The winter wonderland that almost wasn't

 

Thought you might enjoy this view of the town from my walk this morning before we got into the meat of the post. This is looking west along the river into town. You can see, if you look very closely, the end of the falls right at the left edge of the buildings. You can also see the white rooftops left over from yesterday's snow.

So there was a lot of talk out East about this crazy October snow storm that was shocking everyone from New York City north, only it wasn't touching Machias at all. On Saturday, as I was talking to my friend in Manhattan about all the snow that was falling on her the skies in Machias were bright blue and it was a gorgeous day. As the day wore on, however, clouds began to roll in and I got worried. Not worried cause of snow, I was looking forward to snow. Worried because I feared it would rain first and then snow leaving a layer of ice underneath the fresh snow that my dog would no doubt try to pull me across leading to me falling and breaking an elbow.

Sure enough, around nine, it began to rain hard. It continued to rain until at least 12:30 (I was staying up late to watch a West Coast hockey game) and I thought "Maybe it won't snow, maybe it will just keep raining and I won't have to worry about the ice".

Well, I was rudely awoken, as usual, by my dog around 6:30 to find that it had, in fact, snowed, and was still snowing. Big disgusting wet blobs of ice and water being whirled around by powerful gusts of wind. Not at all the kind of snowy scene I had been looking forward to when I envisioned my, and Hastur's, first snow.

Well, putrid weather or not the dog was gonna force me to take her out. I got bundled up as much as I could and then considered putting boots on Hastur but she's always so hyper when a walk is looming I didn't think she'd slow down enough to let me get them on. So out we went into the harsh conditions. She took one step outside where big clumps of snow driven by the wind with enough force to hit her like hail started to pelt her right in the face and she immediately turned around and ran back into the house.


She was torn because part of her was desperate for the walk, while the other part did not want to go back out there. I tried putting her boots on making another go of it. This time she wondered a bit around the front grass but was still very uncomfortable and ended up kicking the boots off anyway. We went back upstairs and I exchanged the boots for her jacket. Again we went outside and this time she started to get into a bit. The jacket was really helping, I think she didn't like the way the snow was hitting her so with her jacket on she could ignore it better. We took a short walk, for us, and she really started to get a feel for the way snow worked.

Later in the day the weather got really nice. The wind died down to practically nothing and the snow became soft and light. We went out again and this time Hastur really started to have fun. She did everything she could to make sure she was walking in snow. This last week, every time I've walked her, she's tried her hardest to walk in the middle of the road. Even when I've shortened her leash to just an inch or so she's tugged on it to try to get into the road. This time I was walking in the middle of the road to get away from the freezing puddles and snow banks left by the plows and she was tugging me to the sides of the road so she could walk in the snow.

The past week she's been... pretty good about walking on leash, but yesterday she was pissed. She wanted to romp all through the snow and every time she had a moment to walk on the snowy grass she'd start to jump and prance on it... that is, if she wasn't attacking the leash in the hopes i would let her off of it.

So in the end a shitty day turned into a not-so-shitty day. The only think keeping it from being a great day is that the power went out for two hours earlier in the day, when it was still windy and freezing, and I lost my heat. It wouldn't have been much of a problem if I had all my things here, I would have had blankets and coats and all sorts of other things to keep me warm, but all I have is a sleeping bag. When will my stuff get here damnit!

Well, today, at least, is really nice. The rest of the week should be the same. Be even nicer if I had some furniture.

The waiting game

Let me begin with a correction: The other church about a block away from the Catholic one is a Congregationalist church, not a Baptist one. And I do believe it is the older one since the house directly across from it has a plaque denoting that the lot was the location of the house of the first minister in Machias which was back in the 18th century. So, points to you, Congregationalists.

The oldest extant building in town is Burnham Tavern, just a couple of doors down from me, which was built in 1770. It's a very significant building in American history. Don't remember if I mentioned this before but it's the sight where the colonists planned out the first naval battle of the Revolutionary War. They were led by a man named Jeremiah O'Brien who later became a captain in the Massachusetts navy, and is very much of a hero in Machias. A lot of roads and buildings, and even a fort are named after him, not to mention a bunch of American naval ships over the years. Not sure how much of the building is original, probably not a lot, though the outer walls do appear to be leaning outward and it looks like the roof is going to collapse downward if that continues. It has been well kept up though, there's a museum inside (closed for the season) so they must keep it in good repair. I don't know, but I do look forward to it opening again in Spring.

There are a lot of little treasures to be found around town. Yesterday, Hastur and I were finishing up our walk in the little park by the river (which smelled like a rotting sulfur plant) when she found this little overgrown path. It was definitely a path, but it looked like no one had walked on it in a very long time. As we walked I noticed another little side path going up a hill. As I followed it with my eyes I saw it led to a little cemetery. Now I knew this wasn't the main cemetery in town as I've walked through that many times. Little secret, if you want to find a cemetery in any town, go to the highest point. No, this was some other cemetery, but the graves were as old at least as the ones in the other cemetery. I took Hastur that way wanting to explore this new find. You know whose graves they were? Jeremiah O'Brien and his brothers. They were perched on the backside of this hill in a yard. Jeremiah's grave had a fresh American flag planted on it, so someone, I assume the owners of the home whose yard these graves were in, still kept up the little cemetery. There were other graves too, but I didn't want to go traipsing around some stranger's backyard so I took Hastur back towards home.

It was another beautiful day this morning, yesterday was overcast all day, so I decided to take Hastur east on our walk. Normally in the mornings we follow the Down East Sunrise Trail, which I believe just follows the now defunct railroad tracks that used to go around the town. Every morning we've headed west, up into the wooded hills. Saw a large pack of deer, all does, yesterday. So today we went east, towards the ocean. Not sure if the trail ever makes it to the ocean proper or just winds farther north, we never really made it that far, but the way we did take followed right up against the river, which smelled far less at this point. It was bright and cold and I let Hastur off leash, finally, so she could enjoy herself a little. She really took advantage of it a couple of times, running through the grass after invisible animals.

I have a theory about the river stink. The top soil around here is very sandy and loose, but under that is a very thick layer of what is nearly peat, very compact mildewy compressed grasses, leaves, and assorted other biologicals. AS the river eats into the lower layer it must take with it a lot of bacteria just waiting for some oxygen to bloom. And once bloomed it must go crazy on all of wood and iron and petroleum and any other things in the river worth eating which creates a huge amount of methane and other caustic smelling gases. I have seen two things in the river that lead me to this conclusion. One is the large rust colored blooms that are covering all the rocks and logs in the river and staining the water orange. These are the same sorts of mats you see in Yellowstone where the water is cool enough to encourage bacterial growth. The other thing I've been seeing is a lot of foam. You get foam from agitating water full of dead and dying microbes, or industry, but there isn't a whole lot of industry on the Machias river, not a whole lot of people along the Machias river, so I think it's the microbes.

It's such a nice day I wish I could take Hastur to the beach, especially because I can't be sure just how many more days like this there will be, but I also can't afford to miss my furniture, should it come. I'd go anyway and hope to catch their call and race back except I barely get any service in my home where the signal is strongest in town, so there's no way I'm getting any call at the beach. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to share my sleeping bag with Hastur, and she takes most of it believe me. I could really use a bed right about now.

A bright new day

There are some people who took my last post way to seriously so I want to assure everyone it was the natural result of four straight days of driving mixed with an empty apartment and a crazy dog. Other then continuing to do everything while trying to recline comfortably on a wood floor, everything is going fine. Things are slowly starting to get back to normal, and once my furniture arrives I think Hastur will figure out that we're staying and stop acting all unglued.

It rained yesterday morning and was fairly warm, but today I woke up to blue skies and crisp, nearly Winter air (otherwise known as Winter air for those of you reading in California) so I decided to take a short walk and snap a few pictures.

This is the view outside one of the windows of my apartment. It's Hastur's favorite window to people watch, and then people bark when someone does walk by. You can see the church steeple above the trees, that's the Catholic church, there is also an old Baptist church about a block away, not sure which one is older.

The river is quite high right now, and smells awful. It reminds me a little bit of the Napa river in the way it smells, kinda sulfurous and rotten. Not sure if this has anything to do with the tides, though even above the falls it still kind of smells that way so I don't think the tides have much to do with it, though part of the smell is brine so maybe... I've noticed a surprising amount of garbage just thrown into bushes or ravines, not sure how often that happens or if it's leftovers from long gone habits, but I think the smell may be associated.

 With the river so high the falls are really engorged. My apartment is very well insulated so I don't hear the falls or the traffic even though they are both right outside my windows. Also, even though it's been getting pretty cold at night I don't think my heater has ever turned on. This place really keeps the heat. Anyway, it's loud outside. Not sure what happens in Winter. Certainly down river where the tide comes in the water won't freeze, but maybe the water in the falls will. It's been a long time, since Utah, since I've seen frozen waterfalls. I've always thought it was a beautiful phenomenon.

Here's Main Street. It's hard to tell from this picture but the majority of the buildings there are banks. I don't know how Machias became the banking capital of Maine, or why a city of 2200 needs more banks then groceries, but it sure was easy to find a new one when I needed to open an account. I'm with the Bank of Bangor which compensates me for all ATM fees I incur so that's pretty cool. You can also barely see the sign for the hardware store that just so happens to have more bulk spices then I've ever seen in my life. Gonna be spending a lot of time there.

Finally, here is the front of my building. My windows are the three on the right (or on the left of the building, whichever way you want to look at it). There is also a window facing the parking lot in front of the yellow building that Hastur enjoys looking out of, making sure she lets people know she sees them getting out of their cars. I'm also told that there is some dog obedience meeting that's held in the parking lot on Thursdays, I'll definitely bring Hastur out so she can socialize a bit.


So there you go people, stop worrying about me, I'm doing fine, maybe better or worse depending on how you thought I'd be doing after such a strenuous move that is far from over. Point is, I'm here now, I'm settling, and I have at least two years to make a home out here so there should be no concern over my well being... MOM.

What the fuck am I doing in Maine!?

Seriously people, I just drove four days, got very little to no sleep, had to eat in Gary, Indiana and now I'm in Maine? And the dog is wondering the apartment whimpering for some reason, even though just an hour ago she loved the place? And there is not a single good cup of coffee in all of New England? I have no idea whether I just made a huge mistake or a great decision. Maybe I just need to let the fatigue wear off and the dog settle down but I think I'm safe in saying that I'm a little over my head here. Well, it's a fact now and there is nothing to do but weather out the storm and see if the house is still standing. Or, if somehow, the storm replaced it with a better, more successful, more happy house.

Some highlights of the trip include:

• Greg realizing that we left the Trivial Pursuit cards, that we were going to use to keep ourselves focused during the more boring states, at home only blocks away from the house saving us a lot of tedium. However, I didn't remember that I forgot my jacket in the garage until Nebraska.
• Deeth Starr Ranch. It's a real place in Nevada.
• Speaking of Nevada, Wendover, Nevada is one of the oddest places I have ever seen. There is a casino there that's rear is exactly on the border with Utah.
• Speaking of Utah, I missed it all because it was either too dark or I was asleep. Missed all of Pennsylvania, New York, and most of Massachusetts the same way.
• At one point I was in very real danger of falling asleep at the wheel so I pulled into a rest stop. Hastur has a tendency to get excited whenever we stop because she figures she's gotta get out and explore so she immediately began whimpering and pacing. As I was trying to calm her down someone casually walked past the car sending her into a violent bark tantrum. We finally calmed her down and slept there about an hour, but she remained in a stiff, seated position the entire time. When I woke up she finally got that walk she wanted. It was below freezing out but all my clothes were packed deep in the back of my trunk and I couldn't get out anything warmer so I ran her around the rest stop while completely frozen. This became something of a tradition by the end of the trip.
• Almost ran out of gas about a bazillion times. You know what turns out to be worthless on road trips? Chevron accounts. We didn't see a single one after Salt Lake. The one in Salt Lake was a bit of a happening as well. I was running out of gas so used my phone too find the nearest Chevron. It gave me directions to one that was 22 miles away, a bit of a stretch but I felt I had just enough gas to make it. As I was putting my phone back where it had been cradled I saw a sign that said "Next Exit / Chevron".
• Best 24 hours of driving ever? I started the day in Iowa at 9 am Central, made it to Maine at 8 am Eastern the next morning. During that time I personally drove in the states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.
• I don't know why but my GPS seemed to have me circling around Cleveland. Look, I know there are some interesting things in Cleveland like the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and... I don't know, maybe Drew Carey statue somewhere, but I don't think my GPS was justified in having me take freeway after freeway within urban area.
• The other thing that my GPS did was take us away from the Chicago. I thought we'd be driving through Chicago. Guess not. We didn't even drive close enough to any of the lakes to see them even though we were around Chicago, Gary, Toledo, Cleveland, and Eerie, all of which are port cities. Also, I thought I'd be going through Buffalo, didn't even come close.
• After Greg drove himself to the Boston airport I got to drive back through the city back towards my destination. I gotta say, I love you Boston, but fuck you, Boston! Who designed that city? I made about a hundred underground corkscrews that went over bridges which I then crossed going the other direction only to find myself underground again. Plus, every single person was going like 75 in a 45 zone. I think that's what they mean when they say that New England drivers are the worst. They aren't, Sacramento drivers are, but New England drivers always seem to be speeding.

• I really, really hate Indiana. There were a lot of places that I wasn't too fond of, but Indiana I absolutely hated. First, they love gigantic sound barrier walls around their freeways despite the fact that there is nothing behind them. The walls are so big you can't tell what services are on the other side of them so if you need gas * shrug *. Second, Gary was the shittiest place I've ever been, and I've been to some very shitty places before. Then, to top it off, their toll system is absolutely awful. They give you a ticket when you get onto the throughway (aka 80) and then charge you based on the exit you take. It's a fine idea in theory but in practice it faces two problems; 1) No one wants to get off the freeway so businesses off the freeway don't get any customers at all, and 2) They massively limit the number of exits so say you missed your exit and need to get off the freeway and backtrack (and this is sort of number three here), first you have to wait probably close to 30 miles for another exit, then you have to pay the exit toll, then you have to pick up a new ticket, drive back to the exit you wanted, and pay the exit toll. Wisconsin had a similar system but for some reason, even though the state is about twice as wide as Indiana, it was far less to cross it. New York and Massachusetts also had systems like that but they didn't run the full freeway. Toll roads are lousy enough without Indiana screwing everything up.
• I simply cannot sleep in the car. No matter how hard I tried or how tired I was, I could not sleep in the car... Until I was driving. It's weird how you can be concentrating on something so hard like not driving off the road and start to drift off, but the minute you try to legitimately sleep in your seat you just can't do it. The morning where I was really worried I would fall asleep so stopped at a rest stop even though I had only seconds before been falling sleep with a stiff back and hands on the wheel, I couldn't really sleep at all when I tried. A similar thing happened to me once I got to Maine. I felt myself starting to doze off so pulled off to go get some Tim Horton's coffee and immediately upon leaving the freeway I was wide awake.
• Tim Horton's actually makes decent coffee.
• I don't know if I'm a better driver now, a more patient person, or whether it was the difference in cars, but when I attempted to drive to New Mexico with my friend Jason at 19 I couldn't drive six hours without getting tired of it. This trip, at one point, I drove 13 hours and only stopped because I wanted to try and get some sleep even though I easily could have driven two or three more hours.
• I learned that my dog can vomit very quietly and with little aroma.
  

I have to admit, I'm in a bit of a panic here, and have been since I had to drive back through Boston by myself. I don't feel unprepared, I just feel way beyond my comfort zone. I mean, the entire "Mexican" section of the local grocery store is just taco shells and Taco Bell salsa, and they have no cage free eggs! And the worst part is, no one seems to realize that there is something wrong with that. What's a California boy in Maine to do?

Halfway to forever

In a matter of about 27 hours Greg and I made it from Sacramento to Omaha. Everyone was pretty impressed except for us cause we had to sit in the car and experience every single mile along with the dog.

Actually, Hastur has been doing really well. She gets excited when we come to a stop and I have to take her out and run her around wherever we are so she can work off some energy. It's nice for me to since I tend to get really sore during long car rides.

We still have 1500 miles to go. Pretty sure I can survive it, not sure how much sanity I'll have left at the end, however.