GRATEFUL

WASHINGTON COUNTY HOME FOR SALE

This charming abode features a country setting, quiet neighborhood, spacious control pod with centralized laser guns.  One bedroom/ one and a 1/2 bath. Wood heat.

$17,500 firm 

EVERYDAY IS HUNTING SEASON

Last night I met a guy who’s heading to jail. He’s heading into jail in a few days to serve time for multiple poaching charges. They came within a week of each other. Two of the three animals involved were moose. One instance involved a moose being run over by a truck. His friend told him he wouldn’t have gotten caught if he hadn’t run back and forth over the moose repeatedly to make sure it was dead. Apparently, it didn’t look like a natural accident…

LIFE ON THE RIDGE

Yesterday, Amity and I hiked up to Libby Ridge, armed with essentials for any winter journey.  My friend Owen has built quite a nice place, far up on a hill somewhere near Dixfield.  His house has a driveway that is well suited for a mountain goat.  The access road to his impassible driveway was not yet plowed so we made the twenty-minute hike though the snow.  It was quite refreshing to get out and trek through the fluffy powder.
The Libby Ridge driveway is too steep for winter driving.  It reminds me of roads that I have ridden on in buses in Central America– steep, and curvy with no rails or protective walls,  In the warm weather it is quite possible to navigate the incline.  The only real difference between driving up the driveway and taking a Central American bus ride is that I am not driving as if I’m being chased or passing a delivery truck around the sharp corners.
The house has a daylight basement with a large wall of south facing windows and a loft-style upstairs.  Since the house is not yet finished Owen and his girlfriend Amanda live in the daylight basement until a string of finish work jobs get completed.
And it has been one long string.  Mr. Libby learned the valuable lesson called: never trust anyone involved in building a house.  He and his father did the carpentry, and Amanda’s father did the masonry, and her step-father did the electrical .  Those four individuals, as well as some other guest appearances, wrap up the short list of reliable members of the Libby Ridge work force.
We always laugh at the lackluster group of half-wits, schemers, and otherwise drunken sailors who helped craft the house.  His excavation mogul, freshly off the wagon, was a couple sandwiches short of a picnic–that is until he had his first, second, and third Twisted Tea of the morning.  Owen found a empty Twisted Tea twelve pack box in his fire pit, after a productive workday that the excavator thoughtfully left behind.
Another debacle was the plumbing crew who, like so many contractors were slow and unreliable with the work but quick and demanding with the bill.  The prominent Farmington plumbing outfit was so professional that one of the workers shot a turkey on one of his ‘breaks’ right outside Owen’s house.  Apparently, carrying a rifle in the company van and shooting a turkey on the job is standard practice with this company.
It’s funny how little integrity these outfits have when it comes to showing up on time and on the day they say they will, yet when it’s time for the bill, magically it’s there with impeccable timing.  The turkey-hunting plumbing outfit wanted money before they even finished and even went as far as threatening a court battle.
Such is the fun that accompanies building a house.  Yesterday all of us were fortunate enough to revel in the vast benefits of having a freshly built house.  Owen is definitely proud of his hillside roost.  In a way, having such a squad of clowns ‘assist’ in building the house, as expensive and stressful as they may have been, just makes the reveling that much sweeter.

SUNLIT PLANTS

THE SNEAKS

SKETCHBOOK DRAW’N

GYMNASIUMS OF THE PINE CONE DIVISION

If you need evidence of a writer grasping at ideas, here it is. What follows is a power ranking of sorts based on the seven gyms that my middle school team plays in, top to bottom. You may be thinking: “Wow, he really is out of ideas and probably not real focused on the game while he coaches.” But in reality, I am quite focused on the game. The basic gist of the matter is that I happen to be quite observant and have been no stranger to countless gymnasiums over time. Also, by nature it seems we always arrive at road games exceedingly early allotting me time to sit back relax before the game and take in the scenery, or lack thereof.

We start with the best:

1. Jay Middle School. They have a rather newish gym. Great floor, great light, big court, new bleachers, it’s like the gym equivalent of a good all you can eat buffet. Lots of everything good. We’ve had memorable battles there and the games, no matter how good or bad the teams seem to be competitive.

The only negative critique is simply an aesthetic matter. Someone at some point painted a white tiger in the middle of the court. Now, imagine what a tiger looks like. Then forget that image. Now imagine a white and black freakish monster with wide eyes and open mouth that looks like it will at any given moment burst through the hardwood and devour anyone in its path. It looks like it belongs on a Def Leopard album cover from the mid-eighties, and not surprisingly it looks like it has spent the last two months (sleepless) on tour with Def Leopard.

2. Carrabec Community School. I never saw what they had for a gym before they built a new school recently and I’m confident that I am lucky for this. Once again, nice floor, lighting is good, wide, spacious court–quite a nice gym.

The only negative aspect is that they shoved the scoreboard in the corner, leaving it out of the line of vision for much of the court. Luckily for them most middle school players never really tend to check out how much time there is, instead relying on the very reliable parents and fans to count it down for them.

We have had some memorable times there. One of our players danced to ‘Cotton Eyed Joe’ during halftime with the Carrabec two-girl cheering squad. They actually invited anyone from the crowd who wanted to join both members of the Carrabec cheering squad to dance and so one of our rather outgoing players joined in. You gotta love the Pine Cone Division.

3. Telstar Jr./Sr. High School. Nice place. They play at their high school gym, which is big and pretty well lit. The only frustrating thing about playing there is being so close to Sunday River and not snowboarding.

They also have the distinction of having the most different hues of one color (blue) in a gym. I’m definitely no interior designer, but they have shades of blue that haven’t been discovered yet by the rest of the world. Every banner has it’s own blue tone. It’s not that bad until you look at the gym as a whole and see a turquoise banner resting on a background of dirty smurf blue. Maybe that’s why they like to ski a lot at Telstar.

4. Mountain Valley Middle School. I was going to have a tie set with Mountain Valley and Dirigo, but until we play on a regulation sized court Dirigo can’t get the distinction. Maybe this will motivate our administration to build a bigger gym…

They play in the old Mexico High School gym, so already the court is large and spacious. Like any venue involving a heated rivalry it’s generally pretty electric, with larger and louder crowds. Most parents took place in this rivalry at some point, even if it was Rumford-Mexico or Mexico-Dirigo or whatever combination of the three schools. Not to mention the general benchmark for success in life at Dirigo sometimes seems to relate to success against Mountain Valley.

The drawback of the facility would be the terrible lighting. They have the standard old dark orange hazy lights. At first I had this rusty orange ambiance pinned to the gyms proximity to the mill. The school perched above the mill, which sits down in the valley. But like the mill smell, you just get use to the weird lighting, I suppose.

5. T.W.Kelly Dirigo Middle School. We may not have the best gym but we have the longest and most off-rhythm school name in the league. The only reason our gym isn’t higher in the Pine Cone Division gymnasium power rankings list is that in 1981, the dream team of philosophers who designed the school resolved to build a basketball court far smaller than regulation size. The lighting is good, boosters concession stand solid, but the court is too small.

Not that it’s hasn’t worked in our favor as far as pressure defense goes, but I really can’t justify ranking it higher when the thing that matters most–playing surface, is not up to speed.

Also, as the school was built the ‘aesthetic architects’ (who hopefully are now unemployed) deemed it fashionable to use primary colors throughout the school: red, yellow, royal blue. So our gym looks like Ronald McDonald’s house, and the only trace of our school colors is a mural I designed which some of my students painted a few years back.

6. Madison Jr. High School. Good old Madison. One of those armory-style gyms, and old high school gym seething with infirmities. To be fair, maybe the hour and a half long bus ride skews my perspective, but the dark orange lighting creates a nuclear fall-out impression. That really can’t be good for your psyche day in and day out.

Also, someone, sometime felt that the bleachers should reach court side, not just for nice, court side seats, but literally reach the court side. On the bench all the players feet are in play, which means anytime the action heads to our side we have to pick our feet up. It seems even more foolish because on the other side of the court the bleachers are pushed in and there is fifteen feet on unused space going back from the court.

They also get the distinction for ‘hottest goddamn locker rooms north of the Equator’. I don’t know if they are cranking the heat intentionally to beat down the opponent, like the Colts did in last year’s AFC Championship game, or perhaps it’s a feature of a fall-out shelter that is also partly used as a gym.

7. Livermore Falls Middle School: I have been in far worse gyms, but I cannot, for whatever reason put it higher than ‘last’ on the rankings.

Regulation court. And that’s all it’s got going for itself. It has the ambiance of an underpass on the New Jersey Turnpike. Dreary and dark, the lights create afternoon shadows across the court. Last weeks game there featured two lights out on one half of the court resulting in a significantly darker side of the court. They also never got the memo that the wood paneled wall, while popular in Nixon’s time is far out of date nowadays.

The place is old, I will give them that. But some old places have charm, and obviously some do not. I remember going there in seventh grade and getting outscored 23-0 in the third quarter in a losing effort. But I still think that has no effect on my feelings towards the place. Paint the walls, add some lights, deviate from the ‘prison look’ and this gym immediately climbs the rankings.

COUGAR BASKETBALL: The Halfway Point

I gave my middle school basketball team a day off on Friday. It was, in my opinion a much needed rest at a fairly critcal time of the season. In the minds of active middle school boys the word ‘rest’ does not compute, but as it stands with their travel team most of my players are seven day a week basketball players. Even guys who get paid to play don’t go seven days a week.

This is the time where being run down leaves you vulnerable to sickness–something that has already left us with some absences. One of my guys banged knees with a player last game and is a bit hobbled, and another just had back surgery. To be fair, the kid that had back surgery really hasn’t played all season because of his back but it helps make the case for our day off.

We now sit at the halfway point of the season at 5-1, the only blemish coming in a rather unsettling drubbing down the street at hands of the Evil Empire (or as they’re known in some circles: Mountain Valley). It was a game to be forgotten, although when you’re playing good ball and a team beats you by twenty and we look like outmatched little brothers in a backyard game, it is not easy to let it go.

Besides the debacle at Mountain Valley, we have played fairly well. A big challenge in lopsided victories is keeping composure and working on what each player needs to be working on. We tend to have lapses in the second quarter like the team secretly plans it in the locker room before the game. “Okay, lets piss off coach with lackluster play and let it culminate to where he needs to use a ‘frustrated timeout’ with 4:08 to play in the first half. Then after he tells us that we’re putting everyone to sleep with our lack of heart/hustle/desire to succeed we’ll get out there and pick up the intensity level” And that’s seemingly how it plays out.

I am fortunate enough to have talented and motivated players, and the key is keeping them on their toes for the full 28 minutes of the game. I feel we did that for one of our six games thus far, a game against Jay that we maintained solid pressure and energy the whole game. This is not to say that they haven’t played hard all season and this is not commentary about maintaining a wide margin of victory, just in terms of playing to their potential they’re still working on putting together a full game.

While I seem to be picky about this team, there is a certain sensitivity these kids require when critiquing them. You have to balance observations of bad play with positvies (though the Mountain Valley game creates a hurdle in that department). You do have to create a sense that all the players have room for improvement, and significant room for improvement for the serious players. But I do not go Bill Belichick on them, pointing out every last mistake in full detail. The Patriots can win 52-0 and go into the film room feeling like they lost 52-0. “Tom Brady, sure you threw a beautiful 63 yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss amid blitzing linebackers, but look how bad your footwork was as you released it…you really need to work on that if this team is going to be successful.”

Dissecting a middle school basketball team’s performance in that detail would, in all likely hood, crush the soul/dreams of most kids. There’s already enough out there in society that crushes kids dreams. I am not in the soul-crushing business, Bill Belichick has a monopoly in that industry (thank God).

ANOTHER DIMENSION (WELD)

ANOTHER DIMENSION (WELD), originally uploaded by joespics79.

IF JIM MORRISON VISITED WELD, MAINE THIS IS WHAT HE WOULD SEE.

TUMBLEDOWN MOUNT-IN

TUMBLEDOWN MOUNT-IN, originally uploaded by joespics79.

 

WELCOME TO WELD

WELCOME TO WELD, originally uploaded by joespics79.

THE CITY OF WELD SPRAWLS RELENTLESSLY OVER THE HILLS OF SOUTHWEST FRANKLIN COUNTY.

ICYCLILIC BY NATURE

ICYCLILIC TWO, originally uploaded by joespics79.

 

WARP SPEED

WARP SPEED, originally uploaded by joespics79.