Monday, September 19, 2011

Blogger's Block broken by a Squirrel

I'm sure all of you have had it one time or another.  But I have had a case of blogger's block.  I haven't really had a thing to write about.  Maybe it's all the other stuff I've had on my mind lately and how busy I've been.  I hope to get back in the swing of things again and hopefully not bore you all to tears. 

I took the day off on Friday to go with my son's 1st grade class on their field trip.  (Hopefully, that gets me off the hook for future field trips.....)  The class went out to Squirrel Island for hiking and storytelling and lunch.  What a great day!  Fall weather has definitely arrived and it was a brisk 40 deg on the boat ride out.  Brrr!  But the temperature went up nicely as the day went on. 

Squirrel Island is a little island just off of Boothbay Harbor and in the summer it is filled with 'people from away'.  Most of them have left for warmer weather now, so the island was pretty empty.  Just 1st graders and some carpenters and painters.  It was so beautiful. 

There are no cars on the island, I did see a couple of work trucks and tractors, but most of the time groceries and supplies for building or repair have to be brought in by boat and then they use wagons to bring the supplies to their home.  It was quite a long walk to the other side of the island so I kinda felt bad for those who had houses on the side away from the boat landing.  Kinda.  But not really.  Guess if they can afford a house out here, they can probably afford to pay someone to cart their stuff to their house. 
One of the many beautiful houses we saw that had views like this:

Not too shabby, huh?

Remember when there were telephone booths (or even just pay phones) for when you needed to make a call?  Well, now you can hardly ever find a pay phone, let alone a telephone booth.  Squirrel Island has a telephone booth, but with a twist.  Here's the phone booth:

No phone anymore, but wait, if you look carefully......


There is a cell phone plugged in so that if you have an emergency, you can still make a call!  Isn't that a freakin' riot?  I laughed right out loud when I saw that.  And at another phone, there were even directions.  Just in case you didn't know how to use the cell phone!  Funny stuff.


Towards the end of our trip, we got to visit the fairy village.  Basically, it is a collection of fairy houses in a very wooded, mossy area.  The kids LOVE this part.  Even the tooth fairy has a summer home on Squirrel Island. ;)  Manimal and his best friend made their own fairy house.


All in all, it was an awesome day!  Manimal had a great time with his friends, and I had a great time talking with the parents.  There are really some super nice people who live around here.  Best friend's mom--you know who you are!  Oh!  And the other best part of this day was that I got up and went for a run at 6:30 am and got that 3.5 miles out of the way first thing in the morning!  I wish I had the opportunity to run everyday at that time.  It is just perfect out there.  When you need to be to work by 8, 6:30 is just too late. (Work is 25 minutes away.)  And it's almost impossible for me to get up and function any earlier.  6:30 a.m., I can do.  5:30--no freakin' way. 

On a completely different note, it is 2 weeks until the Maine 1/2 Marathon!  Wow!  That has come up pretty quickly.  I am ready.  I have done 10 miles twice.  I can do 13.1.  Yes, I can.  I hope to keep a 9:00-9:30 pace.  That is the plan.  One more long run this week and then easy next week.  I can do this.  Happy Monday!

4 comments:

Christi said...

That sounds like a great island to visit and very beautiful!

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

Beautiful pictures, love the phone booth, a very modern one!

Carla Pierce said...

So glad you are back blogging! The island looked great and it looked like the weather was beautiful. The cell phone was the neatest thing. Funny, today I decided to sleep in and run a bit later- say 8am or so and then I saw that you had gone at 6:30!. It is still a bit dark down here before 6 now which would be ok in the development but perhaps not on some of the roads. I just cannot believe that the 1/2 is in 2 weeks!!!! Wow- the time is flying by.

Lisa said...

I love, love, love your area! I don't get up there nearly enough.

Sending you good taper and race vibes :)