Day 16.263: Work day

This is how I spent my day - painting in our church’s new building. It was a fun and quite productive time with a small group but there’s plenty more to do in the coming weeks. 

Day 16.262: Is this a dagger I see before me?

... indeed it is - an American dagger moth caterpillar to be exact and a fine fellow too. 

Day 16.261: Foyer snake

When I arrived back at the office after lunch yesterday, I was more than a little surprised to meet one of my colleagues with a bucket and file who greeted me with, “Did you see the snake?”

I had not but it was right there on the carpet in our foyer. 

He managed to persuade it into the bucket and then deposit it safely into the undergrowth outside - but first I snapped a photo:

An eastern milk snake - about to get back to its rodent-hunting ways. 

And there it goes:

Day 16.260: Surfacing

In mid-August, we had a sign in our neighborhood warning that resurfacing was about to start. After a week or two of sporadic progress, it all went pretty quiet until yesterday when they finally did the majority of the actual paving (including the other half).

As of today, it's back to no progress again with a number of finishing-off tasks still outstanding - hopefully it doesn't take another six weeks to get to the finish line.

Day 16.259: Tiddly-om-pom-Pom

We had visitors from Indiana at work the last two days. I took them for a quick visit to Portland before we had a last dinner with them and walked along part of the Eastern Promenade trail. 

There was a fairly large cruise ship in port, we later saw it depart as we were finishing our dinner nearby. 

Day 16.258: We weren’t the first…

…into the State Theatre on Saturday night, but we did have plenty of options on where to sit or stand. 

Of course that does mean we were standing up from 6:30 until nearly midnight. 

Day 16.257: Exile #2's Sunday Column #452

Exile #2 writes...

We had a weekend of fun, with another couple of satisfying rugby results in the bag and last night’s concert. Compared to previous gigs, I felt a bit old waiting in line for this one but I still made it through the whole night in the standing section! We knew we were going to want to dance, so no seating area for us!

It was quite a feat of stamina as Lady Lamb played for 2 1/2 hours on top of the 40 minutes of the support act but I borrowed some energy from the crowd. There was plenty to go around.

We did manage some garden chores, too. The weekend wasn't all play - honest - and that included putting these beauties in, which will hopefully come back again next year.

Day 16.256: Lady Lamb

E5N1 and I first saw Lady Lamb over a year ago on the bill with Madison Cunningham and Lake Street Dive. More recently I've got to know her recorded music starting with the reissue and expanded version of her 10 year old album Ripely Pine. Well, tonight she was in town with a few of her friends to celebrate that anniversary. Exile #2 and I went to join in the fun, and what a night it was!

Amazing to think this 11-piece band (two horns, four strings, drums, bass, guitar, keys + LL) only all met each other on Monday of this week and this was the third and last of the sets they were playing together.

Day 16.255: Pep and run

E5N1 and the rest of the other pep band had their first outing at tonight’s football game. This was the annual “blackout” game and in previous years the pep band has avoided it due to the tradition of throwing baby powder (presumably to contrast with the black clothing and kit implied by the name).

Tonight there was a strict no powder during the game rule and the band decided to play for the first half only. It worked out fine for them and despite a minor incident during the 4th quarter, most of the powder was saved for the end of the game. 

Day 16.254: AHD STOP

Seen today writ both large:

And small:

And of course reminding me of this. 

Day 16.253: Alibut Burgers; Fresh Sword

Seen in Portland:

Day 16.252: Extra murals

We had a nice chat with Exile #4 this evening who is - astonishingly - already halfway through their first quarter of classes (with the tests to prove it). 

That reminded me of these murals near their off-campus dorm for this year - quite impressive we thought. 

Day 16.251: Storm cleanup

I picked up some sticks and swept some acorns, but most the storm clean-up was managed by cutting the grass (which I needed to do anyway). 

Further up the coast, they have rather more than some early-to-fall leaves to deal with. 

Day 16.250: Exile #2's Sunday Column #451

Exile #2 writes...

At last, it’s starting to feel a little fresher. Not exactly cool but less sticky. The wood’s edges are full of asters and goldenrod and migratory birds are well underway with their journeys. Many are sticking around, of course, such as this goldfinch, that decided to take advantage of the hummingbird feeder (as a perch) to peek in on us.

Day 16.249: Windy (Lee)

In the end, Lee passed by well out in the Gulf of Maine. We did get some fairly strong winds that lasted for a long time through the day and gave the trees a pretty good workout.

 

Day 16.248: Home

I had another very nice view of the Chicago skyline today:

But there was nothing like getting home to Maine:

Other than that the travel was delightfully uneventful. 

Day 16.247: Mist; work

Exile #2 suggested that it seemed like I was having more fun than work on this trip. Here are a couple of nice photos from my 7:20 walk to the conference venue this morning:

And this is how I spent most of the day:

(We also went out to dinner)

Day 16.246: Crazy Pinz

After another packed day (perhaps overpacked) at the conference, this was our transportation to this evening’s event:

When we arrived, the supplied beer was of the very generic American variety, but soon thereafter one of the organizers arranged some “Good Beer”:

I shunned the Laser Tag and other events this time in favor of just bowling:

Unusually, I got a little better in each of the three and a half games we fitted into the evening.

Day 16.245: Cornhole at sunset

I had a busy day of conferencing but it ended like this:

I wonder if the game is especially popular here because of all the corn that is grown. 

This guy also did a fly-over: