A Mysterious Connection

After six days of glorious weather, the next two days will find us catching up with the rest of the country which has been in the grips of a merciless heat wave ever since we left Short Pump. Our part of Maine will be under a Heat Advisory from 11 am today until 7pm tomorrow. What this means for us is...a high temperature today of 93 and 89 tomorrow with unusually high humidity. Before you scoff at 89 producing a Heat Advisory, you should consider that most people on this lake and probably 60% of the businesses in Camden have...no air conditioning. Our plan is to spend as much of this day as possible either in or on the water. If there is no wind today, this cottage will become an unbearable steam bath by around 4 o’clock. If so, we are planning a grocery shopping trip to the Belfast Hannaford’s...a very slow and casual grocery shopping trip which may take a couple of hours to complete. (Hannaford’s is delightfully climate controlled!)

Of course, we have zero right to complain. Our first week has been like something out of a dream...perfect weather, calming breezes, and a series of sunsets seemingly intent upon outperforming the night before. Here they are, in order of their appearance:

Last night’s may have been the most dramatic. From the picture you will notice on the far right an intimidating rainstorm that was passing by up towards Bangor. Although it missed us, our horizon was split in two, dark thunderous clouds to the north and brilliant sunshine to the south. It was fascinating to watch, putting a perfect ending to my wife’s birthday. She spent it doing all of the things she loves most in this world, a 4 mile kayak trip at dawn, a leash-less walk with Lucy, a drive into Camden for a lobster roll and a root beer on a park bench down the hill from the library overlooking the harbor, then an afternoon of floats on the lake, with Lucy swimming with her, and a couple of long paddle board jaunts. The coolest thing that happened featured something that I have long suspected about my wife...loons love her. No, I am not making a wisecrack about her husband, I am referring to the mysterious connection that she seems to have with this iconic Maine bird. Just before she left for her early morning kayak trip, five of them magically appeared at the end of our dock, as if to greet her on her big day. It is quite rare to see more than two or three loons together at one spot, but where my wife is concerned they ignore convention. Then, at the close of the day, two more incredibly docile loons plopped out of the water in front of our dock again, this time falling asleep for over thirty minutes while we inspected them up close. It was spooky, in a way, as if they knew it was her birthday, and that she loves them so. 

Of course, she also spent time talking with her two children and getting to see our new GrandPup, Frisco, on FaceTime. When we finally called it a night, I knew that she had a perfect day. All the ingredients for perfection were here already. All we had to do was show up.