back to civilization

While I much, much prefer to be in Maine (despite the weather forecast for snow flurries tonight), it is nice to be back to a house with high speed internet. Having to drag 5 kids up to the library 12 miles away every week or so to post on their very weak and sporadic wi-fi was not the highlight of my summer vacation. It was spending time in the beauty of woods, fields, open space, and the stunning scenery Maine is famous for. Yesterday the leaves in the central portion of the state were in full color, the maple's red striking against the ash's yellow and the pine and fir dark green.

Our trip back was pretty uneventful, there were no traffic jams or overturned tanker trucks. Our only snag were during the first hour of the trip with Charlie and Maggie having to water the grass in the median 3 times. I also recommend that (and this is important for those traveling anywhere with small children) you do not stop at the Friendly's in Augusta, Maine for dinner on a Thursday night. It took 2 hours from walking in the door to pulling on everyone's jammies in the parking lot and pulling back onto I95. While the food was good and the food wars have expanded the children's repertoire, the folks I felt sorry for were the two blue-haired couples right behind us, smack between our bunch and a family with two truly obnoxious brats. I would guess that the children were about 4 and 6 who climbed on the table, stood in their chairs, whined, fussed, and/or yelled the entire time we were in the restaurant. At one point I overheard this very immature mother say, "Shoot me if I have more than 2 kids." "Lady," I muttered under my breath, "if I was as horrible a mother as you, more than 1 kid would be too much trouble."

Now we are back in suburbia land with instant access to the news and blogs, traffic you have to take into account every time you go out, and shopping opportunities not available in small town America. Only 2 years, 10 months left before we are back in Maine for good. Hopefully by then we can get fancy web access at the farm.