Friday, February 03, 2006, 9:15 am: It’s overcast and we are supposed to get several inches of snow today. But that’s northern Maine in winter. I’ve topped of our snowblower and I am ready to roll.

I can hear the logging equipment deep in the woods. They let their equipment idle at night. Apparently if they turn off their machines, the diesel will get so cold it won’t fire up when they return in the morning. Luckily it is off in the distance and we can just faintly hear it when we are outside. They can’t work in the summer because the ground is too soft and soggy and they would frequently get stuck and bogged down.

Our trip to Canada yesterday was fine. My wife and I have become alleged food critics of truck-stop cuisine along the Trans-Canada Highway in parts of New Brunswick and Quebec. We tried a new “diesel diner’ [that’s what we call them] in Saint André just outside of Grand Falls, NB. It opened just a few months ago, and we could still smell the newness. Except for the dinner rolls and coleslaw everything was deep-fried. The portions were substantial, which is fine if I were still 15 years old and a growing lad. I heard my arteries pleading for mercy and passed on the fries. What’s this have to do with weather? Not much. I’ll try and think of some loose connection.

That’s it for today’s page from the catalog of our life in rural Maine.

Current values from our Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 27 degrees (F.)

Barometer: 30.04 and falling slowly

Humidity: 80%

Wind: SE at 5 mph and variable

Skies: 100% overcast

Visibility: >2 miles

Since midnight:

Low temp: 24.5 degrees (F.) at 12:52 am

High wind: 14 mph at 2:53 am

Confluence of the St. John & Tobique Rivers by Perth-Andover, NB