May 1, Augusta Maine

My coffee maker broke.


Awake, but no coffee.


Getting to work.

In Pairs

The Maine Guide Breakfast at Augusta House of Pancakes includes trout, eggs, beans, home fries, and a biscuit. On two plates.


Bruce & Brian, have been identical twins for 48 years. They are from Sidney Maine, but come to Augusta Maine to drink coffee at Tim Hortons. Brian gave me a random piece of advice, "It don't take much to get into trouble. They never tell you that."

No Trash

Wednesday morning the trash is picked up.

Garage

Break Fast at Slates

I met Matt Stone at Hallowell's own famous Slate's Restaurant & Bakery for brunch. It has just reopened this month after a fire destroyed it last year.
Matt recently stopped fasting for Passover (aka Jewish Lent).
We started talking about levels of devotion. He said he wasn't really that devout (aka hasidic). But as a catholic I am familiar with far lesser levels of devotion.
I've seen an entire group of catholics (aka members of my family), order multiple pizzas on a Lent Friday -- all with meat. We had to eat them. Our catholic devotion to wastelessness outweighed our catholic devotion to superstition -- I mean tradition.
No need to live the story again. No need to keep these things alive. No sense in being John Malcovich. Can't we find ways other than religion to extend our lives into near eternity? Isn't technology taking the place of religion? Or if we had more responsible caretakers maybe cryogenics would.
We could combine different beliefs together to MAKE IT!
Are you with me?
Recipe for the eternalnaut:
Religion: in the person to make sure they have the spirit for the journey. (Because being that person would be #@& nuts!) Also religion and "spiritual beliefs" act well with the luck and superstition you would need to keep you from thinking, "Is this really worth it?" Science: in the cryogenic freezing process. To freeze us like frogs hibernating. And then waking us up every season. Technology: some sort of timeslessly simple technology. Something that has already worked for millions of years -- that would make sure our Eternal Rest was going as planned. Imagine them as robotic guardians or archangels waking us up every millennium or so and totally freaking out whatever is around.
Set the meat pizzas over there, here's a tip. See you in like 1,000 years.
Great story. I'll try to keep it alive in the Big Story. I'll run it right under the Big Picture. And contribute both as staff reports with special thanks to: Allah, Buddha, Stephen Hawking, Stephen King, Stephen Crowley, and my cousin Steven in Pittsburgh, Pa. (Who was "raised catholic" by my aunt, Veronica).
Our hearts are alive with the memory of the sacrifices of the ancestors and the predecessors. Amen.

Like Area 54

There is something about the Augusta Maine State Airport. ... Maybe it's the aliens? Or the cryogenic capsules?
Considering the terminal's architecture and small-townieness, the airport itself is enclosed in a Cold War-era cryogenic capsule buried between an old cemetery and a National Guard camp.

High Dynamic Range Attempt

/Looking out the window of the Thai Lanna Restaurant, Augusta Maine State Airport./
I recently read an article about something called High Dynamic Range Photography in a photojournalism magazine. I decided to attempt an HDR image using my own simplified technique. If you look at the HDR photographer Trey Ratcliff's website you will see what HDR is shooting for. Everything in the images seem to be vibrant and in focus.

Usually you use multiple images bracketed with different exposures to make one HDR image. I think in some cases it would give the same effect as having taken a crisp, bright exposure with a nearly-closed aperture.

The magazine article I read about HDR photography, and the article on Wikipedia fail to mention an early photographer that I think is a father on this technique, Gustave Le Gray. Specifically his 1857 image in which he takes 2 exposures of the same beach scene and combines them to make a single more realistic view. The Wikipedia article places the beginning of HDR photography in 1930s and 40s with photographer Charles Wyckoff. Wyckoff took early HDR-type photos of nuclear explosions that appeared on the cover of Life magazine.

Maine Wildlife Park

The Maine Wildlife Park opened for its first day this year yesterday. Many of the animals there are hurt and need to be taken care of.


A deer through the trees.


My neighbor Donna went too. According to a measurement at the Maine Wildlife Park she is not as tall as the shoulders of an adult moose.



Sometimes the wildlife park seemed a bazaar of bizarre -- roadside attractions.


There was a mountain lion (not pictured).


Some wildlife cages.


A lynx is camouflaged in a cage.


A moose is seen though a chain linked fence.


Of all the animals a bear seemed most secure. A good thing.


Is it white that's supposed to be all the colors combined? Yeah. That's a colorful peacock!


A fox poses for visitors.


More wildlife: Driving back there was a bald eagle flying along I-95. And I later found a tick on my leg.

Maine Yesterday

Super Lube's sign kept getting bigger and bigger, ultimately they had to move to a new building on Capitol Street. (Hi Walker Evans.)


Cell phone towers are a very visible part of Maine's landscape. And they help people way up here who often find themselves in life-threatening situations in the middle of nowhere.


Also, Today: Maine Farm from I-95. (also, check out eric powell's blogging from china.)

Things Reflecting Things

The high price of gas reflects a part of my decision to put a cap on my truck. No, not because I've heard that a cap can make a truck more fuel efficient, but because I'm headed to Venezuela if the price of fuel goes up much more.


Rear View


Side View