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We ducked into Damariscotta Lake State Park recently for a quick picnic lunch. It was on the way to the motorcycle repair shop and we were hungry.
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Take out Italians always taste better by a body of water.
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Being after Labor Day we had the place pretty much to ourselves which was sweet.
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Bye bye tourists.
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I know we need your money, but it really is much nicer without you.
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Another few days of sweat equity and my husband is still at it.
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His dedication to the rehab of the discarded free furniture is actually quite impressive. Shame he doesn’t show the same enthusiasm for my honey do list, but what can I say? Things you don’t have to do are always more rewarding.
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The six chairs turned out to be more of a job than he bargained for but the result was a definite improvement.
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But here’s where it got amusing… at least for me. My husband went to a craft store and purchased fabric to recover the cushions.
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Did he choose a nice quality, attractive fabric? Of course not, he’s a man. But it was fresh and clean…. and standing to the side watching him play seamstress was priceless.
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Look at that cute little Suzy Homemaker.
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Okay, there was a hammer for fine tuning… Martha Stewart he’s not. But even I had to admit the results made a difference.
Before –
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After –
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To be continued…..
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Maine has a chain of stores called Mardens. Personally, I can’t stand them as they’re full of cheap merchandise, knockoffs, and nearly expired items from various store closures. But a friend of mine loves them and insists on visiting every time we shop together. On a recent trip I spotted this:
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Yes, they were selling small …think slightly larger than the ketchup cup you get with take out… containers of water.
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And marketing it for pets. Proof positive there’s one born every minute.
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Did you try it? Holy hole in a donut Batman! The human body is a strange beast.
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My deepest darkest dream put in cartoon form.
🤣
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I’m a woman.
I love jewelry.
These statements are accurate. So while Facebook’s purchase suggestion was correct in theory, it was a tad off when it came to style.
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And when it came to shoes ?
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While I did appreciate the bottle opener feature, I tend to draw the line at astroturf footwear.
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Hmm… I didn’t know I wanted this either.
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But now I kind of do….
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We picked up the husband’s motorcycle from the shop last week.
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And a mere $1,100 later….
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He was back on the road.
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And though I was ready to say goodbye to the bikes…
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I knew he was enjoying the feel of the wind in ( what’s left of ) his hair.
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There really is nothing like it.
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And I’m thinking the bikes will probably be with us a bit longer.
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The husband was late coming home from breakfast with the boys the other day and it didn’t take me long to realize why.
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My husband’s favorite word is free. And a free table and chairs on the side of the road proved irresistible.
Was it a nice table and chairs in good condition? I think you know the answer to that….
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It was horrible. The table was covered in paint and stickers with an assortment of cracks and gouges.
The chairs? Eww.
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Stained beyond all hope of cleaning. But that didn’t deter the husband, no sir. He was going to fix everything and sell it.
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I couldn’t imagine who would want it, though the table was solid oak and expanded to 8 feet with the leaves.
He spent the next 3 days working on it and with a lot of elbow grease and nail polish remover, managed to clean the table top.
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At this point I felt he had suffered enough and introduced him to the wonders of Old English scratch cover oil.
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Not perfect, but a damned sight better.
To be continued….
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This one’s easy. It won’t hurt at all.
I promise.
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There’s only one answer for me. Disneyland. (Or World). The planet’s largest theme parks hold absolutely no appeal for me and at this point in my life I think I’d rather take a cruise ship straight to Hell than stroll the over crowded streets of the over priced plastic fantastic pinnacle of capitalism that is Disney.
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But then, I dislike theme parks in general. Busch Gardens? Great Adventures? Been there, hated them both. Honestly? I didn’t even like them when I was a child. They’re just so… fake.
So how about you…
Where do you never want to vacation that everyone else loves?
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Warning – I’m going off the rails of my usual blog fluff here. It’s been that kind of day.
Not sure why I feel I need to post this, perhaps the anniversary of my mother’s death is bothering me more than I realized, but here goes.
I read a series of novels written by Rob Hart recently…
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It was a good romp, but in almost every book there was a section dealing with this topic:
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They say you write what you know, and this author nailed it.
If you’ve never seen a dead body…. and I mean right after death, not processed by a funeral home…. I’m glad. I wish I hadn’t, because what he says is true.
My mother passed in a hospice. She was only there for five days and it was blessedly quick as deaths by cancer go. I was at her side every day, all day and into the night. It was horribly sad and utterly exhausting. I did it alone for the first four days but on the fifth, my husband insisted on coming. To be honest I didn’t want him there. He doesn’t wait well or patiently, and when you’re sitting bedside vigil that’s really all there is to do. My mother was heavily medicated and thankfully free of pain, but she was also mostly unconscious. He tried, but only made it until 5:00pm and then convinced me to leave for the night. She died an hour later. I’ll never forgive myself for not being there, but that’s not the point of this depressing post.
The point is that the author was correct. When I returned to say goodbye and gather my mother’s things a mere hour after she passed, the difference was startling. I don’t know what I was expecting, hers was the only recently deceased body I’d ever seen… but it was indeed just that. A body. Sunken in on itself and completely empty. Everything that was mother had vanished. In a perverse way, it made the final goodbye easier. She was well and truly gone, spiritually and physically.
It’s definitely not like the movies, neither serene nor beautiful.
Just empty.
💔
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Nothing earth shattering today, just wanted to share a few recent photos of my glorious Maine.
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The first three are from a friend on the Island I moved to when I was 14.
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The sunsets are hard to beat.
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This last shot is from my current town, shared by a resident during a recent storm.
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❤️
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We’re officially down to one woodchuck.
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And he/she is making the most of the lack of competition., chowing down on the buffet in peace.
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Woodchuck….
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Or woodchonk?
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I’m leaning towards the latter.
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River's world..... 