Public Sauna.. for FREE

Unless you live in a cave, where it's nice and cool and the ambient humidity stays low underground, you probably are well aware that we have enjoyed 2 knockout summer days in a row. Around here, sizzler isn't a restaurant, it's an adjective for the intensity of heat and the humidity that comes with it.

Our local sizzler restaurant closed and became a gym. Ironic.. All those 'fall-off-the-bone ribs', burgers, chicken and other greasy offerings replaced by people wanting to get fit as a result. All this talk of meat.. I'm gonna go throw a steak on the grill.. of my car. I bet that would be a rare occurrence. Pun intended.. (Well done Dan, well done!) 2nd pun. Man.. I crack myself up..

I still think my idea of a combined gym/laundromat would be a hit. Laundry is boring, boring, boring. I usually walk down to the pet store or hang with my friends Don and Cheryl, the laundry owners, while my duds go kathump kathump. Just picture it for a moment. Instead of reading a magazine or watching endless episodes of the Waltons or Little House on the Prairie, you could leap onto a treadmill or elliptical and make.. more dirty laundry. I think it is job security for whoever takes my idea and runs with it.

Anyhow. Enough of that. It has become necessary, for sleeping comfort at least, to run a window insertable cooling device for a couple of hours before bed. My version has a remote control. I can be at full command of my entire domain from the comfort of my couch. Music, entertainment and comfort. Whoever invented the couch is a genius, but I bet he or she never envisioned it becoming a 'home command center'.


Late this afternoon, I had to run for my camera. In the eastern sky, there was the most amazing thunderhead formation growing. Unfortunately it was moving away, denying us of the downpour of rain that we could have run around in. I snapped several pics of the formation and have a couple here for your optical enjoyment. Ok ok.. I might have done a little tweaking on one of them in CS2, but I wanted it to look really angry. The pictures do the scene some justice, but it doesn't really allow the colossal scale to be realized. Think of it as looking out your window and seeing Mt. Everest looming over the pines.. That was how it felt.

Tomorrow evening, as per usual on Fridays, is dinner at my place. Open invitation. Drop me a quick call so I can plan deliciousness. My old friend SJC is coming with Sue and I know Elizabeth is coming. So what are you waiting for? Grab the phone now and come hang with us. You know you want to.
Later~

This Week Flew By

Thought it was only yesterday that I posted.. well, not really. It only seems that way.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to go see "West Side Story" at the Maine State Music Theater on Tuesday. Here's a link: http://www.msmt.org/ (photos by Pierce studio). It was fantastic. I borrowed these pictures from the web as photography during performances is 'strictly prohibited.' Too bad! We were in row B on the right side of the stage! In the center section of the theater, there is one more row, row A, but on our side of the stage, row B is in the front. So cool! Everyone involved with these productions are professionals who come up to Brunswick from New York. I've never seen a play on Broadway, but I doubt it would be any better. Matt and Joann took me to see it with them. Thanks Joann and Matt!

Shelley has started going to the gym with me every weekday morning at 6. I am ecstatic. It was always fun, because I get to work out with Joann and joke around with Matt, but having my sister coming in is extra fun. We are good at motivating each other. If I had my way, I'd have my whole fam damily working out there. Yeah, I spelled that wrong on purpose.. Shell took a liking to Joann's ipod shuffle and got one. Had to kinda help her with it.. I wouldn't call her electronically challenged... well.. not to her face anyways..

Father's Day on the Lakeside

Father's Day was wonderful. I got some long awaited one-on-one time with my sis, Shelley, and as usual we were cracking up all the way up to Dad's house (especially after we were both hopped-up on caffeine and sugar from our iced coffees from DND.) She took her Mustang, and I suffered through the ride in that beauty as best I could. I did get scolded when I committed a very minor "indiscretion" involving air quality within the bounds of her car. We had the windows open, so I thought it was ok. She had concerns about permanent damage to the leather upholstery, which were unfounded, I think.

Lunch was, as usual, awesome. Barbie and her sis Linda made amazing burgers and dogs on the grill with some crazy good crinkly fries. I had to stop eating the fries or I would still be eating them now. I brought the fixin's for my now world renown deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms. Dad enlisted my help and advice with creating a magical macaroni salad. The secret ingredients made it most delicious. If I told you what we did, it wouldn't be a secret now would it? Then, as if anyone had any room left, we had brownies and ice cream. Glad I skipped breakfast today because if anyone had offered me a thin mint, I might have popped, no matter how wafer thin.


Once we were all satisfied with our excellent summer fare, and when my bro-in-law Gene and nephew Will were finished destroying the hammock, almost all of us piled on to the party barge for a cruise up the lake. Even though the sky was a little angry, it only rained once for just a short while. Then it opened up and got nice and sunny/steamy. It is so peaceful on the lake. The late afternoon there makes the water like glass. Several loons surfaced and didn't even seem fazed by the presence of 4 dogs on the boat with us. Can't wait to go up there again soon and take some friends with me. Dad and Barbie make anyone and everyone feel like long lost family returning home, and it is awesome.
Later~

Otter Pops?

Apparently, there is a large contingent of people out there who have no idea what Otter Pops are. If y0u have read my blog thoroughly, you might have noticed that Otter Pops are included on my list of interests when you click "View my complete profile." They are there for a reason.

Every summer, I find it is necessary to supply my freezer with some nice cool refreshment. My freezer, in turn supplies me with some frozen treats that are second to none.

I know. There are other freezer pops out there, but none can match Otter Pops for variety of flavors and quality. Also, they are the perfect size.. Any smaller, and you'd think "hey, that was kinda small.." any bigger and you'd get a freeze pop headache, and nobody needs that.

Another reason they are so awesome, is the names they give each flavor.. I could tell you, but then you would have no surprise left when you go out and find some for yourself.


Otter pops come in two sizes, that I have seen. 18 packs, for beginners, and 100 packs for the connoisseur. I have never purchased the 18 pack. That just seems silly. 100 packs are $3.00 You read that right! Three Dollars! In my locale, the only place I have found them, ironically, is Rite Aid drug store.

So get out there and get yourself some real delicious Summer treats today. They are seasonal, so once they're gone, they're gone. If you don't buy them, someone else will.. Probably me!

Footnote:
Dear Jel Sert Corporation, http://www.jelsert.com/products_otter.asp
If you read this blog entry and feel as though I should be compensated for my praises sung of your wonderful product, please contact me through my blog and I will accept any remuneration in the form of cash, stocks, shares or cases of Otter Pops.
Sincerely, Dan

Beautiful Brunswick Maine

As promised in an earlier blog, here are some choice pictures of Brunswick I took yesterday.

First, is the monument to Civil War Hero Brevet Major General Joshua Chamberlain, on the Bowdoin College campus. Thanks to the crude humor of some of the Bowdoin students, I have seen the statue dressed up as Santa Claus, and I've seen it donning a bra.

Second is a shot of the beautiful Bowdoin campus pathways. Took me an hour to sweep the grass clippings off the paths.

Third is 2 of the gracious captains houses on Park Row. Gracious? I don't know.. It sounded good..

Fourth is the view of Fort Andross, from across the Androscoggin River in Topsham. Fort Andross is a renovated mill complex that now contains many businesses: restaurants, offices, boutiques, antique stores and a theater venue for live music and other entertainment. A disco would make it perfect.

Fifth is the 1932 Frank J. Wood bridge connecting Topsham and Brunswick. Try bungee jumping off that, and you'll crack your head like a nut.

Finally, sixth is the view of Topsham from the Brunswick side of the same bridge. It shows the old Bowdoin Mill complex, also rejuvenated with many offices and restaurants, including Sea Dog Brewery... Don't ask me how I would know that...

This is all for now, but there are more to come. I need to re-size them and get them uploaded to the site. Enjoy!

Later~

Photos published

This is kind of cool! On returning from my treatment in Portland today, a thick black plume of smoke was seen on the horizon. I grabbed my camera and Matt jumped in the car with me to investigate. It was so big and scary, we didn't know if the town of Brunswick was burning or what. Minutes later, we discovered the plume was coming from the NASB, Brunswick Naval Air Base. We made a couple of passes on the road at the end of the runway, snapping a few pictures. Turns out, one of the old wooden hangars on base had caught fire, and many surrounding fire departments had been called in to assist the navy's force. The hangar was from the WWII era, and either being renovated or torn down. It is not clear which.

Being wise guys, we headed back home. Matt watched as I emailed the best pictures to two local television stations, WGME and WCSH. Both stations posted either one or both of the pictures we took on their news websites, with my name credited as the photographer on them. We were so stoked seeing something we did show up on the web for all to see. I never thought of myself as an ambulance chaser or news photographer, but I got bit by a bug today. The thrill might be addicting enough to pursue alot more.

My Old Friend SJC

I went to see John tonight. Without question he is one of the funniest people I know. Whenever we run into each other, it's like our conversation from months ago picks right back up from where it left off. Both he and his wife Sue have always made me feel like I am very welcome and loved whenever we get together. Tonight we spent most of our time on their backyard patio talking by the outdoor fireplace. It was a great spot to just reminisce and exchange the latest jokes.

Our history goes way back, John and I. We worked together for many years and had many gut-busting times. We could always crack each other up, no matter what was going on around us.. A fine example of that would be our little hot glue gun/compressed air experiments. We had the whole shop "cob-webbed" one day and it was hysterical. Our boss wasn't necessarily impressed.

On one occasion, when we felt extra devious, (daily occurrence) we discovered that we could shoot grapes through a plastic tube out the shop window at our boss's goats. I don't know if we could have laughed any more than we did that day. After that, if we just opened the window and made a pfffffftt sound, the goats would run away, much to our satisfaction.

John is a retired merchant seaman and would always sing perverse sea shanty's and other limericks. Luckily, we have pretty much a compatible taste in music, so our work CD collection was usually dually tolerable. Eventually, I did convince John that Yanni was spectacular. I do have some doubt though whether he has any of his CD's. Shame.

One of these Fridays, he and Sue have GOT to come over for dinner and hang out with the rest of us.. (I know you're reading this John, so consider this a reminder.)

John has a truck. John has a very big beast of a truck. His Diesel pride and joy, no less. Some may say it needs a ladder to climb up into it. I think it must be 3 or 4 feet off the ground. Huge beefy tires on shiny polished rims. It has some interesting modifications to it too. Too many gauges to count.. oil pressure, turbo pressure, coolant temperature, altimeter... all mounted on the dashboard like chicks in a row. He's got a really class tonneau cover and rack in the bed as well. Hmmm.. most people buy tanks of propane for their outdoor grills... interesting..

Oh yeah. If you're ever in the area and you're following a huge black Ford pickup truck, and suddenly get a hankering for french fries, blame John. He bought a kit so he can used recycled cooking oils. Dee licious. First time he showed it off to me, I could swear I smelled donuts. Would that mean that the smoke rings created by his exhaust pipe would be the ghosts of donuts past?

Love you buddy. Keep in touch and behave yourself. And Sue.. sorry for the dirty jokes. Wait a sec.... you live with John.. NEVER MIND!
Later~

WAX ON...

For the past few weeks, every Friday night, all my pals seem to turn their cars towards my house and join me for dinner and a few laughs.. Until this week. For one reason or another, everyone had somewhere to be Friday night. Was I upset? Absolutely.... not. I was rather relieved, to be honest, because my "day in the life" photo project took so much effort. I welcomed the break. Instead, I just called everybody up and had them come over Saturday afternoon instead.


What started out as Friday night's small gathering moving to Saturday, evolved into the "FIRST ANNUAL MEADOWVIEW CAR SHOW". Yep, Elizabeth and Roy came with their black beauty, my sister made an appearance with her 2 boys in her 'windveil blue' 'Stang, and Dad and Barbie showed up in their convertible bug!




It was a great time. Everyone was admiring the Ferguson's mustang, with it's fresh paint and new hood scoop. Roy and Elizabeth, against my recommendation, did not sell tickets for rides in their baby.. My nephew Richie, along with Matt and Eric were taking in the whole show. Maybe next year, we'll bring in another car or two. Being the perfect host, I had fresh fruit, stuffed mushrooms and wasabi deviled eggs for everybody.


All in all, the whole time we had together was awesome. The sky looked a little threatening at times, but it was rain free and warm. If I get my way, this will have to become more than an annual event. This is something I hope happens several times all summer. Gives me a good excuse to clean out my fabulous Honda Accord coupe (V6!) and baby it the way it deserves..
Later~

Paint and Saliva

As promised in my last blog, "a day in the life of Dan" began at 5 am this morning. Throughout the day, until tonight, I somehow managed to take 177 pictures! The picture seen here is only one of them. It'll likely take a couple of days to process and sort them for upload, but it will be amazing, simply amazing. Probably too much information for some, but also hysterical.

Ok, back to the picture seen here.. This morning, after my workout and morning routine was done, I left to go to Portland for my phototherapy treatment at the dermatologist's.

Since Roy and Elizabeth's Mustang was not ready for them to pick up yesterday, I left for my treatment early and stopped by the Ford dealership on my way to Portland to see if it was there yet.. Alas, no car. It hadn't been delivered back from the painters in Lewiston.

Roy was dismayed, yet hopeful when I gave him the news. Always optimistic is he. So on I went to Portland. I re-assured Roy that I would stop by the dealership again on my way home and report back to him what I saw.. Again, no car in sight.. I relayed this to Roy yet again, hopeful that he would hear from the dealership soon.

So I pulled my car onto the highway and headed home. Listening to the radio and enjoying the breeze rustling through my eyebrows, I wasn't paying much attention to anything in particular. About a mile up the highway, something caught my eye in the distance. I am not kidding when I tell you what happened next. 2 big, wide stripes, white in color, on a shiny black car, came closer and closer. I thought to myself, "It can't be. What are the odds of that?" NO KIDDING! As I passed the BLACK mustang with the WHITE stripes I knew. I pulled off the next exit and headed back down Route 1 for the dealership. By the time I got there, there were four or five sales people and service personnel standing around the car. I called ROY. I took pictures with my cellphone and sent them to ROY. ROY was some friggin' relieved.. After giving the poor guy the confirmation he was waiting for, I finally headed home, for real this time..

Within maybe 10 minutes of arriving back home, I get a text message on my phone. "On my way!" was all it said. 15 minutes later, one very happy man with a big, wide, permanent smile on his face, pulled into my parking lot. What a beautiful job the paint shop did. The attention to detail and level of care was so obvious in everything. My bud Matt, nextdoor, who is not easily impressed by cars at all, was blown away. We just spent the next twenty minutes making crazy circles around the car admiring it. I just hope that saliva doesn't ruin fresh paint, 'cause we were drooling all over that baby.

Well, it is still pretty early, but I am gonna call it a day. I'm tired, but want to get up early tomorrow and take pictures of intown Brunswick and Topsham, as you may recall from yesterday's entry. Until then, happy highways all!
Later~

Time Flies

Ever notice how, as we age, time seems to start accelerating faster and faster? I was doing my 30 minutes on the treadmill this morning, and it occurred to me. I've been going back to the gym for nearly 3 weeks already. Couldn't believe it. We just took down the Christmas lights and it is well into June already.. I can still tell where the last snowbank of the winter season was.

Don't like scales too much.. I weighed in at the end of my first week, but haven't gotten back on the scale since. I'd rather wait, for whatever reason. Maybe it's because it'll be a bigger payoff by then, whenever "then" is.

I've been doing some job hunting this week. Since my doctor said I could start looking around for work, I have checked out several online help wanted sites. Since Portland is my 3 day-a-week destination for treatments, I wouldn't mind working there. More on that in a later blog as things develop.

I like Topsham too much to move to Portland. Topsham is still much quieter and has nearly everything Portland has too, 'cept for Olive Garden and an international airport. Besides, I just moved. It'll be a while now before I do that again. Hopefully next time it will be for something other than a flooded house. That would be cool.. way cool. Hey, wanna come over and use my wading pool? Cool! I use it as my bedroom at night too. (not so cool)

Tomorrow, I'm taking my digital camera out for a romp. Kind of a 'day in the life' kind of thing. We'll see how it goes. I'll put up some choice shots so you all can bathe in the excitement of my typical day. In addition, I'm going to spend some time this weekend to take some pictures of my 2 towns, Topsham and Brunswick. I'll try to make it interesting for you!
Later~