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Dolce Far Niente
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November 03, 2010 |
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by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal editor
Another Halloween is come and gone, and this year, down at Turning Tide Cottage, I wasn’t quite up to going through the cupboard where the holidays live to look for the decorations for it. We have a few, though not many, and the ones we have are kind of cool, because they’re not really jolly pumpkin things, they’re decorations for the Feast of All Saints and the Feast of All Souls, which is the day after.
The Feast of All Saints is November 1, which is where the term Halloween comes from, anyway (All Hallow’s Eve), and it is on this day that babies and children who die young are also venerated - they are considered to be instant saints - but the more interesting festival is the Feast of All Souls, on November 2, at least for those of us who outlive the age of reason and don’t aspire to sainthood. In certain places in the world where I have lived, the Feast of All Souls (also known as the Feast of All the Dead or the Day of the Dead or el dia de los muertos, or, in one curious English iteration, Defuncts’ Day) is a day of celebration, which is odd, given its Halloween-y connotations. The religious festival is one of attempting to help the faithful departed get out of purgatory through prayer, but that’s just pro forma. The real fun happens after Mass, when everyone comes out to have a picnic in the graveyards.
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October 27, 2010 |
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by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal editor
Won’t it be nice when we can turn our televisions on again without fear of being hit in the face with mud?
I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that most of the ads for governor and U.S. Representative have been pretty smarmy, and not in a fun way. I don’t mind the occasional humorous take on the foibles of politicians, mind you. There was an ad that ran a few years ago about a New Hampshire politician that I found downright funny, in which an ordinary video of the poor guy was taken as he walked innocently down the state house steps. Then, the ad agency added a little ragtime music, ran the video back and forth, and cut in a video of wing-tip shoes tap dancing. I don’t even remember who he was or what he was supposedly tap dancing about, but the ad was cute.
This year, there hasn’t been a funny or cute ad from either of the major parties or their PAC friends. They’ve all been deadly dull, mudslinging kinds of things. Yes, it seems like the candidates seem to enjoy the taste of feet a bit, or in one case, quite a bit, but the ads don’t make these things funny or amusing, they make me want to turn off the television and wait for November 3.
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October 20, 2010 |
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by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal editor
Ever get mad at yourself because you can’t make yourself sleep late? A few denizens of the CJ trooped up to Lincolnville for the Maine Press Association festivities last Saturday, but that involved getting up at the Crack of Dawn and not getting home until almost Midnight. And then, one wants to decompress a bit before one actually goes to bed, no matter how tired one is, share a laugh with loved ones, ask the Kid why he wasn’t already in bed, kick off one’s shoes and curl up with an adequate book for a few minutes, and with one thing or another (including a minor skunk encounter with Rudie the Dog, which required a late night dog shower), one didn’t actually drag oneself up to bed before two in the morning.
Which would have been fine, if I had slept until, say, 10 on Sunday, but that of course, didn’t happen. Like clockwork, my eyes popped open at six, andthat was it for the day.
For an astronomer, I am disgustingly diurnal, which has always seemed like something of a personal failure to me. My son and heir is a much more likely astronomer, except he does his astronomy on computers, which he can do anytime. I have actual telescopes, so I have to do mine at night when the stars are actually out.
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October 13, 2010 |
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by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal staff
Down at Turning Tide Cottage, we are all just getting over The Crud (and poor Jean caught it, probably from me, all innocent and asymptomatic as I was on Sunday last at the boat show) and so the doings this weekend were tough going. The Coastal Journal was hosting a ‘root biergarten’ at Citizen Involvement Day on Saturday, but because it was so cold and windy, not too many revelers were interested in sitting down at our charmingly decorated picnic tables and swilling cold root beer, even for a worthy cause. Jean wasn’t well then, either, and I should have sent her home, but she wanted to stay for a while, and anyhow, she already had It. Somehow, we were able to raise $30 to buy young adult fiction for the library, mostly from donations, but we have tons of root bier left, so if anybody wants a free three-liter bottle or two, just let me know.
After that, it was time for the Actor to get prepared for his Homecoming Dance. We had gone out during the week and purchased what I considered to be suitable attire - a serviceable black suit, black socks, a white dress shirt, and new dress shoes - and what the Actor probably considered preciously pretentious, but he gamely wore it anyway, with one of Chris’ red ties, and looked like a million bucks. He also - at my direction and with just a little hesitation - bought his date a wrist corsage, but her reaction to the thing was gratifying enough, and if he ever attends another dance, I don’t think he’ll think twice about flowers.
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October 06, 2010 |
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by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal editor
What with one thing and another, I hadn’t really done any major cleaning down at Turning Tide Cottage since we got back from the Cape. I had high hopes for the weekend, but with one thing and another, they didn’t pan out, either.
When our washer is not working properly, it is hard to clean. We have sheets to wash, slipcovers to wash, towels and rags to wash, to say nothing of our own laundry, which is usually quite extensive. We had someone come in last week to look at it, and he thought it was probably the timer, and said he would call me to give me the estimate of the repair - after charging us something like $80 to take the timer off and look at it and put it back on. And then he never called back. One of the things on my list of things to do today is to call him back and ask about the estimate, but based on the charge he already made, my guess is that it will be cheaper to buy another used washer from Randy, or get one from Freecycle.
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