7-26-2010
Little things in life make day-to-day existence much more enjoyable, an obvious observation, but one that is very true. Lately I’ve been noticing a few of these. I’ve been finding that my bed looks more and more comfortable on a daily basis, probably the result of a larger volume of hard training than I’m used to. Regardless it just feels wonderful to curl up into a ball each night and drift to sleep.
Food has been a big one as well. I’ve had this strange craving for chocolate donuts. I finally gave in a bought some and they were a delicious as I had hoped. Apparently I have a sweet tooth, especially for things chocolate. I’ve added honey to my diet recently, but that just isn’t the same as good chocolate. One I accidentally stumbled on yesterday was homemade bread. I’m always amazed at how much better it tastes than pre-sliced bread made from in some factory several hours of driving away.
Unfortunately I don’t have much time for reading anymore, which means if I do find something interesting it has to be short or I can pick it up and read a couple pages or less at a time. One of my favorite topics from childhood was castles. Justine got me a book of aerial photos of English castles earlier this summer. As well as having cool pictures for my to analyze, there’s lots of good information on the evolution of the castles, perfect for a few minutes of reading before falling asleep at night! Comfort, good food, and a good read; it’s amazing how much better life is with them.
7-12-2010
This year I decided to spend the 4th of July weekend in Bar Harbor visiting Justine. While it may have been a weekend off from work, I still had plenty of training to do. We spent most of the weekend exploring the carriage roads and hiking trails near Jordan Pond. It was pretty cool to hike exposed mountaintops while being able to view sailboats on the ocean below us; definitely not a normal east coast experience. We spent quite a bit of time checking out the sites around the island. This usually involved a trip into Bar Harbor for brunch of dinner. We eat at some great restaurants; the best was definitely Two Cats, an outdoor breakfast place. We also spent some time with Justine's coworkers at the MDI lab. They were making costumes for their float in the parade, some of which were awesome. Since they were the fish lab, their costumes were different types of fish.
The night of the 4th, we went into town for dinner, caught some of the fireworks, and met up with a bunch of my college friends who were in town. They had come to run the annual Around MDI Relay, which is a 100km event, where the legs are varying distances from 2.5 to 13.1miles. After hanging out with them for a while we had great ice cream at the MDI Ice Cream Shop next to the town green. Wandering around after the fireworks is definitely recommended; traffic was gridlocked for over an hour to get out of town.
My last day in Bar Harbor, Justine ended up with most of the day off, so we checked out some of the more leisurely sites. We went to Sand Beach, which is a misnomer, since the sand is actually ground up seashells. After freezing our feet in the water we made a sand castle, complete with moat, motte, gatehouse, and a seaweed flag. It was completely childish, but so much fun!
6-22-2010
I have recently returned to the County after a few weeks in Andover. I used those weeks as a period to refresh my mind and enjoy the things that I do. As usual I had farm work to do, such as milking cows and mending fences. I learned one new skill and that was spreading manure. While this doesn't sound like a very appealing job, it was surprisingly fun. I got to load the spreader, a large red V-shaped wagon, and drive it up the road, then drive a round a field, with the spreader's scoops splattering a thin layer of manure in a 30 foot swath. It was rather mesmerizing just staring at the arc of black and brown matter; of course I had to make sure it was spraying evenly, which required constant adjustments to the lever that controlled the floodgate. Unfortunately there is a learning curve to all things; I happened to learn the hard way that you need to make sure the gate is fully shut when you begin loading the spreader. I did however do an excellent job of making sure the road was well fertilized. It even crossed my mind that the road might up and decide to grow wider as a result of the influx of fertilizer, silly really, but quite entertaining at the time!
Justine came and visited me and the farm for a week before heading to Bar Harbor for the summer. She was quite thrilled to feed and pet the calves and play with our dogs. Milking cows and getting filthy were no deterrent to her, I guess my attempts to dissuade her of hobby farming were wasted, but she had a good time nonetheless. It was fun to be able to share a glimpse of my childhood with her.
For now I'm working as a coaching intern for MWSC, which I'm really excited about. I get to do many of the things I enjoy and get paid for it, wonderful concept. If you have ideas you would like to share with me feel free to email me. I look forward to seeing many of you throughout the summer!
Russell and Nick having a laugh at my expense. Nice day of skiing in Deboullie.
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Spotted Salamander near Haystack.
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Exploring the woods - one of my favorite past-times,
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Some people never grow up!
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