Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

"Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born." ~ Henry David Thoreau, Chapter 2: " Where I Lived, and What I Lived for," Walden There is so much to mull over on a birthday, no? I spent the latter part of the (Thursday) evening decorating the house a little for my birthday party, which will be tonight (Friday), and now the house is silent and I find myself unprepared for sleep. I am wide awake in a quiet house: TSO is at another house dogsitting and RugbyGirl is upstairs sleeping, even Bravo cat is lurking around trying to find some entertainment in this waking time for us both. At a little after midnight I rang in ...

dying is fine) but Death ?o baby i wouldn't like Death if Death were good: for when (instead of stopping to think) you begin to feel of it, dying 's miraculous why? be cause dying is perfectly natural; perfectly putting it mildly lively (but Death is strictly scientific & artificial & evil & legal) we thank thee god almighty for dying (forgive us, o life! the sin of Death e.e. cummings Last week we watched as the 2nd anniversary of my Dad's death--two years!? Really? Where has the time gone--came and went and it was hard and there were tears and sadness, but also laughter and funny memories too. That's good. Death, like art, should imitate life sometimes, no? So, thought I would share this lovely e.e. cummings poem, as he is one of my favorites, and always has such insightful ways to make me think.

I have been so bad about writing and posting a couple more vacation trips, I attribute that to a few reasons: Everyone at the Farm has been sick, so I have been avoiding the germ ridden community computers (although now they have hand sanitizers) when at all possible My laptop could not hold the damn signal at the general store or library in town the other day so I gave up trying I have been in a funky mood and thought some time sans blogging might be good for me But, good news! GREAT NEWS dear friends! We finally finally finally, after TSO struggling with stupid Verizon for over a month, have gotten our email which means our phone (through Vonage) will be working too. I realized two things during this time: 1. I have never felt so homesick before, since it felt so hard to actually talk to people, Facebook and emailing aside; an actual voice really does make all the difference. 2. While I have never had any problems with Verizon as far as my cell phone service has gone for the past wh...

And so as all travels must, ours came to an end Sunday morning, arriving back to the Farm at 4:30am after about 18 hours in the car on Saturday/Sunday. TSO suggested as we drive along the coast we try and go see the Hopewell Rocks; the huge rocks that at low tide stand as flower pots protruding from the sea, and at high tide are flower pots whose bottoms are covered by 50 feet or so of water. We got to the little town of Alma, where there is an entry to the Park, but were unable to find it, trying to follow these lighthouse signs, which we finally figured out weren't infact leading us to a lighthouse on the coast, but rather mark the Fundy Drive, the route that follows the coast. (Yes, it took us all day to figure this out--I just kept thinking that there were lighthouses tucked away out of our sight!!) We were dissapointed to have missed the Hopewell Rocks , getting so close and not finding them, but I felt a little better today after looking at the website and realizing that the ...

Last night I copied down directions (from Mapquest) to get us home from Truro, NS, where we were supposed to see the Bay of Fundy. And see it there we did. It was dissapointing--a ghetto view from behind a motel. So, TSO suggested we keep driving and head towards the towns that run alongside the Bay of Fundy. This has provided us with some breathtaking views and helped us find Mo's in Five Islands, NS. We are eating their awesome chowder (with fish, clams and scallops caught locally) and BLTs. SO GOOD! Come here if you are ever in the area! We are going to change our route a little and once we cross back into Maine, head for the coast and follow it down which should allow us to see the Bay of Fundy on the Maine side. It is beautiful here, even with the misting rain and though I am longing to sleep in my own bed, I love Nova Scotia. *sigh* So lovely here.

1. The SwissAir #111 crash memorial 2.-4. Peggy's Cove Today TSO and I headed towards Peggy's Cove, stopping just outside the town to look at the Whalesback Memorial for the SwissAir flight #111 , which crashed in 1998. It is amazing to look out at the ocean and think that this once held the wreckage of a plane crash, since as we looked out all we could see was beautiful, diamond-like sparkling waters. Peggy's Cove is one of those absolutely lovely places that I fancy I will come across one day if ever I lose myself and magically pop out in a new world, sort of like Ewan MacGregor's character in Big Fish. I was more than just a bit surprised, however, that this scenic, little fishing town was so swarming with tourists so late in the season. Maybe it was that today was a particularly warm, sunny day in the midst of many cool and rainy days? I asked TSO where all the town people were hiding out, as it seemed all we saw were tourist--I definitely felt like Dorothy in Oz be...

Pics: One of the ocean views from Prince Edward Island. Ferrying away from the Island. One of the bizarre signs found in Canada...wtf? TSO putting our tent together. Home for the next two nights!

So, we're doing it. TSO and I are camping...kinda..."car camping," as M & N called it this past weekend. I mean is it real camping if you are simultaneously rubbing your cold nose, facebooking and writing a blog? Ok...umm...maybe not 100% real camping; but we are sleeping outside, in a tent that M & N let us borrow, in mummy bags which TSO provided, and we cooked over a fire: a tasty dinner of well done hotdogs and foil wrapped and roasted sweet corn and baked potatoes and slices of cheese. TSO made the comment of, "and we both work in kitchens!" but I was proud of our meal. It was better than the alternative: eating vinegar packets which I made TSO save from our ferry ride earlier this afternoon, "just in case of emergencies!" This morning S took us to see the ocean before we left the lovely little town of Cardigan, PEI. The visit was per my request, as I heard so many good things of the ocean vistas of the island. It was cold and windy and a ...

The house is quiet. H, S and their daughter E are sleeping and TSO is now reading some depressing Flannery O'Connor book. Wanted to mention what we've done so far, though yesterday and today have been very low key. Yesterday we drove from Massachusetts--leaving at 2am--to Cardigan, Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.), home of my friends H&S (and no, not home of those wonderful sweaters, don't worry I asked) . The roadtrip was fairly uneventful; there was no moose sightings, though signs in both Maine and New Brunswick had us on the lookout. It also must be said that in New Brunswick there is a sign on either side of the highway telling you to be on the lookout for moose in both French and English--TSO suggested that we look for moose speaking both languages, which is a great segue into the bizarreness that are road signs throughout New Brunswick and P.E.I. Reading said signs has been entertaining and I have made it my job on this trip to come up with the odd scenarios that th...

We made it. T.S.O and I arrived yesterday afternoon to Prince Edward Island where we are staying with my friends H & S. Don't want to write much now as we are leaving them tomorrow to head--by ferry--to Nova Scotia, so should spend some time chatting and not in front of my laptop. The 14.5 hr. drive up was beautiful; Maine is definitely vibrantly entering fall, as P.E.I. is slowly gathering momentum in their color change. More soon...hopefully writing tomorrow from Nova Scotia! And will post picutres too.

The Farm joined Facebook. Weird. I was kinda digging our slight annonymity in the tech world. Ah well, nothing last forever. Seems strange to think that our old school Farm would ever make strides toward that kind of technology when so many things here change so slowly, and also since so many staff members here are of the "old guard," and refuse to get familiar with things like email. Hmmm...I don't like it.

TSO and I are taking a road trip/vacation of sorts--what?! A real roadtrip/vacation! I mean, I think so. Right? Going to a foreign country: Canada. Check. People who speak a different language: Canadian, eh? Check. Sightseeing: check. Carrying cameras and taking pictures of...things: Check. Sounds good enough for me. My friends' Hockey Guy and Wife (who I met while in undergrad) live on Hockey Guy's native island: Prince Edwards Island (PEI) and had thrown out a "come and visit some time, you'd love it," invite some time ago, so all of a sudden it sounded good and WHAM...I was going...kinda. The flights started at $700, so I thought if I could only find someone to go with me to help with the driving (it is about 13.5 hrs), I could go that route. It wasn't too much arm twisting (I hope...?) before roomie TSO agreed. So, now...we are leaving in less than a week and have made some tenative plans of staying with Hockey Guy and Wife for a couple of nights, then m...