Labor Day Holiday: Truck Body Repair

On the 5th and last day of my Labor Day Holiday, I finished doing some repairs to the body on my '91 Toyota truck. I had never done any body work on anything before, but I think I did a decent job. It was nice working outside in a public parking lot a few steps from my humble abode, the Edwards House Inn.
I used Phil's (my neighbor) cordless drill, and a sanding bit to sand the rust off. I first thought it would just be a little sanding and priming, but the rust broke through in a few spots so I added some putty to fill the holes.
Next project- sand and prime the roof.

The Population of Maine

I figured it out
over Labor Day
Weekend. I fit
in now.
In Augusta you
Are just the
same as you
are in a larger
city, only a
little bit dirtier.
It's like a
Scale from the
High Population
of metrosexuals,
which I don't think
I ever was (but being
around here makes
me feel like it in
the way that no
one cares about being
in good physical
condition), to the
low population of
farmland where
the men folk
are (supposed to be)
Covered in dirt and
oil. (mmm, it's
good for you.
Makes you live
longer ... and
die faster somehow.)
Augusta, Maine is
a city somewhere
in the middle
of clean and
dirty. Urban
and farmland,
somewhere in
the middle (to-
wards the
lower end of
the scale).
There are a
lot of the things
you want and
a lot of the things
you don't want!

Labor Day Weekend: Day 3

-There is no cable at the Edwards House. The most interesting thing I can find is a Canadian-French channel. The news shows seem to blend right into sit-coms, with no apparent transition.

-I walked past the Service Employees International Union of Maine yesterday and saw a man replacing the shutters. "That better be a Union job," I yelled. "It's not. I out-bid the Union," the man said.



-I also paid another visit to Old Fort Western. And made a stupid video.

Church Painting

I first noticed this church when I was taking some pictures of what I thought was a hotdog vendor (turned out to be a barbecue pork sandwich vendor [I love you Augusta!]). This is the elim Christian Fellowship church. If anyone Protestant comes to visit me this is where I will send you.
Looking at some of the girls walking in, don't be surprised if I become Protestant very soon. But I noticed they were painting the church very slowly. Lazy Protestants!

Kennebec River Rail Trail

I went on my first run down the Kennebec River Rail Trail today. Yesterday I just walked up and down it sunning myself reading the paper. This morning I woke up around 6 a.m. dying to try out my new 'made in Maine' New Balance 857s. They worked great. I ran to Hallowell, then down Water Street- the center of their town, and looped around Front Street back up to Augusta.
On October 6 the trail will be completed and will continue to Gardiner, a town 6.5 miles to the south. I think I am going to start running down there.
This morning when I was running looking at the river I was trying to think of something poetic. This is all I came up with, cheesy in hindsight;

"the sun peels the hills' shadow
off the Kennebec
and raises the mist
off the early morning water."

Labor Day Holiday: Old Fort Western

On my second day of Labor Day Holiday I traveled approximately 1000 feet across the Kennebec River from the Edwards House Inn to Old Fort Western. At 250 years old, it is the oldest wooden fort in the Americans. In fact, it's so old it's British!
I stopped by twice. The first time they weren't open, the second time they were about to close. So check schedules before planning your visit.

Girls in Augusta

I have made it a point to walk as much as possible, even though I have entered the world of vehicle ownership. Yesterday I walked the Kennebec Rail Trail to Hallowell. I went to the library. On the way back I discovered a store filled with glamorous women, on Water Street.

German Television

I received an email from a journalist in Germany:

my name is Isabella Kempf, I am a freelance journalist from Berlin, Germany and I am working on a longer story
about a German/Turkish prisoner who was in the Kandahar detention center in January 2002. Mario Tama from New York sent me a link to a truly impressive picture you took in Kandahar in December 2001. It was taken at night through a night vision scope. On it you can see detainees who are brought into the Kandahar detention center.
One important question for us: Did you manage to take any pictures of the prisoners or the detainee area, primarily taken in Jan. 02?
We might use any of these photos in our story.
Might it be possible to talk on the phone?
Thanks very much!
Isabella

So, I am sending a few photos to be used on German television. Cool. It's a news program called Monitor.

Labor Day Holiday: Day 1

Today I decided to go against my strong feeling to by a small motorbike, and I bought a small truck instead. It is awesome. Fun to drive. Ugly. Sporty? My first drive was up Interstate 95 to Waterville to look at a Kennebec dinosaur (an old factory along the Kennebec River). Today is also the first day of my 5-day Labor Day vacation. I asked if I could work any of the days I was scheduled off, but the KJ doesn't like to give over-time hours unless it's necessary. This will be my first Labor Day as part of a union, Communication Workers of America, District 1, Local 643. It's kind of like my first Veterans' Day as a veteran, My first Valentine's Day as a valentine, my first Canadian Boxing Day as a Canadian boxer.
(It was only a month ago today I came to Augusta for an interview.)

Walking in Augusta

Here are some pictures I took while walking to work. I have worked 9 days straight. Last night I got a beer on the walk home and sat on the porch and drank it at 1am, before I went to sleep. I watched a van hit a telephone pole and just drive away, while right next to a police car cruising in the opposite direction. The cops had trouble finding them ironically. They went the entire way around the block, and it took some drunken dude from the Edwards House Inn to run out in the middle of the street and whistle at the sheriff to point out where the guy had parked and turned his lights off. I saw the driver come up from the parking lot behind the Edwards House Inn and run into the housing across the street. I could see a man in a wheelchair getting out of the sliding door of the pulled-over vehicle. I heard a girl from the van call his name. "Chris!" or something? Then I finished my beer and went to bed.