Today

 Big news from downtown made the front page of the BDN.  Part of the breakwater fell apart in the middle of the night.  I haven't been to look at it, but this is quite a catastrophe.  A lot of business takes place at the breakwater. Some of the the fishing boats were damaged, and a truck parked there went down. I read that the town had just started to request bids for long needed repairs.  Certainly it will be a monumental task to repair and rebuild it.  All of the dirt in the picture is apparently what was holding it up.....dirt packed in metal boxes anchored to the ocean floor.  It will be interesting to see what happens now.

 Meanwhile, the moon came out full this afternoon and I couldn't resist taking a picture even though I knew it wouldn't do the scene justice.  It's pretty dark at four o'clock now, so this is what I saw as I walked the dogs down the street.  In the distance is Campobello, Canada.  The lights are from houses over there.  It's an hour later over there, Atlantic time.  I think Maine ought to be on Atlantic time as well.  It would prevent these days when the day starts to wane at three in the afternoon.  I guess the trouble is that the day is so short the morning would be too dark for the early business of the world.

The bottom picture is proof that I forced myself away from my paper projects long enough to sew covers for two old pillows that were ravaged by time, dogs, spilled food, and feet.  Thelma gave me the fabric years and years ago, and I have kept it in storage along with a lot of other cloth.  Thelma was a real pack rat and never wanted to throw anything away.  Instead she gave her surplus away when it became overwhelming.  I was often the beneficiary. She liked to sew, and I have lots of remnants from her projects.  I think of Thelma at least once a day and miss her still in a very present way.  Now there is yet more evidence of her in my living room.  The light color perks the room up quite a lot.  It was an easy project with a concrete beginning, middle, and end.  The product is predictably what it was meant to be.  From setting up the sewing machine, winding the bobbin, threading the machine everything went smoothly.  The scissors were sharp, the pins in the pin-cushion.  the needle flew down the seams without hesitation.  I turned the resulting squares right side out, poked the corners nice and sharp, slipped the pillows inside effortlessly.  The fit was perfect. 

What a pleasure it was to simply go from one step to the next, steadily moving confidently toward my goal.  It was all so smooth.  I almost felt sleepy as I worked, soothed by what was happening exactly as planned, with a specific end, the product of my effort floating into existence without so much as a murmur of either regret or surprise.  Now there it is, right where it was supposed to be, right where I envisioned it, looking exactly as I knew it would.

The antithesis of what my recent obsession has been............