I’ve been having an extraordinary time with my short story book. So many of the stories are excellent. Actually, all of them are. I’ve made it half way through the Character section and have so far read The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter and The Five-Forty Eight by John Cheever. What I enjoy most about reading short stories is the impact they offer. There’s not much room for fluff and the endings are always good. As an author, to have a short story published and stand the test of time says a lot. As a reader, you can be guaranteed that whichever story you choose to read will have a lasting impact. And impact they do have. For example, at the ending of The Five-Forty Eight, when the female main character forced, at gunpoint, the male main character to lie face down in the mud – weeks after the two had relations – was thought provoking, to say the least. I love the unfolding and connections between scenes, but what I love more are the backgrounds of the authors. So many of them were once bus drivers and janitors. How these folks got into writing, I would like to learn more about. I’ll tell you one thing though, they are excellent at what they do and it just makes you wonder what the average Joe on the street has got going on in his mind as he’s driving a taxi or mowing a lawn.
Laura and I haven’t been out of the house too much lately. Mid-week last week, we ventured back out to Hannaford and Walmart to pick up some more groceries. We wanted to stop at Hannaford first because I heard a rumor of fresh Maine salmon on sale for only $6.99 per pound. Since we got to the store around 8pm, the seafood counter was closed. I was lucky to find some pre-cut fish in a cooler for the same price though. I’ve got so much salmon in our freezer now. I love the stuff and I only want more. The best part is the price. The salmon grown in Maine is usually priced at $12.99 per pound and is rarely seen on sale for less than $8.99 per pound. This low price is a real treat. I should just become a fisherman.
We been going food shopping during the evening hours because the stores seem to be less crowded then. Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, much of Maine consists of older folks who wake up at 4:30am. Since we don’t want to compete with these people, we head out to the stores when they’re all in bed. This is fine with me. I like to get out when the shelves are being restocked anyway.
We made it home with a very good haul. I was able to garner two more very large cans of tuna and I grabbed a giant Costco-styled can of cut green beans to boot. We now have shelves and freezers full of food. All I’m concerned about for the future are the fresh items like lettuce, milk and so forth. Some of us call these things “perishables.” Yes we do. But overall, I’d say we’re in good shape. This is especially important since this thing we’re up against is spreading like wildfire.
We decided to visit a local park yesterday to stretch our legs. We jumped in the car and drove down to a place called Bonney Woods in Farmington, which is a small forest that contains enormous hemlock trees. The entire park is no larger than just a few acres, but it offered enough trails to keep us busy for about a half hour. Take a look at some photos of the trails and the large trees.
Check this one out. I took a photo of Laura taking a photo. Talk about being creative.
And what would a blog post be without a photo or two of yours truly?
As you can see, I’ve given myself a very inexpensive buzz cut. I’m trying to enjoy these types of haircuts while I still have hair.
While we were walking around in the woods, we stumbled upon an old cemetery. This one dates back to the 1600s.
After we were through at the woods, I surprised Laura with a visit to a huge field that’s located just north of Farmington. Along the backside of this field runs the Sandy River. Laura’s been trying to take photos of wildlife and I thought this might be a good area in which to do so. While we did see some Canada Geese flying both north and south, we didn’t manage to get any good shots of anything other than our surroundings.
This first photo is of some old barbed wire we saw leaning up against a tree.
This next shot is one of the Sandy River.
And finally, this last photo is of the big giant enormous field. I sure wouldn’t mind playing some frisbee in this field.
And that’s about it. Not bad for a day that began sunny and ended up somewhat cloudy. Seeing it’s snowing out right now, I’d say I’m happy we got out yesterday. Enjoy!
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