Thursday, 7:30 am: Here it is, almost the end of June and a few days into summer; I can’t keep up with it all. Supposedly I try and stay on top of things, but lately I have let it slide: It didn’t make any difference. Not to be misunderstood; I still work, just at a slower pace. The four day turnaround for mowing our lawn is due tomorrow, so there is actually something on my schedule for tomorrow. Bahh – schedules!

Ruth and I in Berlin in the mid-1980s

It’s the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. Ruth and I were at Tempelhof and Gatow airports when we lived in Bavaria. These were the two airports which American and British aircraft flew into during the Airlift. Tegel Airport was later constructed by the French. Flying into Berlin in the 1980s, on Pan Am Airlines, we enjoyed air-conditioned comfort and dry roasted peanuts. It certainly was much, much different in 1948. It’s difficult to imagine it back then. I have to ask my extended family in Berlin about it to fill in the blanks and add their human touch to history; actually their history.

Ultimately we are here in northern Maine and there are no candy bombers here, only Border Patrol helicopters to keep us safe from something. I think I saw a local airplane fly over last week, or was it the week before? He could have been lost.

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

Temperature: 63.6° [F.]

Barometer: 29.776 & steady

Humidity: 85%

Wind: Calm

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: Generally light overcast

Precipitation: None

Since midnight:

Low temperature: 58.5° [F.] at 2:15 am

High wind: 6 mph at 12:21 am

Monday, 8:40 am: Not surprisingly; it’s raining, actually it’s drizzling. Somewhere in there, there is a fine distinction between rain and drizzle. A few weeks ago I heard on the radio a weather presenter use the term “calm wind”. Really, that’s what I heard, and I am still trying to figure that out. Maybe I missed something in my Idiots Guide to Weather?

A canine hiking companion on the west coast of Ireland - photo contributed by Stephan

On Saturday our friends Don and Diane came by and helped me do some concrete work. Actually I helped them. I needed to install a new base for my ham radio antenna and they knew what to do, and they had the right equipment including the laborsaving gas-powered auger. That handy piece of equipment probably saved two or three hours of hernia inducing labor. Excluding cleanup, everything was done in about an hour. Unlike today, it was a warm sunny day to mix and pour concrete. Once the weather dries out I’ll be reinstalling my antenna onto the new base, and radio communications from the hinterland of Maine with the greater world can recommence.

Mika, the Japanese Spitz, enjoying the seaside in New Zealand - photo contributed by Janos

Ruth just came in from working in the garden. The lower third of her is covered in mud. Her garden chores are done for the day. Gardening should be a fair weather hobby, and mud isn’t factored into the hobby. At some point it starts to resemble subsistence farming and work.

Sunset in Grand Isle Maine

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

Temp. 58.7° [F.]

Barometer: 29.818 & steady

Humidity: 100%

Visibility: < 3 miles

Skies: 100% low overcast

Precipitation: .10 inch – currently light rain

Since midnight:

Low temperature: 56.9° [F.] at 5:35 am

High wind: 6 mph at 12:18 am

Wednesday, 10:20 am: The weather has been dramatic the last two days. With lightning, thunder, wind and heavy rain, it’s also been spectacular. The NWS weather radio was all abuzz with warnings. As for today it has been tapering off with the rain turning to drizzle and the wind down to a breeze. Our lawn is saturated, but I did mow it a few days ago, so it’s a good-looking wet lawn.

A visitor a few miles from our house.

The pesky rabbits are out again eating and fertilizing our lawn. Rabbits are fine, but our dogs have a different view – they are something to chase and bark at. We keep the dogs inside, or in our fenced backyard and learn to live with the barking until the rabbits bounce off into the woods. Although they are not domesticated rabbits they generally ignore us when we walk close to them.

Is this green enough?

I suppose moaning about the price of gas is old stuff. Whatever it costs, we’ll pay; a market-driven economy. It’s Adam Smith’s economic theory – I guess. Yet I am still puzzled why diesel cost more. Elsewhere, in the news, GWB is on his Farewell Tour 2008 of Europe. T-shirts are available at the door. At least Europeans now know we hire the handicapped. Ouch!

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

Temperature: 67.5° [F.]

Barometer: 29.777 & rising slowly

Humidity: 78%

Wind: NW at 4 mph – light & variable

Visibility: > 3 miles under cloud base

Skies: Generally overcast with fast moving clouds

Precipitation: .11 inch – rain

Since midnight:

Low temperature: 65.2° [F.] at 10:00 am

High wind: 19 mph at 1:42 am

Saturday, 3:50 pm: It’s a battleship gray day. As an alternate to working outside and clearing brush in the drizzle, we are listening to music from Ireland via the Internet on Midwest Irish Radio. I suspect this is the style of music my Irish ancestors listened to and enjoyed, except they listened to it live. According to my wife, Ruth occasionally thinks she is from Ireland because of her sometimes red hair and she has a good temper. I say; Ruth is from the far east of Ireland, now called Germany. Those Celts were everywhere: Now we are here. I do enjoy the occasional pint of Guinness, but can pass on corned beef, and my geography skills need to be tweaked just a bit.

The black flies and mosquitoes are out in force. During the past few days I have been bitten more times then I care to count. But can he keep from scratching them? Fortunately if it’s breezy the flies are grounded, and I can spend more time working vs. swatting those pesky guys.

As for today there is not much of a breeze; so the flies are outside having a good time, and I am inside typing on my computer. Later it’s time to listen to Prairie Home Companion on MPBN. Herzlichsten Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag Claudia! And that’s not Irish.

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

Temperature: 64.9° [F.]

Barometer: 29.7.97 & falling rapidly

Humidity: 100%

Wind: SSW at 1 mph

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: 100% overcast

Precipitation: .05 inch - rain

Since midnight:

Low temperature: 55.8° [F.] at 2:45 am

High wind: 12 mph at 1:44 pm

Sunday, 8:30 am: Where does the time go? We have been busier than ever working outside. Tomato plants are in the ground and assorted vegetable seeds have been sown. Brush clearing is a never-ending job, but the reader has heard this before. It is, after all, life in rural America.

I had my annual physical on Friday in Presque Isle. I complained of a few minor aches: My doctor said I am 58 so I am entitled to a few aches and pains. Yikes! Next thing you know I’ll have a job as a greeter in Wal-Mart with a very stylish blue vest [to compliment my blue hair] with assorted pins and buttons. The thought of that perks me right up.

The moose population is popping out all over the place, including just a few yards from our house. And the garter snakes have returned and have set up housekeeping in our garage and woodpile. They are our unpaid rodent control experts. I will leave that task to them.

Further down the road the town’s maintenance worker is repairing damage from the heavy snowfall and ice from the winter. It is a lot of work for one person, but he is diligent and the road will be repaired soon. It is hard to imagine we saw people cross-country skiing on the road in the winter. Today this writer seems to be grammatically, or content-challenged [possibly laziness], so today’s blog will be brief, unless I veer off in some tangent and agitate for some cause no one cares about, or offend someone more than usual. Ciao!

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

Temperature: 54.6° [F.]

Barometer: 29.539 & rising slowly

Humidity: 100%

Wind: E at 2 mph

Visibility: < 2 miles

Skies: 100% low overcast – dissipating fog

Precipitation: .04 inch – rain

Since midnight:

Low temperature: 52.1° [F.]

High wind: 3 mph at 3:39 am