Steve's Ramblings

So what did you do on the Saturday following Thanksgiving on Thursday and the madness of “Black Friday”? Did you take it easy and watch some TV, or did you venture out to do some shopping hoping that things would be a little quieter.

Or did you go to a wedding?

Rick and Jill’s wedding was one of the reasons we’d flown back to Maine and with it being on the Thanksgiving weekend it all worked out quite well.

Having recovered from too much turkey on Thursday we all gathered at the church on Friday evening to have a rehearsal which went quite smoothly which I suppose is a good thing, and then we all went over to the Ground Round for the rehearsal supper where I think we almost ate too much food again.

Saturday morning seemed to roll round really quickly and Kathy headed out to get her hair done, having got her nails done on Friday afternoon in the middle of the Black Friday madness. Then the Groom’s party descended on the house to get ready which was slightly less chaotic than when Jen got married the other year, but not by much.

There had been an earlier wedding at the church but by the time we got there there was no sign of them and it wasn’t long before wedding guests started turning up and the ceremony started right on time.

It was a pretty good ceremony with some good readings and the deacon talked well and made everyone feel welcome and relaxed, and even made a joke or two.

There was one very funny moment during the service when Rick and Jill went up to light the unity candle from the two side candles and they’d lit it and were walking back and it went out, so the deacon called them back and they tried to re-light it but it just didn’t want to know. After a little bit of work, and two tapers which were really starting to flare up, they got it lit and made their way back to their places and the ceremony continued.

I got caught out by the Roman Catholic version of The Lords Prayer which is several lines shorter at the end, and it seems that it caught everyone else who wasn’t RC out as well.

After the service was over and photos were taken we all piled into various cars and headed across town to the Augusta Civic Center where the reception was being held. They’d even put a message on the electric notice board at the Civic Center so anyone driving past it would know.

The reception was being held in a function room in the North wing of the Center and there was a craft fayre being held in the main auditorium which some of us joked about crashing but I think the arrival of a lot of people in matching tuxedos and waistcoats might have thrown them off a bit.

It was a great reception and everyone seemed to have a good time. So to finish off this blog here is a picture of the happy couple

On Monday after returning from our weekend away in Kennebunkport I went to my first basketball game. It was a game between the Maine Redclaws and the Springfield Armor at the Augusta Civic Center.

I had no real idea of what to expect. I’d seen some games on TV, including a couple over at Sue and Jeff’s but watching top flight pro teams on TV is very different to seing a pretty new team in the D league. Probably like watching Arsenal v Chelsea on TV and then going to watch Cheltenham v Burton Albion.

I think what struck me most was how disjointed the whole thing felt. There were mad bursts of action with players running back and forth along the full length of the court and then there were whole periods of nothing going on with timeouts and penalty shots, and sometimes those penalty shots seemed to take forever to be taken. Of course with all the timeouts and everything else it’s surprising how long 48 minutes of play can be stretched out to, and having a ref who seeemed to love the sound of his own whistle and his own voice probably didn’t help, and the crowd of just over 3000 people didn’t think he was doing a very good job.

Today was of course, Thanksgiving, so that meant a lot of good food and family time with Kathy’s family, and everyone ate too much, and that was before we started on the various pies for dessert.

Now everyone is just sitting round relaxing and trying not to fall asleep, and talking about plans for Black Friday, and working on wedding programs for this weekend.

There’s just something about the names of places in Maine: Perkin’s Cove, Nubble Rock, Cape Neddick, Cape Porpoise, Goat Island..

They sound like places out of a pirate story, but they’re all very real and we didn’t see a single pirate at all which was a great pity.

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend down at Kennebunkport staying at the Nonantum Resort . Although it was a bit odd when we came back on Sunday and found that the main part of the building was in complete darkness and that there were only 4 cars in the Portside Lodge parking lot. I can’t remember when I was last in a pretty much empty hotel, and we were torn between running round the place causing havoc or holding a ghost hunt – but I suspect the main hotel building is the place to do that…. even if its a bit a long hike for Parasoc!

Some of the other big hotels were also locked up tight, “The Colony” was all in darkness apart from some outside lights, and there was no indication of any caretaker there for the winter, so at least there wasn’t going to be a Shining style incident, even if the hotel did look similar to The Overlook in some aspects. But we all agreed that being the over-winter caretaker in a hotel would actually be quite interesting and fun. So if you own a Maine Coastal Hotel and want some winter housekeepers……..

We ate a couple of times at The Maine Diner which does really good food in a very uncomplicated way, in very simple but comfortable surroundings. So if you’re ever on Route One near Wells then I really recommend pulling in and eating there.

I nearly called this post “Goodbye Marginal way” but decided not to (which I’m sure is something you’re really grateful about). We’d been for a walk along Marginal Way after going down to Cape Neddick. The last time we’d been down to Cape Neddick the weather had been rather bad and getting out of the car was not something you really wanted to do, but this time the weather was a lot better and there were quite a few people there. There were quite a few people on Marginal Way too, taking advantage of the good weather to enjoy an afternoon walk along the coast and we took our time and took in the scenery and the sounds and Jeff and I didn’t even get splashed once in all our rock scrambling.