Wonderful, surprising and unexpected things (Bangor, Brunswick: for sale, travel, work)

[starwalker]

I want to share a couple of things that have happened to me recently that just kind of made me smile in wonder and delight -- that I wouldn't have expected elsewhere.

Monday last -- the first really nice spring day -- I stopped by the Shell station in Milo to get a refill of kerosene. I was enjoying the blue sky, puffy white clouds and brisk, springlike wind. It FELT like spring. I commented thusly to the young man who was filling my kerosene can and his response back was "Good drying day." Now, that was something I might have said, especially had I been here long enough to have planted my clothesline, but I have never, ever heard those words uttered like that, in general conversation, by a young man. Different sort of awareness here, I think.. and likely many generations of women having uttered those words in his past.

And again, yesterday, on our trip to Dover-Foxcroft we had noticed a shell for a pickup sitting along side the road (out near the picnic tables on the road from Milo to D-F, closer to D-F than to Milo) with a price and phone number on it. We are looking for one for my little pickup, so we stopped, eyeballed it and took down the number. When I called the fellow to see what size it was, as we will be back that way this weekend with the truck to get the freezer we bought and could bring it home as well, if it fit. I called in the evening, we talked about size, when we could meet, arranging to pay if we decided it fit, etc. Then we traded names... he gave me his first name and I told him my name (rather unusual one) and was totally nonplussed by the response "Oh, I KNOW YOU!"

I have been here just over 6 weeks... I am inclined to think Maine is just one very spread out small town! LOL

Turns out this is the very fellow who has the house for sale that we did not buy at the very start of this adventure.

[Bydand]

"Good drying day" can also be used by farmers in this area referring to the fields drying out enough to get the tractors back on them to ready for planting. Don't know around the Milo area if they use that usage or not.

[msina]

Friendly place

[peachie_in_maine]

Maine is a small world kind of place.

I have always enjoyed those simple things you mentioned star, that Maine tends to offer.
It may not be rich with money, but it is rich with people that tend to be called neighbor with all good sense of the word.

For me, something really bad happened on Monday.
But I so try to look at things with " a half full glass" instead of a half empty. Thanks for mentioning your sweet- simple day.
Smiles~
Tami~peachie

[Northern Maine Land Man]

This also refers to the roads. A "good drying day" speeds us along the way to the end of "mud time".

-break-

The editors of this fine forum liked one of my posts a whole lot. They sent me a $50 gift certificate to Overstock.com so I just ordered four books I had been considering buying. I don't know what post I wrote that did it for them, but this certainly was a "wonderful, surprising and unexpected thing".

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

This also refers to the roads. A "good drying day" speeds us along the way to the end of "mud time".

-break-

The editors of this fine forum liked one of my posts a whole lot. They sent me a $50 gift certificate to Overstock.com so I just ordered four books I had been considering buying. I don't know what post I wrote that did it for them, but this certainly was a "wonderful, surprising and unexpected thing".

Cool! Congrats!!

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by peachie_in_maine

Maine is a small world kind of place.

I have always enjoyed those simple things you mentioned star, that Maine tends to offer.
It may not be rich with money, but it is rich with people that tend to be called neighbor with all good sense of the word.

For me, something really bad happened on Monday.
But I so try to look at things with " a half full glass" instead of a half empty. Thanks for mentioning your sweet- simple day.
Smiles~
Tami~peachie

Sorry that you had a such an event, but we all know life has both ups and downs. Good attitude, like yours, helps a lot not getting stuck in one of those potholes on the road of life.

[mollysmiles]

what sweet experiences star! In keeping with the topic the wonderful and unexpected...

Some of you know that when we lost our dear friend Aaron in January three people traveled from the Bangor area to attend his memorial service. We, his friends and family, had never met them before, and neither had Aaron. They are members of the Maine Geocaching Association, and wanted to attend the memorial because Aaron had been one of the first geocachers in Maine. They also felt as if they "knew" him after reading his many logs and postings over the years. It was wonderful meeting them, and they told us all about an event in Brewer, a "Pirate Event", that we should try to attend on April 12th.

Well, that was this past Saturday, and most of us were able to go. We were all touched by the wonderful things that happened to us. One of the fellow Geocacher's had released an item called a "geocoin" (an item with a mission to travel from cache to cache), and although it's mission was to travel only in Maine and New Brunswick, it had been dropped in western Mass. A cacher traveling from Mass to the event on Saturday woke extra early, traveled an hour west, hiked half a mile to the cache, picked up the geocoin (a green Jeep, like Aaron's), and then traveled to Brewer to bring the geocoin back to us. What a lot of work to do for people he'd never met. Aaron's cousins had released a similar type of item, called a "travel bug" in Gloucester with a mission to travel up here, moving from cache to cache, to land in Aaron's only personal cache at Nash's Lake. A fellow Maine geocacher learned a few days before the event that the travel bug was in western Maine, and travelled out of his way to pick it up from that cache and bring it to us at the event. We also didn't know him, and neither did Aaron. We'll place it in the Nash's Lake cache and determine a new mission. Sweet men doing wonderful things just pull at your heart don't they?!

I'm a firm believer that if we just pay attention we'll find that the connection we have from those who have died is not gone. It's not always loud, it's not a bright flashing neon sign, but there are little things. Some people will say that they are just coincidences, but how many of those can you have before you have no choice but to acknowledge there is something more? Anyway, we had a number of instances throughout the day on Saturday.....things that people would say to us that either Aaron would have said in his twisted sense of humor or that brought to mind an experience we'd had with him, hearing a particular rarely played song on the radio, seeing two Jeeps like his--an unusual shade made only that year, and very rare, just a wide variety of "little" things all day long. And, maybe we were looking, but we really were too busy to be looking very hard. By themselves all the little things might go unnoticed, but together there were far too many "coincidences" that day

[Nor'Eastah]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

I'm a firm believer that if we just pay attention we'll find that the connection we have from those who have died is not gone. It's not always loud, it's not a bright flashing neon sign, but there are little things. Some people will say that they are just coincidences, but how many of those can you have before you have no choice but to acknowledge there is something more? By themselves all the little things might go unnoticed, but together there were far too many "coincidences" that day

We also, believe that there are "no coincidences". In this life, we tend to concentrate on the body - how it looks, how it feels, whether it is sick. We forget that a body is just a physical vessel, one that wears out. What happens to us when our body wears out? We discard it, but keep right on being who we are, and loving those we have always loved.

You are right...the signs are there for anyone willing to be open-minded enough to notice. A woman told me that is so, and she was right!

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by starwalker

I commented thusly to the young man who was filling my kerosene can and his response back was "Good drying day." .

He probably grows his own pot!