With a nod to Douglas Adams, I take this moment to sign off with the final installment of the blog for the "Random Thoughts of a New Mainer." I've had a lot of fun with this writing, but have come to realize I have lately become too busy with a demanding job and other projects, (from publishing free books on-line to gardening, to new, and longer writing pieces,) to meet the demands of a two- to three-times a week blog. Adams has the best description of deadlines and it sums me up to a tee: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

That's not to say I've not enjoyed it. From debates with myself about needing a truck in Maine, to exploring Frost in new and different ways, to the quirky optimism we give to technology and our amazement when it fails us (i.e. - don't trust your GPS in rural Maine.)

My wife and I continue to love (and be in love with) Maine. One of my many projects is photography, something I've neglected of late, and it is time to start again. I'll be travelling around all parts of Maine, shooting landscapes, old barns, rocky fences and a few new and old Mainers.

[Apple Blossoms at the Farm, 2008]

And that brings me to another item: the term Mainer. I'll always prefer that to the rather (I find) denigrating term "Maniac." True Mainers are anything but maniacs. Slow to rouse but quick to act, people of Maine are anything but maniacal, as the term would imply. Let's leave that term to the sports teams around Maine that use it. If they need the image of wild activity to win games, so be it. People of Maine will always be Mainers to me.

My wife and I, and our five cats of course, will continue on the old farm here in Chesterville. I'll continue to add new chronicles (blogs really don't describe what I'm doing with my writing) and I've archived my old articles here. I've enjoyed my volunteer writing for the paper, but it's time to move on.

So, adieu. ….And thanks for all the fish.

[Newest member of the cat family - Honey]

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