Sunday, July 13, 2008

Where the Canadians Claim a Small Island for Their Own

I spent the weekend on an island with a jolly bunch of Mainers and Canadians (who endearingly posited every question with an "Eh?" and pronounce "about" as "a-boot"). I learned a number of things, such as:

1) White pants and three wet dogs = bad combination.
2) White pants and pine pitch = bad combination.
3) Me and ladder golf (aka "testicle tossing") = bad combination.
4) Where Ottawa is.
5) Loons mate for life.
6) What to do when you are in the middle of a lake in a boat and the boat runs out of gas.
7) How to remove half a dozen splinters from my own hand.
8) "Oh look, the moon's out!" is not a very subtle way to change the topic of conversation.
9) People you don't know can only take so much of hearing about your relationship troubles...
10) ...unless they are completely drunk, at which point they will share things they never would when sober.

We did not cover the metric system, so I am sorry to say I still have no idea what constitutes a kilometer. Maybe next year.

I was able to claim the bed on the porch at camp this year, which means I both fell asleep and woke up to the water lapping the shore and the loons chattering to themselves. Really, what's better than THAT? Then today I got to sit under a big pine tree and knit while catching up with A. and watching a sweet yellow lab run around excitedly with a big stick in her mouth. Despite the idyllic morning (oh, and pie for breakfast!), I left mid-morning to avoid the traffic. Since 295 South is shut down for construction, I drove through my old adopted hometown of Hallowell and down 201. Some things have changed - there is a spiffy new town landing, and it looks as though Slate's is back up and running. I briefly considered a cheeseburger at The Liberal Cup, but kept motoring. As it was, after running some errands in Portland, I didn't get back here until 5:30. I am currently procrastinating a vast number of things, ranging from cleaning up to paying bills to laundry, but I just want to take a shower and tuck in for the night. There is also some brooding to be discussed, but tomorrow is another day.

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