Month: November 2024 (page 2 of 2)

Wood stove season is upon us. I’ve been waiting for this all summer long. Back in April/May, I cut some trees, split some logs, and stacked some firewood. Now it’s time to burn. “Burn what?” you ask. Right now, mostly balsam fir and white pine. “But that’s softwood – pine,” you say. Yes, I know it is. And it’s wonderful.

When I was a kid, the unwritten law of the land said that it was taboo to burn any sort of pine. Everyone who was anyone said that the sap in the softwood would cause creosote, a sticky tar-like substance – and that creosote would clutter up the chimney. While, yes, wet pine that’s full of sap would certainly make a mess of things inside the chimney and add a nice layer of black gook to the walls, dry pine doesn’t do much damage at all. As a matter of fact, after years of testing, I’ve discovered that hardwood that isn’t dried out enough actually creates more creosote overall than does softwood.

Maine’s state tree is the Eastern white pine, for good reason. There are a whole heck of a lot of them here. On my property alone, we’ve got hundreds. And as far as balsam firs go, we’ve got thousands. The white pines are huge and while the balsam firs aren’t nearly as big, they both die off while still standing. They both also suffer lots of storm damage, usually during the winter, leaving them scattered across the forest floor. Each spring, I cut both the standing dead trees as well as the ones that have fallen and I load their carcasses into my trailer to be split and stacked up near the house. I’ve found that if I cut and stack enough and let the wood dry out long enough, I can burn this “free wood” well into December. This year, I think I might actually make it into January. I’ve got a lot this year and that makes me feel good. Every time I burn a piece of maple or oak, I feel like I’m throwing money away. Every time I burn a piece of pine, I feel like I’m somehow winning the game. I’ve got a lot of pine back there in the woods and it’s a wonderful resource to use to heat our home.

I titled this post Shoulder Season Firewood. If you aren’t familiar with what the shoulder season is, think about it this way: There’s summer. We don’t burn firewood during the summer. There are also the coldest days of the year in January and February. During those peak times, we burn hardwood because we want the most heat possible and because we need those logs to leave behind some glowing coals every morning. Coals help keep the fire going the next day. During the months of October, November, December, March, April, and May, we don’t need a tremendous amount of heat and because of that, we wouldn’t want to burn our good hardwood. These off-months are considered the shoulder season. Of course, every year is different and some months may need some adjustments, but that’s the general idea.

If you search around the internet to see what people burn during the shoulder season, I think you’ll find that folks burn what’s considered junk wood. Wood that can be obtained for free or for very little money. Wood that wouldn’t necessarily be burned on Thanksgiving or Christmas day, but that would be perfect to get a nice fire crackling with in the morning and to let burn out during the afternoon, when the sun’s shining and the walls of the house heat up. Pine is perfect for this and in my case, since I’ve got so much of it, everything seems to be working out rather well.

If you’ve ever read and enjoyed Maeve Binchy’s “Quentins,” you’d surely enjoy reading “The Tavern on Maple Street” by Sharon Owens as well. While Quentins was set in Dublin and The Tavern on Maple Street was set in Belfast, both authors shared an uncanny ability of offering glimpses into pub life in Ireland. And they did a good job of it too. While I can’t say either of these books were specifically sought out by me, I can say that I’m glad I read them.

Our local library here in Maine offers a rack of perpetually free, or nearly free, books from which to choose. They’re marked either “$1 Per Bag” or “Take as Many as You Can – Get These Books Out of Here.” If you wait long enough, the books in the $1 sale pile usually end up in the free pile. The risk is, someone may have purchased the one or two you had your eye on in the meantime. Not that $1 is too much to pay, but there’s an element of sport in the endeavor. Sometimes I feel as though I was raised on Canal Street in Manhattan because I oftentimes display a strong propensity for haggling with those who have no interest in haggling at all. Unfortunately for Maine and its Mainers, our locale isn’t much of a haggling place, yet here I am going guns blazing into every potential sale as a top notch negotiator. Ultimately, I, as the buyer, have fun and they, as the sellers, have fun as well. I’ll tell you this though – both of the books I mentioned above were obtained for free. If that tells you anything about me, it should tell you that I’ve got extraordinary literary scouting and negotiating prowess. Either that, or some clever librarians led me to believe I had won the bargain when they were simply clearing out the pile that was headed to the dumpster anyway. Whatever. A win is a win and I was able to read two very good novels because of the win.

The Tavern on Maple Street has a sweet storyline. I won’t get into it too much here because it’s been covered amply everywhere else. You can look it up if you’d like. What I will do, however, is perhaps invite you to consider what I found the story to be about (my perception) – and that’s this: how does a person grapple with losing a thing or place that’s become lovingly enmeshed with his or her daily life? In the book, a woman named Lily and her husband Jack inherit a tavern from Jack’s uncle. Lily decides the tavern is her forever home and she and Jack couple with it. The tavern embodies them and vice-versa. There’s a threat though and ultimately, Lily and Jack lose the tavern. You’d think that was the issue – losing the tavern, but you’d be wrong. The issue is, how does a person deal with loss? Or even more so, how does a person grapple with the changes that must ultimately occur when a loss is endured?

By the end of the story, the two main characters seem to settle into their new lives quite contently, but I’m suspicious of that contentedness. I believe the tavern life on Maple Street was a good one and until they find their proper footing once again, I don’t think their lives will be nearly the same as they once were. I suppose the story describes, in some ways, a tragedy, but that may be a stretch. If I were immersed in a composition and literature course, yes, I’d throw that curveball at the professor, but here on this blog, I’ll leave things right where they belong – a tale of dealing with something with which no one should ever be forced to deal.

The above picture is not one of me. I repeat, that ain’t me in the picture. That dude is a freak and a freak is something I strive not to be. And now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll go ahead and write a political post that I’ll surely one day regret writing.

From what I gather, Democrats are condescending and Republicans are stupid. No, let me change that. Democrats are both stupid and arrogant. Hold on – maybe it’s the Republicans who know what’s going on and the Democrats are brainwashed. No matter how you put it, the other side is low information, completely immoral, and really has no clue. And that’s the truth. The media has finally won. We all hate each other.

I don’t think Republicans condescend much at all. Their arguments are too simple for that. Straightforward. On the left, there’s nuance and on the right, there’s bluntness. Whether any of this be good or bad, I’ll let you be the judge. Just know that I, as many of us claim, am in the middle. I like to think of myself as being above the fray. It’s probably not exactly true, but it’s what I’ll tell you to avoid getting myself in trouble with friends and family. But while I might not straddle the line at this very moment, my alleged position offers me the privilege of amply insulting both sides of the political spectrum as well as some of what lies in between.

I pretty much expected Trump to win this go-round. Once I saw him hang out with Joe Rogan for three hours, I knew the win was in the bag. The move was genius. That was the device that connected the Donald with the younger male vote and propelled those same young males to actually cast a ballot. Kamala simply didn’t have that connection. Plus, it seemed like the Democrat party was in somewhat of disarray once they gave Joe Biden the boot. There simply wasn’t enough time for Harris to convince the electorate to fall in love with her. Not that it ever would have, no matter how much time she gave them. While I agree that Biden needed to go, I really wish the Democrats, at the very least, had inserted a stronger candidate. Better yet, offer a quick primary to get the public’s opinion on the matter. Kamala shouldn’t have been there. It seemed forced. Trump enjoyed four whole years of his berating and belittling and Kamala only had a few months to react. Trump had the lead with the Republican machine behind him and the Democrats seemed off-kilter. But it is what it is, I guess.

I find it fascinating how different the voters of both parties are. Over the past few days, I’ve listened to my Democrat friends recite how tariffs will affect inflation and how our deteriorating relations with China and Ukraine will have a profound effect on our daily lives here in the U.S. The arguments I hear are sound and the people I’ve listened to don’t get much pushback from me at all. I mean, what do I know about tariffs and international trade and relations? On the other hand, when I discuss politics with my Republican friends, I hear a lot of “Man, we’d be so screwed if she won.” That’s it. Not much messaging there. I guess Trump pushed some strong negative branding of Kamala. He seemed to accomplish it rather quickly too. Not many of us knew too much about her until recently, relatively speaking.

I tell Laura that I honestly wish the Democrats would revert back to their blue dog days. I think a lot of the country connected with their center-right ideologies. I think Bill Clinton (and even Barack Obama back in the beginning) was a blue dog Democrat. He might not admit to that, but he held some fairly, what would today be considered, conservative views. Today’s blue dogs hold only fiscally conservative views while socially, they lean liberal. And when I say lean left, I mean they lean really, really far left.

I also tell Laura that I wish Trump learned how to articulate his ideas so they’re somewhat coherent. I don’t enjoy listening to him speak. I struggle to avoid a frustrated frenzy whenever I glimpse him during an interview. Recent big name Republicans seemed to have suffered from the same affliction. I felt Bush Junior didn’t get his points across very well either. But perhaps that’s how some Republicans speak to their bases. Simple. Simple. Simple. Where I look for nuance, detail, and eloquence, they offer mere basics. It does annoy me at times because I feel that at the level of president, you should be the best. Period. No questions asked. You really should be the best. Like Reagan and Nixon. Those two Republicans put many others to shame; Nixon more so. I think Nixon possessed greater inherent foreign policy acumen while Reagan possessed more charm. Both were effective and persuasive communicators though, no matter how you cut it.

I don’t have any advice for Republican voters as of this moment. After all, their man won. No, wait, that’s not true. I do have some advice to give my conservative friends. Don’t gloat because sooner rather than later, your time will come again to be on the losing end. And maybe, just maybe, if you act human today, your perceived enemies will act human tomorrow. I don’t know, just a thought. Plus, it’s not nice acting like jerks. Let’s keep what civility we have left in our society intact. Simply put, don’t gloat and don’t be jerks. People hate both.

Regarding the Democrats, I also have a teensy, tiny bit of advice to offer as well. And this is coming from, remember, a guy who sits firmly in the middle. Stop being preachy. If you don’t know what preachy means, look it up. Yes, keep the nuance and intelligent perspectives, because people like that, but keep it in a way that seems somewhat cool, attractive, and welcoming. If you don’t, you’ll lose the cool vote and with today’s politicians who are now aligned with the likes of Joe Rogan, RFK, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy, it appears that cool is back. Simply put, the public can not stand being around or listening to preachy people. It’s ugly.

And for God’s sake, would everyone stop thinking that the other side is going to kill them? Like, literally kill them. Because just to let you know, it probably won’t.

October’s always a good time to visit us up here in Maine. I actually wouldn’t advise stopping by during any other month. Back in 2014, Laura’s parents visited in June and then her brother came in August. And then, the next year, my parents visited in July. While seeing our beloved relatives was wonderful, the weather was far from it. And when the weather is hot, humid, and downright miserable, I get in a bad mood and don’t want to be around anyone. That’s not abnormal, right? I mean, who wants to be around people when you’re sticking to your couch? Ugh. I hate summer so much. I never used to hate summer, but that may be because I used to swim every day. Now that I don’t do that, I hate the summer.

My father and uncle drove to our home a few years ago in October. The weather was divine. During Laura’s parents’ most recent visit this past October, the weather was superb. It rains during the month, but luckily, it didn’t either time. The skies were blue and you got no complaints from me. Just look at that above photo for proof. You can’t argue with that. By the way, that’s the Carrabassett River in Kingfield. My friend tells me that the mountain in the background is Black Nubble. I’m suspicious though because I think it may be the backside of Sugarloaf. They’re so close to one another. Either way, it’s a great image. I just took it last month with my phone. No specs for you this time because I don’t consider images from this particular phone real images.

Laura’s parents were only here for a day. In the morning, we strolled through our forest and afterward, enjoyed a tasty homemade breakfast prepared by yours truly. During the afternoon, we took the most lovely drive up to Kingfield, which, I swear, gets better and better with time. We drive up to that area only a few times per year, but on each and every occasion, I find it difficult to get over how storybook the village looks. Or town. I’m not exactly sure which it is.

We ate lunch at Longfellow’s, which is just about as cozy a restaurant as you’ll find anywhere. There’s a lot of Maine wood on the interior and as for the exterior, well, you’ve already seen that view. Overall, we had a great time and our experience reminded me of how important it is to get out of the house every so often for a bit of socializing. I just wish that Longfellow’s served Guinness on tap. They offer the bottle, but this guy doesn’t drink Guinness from the bottle. Considering I’m almost exclusively partial to Guinness as it is, this is one area I won’t compromise, but now I’m getting off track.

What’s the moral of this story? If you’re going to visit Maine, do it in October. Chances are, your visit will be an enjoyable one. And if you’re going to spend more than $8 for a pint of beer, make sure it’s from the tap.

Welcome to my new personal blog. My name is Jay.

I’ve said this countless times, but I think I’ll say it again. I like to write. I’ve deduced that my writing, or shall I say, blogging, is my hobby of choice. I’m not a great writer, but when it comes to blogging, I’ve got a lot of experience. Whether that experience has translated into any sort of quality remains to be seen. Whatever the case, here I am, blogging away.

Blogging is so much easier than real writing; there’s less pressure associated with it. I needn’t be perfect. I can easily use the word needn’t without fear of intellectual reprisal. No one’s looking over my shoulder waiting for me to produce and there are no deadlines. Yes, I’d say that blogging, as they say in the UK, is up my street.

About this website, me, and how I like to blog.

WordPress: I’ve been sharing my thoughts using WordPress software since 2005 and I currently write on four WordPress websites in total. I’ve experienced (and have endured) the typical fits and starts associated with blogging, as I’m sure most long-time bloggers can attest to themselves, or at the very least, sympathize with. Sitting at my desk, typing away in the hopes that someone might just enjoy what I deem to release gives me a sense of pleasure. I can’t say it’s a hobby that holds any sort of power; only a few very dedicated readers ever visit these pages. I suppose I’ll say that the entire thing is more of a release. Again, everyone needs a hobby and apparently, this one is mine.

The Hoffman Theme: A few days ago, I got this crazy idea to head back to my roots; to blog as I did in the early days. To write opinion pieces that align with my personality. I miss those days. They were good days. Back in 2005, blogging was more about writing about one’s life and ideas, rather than producing well-crafted pieces that rank well in the search engines.

I did a bit of browsing, read through a some Reddit posts, and landed on a few personal blogs I enjoyed looking at. From that stemmed a new domain name with a .me domain extension. It’s the first time I’ve ever use a .me extension and I must say, it’s rather exciting. Apparently, .me is the internet country code top-level domain for Montenegro. Who would’ve thought? One day I’d be sitting somewhere not even knowing where Montenegro was located and the next, I’d not only know where it is (directly to the east of southern Italy – the heel of the boot), but I’d also be enjoying the fruits of owning a domain and writing on a website that’s all about ME. And MY thoughts. That’s what the .me extension is about, by the way. In internet land, folks purchase the extension for blogs about themselves. How fitting.

The two personal blogs I took inspiration from are owned and operated by Chuck Wendig and John Scalzi. Both blogs are opinion-based, diary like websites, and both host very simple WordPress themes. Of the two, I preferred Hoffman; a free theme developed by Anders Norén. Anders began creating themes back in 2012, is currently up to 32 of them, and at this moment has enjoyed 4,556,873 downloads. I’m proud to say that I’m one of those lucky souls who downloaded one.

Photography: You’ll see lots of photography on this personal blog of mine. I like taking pictures. I own a Canon T7i and lots of lenses. Through the years, I’ve studied the methodology and theory of photography and have done well for myself. I know quite a bit on the topic. So oftentimes, if I post a special photo, I’ll also discuss what went into capturing it. Since I’m an amateur, my photos won’t be perfect or close to what we all see on the daily web, but technically, I know what’s going on and I don’t mind sharing my so-called wisdom.

By the way, the photo above is a dahlia and these are the specs: Canon T7i, Aperture: f/7.1, Shutter Speed: 1/160, ISO: 100, 18-135mm lens @ 78mm. I’m not sure you wanted to know that, but there it is.

How I Enjoy Writing: If you’ve visited and have browsed blogs running on WordPress, which I’m sure you have (perhaps unwittingly), you may have noticed two different setups. The first setup displays an excerpt of the post text on the homepage/category page and the second setup displays the entire post. Back when I first began blogging, I used to display the entire post. Like you see on this website. Along the lines somewhere, I began displaying only an excerpt. I remember discussing my new display style with my mother and her telling me that she didn’t like it. She said she much preferred staying on the homepage and simply scrolling, not having to click into the post itself. The thing is, the world was changing and it seemed as though more and more people were displaying only excerpts. I did that too and I never looked back. I’ll tell ya, I should’ve listened to my mother because my blogs have never ranked as well in the search engines as they did before I made that change. We’ll discuss that another time, but for now, just know that I’ll be displaying the entire post on all pages here. I like it so much more.

Also, the entire reason I set this new website up is because I’d like to begin writing like I used to; opinion based and of a more casual style. Another aspect of blogging that’s changed through the years is a shift from the diary/journal styled personal blog to a more search engine friendly, “5 Reasons Your Girlfriend Doesn’t Love You Anymore” commercial one. I can’t say I’m pleased with the shift, so I’d like to shift back. And as I mentioned above, blogging appears to be my hobby and as such, I really shouldn’t take it too seriously.

With that, I bid you farewell. Until next time.