Our first week

Interesting first week we’ve had.  Cold temperatures, five inches of snow overnight Thursday, Deb worked Monday/ Thursday/ Friday, and some such.

Tuesday we drove to Bangor to buy metal shelves for the kitchen.  There isn’t much counter space, no cabinets and so on.  The Whitetail Inn caters to sports-oriented clients, here for the lakes, fishing, snowmobiling, hiking and hunting.  Correspondingly, it is furnished roughly and we are altering our apartment to suit a longer stay and our desire for comfort.  The apartment is in an old house, top floor.  Nothing is level.  The floors slope to the center and all the doors are wonky.  Reminds us of the three-decker Victorian where we lived in Boston.

We drove to Bangor on ME-2, winding through small towns and next to the Penobscot River.  Very pretty drive, very few vehicles on the road.

After finding the shelves at Home Depot (see the photos of the apartment), we drove to the Mason Brewing Company for very good calamari tacos, a burger and Banh Mi sub with pork belly.  When I get a Banh Mi in Pittsboro, the port is pulled and barbecued (of course!).  The brew was good, and the pub very nice.  Deb had cider and I had Ghost Reaper IPA (sorta spicy).  The pub is on the Penobscot River, which is iced over.  Someone had a brilliant idea to make bathroom urinals out of beer kegs!

We found a yarn shop in downtown Bangor, and Deb bought yarn for a cowl.  We looked for small appliances at Target and bought an electric kettle for tea.  Back home via I-95 with leftovers for dinner.

On Tuesday, we drove back to Bangor to buy a better desk chair for me.  The cheapo I first bought gave me back pain.  Found a decent one on sale at Staples.  Back home again.

Thursday, there was five inches of snow on both vehicles (Debbi has a rental and I have our truck).  I found that the locks on my truck cap were frozen, so I had no access to the snow tools in the bed.  After Deb went to work, I found some lock de-icer and got the cap open.  The foam snow pusher made short work of the accumulated snow.

This weekend, we’ve done some planning for the trip west we’ll make in June.  We’ll probably go to a yarn shop in Millinocket this coming week, and maybe down to Freeport to buy flannel-lined jeans at LL Bean.  What we’re experiencing reminds me very much of winter in Boston and the four months I worked in Ottawa.  We’re getting used to the outdoor temperatures, but nothing can make us like nighttime lows in minus degrees.  Eleven weeks to go!  We can do that standing on our heads (inside).