Friday, June 27, 2008

The Maine State Bird is..... ?

[Maryanne]The Maine State Bird is.....The Mosquito

It's not my joke - it's a Maine Joke and so close to the truth it is NOT FUNNY - at least it was not last night when I gave up trying to eat my dinner and just threw it overboard, went to bed and hid under the covers. They are much larger than others I've seen - and no matter how many you kill, for each one, 10 more come in their place. They seem to appear at dusk only and with backup; although this morning I did find a few stragglers on the boat. I've spent a fortune on various bug deterrents today, and fully prepped the boat for tonight to protect myself - but they seem way more clever than I am, so I'm not holding out too much hope.

Oh - and apparently Black-capped Chickadee is the state bird of both Maine and Massachusetts!

Kyle returns home tonight :-) (very late) and the plan is to leave at some 0 dark 30 hours (and you know it gets light at 4:15am around here - yikes). I spent the day getting groceries, and topping up the water jugs - and some oil/fluids ready for the next change in the maintenance schedule. Simple quick chores you might imagine - but believe me NOT (well I guess they are simple, but certainly not quick). But this is how I get to be retired so I won't complain too much. (Sympathy is always accepted).

I stayed aboard the boat all day yesterday and did some sewing chores - luckily my sewing machine works via the 12V cigarette lighter socket. I repaired our flag that had become frayed after catching on fishing hooks and other snags (I'm working up to making some of the flags we will need once we leave the USA); I put chafe patches on our dinghy cover where it was showing signs of wear; and a made a seat cover for our helm seat - so we can leave it out in the cockpit and not worry about it raining (yes, strange isn't it that a boat seat is not designed to get wet?).

OK - I still have much to do to get the boat ready for sailing tomorrow so I won't say anything more.

Now where did I put that fly swatter? I need to be armed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now, I heard the the mosquito is MINNESOTA'S state bird. It must be a regional thing. How awful to be devoured so unceremoniously. Little bastards probably didn't even thank you politely for their feast. What cads! I have not see a single mosquito in Arizona this year, but have been bitten three times by some little buggers that get in the pool and hide out just waiting for me to arrive. I don't yet know what they are, but every one I see meets an untimely demise. The ones I do not see--you have to watch out for them, as their bite swells up to the size of a grapefruit and stays that way for about 10 days. I got bitten in the middle of my back and no one here to put cortisone cream on it. I seriously thought about smearing cortisone on the wall, then backing up into it to get some on that fiercely itching bite area. I killed a black widow last night (without shrieking either) and have entertained a single mom quail and her 6 furry chicks in the back yard for 3 weeks. They'll be off soon. Have a wonderful sail to Boston.

By the way, Darren's in LOVE! Thinking of you always!

Anonymous said...

How about a self-portrait so we can see your shortER hair? I think if Kyle gets to shave his head at the solstice and equinox, you should get to as well! Just my take on women's equal rights, you know.