Tag: Maine

Maine Pictures Go Online

This is never easy, deciding which photos make the cut. I shot too many and often took the easy way out, snapping two, three, sometimes four of the same subject at the same time. Each time I clicked I adjusted something.

It’s a luxury of digital photography that didn’t exist when film was king. You pay the luxury tax on the back end when you have to look through everything! Over 1,000 photos takes time.

Even the 180 or so I’ve put online needed short captions. Otherwise Google wouldn’t know what they were.

There are two ways to see my pictures… well, there should be. The slide show movie is giving me fits and I just can’t get it properly implemented online.

As I just mentioned, I’ve placed a bunch in my gallery, which is working.

As hard as I try to maintain the quality, these photos on the web don’t approach the original quality of the pictures ‘as shot.’ There are around a dozen I’ll be printing and hopefully hanging.

My trip won’t be complete until I write a little summary of what we did and what we found. There are a few things I’d like to say about Maine and the people I met there.

It was a surprising trip. Maine was nothing like I expected because it was everything I expected – only more intense and with no unwanted filler.

I hope that made sense?

Like A Lost Day

All day long I’ve told myself today’s the day to Remember the Maine (trip). It’s not going to happen tonight.

I am suffering from a malaise which has been named ‘car lag’ by my friend Rick.

During the trip to Maine, I tried to shift my schedule to my friend Bob’s. That was especially important since I had the car and he had a few appointments. He could have gone by himself, but that would have slowed down the day, benefiting neither of us.

Getting up wasn’t the problem. The real weakness in my life is being able to force myself to bed. So, day-by-day, I got more fatigued… until today, I feel like I’ve just gotten off a horrendous bender&#185.

I took a three hour nap this afternoon, but I’m still really dragging and might finish the night out in bed, TV on, computer on… but still in bed where decisions are seldom required.

As is always the case, I have underestimated the time necessary to get my pictures ready for the Internet. There are around 1,000 of them, though far fewer will make their way online.

I’ll include one sample, so you can see I was actually there. Click the link, as the thumbnail just doesn’t do it justice.

&#185 – Nice imagery, but totally a guess. Strange as it seems in this day and age, I’ve never been drunk.

Bluetooth And Me

Before I left for Maine, I was interviewed by Jim Shelton for a New Haven Register story concerning Bluetooth technology.

“You could be Brad Pitt and if you have one of these on, you still look like a dweeb,” says WTNH-8 meteorologist Geoff Fox, a Bluetooth headset user for six months. “They don

First, A Word From Your Phone Company

I have about 1,000 photos from my Maine trip, and stories to tell. I will in the next day or so.

Meanwhile, a problem was simmering at home while I was gone. Crank, hang-up, phone calls. The caller ID was no help as the display read “Unknown.”

The problem is now fixed, but not without cost – and it really riles me. Here’s what I just sent to AT&T:

This week, while I was away, my wife began receiving calls which were listed on caller ID as “Unknown Name” “Unknown Number.” The caller hung up as soon as the phone was answered. These calls were very disturbing to my wife and me.

I have just signed on for your blocking feature. However, I am incensed to be forced to pay to stop these calls. I am upset that AT&T would charge such a large amount, $60 per year, for a service which costs you next to nothing and which is needed because of a crank caller – out of our control.

If you’re looking for reasons people are jumping to VOIP or cellular, this is one. I don’t want to be nickel and dimed to death by you, especially when the VOIP provider for my second phone (Broadvoice) offers this feature for free.

Under these circumstances I will consider moving my number to my VOIP unless AT&T waives the fee for this service. I have been your customer for 22 years in Connecticut, but you are surely driving me away.

Geoff Fox

OK – maybe the threat of moving my number, though a real threat, is over-the-top. This is a service that costs them nothing… or nearly nothing. Certainly, once it’s turned on there is no additional incremental cost to AT&T.

It should be noted that since we’ve been here, we’ve had SNET, SBC and now AT&T – all supplying the same line. With each corporate restructure, Connecticut in general and my phone in particular, has become a smaller more inconsequential piece of their puzzling business.

To add insult to injury, while on the phone with an AT&T rep, she tried to “upsell” me more services. Wasn’t this an inappropriate time to try and make a sale?

It’s Maine-ly Beautiful

This will be a fairly short entry. I am in Maine, with my friend Bob.

Right now he is making an appearance on behalf of the radio station he appears on in the Bangor area. I’m on an ‘Internet Cafe’ type PC in the deli section of the natural grocery store he’s at.

Radio is glamorous – not!

Our drive to Maine was uneventful, except to say there comes a point when you realize you’ve driven past civilization. It took a little over six hours door-to-door for the 415 miles.

Though we drove with the top up, once we got here the convertible roof went down. The weather has been sunny and cool, but with the skyand the scenery, this is perfect for driving a convertible. Maybe beyond perfect.

We are staying in an amazing little home right on Southwest Bay, which is in turn on Mt. Desert Island.

I have already taken over 200 photos, but can’t post them… yet. My laptop has suffered some sort of failure which rendered Internet connectivity and file reading capaibility dead!

I’m not sure when I’ll be able to be on again (and not sure I’ll even be able to read my email), but I hope to post loads of pictures and stories on Thursday.

An Old Friend Returns

Back in 1969, my first day on-the-air at WSAR was a little unnerving. Someone needed to break me in on the control board and make sure I knew what I was doing. That person was Skippy Ross, who became Skip Tyler, who became Bob Lacey. The photo to the left is Bob in 1975 at Hoover Dam.

Isn’t radio great? All those cue scratched 45’s ago and we’re still friends.

I picked him up at Bradley Airport this afternoon (I’m sorry sir, you can’t stop here. You’ll have to circle the terminal until your party arrives). We drove to New Haven so he could get a New Haven sweatshirt (in short supply in Charlotte, NC), then up to Glenwood Drive-in here in Hamden where he craved a grilled dog.

Tomorrow Bob and I are driving to Maine. This won’t be our first vacation trip together, but certainly the first in over 30 years! The photo just to the left is me on that vacation, on the beach at Malibu.

At work, some co-workers have speculated how well I will survive coastal Maine. We’re only staying until Wednesday. Will I make it or go stir crazy with limited cell service and the possibility of no Internet.

No Internet! What is this, 1956?

If there’s a little pause in the blog, you’ll understand what’s going on. Meanwhile, sometime tomorrow we’re piling in the car and heading to Southwest Harbor, Maine. “Clicky” is making the trip, so there will be photos.

Aloha.

Oh – one more thing. Bob’s daughter Landon Lacey has a great website where she sells her handcrafted jewelery. not that my mention means much, but a free plug’s a free plug.

I’ve Got To Step It Up

There’s an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about bloggers. I’d post it, or a link, but WSJ is by subscription. I only saw it because we get a copy in the newsroom.

The story addressed the quandary faced by bloggers who go on vacation. Do you post? Do you stop? What about a substitute blogger?

The blogs that used subs ended up with reduced traffic. The bloggers that go 365 days a year seem a little too tightly wound.

OK – that’s me – I know.

What impressed me were the traffic numbers for some of the more well known blogs. Just doing some quick math, and assuming my tiny revenue would scale, you can make a reasonable living in your pajamas if you can aggregate 100,000 readers a day – as some of those big blogs seem to do.

Earlier this year, I was thinking of visiting a friend out-of-state. He’d love to have me, but no blogging. He didn’t want his personal life archived. You really can’t fault him.

In the meantime, it looks like I might be taking a few days and going to Maine with an old friend. Will there be Internet access? Cell service? Doubts on that too.

I’ll have to carrier pigeon the blog in to the server. Helaine’s not totally sure I’d survive.

Better Than Snow

That’s my ‘carmometer’ on the left. OK, it’s not lab certified and it’s reading as it rides over black pavement, but you get the idea. It’s brutally hot.

Today was a good day to realize just how hermetically sealed many of our lives are. I leave my air conditioned house and walk into the garage. I drive my convertible… but with the a/c blasting directly on me. Then, after a twenty second walk from the parking lot, I’m in my air conditioned office.

I remember as a kid sweltering in our fifth floor apartment. Summer nights were still and humid. The quiet of the heat was broken every minute or two as the slow and low flying multi engine prop planes of that era rumbled toward La Guardia Airport, a few miles away.

The apartment rattled, but the heat was unshaken.

At home, we often discuss the relative merits of heat versus cold. In the winter too it’s possible to remove yourself for the elements. But winter weather is much more invasive when it comes to driving.

In my family, we’d vote for heat versus cold any day. My sense is, from years of listening to people, most Connecticut residents feel otherwise. On the other hand, you don’t hear about a lot of people retiring to Maine!

Today was too hot to stay outside for any length of time. But tonight, the torrid weather is inviting. I like to walk around when the air is warm and humid, as long as the Sun isn’t shining.

I guess my perspective is changed by the availability of air conditioning. If I were back in the apartment, or the non-air conditioned apartment I had in Lake Worth, Florida back in 1969, maybe I’d feel differently? Probably not.

Forecasts Get Results

There was a story in USA Today today (that just sounds and looks so wrong) about insurance rates in Maine. They’re going up.

I’ve edited for space and added bold text for emphasis. It’s always better to read the full article.

Maine homeowners may see higher insurance rates

PORTLAND, Maine (AP)

Hurricane Wilma – The Hurricane Center Catches On

Earlier, I wrote about the radical track shift on some of today’s computer guidance on Hurricane Wilma. It looks like the Hurricane Center has caught on to that.

AGREEMENT AMONG THE TRACK GUIDANCE MODELS…WHICH HAD BEEN VERY GOOD OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS…HAS COMPLETELY COLLAPSED TODAY. THE 06Z RUNS OF THE GFS…GFDL…AND NOGAPS MODELS ACCELERATED WILMA RAPIDLY TOWARD NEW ENGLAND UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF A LARGE LOW

PRESSURE SYSTEM IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION. ALL THREE OF THESE MODELS HAVE BACKED OFF OF THIS SOLUTION…WITH THE GFDL SHOWING AN EXTREME CHANGE…WITH ITS 5-DAY POSITION SHIFTING A MERE 1650 NMI FROM ITS PREVIOUS POSITION IN MAINE TO THE WESTERN TIP OF CUBA.

THERE IS ALMOST AS MUCH SPREAD IN THE 5-DAY POSITIONS OF THE 12Z GFS ENSEMBLE MEMBERS…WHICH RANGE FROM THE YUCATAN TO WELL EAST OF THE DELMARVA PENINSULA. WHAT THIS ILLUSTRATES IS THE EXTREME SENSITIVITY OF WILMA’S FUTURE TRACK TO ITS INTERACTION WITH THE GREAT LAKES LOW. OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS…WILMA HAS BEEN MOVING SLIGHTLY TO THE LEFT OR SOUTH OF THE MODEL GUIDANCE…AND THE LEFT-MOST OF THE GUIDANCE SOLUTIONS ARE NOW SHOWING WILMA DELAYING OR MISSING THE CONNECTION WITH THE LOW. I HAVE SLOWED THE OFFICIAL FORECAST JUST A LITTLE BIT AT THIS TIME…BUT IF WILMA CONTINUES TO MOVE MORE TO THE LEFT THAN EXPECTED…SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES TO THE OFFICIAL FORECAST MAY HAVE TO BE MADE DOWN THE LINE. NEEDLESS TO SAY…CONFIDENCE IN THE FORECAST TRACK…ESPECIALLY THE TIMING…HAS DECREASED CONSIDERABLY.

Remind me not to switch jobs with the forecasters at the Hurricane Center. This is tough stuff with a lot on the line.

Their typical response to radical forecast shifts is to wait and make sure it’s not one piece of unexpected bad data that’s thrown things off. If the models continue this trend of turning, tonight’s 11 PM EDT update will move the forecast in a big way… and people in Florida will exhale.

Stormy Saturday

Steffie was away at Field Hockey Camp. The weather was forecast to be rotten. There were no movies worth seeing. Helaine and I decided to drive the hour or so to Foxwoods where I could play poker while wearing something other than pajamas.

The traffic was horrendous. Well, for our little part of Connecticut it was horrendous. I’m sure Californians or Long Islanders would disagree with my threshold of traffic pain. We hit the first stoppage on I-91, approaching I-95.

The new Ikea was supposed to attract more cars. Since it has opened, I have noticed much slower traffic where I-91 empties into I-95. It might be a coincidence. I hope it is. I don’t want to think this will now be the norm.

I crossed the “Q” Bridge and headed east on I-95. Since I-95 runs from Maine to Florida it’s considered a north – south road. Signs point you to I-95 north or I-95 south. Unfortunately, here in Connecticut it is entirely east – west. It is somewhat confusing in the beginning.

A few minutes later I heard what sounded like touch tones on the radio, then silence, then National Weather Service radio broadcasting a tornado warning for Northern New Haven County.

I picked up the phone and called the station. I wanted to make sure we were on it. Thankfully we were.

Gil Simmons was heading back to the studio from the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament. A crew was heading to Wolcott where we had reports of storm damage. Our automated equipment had instantly posted the tornado warning on the air.

We continued the drive – in heavy traffic on I-95. As is so often the case, we never found out why the traffic was heavy. One minute we were in bumper-to-bumper stop and go traffic, the next we were cruising along at the speed limit.

Skies remained threatening, but we beat the storms to the casino. The valet parking area was fairly empty and we pulled right in. As it turned out we beat the thunderstorms by about 30 minutes.

Since July, and Las Vegas, I have spent more time in casinos than ever before. Of course I’ve been going because I’ve been winning. Somehow online poker has made me a much better ‘live’ poker player. And since I am willing to risk more in person, a good night can be very rewarding.

The poker room at Foxwoods is bigger than ever, just having added 12 tables. It was also more crowded than I’d ever seen it with long waiting lists to play. I signed up and Helaine and I left to walk around. I came back in time to play.

Recently, I had been having good luck at $10/$20 Texas Hold’em, and went there again. Foxwoods deals tables of 10 at Hold’em – and the table was full.

I bought in with $200 and was soon down around $60. The things began to turn around. By the time we were ready for dinner I had won $483.&#185

We went to the coffee shop for dinner. Foxwoods has some beautiful restaurants and one disappointing buffet. I had a French Dip sandwich, fries and a bowl of chowder. Dinner couldn’t have been nicer.

To its credit, this coffee shop is reminiscent of Vegas coffee shops. It is bright and airy, more room between tables than you’d expect. The food is very good. The menu is more limited than most Vegas coffee shops, but there’s no problem finding something good to eat.

We headed back upstairs and I got reseated for poker. Even though my dinner break allowed me to be second on the list for players coming in, it took nearly a half hour for me to sit.

I never felt I was doing that well, but before long I could see an extra few stacks of $5 chips in front of me. I was up over $200 before getting sucked into a hand that better judgment should have kept me from. I left the table up another $143.

As was the case when I played in Atlantic City, I keep waiting for my big loss. It is coming – I just don’t know when. Even a great player, and I am not a great player, can’t sustain the string of wins I currently have at brick and mortar casinos.

That loss didn’t come Saturday night.

On the way out I picked up some brochures for Foxwoods big series of tournaments which comes in October. The entries are a bit pricey, but I would consider playing in one event.

In a somewhat sobering observation I realized I am eligible to play in the Senior Tournament. All I need to do is bring proof of my 50+ age… and a lot of cash.

&#185 – When I play poker, I buy in for a round amount. When I cash out I subtract that amount to come up with my win. During the course of playing I tip the dealer after any winning hands and tip the waitress when I get a soda or coffee. Those come from my stack, so they reduce my winnings. Whether they should be part of my winnings or losses is academic. It is easier to calculate it this way, so I do.