Now What!

Not watching the Summer Olympics this year. I've got enough sports going on behind *The Ponderosa to last me a lifetime. I tell ya, never a dull moment. 
For weeks now, I have been hearing what sounded like heavy equipment working in the woods. Sometimes it sounded like a racetrack with plenty of vroom, vroom, vrooooooooom.

I have put up with it and put up with it. Remember, I have tenants who work nights so this was growing increasingly alarming. (groan...I hate unintended puns)
Finally, yesterday, I could take it no longer. I hopped in my car and drove to John's second road where we used to go tipping for evergreens and where we used to gather winterberries. I just followed the sound and soon found what I didn't want to find.


John's road in my rearview. Big equipment ahead.

The lumber has been cut and a track has been made. And here the offender comes!

Getting ever closer! 

And it pulls to a stop. And thus begins one of the more contentious conversations I have had lately. The driver, a man in his late thirties or early forties tells me that he bought 40 acres of land abutting The Ponderosa four or five years ago and that I can't stop him from using his property any way he pleases, including for a race track. He says he spoke to "the old man" who lived on the adjoining property about that time and he was fine with it. I doubt that, I respond. He says that he doesn't want to *iss me off to which I say too late. He calls John an "old man" one more time at which point my patience is long gone. I explain that the gentleman he spoke with was my husband and that he has since passed away. We end the conversation with my saying that I will call the Town Office in the morning to see exactly what is going on. Somehow, I can't believe that I am the only one complaining about the noise. It's like living at Daytona for crying out loud. Not to mention the dust. *Cough* *Sputter.*
Okay, back to living under my rock...
So, are you watching The Olympics? If so, what's been your favorite thing so far?



*The Ponderosa was John's name for his property. It is where he housed his contracting business and where I have some very nice tenants and where I spend most of my days.  Edited to Add: August 9, 2016

I had no idea that the trail or track was this large, massive, as large as the trailer park shown to the right and that contains over a hundred trailers.

For reference:

1. The Ponderosa

2. The Track or Trail or what I call it..."The Spider Web"

3. Where I stood to get the photos.

Still working on getting to the bottom of it...

Name Calling

Now ordinarily some of the time, I do not resort to name calling. However, there is a nightly occurrence in my neighborhood that has brought out the very worst in me. It began a few weeks ago and appears as if it will continue right through until forever. My state made the unfortunate decision to legalize fireworks and now every tom, dick, harry, sally and sue have become munitions experts. The blasts begin just after sundown and have gone on all night long, though we're told there is a 10 pm curfew. I hate nightly fireworks. Hate is actually too soft a word. I despise nightly fireworks and I don't feel too saintly about those who are setting them off either. Are fireworks legal in your community?

So, yes, you'll hear me use an old Downeast term at the end of this short video. You can find it in E.B. White's essay entitled "Maine Speech." Yes, it means just exactly what you think it might.

Onto cheerier things — I have a parade to attend today. The grands will be marching and we'll be there. One is wearing the uniform — t-ball uniform; the other is carrying a sign for a local pizzeria. Gotta see that... (If all goes well, I'll be popping in a few photos before day's end.)

Grand 1: Still dancing I think
Grand 2: Spotted us and wanted to stick around longer, but the Library Sale job was too important. (And I thought it was all about pizza!)

And don't you just know that we'd follow that cutie pie anywhere. In fact, John is off to the sale right now. He's hoping that he gets some more great deals as he has in years past.

Have a wonderful weekend!

It Turned Into a Rant

I so seldom show you the unlovely and, when I do, I cover it with something pretty.  In *this case,* I covered it with a butterfly, copying a device PW once used. (In fact, I found that post by searching for "rip-off" and I was shocked to discover how often I have ripped people off in this blog of mine. Four pages of rip-offs! Scary.)

~Garbage from here...~

The butterfly was covering a truck wreck sitting in the backyard of a neighbor. This unsightly view is clearly visible to us as we sit at our dining table. (The mess is, in fact, the reason we so seldom sit at the dining room table.) Since that time, nearly four years ago now, the property has become so run down that I use a severe camera angle when taking a photo of my near neighbor's beautiful trees and home.

~to there~

Four years ago, the property was purchased by a family with three boys in their teens. Perhaps they were a hardworking family. Perhaps the man of the house was working hard to raise plants in his basement, if the traffic every Thursday was any indication. Perhaps life was very hard. It is for a lot of people these days.

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, the house went into foreclosure; it took two years to have the process work its way through the system; the family, now a broken one, left a few months ago. The house sat in its own filth over the winter and was finally purchased for a song this spring. (Some of our neighbors looked at it to see if there was any way to purchase it as a fixer-upper and determined that there was simply too much to do. Bulldozing seemed the only option.)


I tell you all this to show you exactly what I see from my windows daily. These days I am encouraged because a new owner is gutting the house and has brought in a giant dumpster. It may be a long, hot summer, but one day there'll be improvement. The house is going to be rented out or flipped. The current owner isn't sure. One thing is certain: he has a lot of work ahead of him.

Thing is, there are many homes in town that are in equally rough shape. (In fact, I have never seen the town look any more in shambles even during the C*rter years, which were difficult times as well.) I grumble about the disgrace of it all because it is one thing to be poor and another to not pick up the trash. It is one thing not to be able to afford new siding (I well know) and another to allow the shutters to hang by the last nail.  There is one thing about taking down the shutters and quite another about leaving the Christmas tree on the front step. I think people's spirits are in shambles, too. Yes, I'm feeling disgruntled today. I feel as if I'm walking around in 1932. Am I the only one feeling this way?

~and this is why I don't open my front curtains...~

Here's to better times ahead.

Warning~Grumpy Morning

We woke up grumpy this morning.

Do not let his picture fool you.

I was reading this to him first thing.

It all started last night when I wore these to go shopping.

We went to L*wes and parked close to the door. As you can see from my detailed map, the plan didn't work quite as I had hoped. Not only that, we didn't find what we were looking for,

which was this. After four stops, we finally found it at B*d, B*th, and B*yond.

This is why the aforementioned book has not yet been given to my grandsons. Though I laugh uproariously at "Search Party...Remains Hopeful," I'm just not sure. Oh the book was purchased sight unseen via Amazon. I miss bookstores!

Have you ever noticed how when you wake up grumpy that the entire household conspires to aggravate it? Fioré just leaped from the floor onto my desk and across my mug of coffee over the computer wires and down to the window below. That cat! Awwww, that sweet face.

Plagiarism is a Crime

So your header with the back of your house looks just like mine and no less the same color! Enjoyed visiting~ Bristol


Following Bristol takes one to a bogus blog. 


Bristol was reported very quickly.


Yes, folks, this is what blogging has come to. We've got some Brazilian nutcase spamming blogs today. Whoever "Bristol" is, she may actually be the same blogger who stole material from Pear Tree Lane (since the comment came on the heels of my visit to PTL). All's well that ends well. The blog spoken of has been taken down. 


Report these bloggers to Blogger.  Plagiarism is a crime.


I'm closing comments because I don't want this nut not so nice person on your blog. 

A Rant on a Certain Bank

Sometimes things in our lives all roil up at once or so it seems. There are so many pans on the fire here at Haven that I despair that we'll all go up in flames.

Take, for instance, the latest. My mother wrote a check to John and me and his bank will NOT honor it. What?! All he wants to do is deposit the danged check. Such a lack of regard for their customers, but then this bank is listed as the number one predatory lending institution in the country. So, now I must round someone up to watch my grandmother while I race back into the city to get this thing taken care of. Frustrating. Oh and this bank? Yup. They hold Haven's mortgage.

The good news is that my capacity to put up with baloney has reached an all-time low and I have been doing my research and plan to complain. Have you had any trouble with a bank lately for any kind of unethical behavior? You can find help right *here.*