MaryAlice Musings and More

Last Blog I was lamenting and sad that my beloved Minnesota Lynx, had lost game one of the WNBA Championship Finals,  Tuesday they came back.  It was a great game, and now we are tied up, the team is in LA, and I will rooting wildly again later tonight.  Yesterday the weather shifted, the skies are amazingly clear and the sun bright, and the winds shifted.  Instead of 80 degrees we are hardly at 50, tonight there is freeze warnings, not frost, freeze.  I have canned up all the tomatoes and am enjoying the way they look all lined up in their quart jars.  Today, nothing is pressing, there are no must do's.  These kind of days still bring about mixed emotions within myself.  Not quite sure that it is ok to just lean into whatever it is I want to do, or to do nothing at all.   I have a meeting with library folks later today and I have a reminder set so that I do not forget!  What lays ahead is a whole day, of crisp air, bright beautiful...

What a game 1 of the WNBA Finals.  Before you could get settled into your seat LA jumped out to a 28 point lead, the Lynx being the Lynx did not roll over and continued to fight back and kept clouding in, and chipping away at LA's lead.  It was late in the 4th quarter that MN Took the lead, what a feat, but with 6 seconds La went ahead by 1 and they won the game.  I can't imagine whT the players are feeling, I am exhausted and feel very emotionally spent.  Tuesday is another game and I will be ready and so will the Lynx. As an antedote I finished varnishing my bench, three coats today, and it us looking fine.  This is a bench that Org, first girlfriend made for me 49 years ago, it has been sanded and now varnished and it looks great.  Lots of good sitting on this bench, years it was a table for treasures and now it is in Millinocket and will have a renewed life for sitting and chatting g and enjoying being outdoors. It is still very summer like and we h...

I have so appreciated each and every day of this month. It is the first day of fall, and we are still basking in brilliant sunshine and warmth.  It has been warm every day, and people continue to be grateful for such beautiful days.  The trees are beginning to turn, and on way to pick up vegetables at Gardiner Farm this week I could begin to see the color taking shape.  I have been busy, each day I find myself sorting, tossing, cleaning and preparing for the changing season.   I have my 2017 Lynx playoff towel and pint glass with the new Lynx logo on the fireplace mantel.  This will be the first playoff that I am missing, but I have been glued to the television and have been rooting loudly from my chair, and texting to fans at the game!  On Sunday afternoon I will be ready and cheering for a game 1 win, and one step closer to being the WNBA Champions for the 4th time.  More about them later.  September does mean the WNBA playoffs, and anothe...

This morning has been an A+ weather day.  I love these glorious September days, you just savor them, and that is what I hit you do this morning.  I have spent the morning on the porch, it faces east and the sun is shining brightly.  Pandora is playing Cecile McLorin Salvant, I love it.  There are lots of dog walkers this a.m.  it is hilarious to see the combos walking by.  The kids are in school, so it is much more quiet.  I have been going each day and I am enjoying just hanging out, reading paper, doing some emails, and just appreciating how much I like Milly Haven!  Tina is cleaning and I get a clean house and contribute to the very local economy.  We have little moments of conversation, she likes my organic products and I have ordered more for her to use.  Jazz in the foreground and sounds of sweeping and dusting just barely heard.  It is such a gift to have a day like this when nothing is niggling to get done, no unattended j...

Yesterday I gave you a quick tour of my weekend of sharing my new life in Millinocket with friends.  In thinking about that blog what I did not talk about is what touches me, opens my heart, and grounds me in this beautiful region I am learning to call home.  Millinocket itself is quite the place, once a booming "magic city" now it is struggling to find a way forward, honor the past, and facilitate believing that this once bustling town can find a way to thrive.  I am one of the "retired" people that still live in Millinocket, some never left (and many of them spend their winters in Florida) and some like me came for a variety of reasons, one being affordability.  Millinocket needs more than old people, we need families, in order to have families you have to have jobs,  in order to have jobs you have to have a skilled workforce .... all of this is yet to come!  The businesses that have survived and the ones that are new all are begging for workers....

It was quite fun to be host to my friends Kathy and Irv.  Since Thursday we have done my version of the Katahdin Woods and Water tour!  Kathy and Irv drove up from Stonington CT.  That is where I visited with they in late August.  I got to have some sea salt time and they got to come to the fresh water.  Thursday afternoon began with a tour of Milly Haven,  so fun to show friends the amazing house the Debbie, Debbie and I have created in Millinocket.  We then took our first tour of main street, stopped out to the camp, and made our way out to River Driver's.  (More about Main Street later!)  We met the Fanjoy's for supper, had great fun, leisurely drinks and lots of good stories and connections.  They loved the location, the building and the company.  We stayed in Millinocket and got ready for more sightseeing and camp the next day.  Friday after breakfast we headed out on the Katahdin Woods and Water Scenic B...

Pictures and stories soon!  It is a very good day!  Hope all stay well and safe as yet another hurricane approaches!

Today's post title comes from Penzey's spices.  I have it on my refrigerator, and smile every time I open the door!  Today I spent much of the day preparing and cooking meals for our weekend out at camp!  Kathy and Irv arrive later tomorrow and we are spending Thursday in Millinocket and out to River Drivers for drinks and supper!  But today was my day to get the food and start the cooking for the weekend.  The lentil soup is simmering on the stove and it is tasty!  We are having just the right weather for soup and hard bread!  On another pot on the stove I just finished the bolognese sauce, i love making this recipe.  My Italian tutor figured out very quickly that talking about food and recipes was a great way for me to lose my panic and just lean into the language.  I have her Gramma's recipe and I wrote it out in Italian as she spoke in her native language, going step by step.  I was incredulous many times - "latte"? no, but si (yes)!...

I heard people today talking about it being muggy.  I felt the softness.  Today was almost a work day for me, got up very early to prepare for a planning meeting.  It felt like the first day of school for me as I cut butcher block paper into big sheets, got my packets of post-it notes, and gathered up markers for our meeting.  I put it all in my bag and was out the door before 9 a.m.  We had a great meeting and I felt good as I left.  Then I turned on the radio, immediately saddened, outraged, scared and very worried about our country as we live with a President who only wants to erase any work done by the administration of our black president.  It is terrifying to think about how deeply vindictive and racist Trump is, and horrifying that the republicans in congress just keep going along with their guy, even when they try to distance themselves from him.  I can't imagine how it feels to be a young adult who came to the U.S. as a young child, and...

Woke up still smiling after watching the Minnesota Lynx win their final regular season game last night.  Once again they are the number 1 team in the league and have home court advantage through the playoffs.  I love rooting the team on from Maine, if they are not on TV I watch them on WNBA Live Access.  I am just silly and happy and anxious with each play.  I love this team, their coach and the support from all the fans.  At this point I am not planning on going to MN for the playoffs, but who knows!  I am hoping that they might play Connecticut and maybe I would travel to Mohegan Sun to root them on for their away games!  I did manage to do a few things that needed to get done today.  Wrote cards and letters, paid bills, put some summer clothes away,  and hung a few more pictures. Mostly it was just a great day for reading my book, doing a little knitting and enjoying the warmth of the sun.  It did not feel like a summer day, there...

Yesterday I left Millinocket for a Meet n Greet Lunch with SAGE members in the Bangor area.  Sage is a national group with state and local groups, it is an advocacy group for LGBT seniors, is is for anyone in there fifties,  and I knew this was a group I wanted to join when I moved to Maine.  This was the second time I drove down for the monthly luncheon meeting.  How different, here we are all, mostly everyone is fully retired.  The conversations are not about work and not about the weather either.  There are couples, married and not, singles, widows and widowers.  Some in the 60's, many in their 70's and some younger or older.  Many know each other for years, and there is a smaller group of us that are just getting to know someone in the area.  I arrived a little early and no one was there, I went for a walk and when I returned there were five very gay guys at the entrance.  I knew I was at the right place and also hoping that some o...

Wow!  I changed the calendar month, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees!  Today when I woke up the sky was crystal blue, puff clouds floating along, and my first thought was appreciation of a beautiful morning. Then I realized, baby it is cold outside!  Hot tea this morning, but not on the porch, inside at the dining room table listening to NPR Morning Edition.  I put my National Park Service fleece on and for the fourth day in a row this week I walked to the library for the monthly volunteer meeting.  It is so comforting that there are these things that happen regularly and that I do - 1st Friday at 9 a.m. the library volunteer meeting!  Then off to the Katahdin Woods and Water Millinocket contact service station - aka the Millinocket visitors office!  That is why I have my NPS fleece on, ready for my Volunteers in the Park (VIP) shift!  Today is a very slow day at the office, but I get a little time to visit with Lynn from the Park servic...