Blogging on the Powwow

Our first black Labrador Retriever, Blackberry, had health problems. He started having seizures between 6-9 months of age. We discovered that he had epilepsy and successfully treated his condition with  phenobarbital  for 9 years. The bad news is that it slowly destroyed his liver. We made that trade-off because alternative medications were much more expensive. So, we lost Blackberry when he was 9. I still think it was the right decision. Blackberry lived a happy life. He was the center of our family and even part of the community. Everyone seemed to know him. Neil was once exercising Blackberry in the Saco River in Biddeford and a school-aged girl with a fishing rod passed by them and commented to her father, "That dog's name is Blackberry." Neil had never seen that child in his life or since. When the UPS man would arrive at our house, he would hand us a package and look in through the door, saying, "Hi, Blackberry!"  Despite this condition, he had a pretty ...

I met Trevor in fall of 1987, I believe, at Deering High School in Portland during a rehearsal for the Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Portland Youth Wind Ensemble. These were, and still are, music ensembles for select young players in southern/central/midcoast Maine. Trevor played oboe, too, was two years ahead of me in high school and we became good friends. It helped that his high school music program in Camden and my high school music program in Topsham (SAD-75) were usually top-ranking in state competitions. So, in addition to seeing him weekly in Portland, I would occasionally see Trevor during other music events throughout the academic year and at All-State Music Festivals. Then our schools did an exchange and performed at each other’s schools. My family hosted Trevor and some of his friends during this exchange. Then I got my license and being the “willing to drive anywhere, anytime, any distance” person that I am – my friend, Kathy and I, made the occasional trip to...

I was a couch potato as a child. Wait, I guess that's not exactly true. I played outside a lot, but I was never involved in sports or anything athletic. I don't know why children's worlds often break down into "the arts" versus "sports," but that does seems to be the way things went, at least when I was a child. I, and my family, were firmly planted in the arts. I took piano, oboe, and voice lessons at one time or another from age 5 through my teen years. I was in several music ensembles in school, several community ensembles, and when I was in high school I stated traveling 132 miles  each way  for voice lessons. This is not to say that I never ventured into the world of sport and exercise as a child. I was in track for one season when I was in the seventh grade and I went to one softball practice when I was 9. I also took swimming lessons here and there and swam weekly in the summers at my grandparents' camp on Echo Lake in Mount Vernon, ME. That...

Technology doesn't come easily to all of us. I feel competent dealing with most of the technology that I encounter, but I certainly don't consider myself an expert. My husband, Neil, however, struggles mightily with technology. We've been working on how to save a file on his computer (not the same computer) since 1995. I think that it got it a couple of years ago. Despite the many challenges that technology presents to him and his tendency to want to be a Luddite, he sits in front of his computer every day - throwing himself into the work that technology presents him, struggling to master what he wishes to accomplish...email, Word documents, web searches, YouTube, photo editing, music notation software and the like. It's rough work, but here's there everyday, mastering technology, which can only be done with the assistance of some curse words and regular threats to throw the computer in the river. Neil was fascinated by smartphones long before he ever had one. We ...

Yes, another blog post about running. And, yes, I have a runner's high, even though I crossed the finish line about nine hours ago. Unlike my high school classmate-turned marathoner, Steve Howe, I am not a fast runner. I'm not a fast anything. But, I am getting faster...at least I'm moving in the right direction, even if I can't seem to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Nevertheless, today, I officially felt fast. I might have even been burly, but I had better not get ahead of myself. (See a previous blog post for more info on that saga.) Today I ran The Classic Hangover 10k  (which is 6.2 miles), in Salisbury Beach, MA. I only decided yesterday to run. In fact, I had to pay an extra $10 on my registration fee because I was so late in making the commitment. I may have run ten marathons in the past six years, but I have not run a 10k race since 2006. I did do a "test" 10k last September when I was training for a marathon. It can really throw someone off to ...

Can you believe it? I wrote this post on Thanksgiving weekend and before I knew it, Christmas was here and over. But, since I wrote it, I'd like to post it, even if it is late...and it's all still true! -------------------------------------- It has taken me a while to get around to writing a blog post about being thankful. I am thankful. Of course, I am thankful, is my most common response. I am thankful for all the things that I should  be thankful. I love and I am loved in return, by humans and my canine. I have a home, and even better, a home that I like and cherish. I am warm. I have a job and an income to cover my basic needs, and then some. I am healthy and no one in my life has a chronic or life-threatening health condition. I can go about my business without interference from law enforcement or government. This is the condensed version. The expanded version addresses the aspects of my life for which I am most thankful weekly, if not, daily. I am most thankful f...

I travel to Maine regularly since my step-daughter, Dorothy, is only about an hour away in southern Maine. For someone who commutes 90 minutes each way to work--through Boston--it is almost a treat to shoot up I-95 into Maine. Easy-peasy. But, every 3 months or so I plan a more extensive trip into Maine, north of Portland, to visit family and friends. I usually cram as many visits as possible into a single day. I'm someone who likes to be busy, so this works very well for me, and I like to think, for others as well. This past Sunday I made stops in Biddeford, Saco (that was for Reny's , I confess), Brunswick, Woolwich, and Topsham (where I got in another stop in at a Reny's) . I knocked off four visits with friends and family, made a drop-off at another friend's house, and hit two Reny's stores. It was a productive day! Here are some of my lessons learned and discoveries made on this quick trip back to my home state.  We've lived in Massachusetts for five ye...