The Way Life Should Be

Finally - some summertime weather has arrived in Maine. We have now had several days in a row with a decent amount of sunshine and some relatively warm temperatures. It has been a bit humid and we have had some thundershowers in the evening on a couple of days - but then that is pretty normal for Maine in July/August. The decent weather has been even more enjoyable for us since our son Brian and his family are up visiting this week from New Jersey and we have been able to get outside, go to the beach, play in the sprinkler (well Alyssa and Emily did anyway), play a little golf, and just sit outside on the deck and visit. Now that's more like the Maine Greeting - "the way life should be."

Today we have a birthday bash celebration BBQ planned for all the July and August birthday people with lots of folks scheduled to come over - so of course thundershowers are forecast for this afternoon/evening. Hopefully any rain will hold off until after we are done - but if not - we'll cook outside in the rain anyway and everybody can enjoy each other's company inside. We don't get together as a family often enough so we certainly won't let a bit of rain spoil our party!

The NJ Evringhams are heading home on Saturday and VBS starts on Monday so Peggy can catch her breath on Saturday, spend Sunday with her last minute VBS preps, and then get to have her VBS fun all week. Meanwhile, I will finish up a few projects around the house, babysit the installer(s) when we get our new bedroom windows next week, and start getting the motorhome ready for our short New York / New England Mini-Excursion planned for the last couple weeks of August.

I think I better take a nap now - I may not get another chance for a month or so!

Pondering the Republic of Texas

I've been reminded several times over the last week that Southern Texas is in the worse drought in 50 years. I really feel sorry for the folks and critters down there that rely on water for their well being - but I know where their water is! It's up here in Maine!! Now, if I could only figure out a way to easily transport it down to you Texans ... I'll start working on that right away.


Speaking of Texas ... I heard on TV the other day that the Governor of Texas has threatened to refuse to accept the national health insurance plan presently being discussed in Congress. It seems he has read the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution and believes that individual states have some sovereignty when it comes to certain actions taken (or threatened to be taken) by the federal governement that are not granted to the feds in the Constitution. You may remember that the first 10 Amendments to the Contitution are known as "the Bill of Rights." We often hear about many of the issues covered in the Bill of Rights - like "freedon of speech," and the "right to bear arms" ... but I think we are going to be hearing more about the 10th Amendment. Google it - Read it - Ponder it!

Now that I'm back from my trip down Libertarian Lane ...

Along with the return of the rainy/yucky weather to Maine - the good news is we also got a visit yesterday from the NJ Evringhams - Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily. They plan on being up here for a week so we hope to enjoy their company and get out and do some fun things while they are here - in spite any weather issues that may try to spoil their visit!

When we aren't visiting and playing with grandkids this week I hope to get some more preps completed for my future sealing of the driveway and maybe even start doing a few preparations for hitting the road again in a couple of weeks. Although the motorhome was pretty well ready to go when I put it in storage a few months ago - there are always things that need to be checked and readied before we head out.

It's time for the Maineiacs to be back in Motion ... and Texas is looking better and better.

Working Away in Vacationland

It has been a busy week here in Vacationland although it has been mostly more of the same.

I kept busy completing my re-wiring project in the basement and have moved on to re-wiring the garage. The basement project had three concurrent goals. The first goal was to decrease the load on a few circuits by adding some new circuits to a basement subpanel I had installed a number of years ago. At the same time - I decided I might as well upgrade some of the original wiring from the old original 2-wire "ungrounded" system to a safer 3-wire grounded system. Finally - I thought it would be a good idea to install all exposed wiring below the ceiling level in the unfinished portion of the basement in conduit. The garage project is kind-of the same. Mostly I wanted to install all the existing wiring in conduit (easier said than done) - but I also decided to split out the load into several separately breakered circuits. When I'm all done I think the system will be safer and much closer to today's electrical code. This is another one of those projects that started off on a much lower scale and soon ballooned to a several day and several trips to Home Depot project. But then again - if it's worth doing - it's worth doing well! (Even if it involves doing some of it for the second time!!).

Miss Peggy has entered the final phase of her VBS preparations. She is starting to gather all her supplies for each the five days. She gets real focused when she hits this phase - so it's a good thing I am staying busy and keeping out of her hair!

We managed to fit in a small birthday celebration yesterday since Mikee finished up his 59th year and is now counting down to the big Six Oh. Thanks to all for the good birthday wishes!

So besides completing some more home projects and preparing for VBS - we are looking forward to having Brian and the gang here next week and then we start getting ready to hit the road for a couple of weeks. No time to rest - summer only lasts so long here in Vacationland!!

Birthday Season

The middle of July to early August is Birthday Season at the Evringham's. Stacy starts the season with her birthday on the 13th of July. Peggy swears that July 13, 1982 was the only really hot day that year (and yes - it was a Friday). So Stacy turned 27 years young yesterday and we celebrated by having her, her "friend" Kaj, his two children Bailey and Kayla, and Eric and Jen over for a BBQ followed by cupcakes and ice cream. Mix in a few games of "Cornhole" or whatever you call the game where you throw bean bags into a hole in a board 50 or so feet away - and a good time was had by all. Next week Mikee will have his birthday on the 19th and then Nicky finishes out the month with her day on the 29th. Then Eric starts out August being born on the 4th and Brian finishes out the season with his birthday on the 9th. Whew - that's a lot of birthdays in a short period of time. Since Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily plan on visiting here during the last week in July - we think a combined birthday bash may be in order - sounds like a plan! Of course my birthday post wouldn't be complete without including our friend Darrell Patterson who turns "Golden Pass" age today and is probably on his way to the Saratoga Battlefield National Park right now to pick up his free America the Beautiful - Senior Pass. Only 3 more years and I can get mine too. Unless, of course, the Feds decide to do away with that freebie to help pay off some of our National Debt before I get there.

Except for the birthday doings yesterday it has been pretty quiet here at the Evringham Summer Home (at least for 2009 anyway). I have been moving forward on my various house projects and Peggy has kept busy working on her VBS preps and harassing me when she feels the need arise. We did have a pleasant surprise a few days ago when long time family friends - Reed and Sandy Kimzey - called to let us know they were here in Maine staying in their motorhome up around Long Lake where their son Kevin has a summer camp. Since they were traveling to Freeport to visit L.L. Bean (and several of the other outlet stores) we met up with them and their son's family for a nice visit and dinner. The last time we saw the Kimzey's was when they camped out with us at the Quiring Bed and Breakfast and RV Resort in Yreka, CA back in the summer of 2007. The Kimzey's have their Stix and Brix home in El Paso, TX - so who knows - maybe we'll drive through and say howdy some day.

Hope everybody has a great day!

Crazy

After a couple more days of rain the sun has reappeared. I wonder if this is going to be the pattern all summer? Rain for two days - sunny for a day and a half! Since the weather has not been cooperating - I have concentrated on my "inside" basement re-wiring project which is almost done. With the sun out today I guess I can move back to my driveway project and do some more patch work in preparation for the final sealing.



Peggy and I did have a nice break from our routine here on Tuesday when we went to the Maine State Music Theater in Brunswick at Bowdoin College and saw "Crazy For You." Crazy For You is a musical comedy based on Gershwin's "Girl Crazy" from the 1930s. The play had lots of old Gershwin tunes that us old folks recognized - "Someone To Watch Over Me," Embraceable You," "I Got Rhythm," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "Nice Work If You Can Get It." The Maine State Music Theater puts on about four different shows each summer. Peggy has been to more shows than I have over the years, this was only my second, but I found it to be a very entertaining 2 and a half hours. Broadway quality entertainment right here in Mid-Coast Maine - "who could ask for anything more?"



Well - I could ask for more! Since we were out anyway and sorta dressed up for the "theater" - we decided to drive over to our favorite seafood restaurant - Captain Mikes - for some broiled scallops and lobster pie. All-In-All a great day in spite of some rain.

Overtime!

Finally - some sunshine! Yesterday was a pretty nice day complete with mostly sunny skies and 70 degree temperatures and today looks to be mostly the same. It looks as if the weather pattern that parked a low pressure area right over us and kept recycling rain for 2 weeks has finally broken and maybe we can move on to summer!

I have been working on re-engineering and re-wiring several of the circuits in the house over the past week while waiting for the outside weather to improve. Why would you be doing this? - you ask. First a little background. This house was built right around 1960 with the then standard 100 Amp electric service fuse panel. Over the past 29 years we have owned the house I have "re-modeled" a few things including finishing a portion of the basement, adding several lights and outlets here and there and "powering" the garage. Since these tasks were performed piecemeal over many years - the electrical circuits are not what you call "well designed" when the electrical system as a whole is considered. In addition - I really need to upgrade the electric service to a modern 200 Amp service. So in preparation for having that done in the future - I decided that much of the work I did in the past needed to be redone/re-engineered including adding a new subpanel in the garage and re-arranging the basement circuits. I'm not sure how I get myself into these situations. One minute I'm lazing around in my early semi-retirement mode and the next I have the basement torn apart and I'm working 8 or more hours a day on "projects." Yesterday it was past quiting time when I finally knocked off for the day. What's this - unpaid overtime! This has got to stop!

It is really too bad my electrician brother-in-law Ernie lives way out in California. If he lived closer I'm sure with his help we could have this done in no time. Actually - if he lived closer I probably would have never got to this point in the first place!

Time to get to work ...

Dodging Raindrops - Again

I guess I got a little too excited too soon with last week's entry on "Sunshine." Although I did manage to get the cracks filled in the driveway during the brief dry spell - it has been been rainy/wet at some point every day since about last Saturday. Worse yet the forecast doesn't look like much will change until perhaps after this upcoming weekend! I read somewhere that this has been the 5th wettest June in southern Maine since they started keeping records. I believe it. Although July isn't starting off much better - I've got my fingers crossed in hopes of some nice summer weather before the leaves start to fall.

The new wireless internet system is working pretty good. I have found that although the speed is a bit better than what we had with cable - the consistency of the speed and quality of the connection is more variable. I have a relatively good and consistent wireless signal between home and the cell phone tower but it appears to me that the usage on the system overall has a lot to do with the quality/speed of my connection to the internet. Even with the variability in the connection - I'm satisfied overall and have gone ahead and cancelled my cable internet service. If it ever dries out around here I'll have to get the external antenna mounted on the motorhome so we can try out the system on-the-road. I can see it now - Peggy surfing the net from the co-pilot chair while I navigate the byways of America. Our new moniker will be Maineiacs on Cyberspace in Motion.

In spite of the rainy weather Peggy and I continue to keep busy around here. Besides the normal stuff that just needs to be done around here and her normal Sunday School duties Peggy has been preparing for her Vacation Bible School teaching stint early in August. As for me ... my list of non-moveable house projects is never ending. Driveways to repair, tree limbs to trim, fences to mend, wiring to replace/remodel, house to paint ... the list goes on-and-on. I try to get a little done on the list each day but sometimes it doesn't look like I make much progress.

I think we both are getting the itch to get on-the-road again. We always enjoy our time at home and always look forward to getting home once we have been gone awhile - but we have also grown to enjoy our time as gypsies seeing what's around the next corner. We plan on getting out for a bit in mid August (after VBS is over) to wander around NY state for a few weeks seeing sights and then wandering back home along some path not yet determined. After that we will check the travel budget and see what's left for the remainder of the year. Can't keep in one place too long ya know.

Until next time - Think Sunshine!!