Stuff about me
My name is Keith Michaud and this is “Letters From Away,” a blog written by a Mainer living outside the comfortable and sane confines of New England. The blog is intended for Mainers, whether they live in the Pine Tree State or beyond, and for anyone who has loved ’em, been baffled by ’em or both. Ayuh, I am “from away.” Worse still, I live on the Left Coast – in California. Enjoy! Or not. Your choice.
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Baggage claim is located on the grass next to the terminal
"Mars Hill Regional Airport" taken by Kelly McInnis. Reprinted with permission.
Here’s a photo shot by Kelly McInnis taken in Mars Hill, Maine. She slugged it “Mars Hill Regional Airport” because of the windsock and what appeared to be a grassy runway nearby. She says it might have been used for crop dusters and such.
Kelly, with whom I graduated from Ashland Community High School in 1980, gave me permission to publish the photo and I thank her very much. I wanted to share it to show off the incredibly blue sky and lush green grass of northern Maine.
Oh, and Kelly’s Maine wit, too. 🙂
Posted in Environment, Maine, Outdoors, Photos
Tagged crop duster, Kelly McInnis, Maine wit, Mars Hills Regional Airport, photo
What? Your job is to help people find jobs?!
Here’s a little irony for you … well, quite a bit of irony, actually.
I’ve been looking for work for the past 15 months. After 22 years in the newspaper business, I was laid off. Over the course of that 22 years I have been a reporter, columnist, copy editor, assistant news editor, opinion page editor, assistant city editor, website staff writer, and blogger. I’ve been trying to find work, usually via online job boards and websites, networking via friends, LinkedIn and Facebook, and by simply keeping my ear to the ground.
I’ve been pretty open about the experience. At least, with my family, friends, and those of you who have visited “Letters From Away.” I’ve written about the frustration of the job search and the various pitfalls that have occurred in the past 15 months.
But I wasn’t very open with the other tenants of my apartment building. I don’t know any of them very well and I felt uncomfortable opening up about that sort of thing. And apparently some of them have not caught onto my blog, if you can believe that.
Anyway, I was walking down to the basement garage on Saturday when a guy who lives in one of the downstairs apartments came out.
“So, where are you working now?”
“I’m not,” I replied.
“What?!”
“Yeah, today makes 15 months since I was laid off,” I informed him. A mix of surprise and shock flashed over his face.
“Listen, I think I can help. …”
I’ve been living in the same apartment building since late 2006 and out of work since March 5, 2009, and I had no idea that my neighbor worked for a county agency that helps people get back to work. One of the programs for which I may be eligible is a six-month, 50 percent salary grant where an employer would be reimbursed for 50 percent of a worker’s salary for six months.
That does a couple of things, of course. It gets workers into jobs, it gives the employer a worker and a chance to see what the employee can do to prove himself or herself in a job and it gives a little time for the economy a little time to come around so that at the end of the six months the employee has a better chance to be held on permanently.
I’m not exactly sure what else the neighbor or the agency can do to help me, but I have an appointment to talk with the guy tomorrow.
Posted in Economy, News and Newspapers, Newspapers, Politics and government, Uncategorized
Tagged assistant city editor, assistant news editor, “Letters From Away”, blogger, columnist, copy editor, Facebook, job, jobless, laid off, LinkedIn, newspaper business, newspaper industry, opinion page editor, reporter, unemployed, website staff writer
I was born in the friendliest town in Maine
It’s always nice to be considered the “friendliest” person on the block. It may be even more compelling to be from the friendliest town in a state.
Well, I’m not from that town, but I was born there. I was born in a hospital that was on a hill overlooking the river that served as the U.S.-Canada border as it flowed through Fort Kent, Maine, one of two cities in the Pine Tree State to claim the title of “The Friendliest Town in Maine.” The other is Wells, on the coast.
At least, that’s according to the DownEast.com trivia question today.
What two towns both lay claim to the title “The Friendliest Town in Maine?”
Answer:
Fort Kent and Wells
Fort Kent is the city in which my parents went to high school, as I recall, and pretty much was the center of my early years. I recall driving from Portage to Fort Kent to visit relatives and friends and for family functions, to shop, and for medical care – dentist, doctor, and optometrist.
And while our family visited Wells when I was a child and we had a very lovely stay, I do have relatives living in Fort Kent to this day and I most certainly have to give Fort Kent the edge when it comes to friendliness.
Well, perhaps not the agents at the border crossing. They’re not always that friendly.
Posted in Maine trivia
Tagged DownEast.com, Fort Kent, friendliest town, Portage, U.S.-Canada border, Wells
Maine’s statewide election results
Posted in Economy, Environment, Law and Order, Maine, Politics and government
Tagged candidate, election results, incumbent, primary election, voter, votes
Dine Out for the Gulf Coast
From June 10-12, 2010, participating restaurants throughout the United States will set aside a portion of profits to help those directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and to support the long-term restoration of the treasured coast.
Posted in Disaster, Economy, Energy, Environment, Food and Drink, Outdoors, Politics and government
Tagged BP, British Petroleum, Deepwarter Horizon, diners, Gulf Coast, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill, restaurant
Slamming down the cell phone to make a point and other technological oddities
I’ve had a cell phone for years now, but every so often I still listen for a dial tone before punching in the number I’m calling.
I know, it’s crazy, but I still do it.
Everyone knows that you punch in the number and then hit the Call button to initiate cell phone call. There is no dial tone, as there is with landline phones.
But old habits die hard. It’s what we all do with landline phones, after all.
Take slamming down a phone in anger to make a clear point that the telephone conversation has been terminated. You can’t do that with a cell phone or you’d end up with a bunch of bits and pieces.
Cell phone manufacturers should make a slam-the-phone-down function. You hit a button on your cell phone and the person on the other end hears a loud click and the call is then terminated.
However, I must say, the idea of ending a cell phone call and imagining the person on the other end continuing the conversation even though you’re not listening anymore is a bit fun, too.
Here’s another thing that I blame on technology for making me look silly. When I was working and after a particularly long day, I would – wait for it – hit the unlock button on my car alarm fob in an attempt to gain entry into my apartment. Yep, I tried to unlock my apartment door by unlocking my vehicle door.
I’m not proud, but it is the level to which technology has reduced me.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged car alarm fob, cell phone, dial tone, technology, telephone conversation
Coffeehouse observation No. 154
I was sitting in Exotic Java and a guy came in wearing shoes with Velcro and he wasn’t a toddler or 65 or older. Is that legal in California?!
Go to Coffeehouse Observer for more coffeehouse observations.
Posted in Coffeehouse Observer
Tagged barista, brew, caffeinated, caffeine, coffee, coffeehouse, coffeehouse observation, Coffeehouse Observer, cup o’ joe, espresso, exotic java, java, joe, pastries, tea, Velcro
Coffeehouse observation No. 153
I have no intentions of messing with the barista who just served me a Red Eye. She has a tattoo of Dirty Harry on one bicep and a skull in tophat on the other. She may be the toughest 90-lb. woman I have seen in quite a while.
Go to Coffeehouse Observer for more coffeehouse observations.
Posted in Coffeehouse Observer
Tagged barista, brew, caffeinated, caffeine, Clint Eastwood, coffee, coffeehouse, coffeehouse observation, Coffeehouse Observer, cup o’ joe, Dirty Harry, espresso, exotic java, java, joe, pastries, Red Eye, skull in tophat, tattoo, tea
Auburn doctors return from Haiti | Lewiston Sun Journal
Dr. Michael Regan met the girl — 14 years old, bright-eyed and sweet — in a hospital tent filled with flies and patients. Her lower leg had been crushed during Haiti’s January earthquake. She’d received treatment afterward, but in the nonsterile medical facility an infection had set in. Regan changed the pins in her leg, cleaned out the infection, gave her antibiotics. In the United States she could have had surgery in a state-of-the-art facility and would have been fine.
Not in Haiti. Regan predicted her leg will have to be amputated within a year. And there’s nothing the Auburn orthopedic surgeon could do for her — or for so many others in the very same tent.
“Oh, God, I can remember them all. There were so many of them. I’m a softy for kids, though,” he said. “I would have taken that kid in a heartbeat. If I could have found a way to get her here, she would be here.”
Regan returned from a stint in Haiti in March, one of three doctors with Central Maine Orthopaedics in Auburn to go. The doctors — Regan, Jeffrey Bush and David Brown — each spent a week in the impoverished country, taking turns away from their orthopedic practice this spring so while one was in Haiti two others could cover patients in Auburn.
Click on the link for the rest of today’s story by Lindsay Tice in the Lewiston Sun Journal.
Letters From Away 