Best Ways to Cope with Maine Winters? (Bangor, Orono: real estate, condos)

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Good question. Truth be told, I don't mind winter at all, except driving on black ice can get dodgy. My dear wife thinks the only thing separating Maine from the North Pole is a barbed wire fence, and it's down. However, I figured people would be blunt about the pros and cons as they saw them.

Personally, I do like the idea of bright snowy winters. I find cool sunshine incredibly invigorating. But people out West assume Maine is subarctic and people go through "The Shining" every winter. After all Stephen King does live in the neighborhood....

Maine does carry a reputation. From my observations it's reputation is far more severe than reality.

My siblings all live in California, near where we were raised. They seem very certain that Maine is located near the Arctic Circle.

I have spent some time in the Arctic Circle. It has been my observation that Maine is much warmer and sunnier.



Maine has a few authors and artists.

My favourite song-writer/singer lives in Northern Maine [Tommy Cox].

I have not read 'The Shining', though people on this forum do make reference to it's author. I have been told that he lives in the Bangor area. I think he may have written a few other books too.

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Good question. Truth be told, I don't mind winter at all, except driving on black ice can get dodgy. My dear wife thinks the only thing separating Maine from the North Pole is a barbed wire fence, and it's down. However, I figured people would be blunt about the pros and cons as they saw them.

Personally, I do like the idea of bright snowy winters. I find cool sunshine incredibly invigorating. But people out West assume Maine is subarctic and people go through "The Shining" every winter. After all Stephen King does live in the neighborhood....

Oh that Steve...we love him, but he exaggerates ya know. I thought The Shining was set in Colorado, but it's been so long since I've seen it that I can't recall.

At any rate, this winter has been positively easy IMHO. That said, we do sometimes go through an artic-like blast on some years during the end of January through mid-March, with February being the most "Shining-like" to me ...nonetheless, most people have some sort of hobby or another that keeps them busy be it skiing, ice fishing, skating etc.

As a general rule, most people don't hole themselves up in the house all winter IMHO. As far as black ice, once one does the obligatory "first-snowstorm 360" in the middle of the road, one tends to rapidly recall that winter driving requires a changed mindset and a lighter foot.

[maine4.us]

Reloop: You are too funny, while I have not experienced black ice, I know it exists, and I know when I move to Maine year-round I will experience it. It's not a question of if, but merely when. Having been there decades ago, I think the memory will hit hard. Let's hope I don't his anything else hard. This winter in Maine has been calm, and quite nice. We here in Florida have had many mornings with a lower temperature than Bangor, and especially on the coast. The last couple of winters have been miserable. My neighbor, a life long downeast Mainer, said it was the most depressing, and long winter he had ever experienced. Seeing the pics he sent me, I can agree. Maine winters are always subjective to the person who talks about them. Some are whimps, and some are foolhardy, and some are realists. I guess I am in the middle group!

[tcrackly]

Well, winter in Maine sometimes can look like a scene from the shining....file:///Users/tcrackly/Desktop/shiningorElpond%3F.JPG (broken link)

shiningorElpond?.jpg


Or like this...


ice storm.jpg


Or as I prefer to remember them like this...

xmasdeerstar.jpg

[msina]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Maine does carry a reputation. From my observations it's reputation is far more severe than reality.

My siblings all live in California, near where we were raised. They seem very certain that Maine is located near the Arctic Circle.

I have spent some time in the Arctic Circle. It has been my observation that Maine is much warmer and sunnier.



Maine has a few authors and artists.

My favourite song-writer/singer lives in Northern Maine [Tommy Cox].

I have not read 'The Shining', though people on this forum do make reference to it's author. I have been told that he lives in the Bangor area. I think he may have written a few other books too.

I think I'm living "Under The Dome"!

[tcrackly]

Originally Posted by maine4.us

Reloop: You are too funny, while I have not experienced black ice, I know it exists, and I know when I move to Maine year-round I will experience it. It's not a question of if, but merely when. Having been there decades ago, I think the memory will hit hard. Let's hope I don't his anything else hard. This winter in Maine has been calm, and quite nice. We here in Florida have had many mornings with a lower temperature than Bangor, and especially on the coast. The last couple of winters have been miserable. My neighbor, a life long downeast Mainer, said it was the most depressing, and long winter he had ever experienced. Seeing the pics he sent me, I can agree. Maine winters are always subjective to the person who talks about them. Some are whimps, and some are foolhardy, and some are realists. I guess I am in the middle group!

The trouble is that a typical Maine winter is taxing physically anyway. Add any real life downturns or crises to that and a Maine winter becomes something out of a Greek tragedy. My last two winters were grim: unemployment, lack of funds, family loss, personal illness added to repeated snows, AWOL snowplows on our private road, and the dreaded cabin fever. No. it was a scene from a Kafka novel...frightening!

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

The trouble is that a typical Maine winter is taxing physically anyway. Add any real life downturns or crises to that and a Maine winter becomes something out of a Greek tragedy. My last two winters were grim: unemployment, lack of funds, family loss, personal illness added to repeated snows, AWOL snowplows on our private road, and the dreaded cabin fever. No. it was a scene from a Kafka novel...frightening!

Very, very good point. Life seems to compound upon itself some years.

I walked to work tonight in a beautiful Oregon snowstorm. First of the year. An oddly mild winter out here too!

[JollyFatGuy]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

Well, winter in Maine sometimes can look like a scene from the shining....

shiningorElpond?.jpg

is the dog in this pic wearing clothes? do pets have to wear clothes in the winter? my dogs here in MN just run free in the snow and will only come in when half frozen

[Submariner]

Pets and livestock; if allowed to run outdoors half of each day, will put on a winter coat, of much thicker hair.

Our dogs often prefer to curl-up on a snow bank and go to sleep there. But we bring them inside at night.

No pet clothes!

[Northern Maine Land Man]

MSINA, Why would anybody ever want to leave the Dome?