Brownville Junction
Brownville
Milo
The Three Rivers Communities. Three towns connected by solidarity and a will to survive. Placed in the foot hills of Maine set away from the rest of the world. My home. Half an hour from the closest McDonalds or Subway. Near an hour to the closest Wal Mart. A population of roughly 4,000 people over an area of about half the size of Rhode Island. It's place where I can walk into any store or restaurant and say hello to 3/4's of the people sitting there because everyone knows everyone. You have to here to make it. I love my home. I was raised by these very communities after my parents passed.
And I watched their hearts get broke.
September 14, 2008 was a day that will ring in these towns memories forever. A 31 year old man broke into one of the down town businesses in Milo and stole a case of alcohol, to cover his tracks he set a fire, which in turn burned down 5 businesses and put almost a dozen people out of house and home. Over a case of alcohol. One man, over a something so stupid took a town that was struggling, giving its last breath to survive and took the legs out from underneath it crippling it. Landmarks were destroyed, jobs were gone, homes and possessions were lost.
I often wonder what was going through his head when he set the fire, because this didn't just affect a few people, this affected thousands. Thousands who grew up in this town, who frequented those businesses. I have watched tears shed over this tragedy more than once, over something so ridiculous, stupid and unnecessary.
2 days ago they finally made an arrest. I hope when the judge hands out his sentence, that he takes well into his consideration just how much this hurt not just the owners and the tenants, but the so many people whose lives were changed by this event.
I'm usually a fair man...
I say strap him to a light pole in the center of town, right in the middle of town where he destroyed an entire block and let every person who was hurt by this take one swing. If he survives, lock him up for life and make him do mandatory jail work and every cent that he makes goes back to the town.
That punishment is not enough, but what I would really do to this man I cannot post in a public forum.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
So what is on your agenda?
Do you have any plans for this fine weekend? The weather doesn't sound all that bad and the temperatures have slowly risen to what are seemingly a comfortable level for this time of year.
The progress on my projects has slowed a little the last few days. I haven't been sleeping well the last few nights therefore my energy level has been quite depleted. I have managed to get her new sewing table finished as well as the painting in the room. Today I am going to work on the storage unit as well as doing some much needed cleaning around the house. I think, as the plan was last night, that tonight we are going to the movies with atleast one of our friends, hopefully there will be another couple going as well.
3 more weeks to go before I get to go back, when I say it like that it seems like a long time but I've gotta admit that this past week flew by, maybe the next 3 will as well. Now I am just hoping that I will get everything on my list done before we start back up.
I've been thinking the last few days how easy it has become to get down in today's society. It's hard to have any hope when you take a step back and look at where we are as a population and knowing that the future doesn't look much brighter, atleast not for some time. As much as that thought sticks in the back of my mind, I have to admit that I am quite happy with my life as a whole. I have a house that keeps me reasonably dry and warm. I have a wife that loves me to no ends and supports me in every way she can. I work for a company, who even though did have to give us some time off, tries everything they can to do their best for US, not for themselves. I have some of the best friends in the world and who mean everything to me. Even though I am quite over weight I have been making efforts to slim down and my health is reasonably well. Life is good.
Life is good. Even though there are some small things that could use improvement, that is a constant in life no matter who or where you are. What matters is that you don't lay around and wallow in self pity but instead make an effort to right the things you are unhappy with. It's only when we stick together, when we all make an effort, no matter how small, can we each and all be happy. Help yourself but help others as well and lets see if in a result we can make the future look brighter than it does right now.
The progress on my projects has slowed a little the last few days. I haven't been sleeping well the last few nights therefore my energy level has been quite depleted. I have managed to get her new sewing table finished as well as the painting in the room. Today I am going to work on the storage unit as well as doing some much needed cleaning around the house. I think, as the plan was last night, that tonight we are going to the movies with atleast one of our friends, hopefully there will be another couple going as well.
3 more weeks to go before I get to go back, when I say it like that it seems like a long time but I've gotta admit that this past week flew by, maybe the next 3 will as well. Now I am just hoping that I will get everything on my list done before we start back up.
I've been thinking the last few days how easy it has become to get down in today's society. It's hard to have any hope when you take a step back and look at where we are as a population and knowing that the future doesn't look much brighter, atleast not for some time. As much as that thought sticks in the back of my mind, I have to admit that I am quite happy with my life as a whole. I have a house that keeps me reasonably dry and warm. I have a wife that loves me to no ends and supports me in every way she can. I work for a company, who even though did have to give us some time off, tries everything they can to do their best for US, not for themselves. I have some of the best friends in the world and who mean everything to me. Even though I am quite over weight I have been making efforts to slim down and my health is reasonably well. Life is good.
Life is good. Even though there are some small things that could use improvement, that is a constant in life no matter who or where you are. What matters is that you don't lay around and wallow in self pity but instead make an effort to right the things you are unhappy with. It's only when we stick together, when we all make an effort, no matter how small, can we each and all be happy. Help yourself but help others as well and lets see if in a result we can make the future look brighter than it does right now.
Friday, January 30, 2009
My night resulted in....
My wife laying there with a blank stare on her face
Me: "You ok, babe?"
Her, starting to giggle uncontrollably: "I think you just fucked me stupid!"
Me: "You ok, babe?"
Her, starting to giggle uncontrollably: "I think you just fucked me stupid!"
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
A little bit of progress
So now that it has been a couple days I figured I'd take a minute to write down the progress of my projects so far.
My wife's craft room is coming along, we had a minor set back with the base color of paint which resulted in me doing 2 coats of primer OVER the yellow but I am hoping that I can get the base color and the tape down to do the striping. I've already changed out the light fixture and it makes all the difference in the world. We've also decided to put in a 4' shop light in the other end of the room for some extra light while she is working.
I went shopping yesterday for supplies and found an excellent deal on carpet, getting enough to do almost the entire room for $35.00. Heather is going to custom knit a rug with yarn that I bought her yesterday that matches the colors on the walls.
Among other things I have finished loading the music off of our old computers onto our flash drive and now just have to figure out which cd's we want to copy.
I have replaced the aerator and sprayer in our kitchen sink as well as done the weekly grocery shopping and mailed my sister's christmas present...finally.....sorry sis
All in all I feel like I have gotten quite a bit accomplished since Monday. I just hope that I can keep up with the pace and keep myself busy and keep my mind occupied. I am kind of worried that I might have a cold setting in though. The last couple days I have been coughing pretty steadily and my lungs feel like they are on fire. Oh well, we'll deal with that as it comes.
How is your week progressing so far?
Oh, and I would like to say thank you to my lovely wife for all her kind words about me in her blog. Thank you baby I'm glad your happy with what is happening and it makes me feel like you appreciate what I am doing. love you
My wife's craft room is coming along, we had a minor set back with the base color of paint which resulted in me doing 2 coats of primer OVER the yellow but I am hoping that I can get the base color and the tape down to do the striping. I've already changed out the light fixture and it makes all the difference in the world. We've also decided to put in a 4' shop light in the other end of the room for some extra light while she is working.
I went shopping yesterday for supplies and found an excellent deal on carpet, getting enough to do almost the entire room for $35.00. Heather is going to custom knit a rug with yarn that I bought her yesterday that matches the colors on the walls.
Among other things I have finished loading the music off of our old computers onto our flash drive and now just have to figure out which cd's we want to copy.
I have replaced the aerator and sprayer in our kitchen sink as well as done the weekly grocery shopping and mailed my sister's christmas present...finally.....sorry sis
All in all I feel like I have gotten quite a bit accomplished since Monday. I just hope that I can keep up with the pace and keep myself busy and keep my mind occupied. I am kind of worried that I might have a cold setting in though. The last couple days I have been coughing pretty steadily and my lungs feel like they are on fire. Oh well, we'll deal with that as it comes.
How is your week progressing so far?
Oh, and I would like to say thank you to my lovely wife for all her kind words about me in her blog. Thank you baby I'm glad your happy with what is happening and it makes me feel like you appreciate what I am doing. love you
Monday, January 26, 2009
Almost glad
As I sit here and look at the thermometer reading -22 I am somewhat glad that I am not working today. I miss my job, it's true and the thought that I am not going to work for a month is quite literally a maddening. Luckily I have found some projects to help keep my time occupied over the next four weeks. Right now I am waiting for the sun to rise over the hills and cast its rays into our valley so the room I am working in will be filled with natural light. While I am sitting here waiting I figured I would let you in on my doings for the foreseeable future.
1. I am doing an extreme home make over on my wife's craft room. This includes:
- Painting it, starting with a yellow basecoat and blue, green and purple stripes.
- Building a 5'x6' storage unit for all her yarn, fibers and what nots
- Building a proper desk for her sewing machine. For the last few years she has been using the top of my grandmothers 75 year old singer free-standing sewing machine
- Build her a proper chair. She has been using one that I built for myself and is quite literally 2 sizes to big for her
- Put up a new light fixture. The one that is in there now is from the 70's and really isn't all that stylish plus it doesn't give off very much light.
2. Clean the Basement. Our basement is ridiculous. We have 4 families worth of crap stuffed in our house and our basement is completely unusable because of the clutter. So I have to:
- Clear the steps
- Organize all totes and boxes
- Sort through 3 huge boxes of dishes, pots and pans that were left over from my mother's diner
- Go through all the wiring and make sure everything is safe as well as remove any that is unused. Our house has been rewired several times with additions being made for phone lines, cable, etc. Half aren't being used any more and has resulted in a spider web of cable and wiring hanging from the ceiling.
3. Clean the Garage. God help me.
- Repack all our camping gear
- Build a lumber rack (Wood working is my hobby and I have about 3 dozen hard wood boards scattered around the garage)
- Fix my air compressor and build a cabinet for it
- Fix my wife's gardening table (I kind of destroyed it by putting 2 dozen of said hard wood boards on top of it)
- Build a miter saw stand and work bench to properly take care of my tools
4. Fix the upstairs bathroom
- I need to support the toilet. a few years ago we took the flooring out of the bathroom and what is in there now is not as thick as the previous flooring so the toilet has a little bit of rocking movement in it. Always a joy when you try to use it in the middle of the night, half asleep.
- Replace drain pipe in the sink
5. Paint the stairs and banister
6. Paint our spare bedroom. We were going to wait til this spring but what the hell, I have a little time.
7. Try to get as much of our music in our cd catalog and two computers onto our new 16 gb flash drive.
8. Go with my wife (and hopefully Deidre and TJ) to see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
9. Hopefully and this is a hope but may very well not happen, go to Cabela's in Scarborough to return some Christmas presents. I don't know if I can afford the gas but I would like to try and make the trip, it would be an easy and fun way to eat up a day.
So as you can see I have a fairly busy few weeks ahead of me. The first few projects will eat up 2-4 days each so I'm hoping I won't have too much time just so sit and go numb.
The time is some what welcomed though. I have been blessed with many injuries resulting in broken bones and screwed up joints over the years. In my job I use my whole body which frequently riles up the old sores so hopefully I can relax a bit and recoop.
I know a lot of people besides myself have some slow time this time of year, do you have any projects to get yourself through this long cold winter months?
1. I am doing an extreme home make over on my wife's craft room. This includes:
- Painting it, starting with a yellow basecoat and blue, green and purple stripes.
- Building a 5'x6' storage unit for all her yarn, fibers and what nots
- Building a proper desk for her sewing machine. For the last few years she has been using the top of my grandmothers 75 year old singer free-standing sewing machine
- Build her a proper chair. She has been using one that I built for myself and is quite literally 2 sizes to big for her
- Put up a new light fixture. The one that is in there now is from the 70's and really isn't all that stylish plus it doesn't give off very much light.
2. Clean the Basement. Our basement is ridiculous. We have 4 families worth of crap stuffed in our house and our basement is completely unusable because of the clutter. So I have to:
- Clear the steps
- Organize all totes and boxes
- Sort through 3 huge boxes of dishes, pots and pans that were left over from my mother's diner
- Go through all the wiring and make sure everything is safe as well as remove any that is unused. Our house has been rewired several times with additions being made for phone lines, cable, etc. Half aren't being used any more and has resulted in a spider web of cable and wiring hanging from the ceiling.
3. Clean the Garage. God help me.
- Repack all our camping gear
- Build a lumber rack (Wood working is my hobby and I have about 3 dozen hard wood boards scattered around the garage)
- Fix my air compressor and build a cabinet for it
- Fix my wife's gardening table (I kind of destroyed it by putting 2 dozen of said hard wood boards on top of it)
- Build a miter saw stand and work bench to properly take care of my tools
4. Fix the upstairs bathroom
- I need to support the toilet. a few years ago we took the flooring out of the bathroom and what is in there now is not as thick as the previous flooring so the toilet has a little bit of rocking movement in it. Always a joy when you try to use it in the middle of the night, half asleep.
- Replace drain pipe in the sink
5. Paint the stairs and banister
6. Paint our spare bedroom. We were going to wait til this spring but what the hell, I have a little time.
7. Try to get as much of our music in our cd catalog and two computers onto our new 16 gb flash drive.
8. Go with my wife (and hopefully Deidre and TJ) to see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
9. Hopefully and this is a hope but may very well not happen, go to Cabela's in Scarborough to return some Christmas presents. I don't know if I can afford the gas but I would like to try and make the trip, it would be an easy and fun way to eat up a day.
So as you can see I have a fairly busy few weeks ahead of me. The first few projects will eat up 2-4 days each so I'm hoping I won't have too much time just so sit and go numb.
The time is some what welcomed though. I have been blessed with many injuries resulting in broken bones and screwed up joints over the years. In my job I use my whole body which frequently riles up the old sores so hopefully I can relax a bit and recoop.
I know a lot of people besides myself have some slow time this time of year, do you have any projects to get yourself through this long cold winter months?
Saturday, January 17, 2009
A week of downs and more downs
Alright so the week hasn't been as bad as the headline sounds. Almost, but not quite.
Yesterday as I was at work on my machine in the mill, I see the president walk over and post a hand-written note on the time clock. Not a good sign. Usually when we have a meeting they print up a nice letter on a the computer giving us atleast 24 hours notice before hand. So I went over and read it and it stated that we had a meeting at 12:45 for All Employees underlined twice. Something was up.
As most of you well know the economy is in a major nose dive and thousands upon thousands are losing their jobs. Now I can join them. Granted, I am only in a temporary lay off, for the next 4 weeks I am 0ut of work. Benny, our president is one of the most decent guys in this entire world. He is honest, trustworthy, hardworking and he truly cares more about his crew than himself. He told us how since thanksgiving we have sawed 680,000 feet and only been able to sell 50,000. Right now we just can't keep going like this. Choking back tears he told us that he and the company would do everything they could to help us through this time, including paying our health insurance while we were off.
Things were tight to begin with. Heather and I finally had a plan on how to get ourselves more stable financially and how we might actually get ahead and now this is a major setback. I know we will make it through this. I have no doubt what so ever of that, but this will be a true test of our mettle.
I guess now I have some time to get some projects done around the house....too bad its -34 fucking degrees outside, haha
Now the other down that I referred to in the headline is my weight. As you well know I have been on a bender of weight loss, trying to get down to a reasonable and healthy weight. I am thrilled to say that this week has been a great success in the battle. This morning I weighed in at 300.4, the smallest I've been in almost 2 years. So far things are going splendidly and I am finding it easy to stay with the diet since I am still getting a dose of pepsi and chocolate everyday. Keep your fingers crossed that the next weeks go as smoothly.
How has your week been so far?
Well I am off to go crawl underneath the house. Apparently in the 3 day stretch of sub-zero temperatures the pipes to my washing machine have froze. Life is great, isn't it?
Yesterday as I was at work on my machine in the mill, I see the president walk over and post a hand-written note on the time clock. Not a good sign. Usually when we have a meeting they print up a nice letter on a the computer giving us atleast 24 hours notice before hand. So I went over and read it and it stated that we had a meeting at 12:45 for All Employees underlined twice. Something was up.
As most of you well know the economy is in a major nose dive and thousands upon thousands are losing their jobs. Now I can join them. Granted, I am only in a temporary lay off, for the next 4 weeks I am 0ut of work. Benny, our president is one of the most decent guys in this entire world. He is honest, trustworthy, hardworking and he truly cares more about his crew than himself. He told us how since thanksgiving we have sawed 680,000 feet and only been able to sell 50,000. Right now we just can't keep going like this. Choking back tears he told us that he and the company would do everything they could to help us through this time, including paying our health insurance while we were off.
Things were tight to begin with. Heather and I finally had a plan on how to get ourselves more stable financially and how we might actually get ahead and now this is a major setback. I know we will make it through this. I have no doubt what so ever of that, but this will be a true test of our mettle.
I guess now I have some time to get some projects done around the house....too bad its -34 fucking degrees outside, haha
Now the other down that I referred to in the headline is my weight. As you well know I have been on a bender of weight loss, trying to get down to a reasonable and healthy weight. I am thrilled to say that this week has been a great success in the battle. This morning I weighed in at 300.4, the smallest I've been in almost 2 years. So far things are going splendidly and I am finding it easy to stay with the diet since I am still getting a dose of pepsi and chocolate everyday. Keep your fingers crossed that the next weeks go as smoothly.
How has your week been so far?
Well I am off to go crawl underneath the house. Apparently in the 3 day stretch of sub-zero temperatures the pipes to my washing machine have froze. Life is great, isn't it?
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Keeping up with the resolutions
So as I said in my previous post, losing weight is one of my primary goals for the 2009 season. So to help me keep track of my progress and see how well or poorly I am doing, I am going to post at least once a week my weight and what I am doing to get to whatever point I am at.
When I started seriously thinking about getting back on the wagon it was December 27th and I was at 312.2lbs, I started drinking less soda and trying to keep more active at night when I get home from work and on the weekends instead of sitting around eating snacks and watching t.v.
When I wrote the post the other day about my resolutions I was at 308.8. I have kept up with my resolution and have rode the exercise bike every other day as well as cutting back on my portions with my meals.
This morning I was at 307.4
I am quite happy with my progress so far and I am hoping that I can continue at the same type of pace for a while. I realize eventually it will level off and I will have to work harder to lose weight, seeing some sort of progress is a reassuring thing and drives me to push that little bit harder. Lets see how this week will go
When I started seriously thinking about getting back on the wagon it was December 27th and I was at 312.2lbs, I started drinking less soda and trying to keep more active at night when I get home from work and on the weekends instead of sitting around eating snacks and watching t.v.
When I wrote the post the other day about my resolutions I was at 308.8. I have kept up with my resolution and have rode the exercise bike every other day as well as cutting back on my portions with my meals.
This morning I was at 307.4
I am quite happy with my progress so far and I am hoping that I can continue at the same type of pace for a while. I realize eventually it will level off and I will have to work harder to lose weight, seeing some sort of progress is a reassuring thing and drives me to push that little bit harder. Lets see how this week will go
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Merry New Year!!
So per tradition I have waitedd until AFTER the start of the new year to figure out what my resolutions should be. My track average is usually pretty good with about an 85% completion rating, so hey, why mess with a good thing right? So here we go, 2009 New Year Resolutions
1. To lose 45 lbs. This will not get me to my goal weight but it will be a damn good start, and at less than 4lbs a month is in my mind a completely attainable goal.
2. To ride our exercise bike atleast every other day. More is acceptable, less is intolerable.
3. To pay off my wife's debt consolidation loan. 3 years ago she took out a loan to help me get my life back in order. Through a multitude of reasons we have fallen a few months behind on payments and we want desperately to get caught back up. If we can get it paid off it would be an extra $350 bucks a month we could do other things we want with.
4. To take my wife hiking in Gulf Hagas. I promised to take her last year and I let her down. I won't be making that same mistake again. Hopefully it will be easier this year with me losing weight.
5. To be more organized. I have already started this resolution. In the last month I completely cleaned out my gun room and totally reorganized everything. Also last weekend I made some giant strides with the garage. I need to build some lumber racks so I can actually put stuff away and make some room. Hopefully that will come this weekend.
6. Write one good poem. Growing up I used to write constantly. Granted, some of the pieces were quite awful but never the less it was an effort and an emotion expressed. I think it has been almost 2 years since I really wrote anything and I want to make that effort again.
7. Okay, this one is the grand-daddy of them all. This is the big one, this is the one that no matter what, by December 31st, 2009 must be accomplished or else this whole year will be a failure.
I. want. to. get. drunk. Period.
So what are your hopes and dreams for the year ahead?
1. To lose 45 lbs. This will not get me to my goal weight but it will be a damn good start, and at less than 4lbs a month is in my mind a completely attainable goal.
2. To ride our exercise bike atleast every other day. More is acceptable, less is intolerable.
3. To pay off my wife's debt consolidation loan. 3 years ago she took out a loan to help me get my life back in order. Through a multitude of reasons we have fallen a few months behind on payments and we want desperately to get caught back up. If we can get it paid off it would be an extra $350 bucks a month we could do other things we want with.
4. To take my wife hiking in Gulf Hagas. I promised to take her last year and I let her down. I won't be making that same mistake again. Hopefully it will be easier this year with me losing weight.
5. To be more organized. I have already started this resolution. In the last month I completely cleaned out my gun room and totally reorganized everything. Also last weekend I made some giant strides with the garage. I need to build some lumber racks so I can actually put stuff away and make some room. Hopefully that will come this weekend.
6. Write one good poem. Growing up I used to write constantly. Granted, some of the pieces were quite awful but never the less it was an effort and an emotion expressed. I think it has been almost 2 years since I really wrote anything and I want to make that effort again.
7. Okay, this one is the grand-daddy of them all. This is the big one, this is the one that no matter what, by December 31st, 2009 must be accomplished or else this whole year will be a failure.
I. want. to. get. drunk. Period.
So what are your hopes and dreams for the year ahead?
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