Friendship Day

The Petting Zoo

Every year, our little town of Friendship hosts a summer celebration called, appropriately enough, Friendship Day. It's a day filled with events and fun for people of all ages. This year, after nearly a week of rain most every day, the morning fog burned off to reveal a beautiful sunny day in the mid 70's.

The events planned are similar to other town's ideas of celebration. For example, there is a softball game for all comers, regardless of age or sex. There's plenty of food for all. There's a parade.

We started off our Friendship Day with a blueberry pancake breakfast at one of the (two) churches in town. Yummy! We got to meet other "summer residents" who came in from Northern Vermont and Eastern Massachusetts.

The difference between our festival and other towns are, in some cases, quite dramatic. For example, we were used to petting zoos filled with sheep and baby pigs in the midwest when we lived in Minnesota. In Friendship, the petting zoo includes lobsters, crabs, and fish. And just like the kids in Minnesota pet a sheep, the kids here had fun petting a flounder. Really!

Making lobster rolls at the fire department

And while some of the food is the same, the fire department gets lobsters donated, and they make the most yummy lobster rolls.

The parade is miniscule, compared to most that I've been to. But this year the theme of the parade was the Fire Department (all volunteer, of course). So the neighboring towns from all around us sent over their fire engines to join in our parade. I hope there were no fires in Cushing or Warren! We also had lots of antique cars show up.

The artists and artisans bring their wares, and sell them in booths in downtown. Wool is just as valuable here as in Minnesota, and wool crafted items are on sale. Other big sellers are Adirondack chairs, photos of blueberries, and fudge.

The softball game

The softball game is held near the grounds of the schoolhouse. Because of all the rain, the field was pretty muddy, and grounders which should have been short hops turned into short plops. But everybody was having fun, and I heard the familiar "Oh, I'm gonna feel this tomorrow" from the lobster fishermen who generally use their muscles to lift traps, not run bases. I left early in the game, I could tell it was going to get ugly.... muddy, dirty, and ugly.

Out on the water, races are held for both sailboats (The Chowder Cup) and lobster boats. It used to be that the biggest, baddest, fastest lobster boat would make the most money. They could set more traps, get around to them quicker, and place them farther from land. But the economics of lobstering have shifted dramatically in the past couple of years. Economy offers the premium these days. Cruising to your traps at 18 knots is far more fuel efficient than cruising to them at 30 knots. And some fishermen are staying out overnight to save fuel, and reach those far away places. So the fast boat is falling out of favor, and the races are becoming a reminiscense of the good old days, not a measure of the best. Fastest, maybe, but not the best.

Bill Michaud trying to auction off a sex book

Finally, our day uptown ends with the ersatz auction, moderated by our wonderful ersatz auctioneer, Bill Michaud. Like most ambitious people in Friendship, Bill wears numerous professional hats. He and his wife run "The Outsider's Inn", one of the (only) two B&Bs in Friendship. He also rents and guides kayak trips in the harbor and bays. And he also sells real estate.

But he seems to have the most fun being an auctioneer for a day, making jokes and enticing bidders to raise their bids by a dollar or two. All for a good cause, as the proceeds from the auction pay the annual fees for our ambulance service, and have for many years.

There's other things to do, like visiting the Friendship Museum, looking at the items to be included in the bicentennial time capsule at the town hall, and several attractions for the little kiddies. And after it gets dark, they promise to set off fireworks. What a fun day!

Doing the Maine Thing

The first midsummer visitors

The first wave of midsummer visitors arrived here last week, so the work we were doing on the house got wrapped up and we stowed our tools for a while.

The first hearty souls were Consuelo's old friends from Up With People, Cheri Cross and Deb Bruce who live in Northampton, Mass. They stayed two nights with us, we had cooperative weather, so we took our pontoon for its maiden voyage to Rockland Harbor to watch the Friendship Sloop races. It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun out on the water. I took scores of pictures of the sailboats challenging each other in light breezes. After that, we found a wonderful seaside lobster joint in Owl's Head and they treated us to lobster. And after that, we went to the movies to see Mamma Mia, a bunch of fun movie.

Friedship sloop racing

As they left on Saturday, my son Paul and his family, with one cousin from NC in tow, arrived for an overnight. We took the pontoon out in Friendship and cruised over to Cow Island to see if we could find seals, and we did. They took us out to lunch at Moody's, and while we were there, my brother and his wife arrived from Brookfield, Mass. They fed us well on Sunday night, the most delicious steaks. We took the boat back to Rockland for another harbor cruise, and on Tuesday, we bought a bunch of lobsters here in Friendship and had a feast with all the fixins.

Wild blueberries

When they left on Wednesday, I took a walk with my camera back into the Maine woods, and found a place where I could pick blueberries. We had those this morning on cereal. Another treat!

And we're doin' the Maine thing, ayuh!

Bad, bad Garmin!

I generally try to give a company the benefit of the doubt when there's a problem. However, my patience has been overstretched with Garmin in the past 60 days, and I feel it necessary to make a public statement of my disapproval.

Last summer, I bought a Garmin 420S combo GPS/depthfinder. We boat in the waters off Friendship, which is littered with islands and several rivers feed Muscongus Bay, making visual navigation tricky. For safety reasons, the having the GPS and a depthfinder made good sense. I used it on my Bass Tracker several times and am satisfied with the device.

This spring, I needed to move the device from the Bass Tracker to our 20' Pontoon. I got the transducer moved, set up the wiring, and went to mount the GPS when I found that the mounting bracket had corroded to the point of unusability. The long, thin screw was frozen to the nut inserted on the plastic bracket. WD40 did not help, and eventually the plastic gave out so the nut spun freely. This should not happen to a marine part.

So I set out to get a new bracket. I found Garmin's online web site, placed an order (I thought) for th part, and waited two weeks. No part. Then we went off to Indiana to help with the floods. while there, I sent an email to Garmin support, and they indicated that they had no record of my order. Hmmmm.

The email also said to call the phone order line. I tried that from Indiana, but we were working 12 hour days, and they were closed at anytime I could call.

I tried to place the order again. No luck. Both of our credit cards were rejected without explanation.

When we stopped in Ipswich for a couple days, I checked into a marine store, which had a healthy stock of Garmin stuff, but no parts. The dealer implied that Garmin parts are only available from Garmin.

When we got home, I tried the phone again. I encountered a 35 minute wait time, and while waiting, I thought about the online order problem. I realized that when Garmin was aking for my shipping and billing addresses online, they really wanted the zip code for my credit card. Though they never said than, nor did the indicate what the problem was with the card. I re-entered the order online using our Texas address for billing address, and the order went through.

The online system said the part would ship in 4-7 days, and that they would send me an email when it shipped. 10 days later, I sent another email, asking about my order, with the number. 2 days later, I got a reply indicating that my part was on backorder, with no prognosis as to when it would ship.

Needless to say, I'm upset. We're now nearly 60 days from when this started, with no end in sight. If you have to ask me, don't buy Garmin. Their quality is doubtful, and their support is near zero.

Back to Maine

Fly in the Ferns

We got back home from Indianapolis on Saturday, July 5th. We stopped in Ipswich for a couple nights to celebrate Liam's and the nation's birthdays (though not in that order). Paul and I got out to fish a couple times. You can measure our results by noting all the pictures of fish on this page.

The Red Cross was pretty well transitioned by the time we left. We had shrunk to about 90 volunteers from a high of about 500, and a total of over 1000. We stayed a few extra days to finish up operations in staffing, leaving just 2 people to move everything back to the Indy chapter.

We both now find traveling by air to be an effort. Perhaps we're spoiled by having everything with us when we travel in our motorhome. Our air travel was not unusual, though were on standby on an overbooked flight from Philly to Portland until the no-shows were counted.

Flashy mushroom

I was glad to get my good camera back into my hands upon returning home. I took a long walk in the woods behind our house and snapped the photos here. It's a challenge to find interesting subjects in the Maine woods at this time of year. The ones here were trying very hard to be subtle and not be noticed, except for the yellow mushroom that was standing tall and bold in the middle of the trail in the woods.

We took a day of recovery on Sunday, and will get back to work scraping wallpaper and otherwise getting the house together for company coming on July 16th. We will have to make up for the time we spent in Indianapolis, but it is a labor of love.

Four corner Flower

Thumper stayed in a kennel for a week at the beginning of our trip, after which Paul rescued her and brought her home. She was very glad to see us, and even more glad to get back to the house in Maine, where she can wander through the fields.

Pedestrian Alert!

Consuelo meets Segway

We had a half day of on Saturday morning, and two of our co-workers, Norita and Darlene, invited us to try out the Segway tour on the river walkway in Indianapolis. They had done it, and thought it was so much fun, they wanted to go again. We both thought this would be a lot of fun, and agreed to do it.

The morning started with thunder and lightning at 6:30, but a glimpse of the radar loop indicated that no serious rain was on the way, so we headed down to White River State Park, almost in the heart of downtown.

The state park is where Indy put several of their museums, as well as many grassy areas and a wonderful promenade along the river and old barge canal. The promenade makes a wonderful Segway trail.

Norita and Darlene get Seglegs

The tours are set up for a maximum of 6 tourists and a tour guide. When we arrived, they already had 6 for the 9:00 AM tour. But it turned out that there were 2 no-shows, perhaps due to the weather, so we got to go. After a 10 minute instructional session, letting us know what would happen if we made common Segway mistakes, like jumping off, or trying to go too fast. Then we each had individual hands (and feet) on instruction until we got the hang of it.

In my opinion, riding a Segway is a little like a cross between riding a bike and skiing. As I got on the first time, I kept trying to balance myself, and the Segway responded by actually balancing me. The result was that the handle bobbed back and forth as we argued about what was up. But I quickly got my mind to stop overreacting and started moving forward and backward, running and stopping, and turning. The nest way to turn is to come to a stop, and lean the handle in the direction you want to turn. You just go around in a circle that way.

Downtown from the Promenade

After about 5 minutes of practicing, we headed down the sidewalk toward the river. For the first 10 minutes or so, we all had our Segways in the 'turtle' mode, which limited our speed to about 6 miles and hour. Knowing what it was like to reach maximum speed was important, because when the Segway slows itself down, the handle comes back at you. The automatic response is to push forward, but that just leans you back more. What you need to do is lean forward into the handle, so that you continue forward at full speed. After we got accustomed to this, we were all switched out of 'turtle' mode, reaching a new top speed of 10 mph.

The first part of the trail is inside the state park, along the White River, and lined by huge limestone blocks that are a common building material in Indy. We stopped a couple times for a view of downtown, and too a snap or two. You can see from the picture that the weather had not cleared, and we did get a sprinkle or two before we got done.

Norita, Consuelo and Darlene on the trail

After that, we crossed the Washington Street Bridge, which took us out of the park, and went down the other side of the river for a quarter mile or so. A sharp right turn onto the New York Street bridge brought us back across the river, and more parkway along the IUPUI campus. Here we saw McCormick's rock, the only remaining artifact of the founding family's homestead. The McCormick's later gained fame in the spice trade, and set up their empire in Baltimore.

We continued on to the canal. The walk along the canal is very beautiful. More museums are here, including the Museum of Indiana, which has playful symbolic blocks throughout the facade around the building, one for each county in Indiana, depicting an important characteristic of that place. Muncie, for example, has a bunch of pickle jars with Garfield in one, symbolic of Garfield's creator living there.

Mahlon at McCormick's Rock

Farther down the canal, there are fountains, waterfalls, and gondolas are available for Venetian style paddles with wine and cheese.

We spent nearly 2-1/2 hours on what was supposed to be a 1-1/2 hour tour, so long that the manager had gone out to look for us. But we were just moseying along, enjoying the scenery.

By the time we were done, I was comfortable enough on the Segway to do a little Segway dance, to the music that was playing in the clock in front of the Indiana Museum. And true to form, Consuelo liked it so much that she wanted to buy one, just for fun.

Downtown Indianapolis

Soldier's & Sailor's Monument

By Saturday, June 21, the Red Cross has fulfilled their sheltering and the need for feeding had been reduced to a level that could be handled by catering companies. Since our 24 hour operations had ceased, our directors decided that headquarters could be unstaffed on Sunday, so we got an unexpected day off. Actually, we were on standby from 11:00 until 2:00, but nobody called.

After 2:00, a group of us decided to wander around downtown, then see a movie and dine out. The city's big sight in the middle of downtown is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Meridian Street. The monument is surrounded by a large circle, decorated with statues and wonderful old streetlights. The buildings that face the monument bow in respect by having curved facades, so that the circle reaches from the monument into the downtown face, the city pauses here to acknowledge those who gave their lives. Each of the 4 sides of the monument is inscribed with the wars fought by those honored.

One of the statues

The tower itself is 284.5 feet to the observation deck. While a small elevator toils back and forth for a $1 fee, stairs surround the elevator shaft and can be climbed for free. Since I deferred gaining knowledge of the height until I descended, I happily began climbing the stairs for the top. About halfway up, with no end in sight, I began to be far more curious about the height. I stopped a few times, but made it to the top in due time, soaked in sweat in the warm early summer afternoon. The view was partially obstructed by dirty windows, but worth the climb none the less.

Only now, late in the next day, do I realize the growing pain of my body's reaction to climbing up and down a 24 story building. My thighs and calves are beginning that sore, sore sensation which makes me give pause to moving at all.

Dance crazy teens

After my exercise, I wandered back to the Simon Mall, and found these energetic teenagers working some sort of machine that looked like a cross between Twister, Tetris, and Galaxy Quest, on which they danced crazily trying to keep up with a scrolling screen displaying foot patterns on a floor filled with tap touch sensitive pads. The longer they danced, the faster the screen scrolled. And the two of them were in sync, for the most part. I was reminded of the Irish step dancers.

A short while later, we saw the latest Indy Jones flick, paying homage to the state in which we are now serving. In this sequel-sequel, the actors seem to have aged faster than we have, but are as energetic as when they started. We marveled at the incredible supply of dry matches they kept through raging rivers and icy wells.

Later we dined at PJ Chang's, an upscale Chinese Bistro which had excellent food and service, at a fairly reasonable price.

Consuelo stayed home through all this, catching up on her reading, and getting our laundry done. I favored her with half of my dinner, cold but delicious, for which she was grateful.

And tomorrow, I'll see if I can walk.

One week down

We've been on the job for a week now. Though we're not working that long a day anymore, we fell asleep around 8:00 last night. We're not used to a working day schedule, and we're getting worn down pretty well by the end of the day. We're not doing hard physical work, but we are keeping busy every day. Mahlon is working in staffing (HR), doing data entry to a database, and reconciling the database against the piles of paperwork that are mounting as volunteers come and go. Part of the function of the database is to provide HR information to the other departments, and part is to manage the cost accounting for staff costs, which is primarily expense funds and hotel rooms. After the disaster is over, the chapters and Red Cross National will use the info to manage their disaster response staff and plan appropriate training courses.

Consuelo is taking care of all the expense money that the volunteers are getting. All of the national volunteers like me get Red Cross debit card with a starting balance that corresponds to their daily allowance for food and incidentals, usually supplied by their chapter before they leave home. But some people, like Consuelo and I, are never at their chapter (ours is Elkhart, IN), so she supplies them with cards. Local Indiana volunteers who are not part of the national response system are getting a smaller stipend, mostly to cover the cost of fuel. They've been doing a lot driving in this disaster, because the flooding covered a fairly wide area, and because many of the hotels in the affected areas were damages by the floods, and they are travelling back and forth to Indianapolis.

We've drastically reduced the request for volunteers to fly in. Some more may come in to replace people who go home. We're beginning to process more paperwork for people leaving, which will provide the checks and balances on the system for the people and resources spent during the disaster, at least from an HR perspective.

Still don't know when we'll go home. Staffing is one of the first to arrive and last to leave, so we may be here until July.

The Red Cross's mission is immediate response to alleviate loss of life and suffering. The shelters and feeding are the primary elements of that first response. Those functions are beginning to wind down here, the 3 open shelters reported a population of around 80 people yesterday, down from around 500 initially. We've also released some of our feeding trucks to head west to the Iowa and the just started Illinois DR (declared disaster area). We have two kitchens open, but one will probably close this week. Meanwhile, we're still ramping up on the personell side. ARC provides some emergency cash for people in affected areas, and counsels people to help them reach other resources, like FEMA, and with mental health issues. That will go on for a couple weeks yet, I expect.

The Red Cross is designed to be first response, and FEMA's job is to pick up the ball for the next leg. As the victims of the floods go home, or determine that thay can't, FEMA will take them the next way, so our job will be done.

All that water from Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois is making its way into the Mississippi. They're expecting record flood levels, and it's all working its way down, due to hit E. St. Louis today. Several Mississippi levees have broken or been topped, and every time one breaks, it relieves a little of the pressure on the rolling flood waters. But within a few hours, it resumes its climb toward the peak. Most of the areas flooded by the broken levees so far are farm land areas, and a few small towns. East St. Louis is a major city, with a population of 155000 or so, and if the levees go there, we'll start seeing problems on the same order of magnitude as Katrina in New Orleans.

Here in Indiana, they suffered 3 major calamities within the last 2-1/2 weeks. Tornadoes in late May, followed by record rainfalls (10-12" in about 5 hours) on 6/8 and more heavy rain last Saturday night. The town of Franklin, which had begun to clean up from the first flood, having cleared away debris into huge piles to be hauled off, found that junk all floating through town again on Saturday night in the second flood. As you can imagine, some folks are pretty depressed. Many lived in areas that were not in any known flood plain, and so did not have flood insurance. But they got flooded nonetheless. My heart goes out to them. Consuelo and I are doing a little bit here to help.

I'm sure you've seen the appeals to help the Red Cross replenish their disaster relief funds. If you can help with that, please call 1-800-HELPNOW or go to http://www.redcross.org and make a donation.

And a few people have wanted to get to my log of our volunteering activities in after Katrina in Louisiana. Tose pages can be found here.