Deeds and the Probate Court among a few others.
   I'm familiar with the building because my work as Tax Collector for the City of Brewer required detail when filing liens for unpaid taxes - the Registry of Deeds was the place to go.  I also one time testified at a murder trial in the Superior Court that was on the second floor.  In a capacity as the agent who sold fish and game licenses the Court needed to know if an individual had a valid license.
  On November 6th of this year, our wedding anniversary, we were at the Probate Court filing papers to revoke the Guardianship that Linda has for Hollie, and at the same time file an application that would make both Linda and I Guardians.  Instead of spending $1500.00 for an attorney we did the work ourselves for $118.00 in filing fees.
  Yesterday I spent a few minutes of my time trying to get a signature on a "Form of Waiver" for one person, I'll finish that today.
   The Court Clerk called last evening the court date will be December 19th, my 73rd birthday.
Different ways to spend days.  Yessuh!

Oh, to be young again

A bridge on the Lamoille Valley Railroad, now a Rails to Trails project
Photo: www.nekrailroads.com

  I'm still a member of Rails to Trails because I like to support the idea of people using the trail system for hiking, biking or cross country skiing.  It's super that the spaces are available, and it's sad that the rails aren't being used by trains anymore.
  Some of you remember that I did a series of blogs on some of the trails in Maine, but the photo is from a trail in Vermont.  This trail the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail stretches across Vermont from west to east in Northern Vermont.  I'll bet it's a beauty, lots of water and bridges, covered bridges.
  The title of this blog is how I sometimes feel when the magazine arrives and I see new trails, or trails new to me.  In each issue they introduce about five trails - I'd like to walk each one.

Are you sleepy? At the wrong time?

from www.vetro.rs

  Some of you know I have a sleep disorder, Advanced Sleep Phase.  That disorder just sets my body clock to Greenwich Standard Time (it's the zone from which all other zones start worldwide) so I'm about 5 hours off being normal in Eastern Time Zone.  I go to bed at 7:30PM and I get up at 1:30-2:00AM everyday day.
  Now I'm beginning to fall asleep during the day, as early at 7:00AM, it's not falling asleep for long, just a few seconds or a minute or two.  It can happen anywhere as long as I'm seated, waiting in a doctors office, waiting in the car, things like that.  I have very vivid dreams while this is going on, simple stuff like watching basketball.
  Any ideas?  If any of you have the same problem or know anything about it let me know.  I have read about narcolepsy and cataplexy but I'm not sure I fall into those slots.
  On a completely unrelated note Happy Anniversary #31 to my lovely wife Linda - she who puts up with a lot.  And some of you may remember it's also Tehachapi Petes anniversary too.

Can you see this?

www.cartoonstock.com

  Yesterday my lovely wife, Linda, and I both had our annual eye check-up.  The kind with three courses of eye drops and ultra-bright lights.  It's not a particularly good time but he's a good doctor and his "girl does everything" assistant, April, finishes it off nicely.
  The cataracts are still there slowly growing towards removal and the macular degeneration is being held in abeyance by vitamins and lutein.  So all in all a good checkup.
  I don't need new glasses, but I have developed an allergy to the silicon nose piece to the glasses I have.  I needed to order new glasses so I did it online at Zenni.com, I ordered black plastic with kind of clear lower parts, progressive lenses and all for $57.00!  I'll be letting you know if those are any good.
  After all of that we had a great lunch at Longhorn for our anniversary that's tomorrow. We found a jar opener too, a new kind, of course.  Today we get to vote.


Wow!
New Yorker magazine

Looking for a gadget?

Grandma's bottle and jar opener
www.livingrheum.com

  I need one of these.  We had one of these when I was in high school 55 years ago.  Why can't I find one now?  They don't make them anymore.  Not even in China!
  Oh, I found some other jar opener gadgets online that cost 10-75 dollars, but nothing like those in the photos.
  I looked in Bangor in Wal-Mart, Ocean States Job Lots, and Dollar Tree, three places where kitchen gadgets are sold by the dozen ... nothing, not even the 10 dollar ones.
  Today I'll look at Bed, Bath and Beyond - they have something, but it'll be a 10 dollar one, maybe.
  I hurt my hands doing most common things like driving, or watching TV.  Two days ago I put myself in agony trying to open a quart of milk!  Oh yes, I used the little piece of rubber netting, a grabber, to open it.  But my hands hurt badly, they hurt using this keyboard.  I just can't quit living because my hands, mainly thumbs, hurt.  Because I have stomach trouble I can only take super Tylenol stuff so not a lot of relief.  On the other hand, pun intended, some days are better than others.
  I am going to find a gadget!

What song makes you happy?

  On a local news show the other day the question of the day, for Twitter users, was "What song makes you happy?"
  Well...that's a tough one.  There are a lot of songs I like, but do they make me happy?  Does a particular song make any happy?  I even have a few favorites.  But happy?  I can not answer that question, and even if I could I don't have a Twitter account, whatever that is. Yes I really do know what a Twitter account is, personally I think that whole thing is a waste of time.  Do I do enough interesting things that someone should follow me for days on end.  No, I didn't think so!

I like these songs:
  Waltz across Texas by Ernest Tubb
  Me and Bobby McGee by a variety of singers
  How's the World treating you?  by Alison Krauss and James Taylor
  Shake, Rattle and Roll by Bill Haley and the Comets
  You're the Reason God made Oklahoma by David Frizzell and Shelly West or others
  Faded Love by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
    Any music by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys

Any ideas?