... eric and i met up for breakfast in brunswick, after which we drove down to falmouth to pick up a new sump plug for my bmw ... it took us about forty minutes to get the part: one minute at the service counter and thirty-nine minutes drooling over each and every one of the shiny two-wheeled machines ... [hint: if you're so rich you need to get rid of some of your money, it's spelled b-m-w-f-8-0-0-g-t ... any color would be just fine, and, of course, i'd find my own sidebags] ... oooooooh ...
... i pulled us in to the delorme parking lot so eric could see "the largest globe in the world" ... on the third floor i offered up some tidbits to these ladies ... "a jet plane only would be 1/3-inch above the surface at cruising altitude ... to this scale, the sun would be almost a mile across ... an average house lot would be less than 1/200th of an inch" ... they were impressed, "you should be a teacher" ... ha ...
... i'm not sure eric was so impressed at first, but after i wore him down with a few fabulously fascinating factoids he seemed to perk up a bit, "you should be a docent" ... ha ...
... after that we wandered back roads up to brunswick, took route one to bath, then crossed the kennebec river estuary and headed down route 127 to the five islands [crow, malden, hen, mink, and wood islands, by the way] ... we made a brief stop so i could take a picture of the under-construction ddb-1000 uss zumwalt, the navy's new "super-destroyer" ...
NOTE: EDITORIAL COMMENT
... this $3,000,000,000+ craft is a "littoral combat vessel" ... translated into standard english, the uss zumwalt (and its sister ship, the uss michael monsoor) are being built so that after 2016 the navy will have two ships "designed with a focus on land attack" ...
... [sigh] ... yes, you read that correctly ... this is a $3,000,000,000 ship meant to fight land battles ...
... in addition, it is already totally obsolete since the chinese have built and tested a rather inexpensive weapon system that it cannot defend against, a missile that i'm quite sure the red suits in bejing will be more than willing to sell to all their friends and allies ...
END EDITORIAL COMMENT
... soon we arrived at the famous "five islands lobster company" ...
... while our clams and corn were steaming i explored the dock ...
... to the south a fog bank rolled across the headland ...
... i wondered, was he being punished or did he just like being towed along ...
... then our food was ready and it was time for us to go to the races ...
... "mmmmmmmmmmm" ... that best describes it ...
... after a phone call to his wife eric suddenly remembered he had an appointment back in brunswick, so he headed out and i took my camera to join in the fun ...
... these two girls and their brother were speaking some seriously foreign language, my guess would be russian or ukranian or a related tongue ...
... they seemed relatively unfamiliar with the sea, and it was interesting to watch the process of them slowly becoming friends with it ...
... i love taking pictures of birds ... while i was doing so a lady at the next table asked, "would you like me to toss some food to them so you can photograph them taking off" ... i thought of my ol' ma, and how she would sit at oakland beach and do that for me, and i was happy ...
... a french fry in ballistic trajectory will do it every time to these rats with wings ...
... pa once told me that orville and wilbur wright began their journey to kitty hawk by spending hours and hours and hours watching gliding and soaring birds ...
... sara and sidney, from scottsdale, arizona, who built a house in the five islands so that during the summer they could escape the dessert heat and enjoy the sweet coolness of the coast of maine ... he is eighty years old, their daughter in california is a teacher, and they are a very nice couple ...
... the five islands love being shared ...
... as i crossed the bridge to the mainland on the ride home i noticed this composition ...
... pulling into the parking lot in waterville, rather exhausted, i noticed robert walking to his car ... "come on over to fairfield, shenna bellows is walking the length of the state for her senatorial campaign and she's going to be speaking in the park" ... "i'm pretty tired" ... "there'll be pizza and treats" ... "see you there" ... here're robert and norma [i confess, i photoshopped what was a "bellows" button] ...
... a little boy played, unaware of the reason the names are inscribed on the monument ... one-hundred and sixty years or so now, i think they'd be happy to see his smile ...
... shenna was quite personable and a very effective speaker ... i liked especially that when a question was asked she answered it ... her husband, brandon, was a fellow teacher for years, and it was nice to get a few moments to chat with him ...
... i'm tired, and tomorrow i'm off to new hampshire to do another wedding ...
... what a wonderful day ...