4th of July weekend

Fourth of July weekend was one of the best I have had. After work on Thursday, I drove up to Maine. On the drive there, I called my two sisters and brother to talk with them. For almost the entire state of Maine, I was on the phone with one of my siblings. It really helped kill the time and it was nice anyway just to talk with them. In no hurry, I drove at gas-saving speeds the whole time and made good use of cruise control. Later I calculated that I got 34.5 mpg for that trip which is rather good for my car. I got to the house and a little while later my dad and step-mom came home from a dinner they had been invited out to.

I went to bed early because I was tired and because that is what I do every night when I have work the next day.
Accordingly, I woke up at around 7:30 the next morning. It was the actual 4th of July. I had a bowl of cereal and listened to the chickens in the yard clucking around. We all sat around the table talking about plans for the day. It seemed simple: go to the Harborside "Parade", come back, load the kayaks onto the car, and then go kayaking all afternoon. Well, that is basically what happened, but it was not easy. My step-grandmother wanted to come along with us to the "parade" which meant we had to drive through the "parade" before it started to drop her off so that she would not have to walk far. Also, we had to bring the dog, Maude, because grandma had made a fourth of July outfit for her to wear. The weather was good and the "parade" was enjoyable. Oh and I put the quotes there because I think of a parade as an unstoppable wall of enthusiastic and/or motivated people, but given the size of the town (extra small), it was more like a quaint old-fashioned affair, like a scene one would expect to see in a Norman Rockwell painting. Well, minus my dad running around with his camera taking pictures, my step-mom casually trying to avoid her local enemies, and Maude freaking out because of all the people and the other dogs. I found it hard not to feel like a complete outsider.

The very moment it looked like things were wrapping up in Harborside, I turned to dad and asked if I could go get the car before all the other traffic. He said sure. The car was parked a ways away. I walked until I was out of sight of the other people. Then I ran. Jumping in the car, I turned it on quickly. I hit the gas but it took a couple moments for the engine to engage and I nearly peeled out of the parking spot. Then, driving with the determination of a madman, the aggressiveness of an old man, at the speed of a dead man, I crawled through the street past all the young and old smiling faces. I wore a big smile to hide within me the dire sense of imprisonment and maniacal hate caused by all the foot traffic in my way. I stopped the car in front of grandma and the family. I was about to climb out and let dad drive, but the next thing I knew, everyone was in the car. Someone said "drive," but it probably was just the voice in my head. We made it away from Harborside with no delays. When we got home, I made the mistake of asking my stepmom what she thought of the event. She pulled a couple of brewskies out of the fridge and handed one to me. It was 12:30 in the afternoon.

A bit frazzled from the morning, we loaded the kayaks onto the car and drove for the town landing. Out on the water, we all felt much better. I discovered that I am amazing at kayaking. I am so great! Also I discovered that my camera strapped nicely to the front of my lifejacket so I took some videos from that angle. Anyway, we paddled on over to a beach when suddenly my cell phone started making noise. I had a voicemail!. I must have hit a pocket of reception. I stepped on to the beach and listened to the soft angelic voice of the sweetest girl I know. Everything was just peachy at this point. We parked the kayaks and went for a swim. The water was like ice. It was rock hard! Haha, no actually it was really cold. I went under briefly.

Tired and sore we returned home. Dad and I walked the dogs while my stepmom made dinner. Dinner was homemade pizza complete with vegetables from a local garden. We watched a movie that night. "Love in the Time of Cholera" it was called. I expected it to be horribly depressing but it was actually alright. I went to bed but left the computer on in order to download the latest Young Turks podcast.

The next day, we went kayaking again. In the car we listened to The Young Turks show. It was hilarious as usual. We decided not to pick up junkfood for the beach, a decision we later regretted but made up for.

So we kayaked on. We stopped at a beach, but I didn't swim this time, because I had been cold all afternoon (temperature-wise... not cold-hearted) the day before as a result of having swum. We listened to some more TYT on the way home and stopped for junkfood at the market. We ate some more delicious organic food for dinner.

The next morning I left to join the herd of all the other people driving south after the holiday. I stopped at the blueberry farm in Orland to take a picture of the wind turbine there for the New England Wind Forum website and magazine. One of the chief editors of the magazine had asked this favor of me when we met in Houston at the AWEA convention.

The rest of the drive totally sucked and I'd rather not talk about it. When I got home I relaxed for a while and then rested my head. As well as my sore, sunburnt arms. Reflecting on the weekend I have to say it was awesome. Don't know when I will get to see my dad and stepmom again or even kayak again, but I hope it is soon.