Pictures from Spring

A Water Street bridal shop.


A Water Street cell phone shop.


Snow piles calving into Court Street puddles.


Busy corner.


The ingenuity of snow stiles makes it simple to get over fences.


Direction.

Missing Things

Missing sign from a used car lot.


Missing shopping cart in the far corner of a parking lot.


Missing keyboardist of the Rustic Overtones.

Easter & Maine Maple Sunday

Two of the most popular holidays in the world fell on the same day this year, Easter Sunday and Maine Maple Sunday.


Maine is still so frozen that the sugar shacks aren't producing and syrup yet. Sux.

Dust & Scratches, f22

One of my neighbors checks out a book on my coffee table, table, table, table.

Maine Deception

A strip mall parking lot in Maine.


Dollar General Ming. Bling.

It's Springtime in Maine!

What's the difference between Winter and Spring in Maine?
Not much.

The Day

The neighbor.


The Spring Cleaning.
I knew it before it was even news. The company I work for, Blethen Maine Newspapers, is putting our group of newspapers up for sale; The Portland (Maine) Press Herald, The Kennebec Journal, and The Morning Sentinel. It appears that my job as a copy editor at the Kennebec Journal could be in danger.
I saw it rolling up the East Coast the past month. First The New York Times layoff, then the ripple, The Boston Globe layoffs a couple weeks ago. The Portland (Maine) Press Herald had their layoffs just last week, they are our parent paper. (I better learn how to ride this wave.)
Some how I feel in the middle of something news-like (that is not piles of snow) again for the first, or one of the first times since I left DC. Too bad it is such an unfortunate phenomena, as a lot of news is. I feel more fearful for the future of employees who have been there for nearly 30 years, than I do for myself.
In fact, the journalist known as the American copy editor or americanis journa janitoriuos (from early Latin for library janitor), is a dying breed and appears is in the process of being outsourced to India, like Hollywood and eventually everything else will soon be.
At least photography and writing seem to have a pretty stable future.
Don't they?

Cell Phone Unlocking

My friend Razeek is trying to get a cell phone repair business going. He rents a shop down on Water Street in Augusta Maine. I'm jealous of his well-spoken English, French, and Arabic.

Will it Ever Stop Snowing in Maine?

I haven't seen the ground beneath the snow for 4 months, and it's still snowing.


My tea tells me things I never learned in school.

Windrows

Windrows of ... wind.

Online Launchpad

I watched the shuttle launch live in my living room when I got home from work last night. My friend Kevin watched it live from the launchpad, as he did last month too.