3 a.m. ramblings

It's 3:15 on Friday night/Saturday morning. Can't sleep. Well actually I was sleeping quite nicely until I awoke from the pain I've been suffering for the last 10 days. It started after I several dips in the lake and I was hoping it was just an ear infection. But after seeing the doc today and getting that hope dashed, I'm quite certain there's a root canal in my immediate future. This isn't just a little cavity kind of toothache; it's like take out the whole right side of my head kind of ache. I've had one once before and a root canal was the cure. A cure almost as miserable as that which it is supposed to be curing. But at least the root canal only takes an hour or so and this damn pain has been attacking me every night to some degree or another, even after taking 3 advil before going to bed and 3 tylenol upon waking in the middle of the night.
So seeing as I'm up and I haven't posted in a while, what's new that I can write about . . .

Now that the Gardiner house has sold we have funds to do some work on our home here in Belgrade Lakes. First order of business was to buy a new refrigerator. Our present one actually has duct tape in place of some parts. So we picked out just the right fridge, to be delivered on Monday and here comes Hurricane Bill and damages the one section of the warehouse holding our beautifully engineered new appliance. The next closest one the dealer tells us is in Florida and can't arrive in Maine for 3 weeks. Do we want a loaner in the meantime? No thanks, we'll spruce ours up with a new application of duct tape and hope it holds till mid September and keep our fingers crossed that Florida doesn't get hit with a killer hurricane and further delay our much anticipated new addition to the family.

So second order of business was to get our water tested so that we can rest assured that when the new fridge comes with its ice maker and chilled water feature we will be able to hook it up. We have a dug well and have never trusted it even though it tested fine when we bought the place. We got the test back on Thursday, and again it reported all is fine. We need some new pipes laid to bring it directly to the house instead of going through the cottage first so we take the cover off and look inside and find slugs, spiders galore, and two dead mice floating on top of the well water that just tested completely within all potable recommendations. Yuk. But ok, maybe all wells look like that, yes? So we have the well guys come and take a look and he's pretty grossed out when he sees the water. Not a good sign. But maybe it's 100 feet deep and what's on the top doesn't matter, right? So he throws his rope down there to see how deep it is. 8 feet deep. That's it. Eight feet. Suddenly we feel really happy we've been having Crystal Spring water delivered by the five gallon jugs ever since we moved in a year ago. But still, we brush our teeth with this water; we boil pasta in it and wash our dishes and our bodies with it – with mouse water! Ewwww.

So now the well drillers are coming next week to drill a new well. There goes the first bunch of money. Not to mention the lawn is going to look like a bomb went off once they're done. Add another thousand for landscaping afterward. I wanted aesthetics for that cash – not infrastructure!!! I want to paint, put down new flooring, remodel the master bathroom, build a deck. All those things will come, but I guess we have to start with potable water. At least we won't have to pay $50 a month to Crystal Springs anymore.

So we go to the bank who owned the mortgage on the Gardiner house we just paid off and apply for a home equity line of credit. We own our home here in Belgrade Lakes free and clear, albeit a mobile home. It's a 24 by 60 foot double wide with cathedral ceilings, realitvely nice kitchen with center island, two baths, and there's a little four room cottage here as well and a one car garage. In addition to that we have the camp out on Cobbossee Stream that we own free and clear. However, the bank tells us we don't qualify for a line of credit; they don't offer those on mobile homes, or on seasonal camps. I say, what do you mean, we have over $250,000 worth of real estate that we own free and clear and you won't give us a few thousand dollars line of credit? WTF? We'll give you a mortgage she says – 6% fixed. No thanks. I don't want a lump sum that I have to pay interest on whether I'm using the money or not. I want a line of credit at three point something percent, like you told me about when I called. So she says she'll talk it over with another loan officer and see if they can make something work. A few hours later she calls back to say sure, they can do the line of credit. Duh.

So now we'll have $50k to work with. It's tempting to get all the work done at once. But it's also tempting to remain relatively mortgage free – do the well, pay it off; do the bathroom, pay it off, etc. I suspect we'll end up someplace in the middle. The deck – around 3 sides of the house, if not four – with one section made into a screen room – may as well wait till next spring. But the bathroom is definitely a fall project, and painting and new wood floors perhaps a winter project.

Speaking of camp – I was speaking of camp back there a while ago – we were out there earlier today and just as we were getting ready to leave, here comes this huge bald eagle swooping over the shore, frightening our little muskrat friend, Edmund who was sunning himself on a log, and lands in a branch in the marsh. We watch him for a bit tearing at some poor critter he'd just claimed for his lunch. His wing span must have been a good five or six feet. What a magnificent creature. They never fail to impress, no matter how many times I see them. (I don't think I ever posted here my blog about an eagle and the day my mother died, so I'll have to find it and post it later if I still can't sleep.) But anyway, here's a picture of the eagle we saw today. (Hi Mom. :-) It's good to see you.)

When we arrived at camp we found some foreign object out in the stream – a big yellow thing with fingers coming off it. So though I hadn't planned to kayak, I couldn't leave that ugly looking thing out there to mar my view, so I jumped in the kayak while Rick was napping in the sun and went out to retrieve it. But once in the kayak, I had to go for a paddle even though I hadn't even worn my life vest as I had just planned to go the 50 feet offshore to get the object. I've never tipped the kayak in all my years of paddling, so I said to heck with it and took off for a short paddle around the stream. I realized pretty quickly how well designed my kayak is. It is meant to be paddled by someone wearing a life vest. The vest comes down and hits the back of the seat creating an extremely comfortable position that makes it possible for me to paddle for hours without discomfort. However, without the life vest there's no back support and it's not at all comfortable. But I have to admit that I really liked the feeling of freedom, the lightness, of not wearing the vest. So I did a 20 minute power paddle around the stream – no leaning back and floating lazily around as it was very uncomfortable, but the absence of the vest made me feel like a paddling machine!

Ok, I've been writing – rambling – for an hour, and it's now 4:20. hmmmm . . .