Welcoming Back the Fog

I am quite certain some robins were just lazy and stayed here all winter. They might have taken a trip or two to Stonington for liquor (Southern Comfort being preferable to migration? Though maybe like true Mainers, they went as far as NH for their booze), but there seemed to be a pretty steady red-breast presence through the winter. So screw them as a sign of spring. Last night and into this morning however, we got a sure sign that winter is losing its grip: fog rolled in.

In my imagination, Maine is more or less always cloaked in fog- but factually, this is not so. Except in June. And much of May and April. And the Fourth of July. Also possible in October and November, and the odd warm day in December. In a rough year, also count in August. And all of the days in July that surround the Fourth. It is a good bet though, that it will not be foggy from January into March.

Which is, I guess, a relief. We may be drifted in with snow, pelted with sleet, and drowned in rain, but we are not dampened by fog.

After a few months you get around to missing it. Or I do. This is probably a vanity thing, because it makes my hair curl. It is also atmospheric...

Beyond reviving tired winter locks and anglophilic romanticism, fog does also denote something else, something rather important in these parts: time to start lobstering. This means that soon volleyball nights will not be as well attended, and they may dwindle to one night a week. The pace of life here will pick up- indeed, town meeting is the day after tomorrow, and that's when all the nearly-year-round residents come back from warmer climes. The school year is on the downhill slide, and everything will just start to pick up speed. The traffic on and off-island will increase; Sunday boats will make a regular appearance; and the Miss Lizzie (she of the slick white benches and sleek tourist-friendly lines) will join the Mink (warm and lived-in like a downeast kitchen) in hauling people, pets, and their attendent stuff back and forth.

I am glad for the sun, and glad for the fog. I am pleased to roam without yax trax, fleece, and parka... But I do sigh over the speed of summer, the loss of intimacy that comes with the population explosion, with the intensity of work, as every local nose goes to the grindstone.

This year I will dutifully try not to wish summer away- I will jump off the dock, fly off the rope swing- dance my feet off as often as possible (they grow back you know- but only if you dance them off). But will I constantly be looking for signs of fall?

It's likely.

Here's hoping I get to stay here long enough for them to make themselves manifest...

Wall Service Award Proposal

For those who are interested, you can read my project description (the one that I defrauded the elderly and jacked the car in order to send out exactly a month ago- Oh, Fridays the 13ths...) at:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc473sdh_19hk89bqv5

I am happy to say that I was accepted as a finalist, and I will be traveling to Grinnell the first weekend in April to interview. There are five finalists and they grant two awards- so wish me luck! It will be the first time I have been back to Iowa since I graduated. I imagine it's going to be a lot like how I felt when I first had to travel back through Deer Isle-Stonington to get to Isle au Haut- a strange brew of nostaligia and alienation.

Lent '09!!! Let's Get This Privation Started!!!

Mud, mud, I love mud...

Seriously. It's March in Maine. Poor March, it gets an even worse rap than November, when really, all it tries to do is show us that our hemisphere is getting serious about a sun-ward tilt. The days get longer, snow starts to melt, occasional days hit fifty degrees. Yes- the melting uncovers a mucky world of murky colors, and many days hit below freezing, but should we begrudge the month itself just because of its position in Earth's orbit? And obviously, March is the best month... somewhere.

In Maine, March offers us Lent! And... town meetings!

Yes. I am trying. And possibly I am trying too hard. But that is because I have 22 days to go until April. And so do you. So work with me. Let's brighten up the month.

Let's talk Lent. I do it every year, so deal. Growing up, I didn't even know what it was. Can you believe how my parents neglected my spiritual upbringing? Bust out the toys for Christmas and the chocolate for Easter, sure- but where was the Ash? The fasting, people, the fasting?! In their defense, my bare-bones religious experience was partly my own fault: I wasn't into the mortification of my flesh (itchy tights were required church wear, which is why I stopped going to church as soon as I was given the choice), so I totally missed out on the best season in the Christian calendar.

Happily I picked up some loosely Catholic/Papist-leaning-Protestant friends along the way, so the season of self-denial was not lost to me forever. Though if you think about it, being denied the knowledge of what could potentially be one's favorite religious practice, which is itself about denial and repentance would be kinda funny. One year I will probably have to give up Lent for Lent.

But this year, I am giving up a food and an action.

Cherry Garcia: consider your self served with legal separation papers. We couldn't go on like we were- the weekly trysts, the frozen yogurt guise of goody-goodness. And no, I won't replace you with some other sweet substance of your cold and milky ilk. To be 100% honest, I have to admit that I unthinkingly partook of some chocolate ice cream last night, but was saved because in many denominations Sundays during Lent are like mini-Easters, and you may relax your avowed aversions. Normally I eschew this weak and namby-pamby loophole, but you know... my memory is not very good, and my ability to self-justify using wiki is excellent. But that's it Cherry Garcia, I won't break again. Ice cream is out. Jeezy Creezy definitely did not have ice cream while wandering in the desert, and this is all about the solidarity.

Also, I am thinking he probably didn't do a lot of recreational lying. Well. Maybe not. Okay, a case could be made that he was all about the recreational lies, and no one got the joke. "No, there was totally this dude, Lazarus..."

But I am going to give it a rest for a while. Because I love lying for fun. And I recognize that really, taking advantage of the gullible is not the kindest mode of humor. This is the hard vow. While I might have opened a container of Schwann's Select Chocolate last night without thinking- it was certainly a more conscious decision than when I automatically begin making sarcastic shit up. Somewhere along the way I whole-heartedly embraced the idea that you should never let truth stand in the way of a good story. To some extent I still stand by this, but there are times that you should just play it straight. So for forty days and nights I will try- I will actually pay attention to what I say- occasionally before I even say it.

So that's the Lent '09 update. To cover all the bases (giving up indulgent food and jerky actions, while adding more prayer and charity), I will try not to recreationally lie to the universe when I talk to it (on a more frequent basis), and I will, you know, continue to lend a hand where and when I can.

In closing, enjoy the Bright Sadness of the season, if only vicariously through me!



Me in my favorite false shirt, which reads "brunette." I also have one
that proclaims me to be a pisces. If I ever bought something
monogrammed, I can assure you, it would not include the initials M, R, C, or W.

IAH Squirrel Bait Bundt Cake

3/4 cup butter
1- 1.5 cups sugar (white, raw, honey, something sweet at any rate)
1 tsp vanilla
4 bananas (the ones you otherwise would throw into the compost)
4 eggs
1/2 cup whatever yogurt you have on hand, plain or otherwise
1 Tbspn Baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups flour (choose your preferred white/wheat ratio)
2 cups chopped nuts, walnuts if you have them, or almonds if you accidentally grab them first.

To top: honey, more chopped nuts. Toast the nuts if you are feeling inspired or obliged.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour bundt pan.

Cream together sugar and butter. Add in the vanilla, then bananas, yogurt and eggs. Mix together the dry ingredients (not including the nuts), and come to think of it, throw in some spice- cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves- the usual suspects. Mix the dries into the wets, then add in the nuts. Pour into pan (it's pretty thick), then even out with a wooden spoon or spatula. Put it in the oven for 60-75 minutes- do some chores, take a shower, check your email, etc... toothpick test it to make sure it's done. Flip it onto a wire rack to cool. I find it released pretty easily.

Once plated, drizzle honey on it, then sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Today was a library day. As I opened up the reading room in the town hall, I was greeted by the squirrel who has recently taken up residence in the building. He's already chewed at the door frame and pulled some stuffing out of the cushion on the window seat. He and I had a quick conversation about who had rights to the place, and finally, he ceded some ground and retired to a space behind some filing cabinets. I then had to decide whether to hold the coffee klatsch in the reading room- vermin included, or move the food into the library. Either option was cringe-worthy by mainland standards. Ultimately, I trusted the beastie to behave and set up as per the usual.

I did issue warnings as people showed up- anyone spleeny about animals could opt out of coffee and cake. The problem with verbal warnings is that people have to take you at your word. When the construction crew from the house next door appeared promptly at nine, they didn't believe me. To test my veracity, one of them banged on the squirrel's hiding place, which spurred him into action- he instantly streaked across the room, nothing but a brown blur of fur. He escaped to the space between another bank of filing cabinets and the stove top. I was putting on the water for tea at the time, and did not appreciate having a rodential bullet aimed in my general direction. There might have been a choice vocalization on my part. I am all for squirrels in nature, but not in close quarters. Can't imagine the squirrel was very happy with my company either. In the end he didn't even get any cake. I would feel bad, but he'd messed with Lisa's window seat cushion. And anyone on IAH knows better than to mess with Lisa. The rodent is on his own.

At any rate, that was the entertainment for the morning- well that and slapping together the aforementioned cake in a sleepy and non-caffinated fashion. I love baked goods that actually forgive improvisation. And, no lies- although I hate cleaning the pan, I love bundt cakes. So easy to make pretty.