The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey January 15, 2025

15 January 2025

For the Mainers that love pond hockey, it's a good start to the year. It's been really quite cold up here. Not a bunch of snow, but cold. The dog and I continue our 2-1/2 mile daily walks, but next week when the lows will be below 0° F, and the highs a couple of days in the single digits (not counting wind chill), we may do somewhat abbreviated outings. We can stay warm, though - our pellet stove does well for us. A couple of bucks worth of pellets a day keeps the main floor at an even 70°…

Brian Bilbrey December 31, 2024

31 Dec 2024

I've tried, and mostly failed, to post more this year, but I'll keep at it. Frankly, there's more to occupy my attention and time up here in the hinterlands. Late Spring into Early Fall is all about work, yard work, and fishing. The rest of the time, it's work, yard work, snow management (when that happens), heating management (all the time, split wood to re-split and re-stack, 40# bags of pellets to move around, etc). I'm not grumpy about this, we have a good life up here in Maine, we're both more relaxed and ... happier. WInter dog walks make…

Brian Bilbrey November 27, 2024

27 November 2024

Y'all, if you're in a place where you can or will celebrate a Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, please enjoy it! Family? Friends? Pets? Alone? All or any of those are a reason to give thanks each and every day, regardless of a specific date on the (Hallmark(tm)) calendar. So even without a holiday, have the best day you can. For us, we're going to be starting the day with blueberry scones (so Marcia tells me). We're baking a large, unpardoned turkey for the main course, and there will be some mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade cranberry sauce (just cranberries, water, sugar, and…

Brian Bilbrey November 13, 2024

13 November 2024

Yeah, so Friday the 13th falls on a Wednesday this month. That happens. Every time I receive an email, or see an advertisement for a car touting the safety features, it makes me want to go out, buy an old Lamborghini, and drive like a hoon with four outstanding ASBOs. We got a survey about Subarus recently. We really like our Outback, but the Driver Monitoring System (which can be temporarily disabled, but not permanently) drives me bonkers. I said as much, noting that it would probably keep me from buying another Subi.... but then I bet ALL the freaking…

Brian Bilbrey November 3, 2024

3 November 2024

Just FYI, I took another 9 truck loads of leaves to the city composting heap on Friday. This was the big batch. In another week I'll clear leaves one more time, and call it a Fall for those purposes. But before the leaves and the firewood, it was September when the boat saw it's last few outings for the year, and the final fish was caught. As Fall approached, the acorns were falling like mad. Felt like it was going to fill the boat... I exaggerate, of course: Three weekends in a row, I cleaned out acorns from the boat…