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You may have detected a bit of a gap here. Aside from the last two posts (only one of which was a piece that I wrote), there are a few of you out there that may have noticed that I’ve been, well, totally absent. I haven’t written. I haven’t read or commented at any other blogs…

Just so you do not think I frivolously absented myself – but not by any means by way of excuse, I did have technical issues that stemmed from the move to my own domain which I think I have managed to fix now, as well as a few technical issues stemming from my lack of blog-tech savy – something that might or might not adjust itself with time.

See, I am not by any means new to the computer world but I have come to a point in my overly digitized life where I no longer really give a crap how any of it works, just so long as it works. Where I used to keep up voraciously on the inner workings of my Mac, now I can barely muster up the enthusiasm to update software….which of course severely compromises my ability to come up with solutions or even work-arounds on my own (thank you thank you thank you iGeek nephew).

Along the way to getting my blog working again, my poor much-used-and-abused-5-going-on-6-year-old “hadn’t been backed up in months” PowerBook died.

I guess it is not outside the realm of expected reality that the 1000th hard floor landing would be the charm. I desperately tried to breathe life back into it (finally a use for my mad CPR skillz), but the end result was that I had no choice but to invest in a new laptop quite a bit earlier than anticipated (I believe in longevity for my equipment. It is a very small cult of one). Having little choice, I finally bit the bullet, bought a new laptop and even managed to salvage most if not all of my data (yay Mac). A lot of lost time, but happy with overall results. Plus, hey, new toy!

Having gotten used to so much free time while not blogging I hesitate to commit to going back to blogging full time right now. After all, it is finally approaching summer weather outside and I’m really not going to be wanting to sit here in front of my computer all day when I have much more compelling activities in which to engage and I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.

Since it is finally spring weather here now (remember, we are north and mid-July is apparently spring here this year as evidenced by the endless rain and almost mild temperatures we’ve been having) I’m looking forward to those things that normally the beginning of (actual) spring always brings.

Like Cupid”s arrow, you may ask?

No, really – in the next day or two, it will be blueberry pickin’ time after which it will be raspberry pickin’ time and then shortly thereafter it will be blackberry pickin’ time with the ensuing respective jam-makin’ and pie-bakin’ and, well, just plain eatin’ time. You can see how otherwise busy I will be. My berries won’t pick themselves (is there a Berry Whisperer?) or eat themselves (eeewww!) and I just can’t let them rot on the bush. That would be wasteful and un-Mainer-ly.

As you can imagine, I’m not really going to be passing on any of that for you guys (especially Cupid’s arrow!), no matter how much I value each and every second you spend reading me.

So while technically, I am back (ha, literally technically), I won’t be posting as often as I did last winter, at least until the snow flies again. But I will be writing and posting now and then (hey, I can’t not write up the whole bakin’ and makin’ experience for you, right?) so stay tuned because you never know what you’ll find here or when!

You will be coming back, right? RIGHT? Wait, where did all those chirping crickets come from….?????

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You have to forgive my prolonged absence (just 4 days!) from the blogosphere recently, I haven’t been feeling so well and was not making much sense in writing (or in any other medium either). As a favor to you, dear loyal readers, I decided not to subject you to my crazier than usual rantings – which is a nice way of saying, GET OFF MY BACK ALREADY! But, as long as I’m here……….

When I first moved to Maine, I was regaled with all sorts of useless advice from a whole cross-section of people “from away,” as if they had anything worthwhile to contribute on coping with life in this remote northern corner of these United States.

The one piece of useful advice I did get was from an older brother who lives in upstate New York. He told me that I absolutely without fail had to buy myself a Subaru Forester if I were going to survive Maine roads in the winter. Not that he’s an expert on Maine, far from it, but he does live and drive in the snow in winter and he happens to have lots of experience with just about every car there is.

In his opinion the Forester, which is All Wheel Drive (as are all Subarus), is the best possible snow car, better than any vehicle for any amount of money, domestic or imported (not that “any amount of money” was in my budget, but you get the idea).

I did some checking upon arrival in Maine, having donated my barely functioning California vehicle into the open arms of Father Joe’s Villages,* and found I could not get a four wheel drive hybrid – so with “green running” off the table, safety and survival became key. Off to the Subaru dealer I went.

I found and bought a barely used (300 mi) silver Subaru Forester, LL Bean model – what else? VW has Karmann, Lincoln has Bill Blass, Subaru has Bean. Price couldn’t be beat, all was well, and I bought the car.

First trip to a rather large Hannaford’s supermarket with the new car, I go inside with my list, do my shopping for the week, come out with a cart full of groceries, and…….Uh oh!

You see, it appears that my dear brother is not the only one who knows that the Forester is the best snow car.

All I can say is thank goodness for remote door locking/unlocking with attendant beeps and light flashes or I’d still be wandering around that parking lot looking for my car, and my groceries and I would all be frozen solid by now!

Who knew that Maine had a state car?

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*Father Joe’s Villages (St. Vincent de Paul) will take your unwanted vehicle as a donation. Go to http://www.fatherjoesvillages.org/donations.html for more information

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