8/11/01

log entry time: too fucking early

We are on the road bombing towards Maine as owen drinks a hazelnut coffee fufu drink. I haven't had my caffeine infusion yet. Owen is also a flaming moron, that can't start his own car.

The day's events will be briefly cataloged here. Battery life is limited, so I will be brief.

I was prepared to leave Hingham and pick up the boys at 6am as planned. Went out to the car, threw my stuff in the back, jumped behind the wheel, turned the key, and...

Nothing. At first I thought the battery was dead, so I called Jason to come over and help me jump it. He and Big Guy (not present on this journey) came right over. Jason stood around saying "six o'clock" a lot, while Big Guy and I fiddled with the car. To make a long story short, Mr. Jones finally figured out that I had left the car in "Drive" when I came home last night, apparently because I was paying too much attention to setting the parking brake. With the car in "Park," it started right up, and we were off around 6:40.

The drive was easy, with two minor "incidents." In Dexter, a parade along Route 23 forced us to ask a truly Downeaster state cop for directions. I said "how can we get to 23 from here," and he said "well, that's a good question..." Not very reassuring. He eventually pointed us to "the simplest way," although it was a good 20 minutes out of our way. The other incident occurred in Guilford. The signage was not quite as clear as it could have been, so I ended up on Route 150 south instead of 6/15 North, just because I didn't turn far enough to the right. Luckily that only took us a total of 10 minutes out of our way. Despite both of these unexpected changes of plan, we made it to Greenville in around five hours.

On arrival, the parents prepared some lunch, Jason immediately got a line in the water (fishing line, that is), and Andrew and I got the boat in the water and put the outboard on it. After a few minutes of fiddling with the carburetor adjustments, Andrew was able to bring the engine from a rolling boil to a gentle purr, and all three of us headed off to the other end of the lake for some sightseeing. Jason fished near the damn, but only after many failed attempts to cast, accompanied by refusal of advice from me.

When we returned from our jaunt, I dozed in a chair on the point while Andrew read his book and Jason fished some more. Then we headed into town to gas up the car and get bait for Jason to experiment with. On the way back, we observed the Belted Galloways (oreo cookie cows), and stopped at the airport to check out the planes that were parked there. I wanted to show the boys the DC-10 on pontoons, but it didn't seem to be around. Tomorrow we'll have to check to see if it's at Folsom's lot downtown.

After a dinner of chicken, squash, and cous-cous, the three of us played a brutal game of Scrabble. The scores: Jason - 166, Andrew - 128, Owen - 95. So much for the English major. Plans for tomorrow include a ride on the Katahdin, some more shopping for forgotten food and clothing items, and perhaps a walk up to the B-52 crash site on Elephant mountain.

I remembered to bring my digital camera AND the necessary software to download pictures from it to Andrew's laptop, but of course I forgot the cable that I would need to connect to the two together. Curses. I suspect that this is the first time a computer has ever been used at East of the Sun. A milestone, to be sure.

8/12/01

A brief summary of today's events. I slept until 9 or so, during which time Andrew and Jason woke up, showered, read, and did some light fishing. Once I was awake, my parents prepared a breakfast feast of bacon (slightly burned) and pancakes, complemented with blueberry-peach syrup. Coffee rounded out the meal well.

Fully sustained, we headed out in search of the B-52 crash site on Elephant mountain. Unfortunately, new roads had been cut since the directions we had were written, and after retracing our steps several times, we gave up. After consulting with Dad, I have determined where we went wrong, so perhaps tomorrow afternoon or Tuesday we will attempt to visit the site again.

After our failed journey, we headed into town so that Jason could replenish his worm supply. I also wanted to stock up on OJ for the week, as well as stop by Folsom's flying service to see if the DC-10 on pontoons was there. It was, and we marveled at it briefly.

After returning to camp, Jason continued fishing this time from the canoe offshore. Andrew helped him paddle out to their spot, and then read his book while Jason angled. I sat outside and watched the festivities from my chair, also with a book. Just before my parents were preparing to leave, we discovered that the water pressure seemed to have dropped off. Investigation of the water line by my Dad eventually lead to the discovery that there were air bubbles in the pipe. He made some adjustments to let out the air, and all was well. Shortly thereafter, he and my Mother departed, leaving the three of us to our devices. We cooked dinner on the grill, consisting of hamburgers, hot dogs, and corn. Andrew had several beers, and now seems to be mildly inebriated. We ate outside, and afterward Jason attempted to make use of the rope swing. Unfortunately, he was not in a present enough state of mind to be safe, so he swung into a tree several times, to the absolute hilarity of Andrew and myself. Tears were streaming down our faces.

Now, it's time for some dessert, followed by a competitive board game. I'm going to look for the Monopoly board, but failing that, we will play Scrabble. I'm sure Andrew's attempts at word formation will be even more hilarious than usual.

8/13/01

Yesterday afternoon, I said "I am swimming to the island." So I did. Jason was a little ticked off because before I had said "I guess that I am only going to go part way." As Owen came around with his motor boat, I figured that this was as good a time as any to go all the way to the island, and so I kept going. When we got to the island, Jason called me several expletives about going all the way, but in my opinion, he did not have any right. He got in the boat with Owen and drove back while I swam back. The water up here is really quite amazing. It is clear such that you can see the bottom around 10 feet below you.

I am now sitting at the main table on Monday around 8:45AM. It is quite amazing that I am up and going so early. Jason just got up, slammed down some rasin bran, and went to check on his minnow trap. Captain Ahab has put quite a bit of time into trying to catch some lake dwellers, but so far he has caught exactly squat. I am glad he relented from his "live off the land" philosophy.

Ahab just came sprinting up the hill holding the minnow trap. He came in and shook it above Owen's bed (owen is still basically asleep) screaming how he had got the foul beast. After owen said something to the effect of "for the love of god" ahab went back to the dock. I imagine that he is probably going to be pestering that poor fish all day. I am going to run down there now and try to stop him from doing anything particularly cruel. I guess at least now Ahab can't say that the guy at the indian hill mall lied to him.

We have had a fine day's adventure. After Jason dangled his dead fish over my bed at 8 a.m., I arose from my slumber and ate a breakfast of eggs prepared by Andrew. Once we had all showered and eaten, we climbed into the car to drive to Rockwood, there to be ferried over to Mount Kineo for a day of hiking. We got there a little earlier than I had anticipated, so we ate our lunches by the lake, and then headed across it to the island. Andrew and Jason scrambled up the Indian trail, which is very steep, like a pair of billy goats. I, on the other hand, huffed and puffed my way to the top. I am no longer the pantheon of athletic prowess that I once was.

At the top, we enjoyed the view from an observation tower and I took a few pictures. When we were fully rested, we headed back down the mountain, I on the Bridle trail (easier) and Andrew and Jason back along the Indian trail. At the bottom, we soaked our feet in the lake to cool off while we waited for the shuttle to take us back to Rockwood.

We came back to camp around 3 p.m., and I took a nap to try to shake off a headache I had aquired earlier. Andrew read his book, and Jason hacked up his fish in an attempt to catch more fish. After my nap, we headed back into town for dinner at the Lost Lobster. Jason traumatized the poor waitress with his "charm," while Andrew and I were very embarassed. Andrew and Jason had haddock sandwiches, and I had a fried shrimp plate. The food was very good.

Now we are back at camp. Andrew and Jason are arguing about the finer points of playing Hearts with fewer than four players. It looks as though it may rain tomorrow, but if it does, we can amuse ourselves here with our books, if nothing else.

8/14/01

I am an endearing rogue. That waitress was all over me

Woot woot. Max wag on the crownbaby! Hooten all the way!

ME TARZAN

Battery life is dwindling, I think because Jason left the laptop on after his entry this morning. Andrew's attempt at making coffee in the percolator was a spectacular failure because he didn't realize that my Dad left us directions on its use. The result was watery and un-appetizing. In order to get Jason to shut up about it, "it's bilge water!" I poured out Andrew's concoction and made my own attempt, this time with the directions in hand. Rather than being too weak, I think that my version was a bit too strong. However, we're all awake now, so it's all good.

After breakfast, Andrew swam out to the island again. I trailed him in the boat, enjoying the lovely views and the lovely weather. Once he reached the island, Andrew decided to continue swimming all the way around it. This is no small feat, considering that the island is probably a quarter-mile long. Nevertheless, he made it around and back home again in about an hour.

Now Jason is out in the canoe snoozing with a worm in the water. Andrew and I are headed into town to charge up the laptop (hopefully) and wash some sheets. I also would like to walk around and take a few pictures to help document the trip more fully. Perhaps we'll go to Hamilton's antiques and browse the selection there.

While Andrew's sheets were washing, we strolled down toward the lake and I took a few pictures of the Kathadin, a seaplane landing (great action shot), and the DC-10 on pontoons. Later we went to the grocery store, where we bought Smartfood, Pepsi, charcoal, and lighter fluid. Andrew also bought Jason some Moosehead lager, which he proclaimed to be "OK." I went to an ATM for cash, and Andrew bought some corn at a farm stand. After that, we gassed up the car, filled the tank for the outboard, and also brought the pressure in our Land Ark's tires up to the recommended 32 psi.

When we returned home, we had a light lunch, and then some boating adventures. Jason went back out in the canoe to serenade the fish some more (to no avail), and Andrew and I took the boat out for some sightseeing. I took pictures of lovely landscapes, some of the cooler cottages, and first mate Lamb. Now we're back on dry land, Andrew and Jason are reading their books outside. I just heard a car alarm shattering the otherwise perfect silence. What moron would possibly be so concerned that his car might get stolen out of his driveway on Wilson Pond that he would turn on his car alarm? Some people!

Some people are just different. Take jason, for instance. He is a great guy in many ways, but if I were to meet him in the street tomorrow for the first time I would think that he was an asshole. I shudder to think what he would think of me.

Apparently Owen does not like being beaten by us in Trivial Pursuit. He said that he doesn't want to play again tonight because "it is too hard with teams of one." Oh well, his loss. Anyways, this morning I had a wonderful swim around the island out front of Owen's cabin. Owen accompanied me in his motor boat, pointing out to me near the end that I was about 90 degrees off course. After a quick correction I was back to the cabin.

This afternoon, after jason showed us all his blazing sunburn (can we say lobster -- and he has a tan line to boot) I stupidly threw myself off the side of the embankment into waist high water. Although I tempted fate about 5 times, thankfully I still have the use of all of my limbs. After I called Jason a wus, he too joined in the festivities. I think that Owen got some good pictures of us being foolish. While he snapped shots and shouted advice, when challanged to put his life on the line he declined.

After that foolishness and before dinner, jason attempted to call Iggy (spelling Agz--- is way too hard) He said to the person answering the phone "Hey Toots", then "Toots?" then "Hello, may I please speak to Agz---" then "may I talk to Agz---- Musical" Then he hung up and tried another number. I think he got through eventually, but apparently Iggy is slaving away and doesn't want to talk.

Then we cooked dinner. Jason confided to me that he eats a lot of ham at school, which explains quite a bit. However, we made it through the cooking with no voice raisings, and half a bottle of lighter fluid. Speaking of voice raisings, Owen is lecturing jason about the finer points of book ownership. Like, for instance, not crushing the spine with your dirty feet. Jason carried on in the same manner to spite him.

I think that this journal entry thing has to go.