Wednesday, 9:40 am: Lucky me, no rain the past few days. We can actually go outside without wet weather gear. On the radio, the presenter who gives the weather forecast frequently mentions our location [the St. John Valley] as an afterthought or addendum. And whatever weather is projected for us locally will, more than likely, be different than other parts of Aroostook County and the rest of the state. It’s good to be different. Now if they could only fit us on the map that’s behind the meteorologist on the Weather Channel, as he or she points and clicks their way across the United States. We’re located in the nose-bleed section of the lower-48.

My Home Depot cactus in bloom

Our firewood, which comes from New Brunswick, arrived last week completely unannounced. I heard my wife say to them on the telephone; “ . . . give us a call the day before, so we’ll be home.” Evidently they haven’t grasped the fine distinction of calling vs. just showing up and dumping a few tons of firewood [six cords] on our front lawn. Fortunately these guys aren’t working in some nearby Canadian nuclear reactor – we’d probably move out of the area.

Today is our shopping day in Presque Isle. It’s a long way to drive for groceries and other supplies. I have to switch gears and pay attention to traffic and lights again. Seemingly, it helps me ward off dementia. I think there are four stop-lights in each direction; the closest is in Caribou, about 35 miles away. We’ll be ahead of rush hour. Of course rush hour in Caribou lasts five minutes, and in Presque Isle about five minutes longer. But that’s about traffic engineering and my purported stellar driving skills, this is supposed to be weather related:

Current values from our wireless Davis Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 71° [F.]

Barometer: 29.882 & steady

Humidity: 59%

Wind: Calm

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: Scattered high cloudiness

Precipitation: .01 inch rain

Since midnight:

Low temperature: 47° [F.] at 4:37 am

High wind: 6 mph at 8:11 am