My sister lives in southern Maine, a little over an hour's drive from my house. I've spent longer time sitting in traffic trying to get out of Boston on a weekday afternoon. I spent twice as long trying to get home from work eight miles away during a major snow storm a few years ago. She lives close enough to make it a day trip, yet far enough away that overnight stays are not out of the question.
Today it's a day trip, and the day starts out a little iffy. Overnight the entire region is gripped by freezing rain, but the temperature is supposed to climb quickly, and the weather is supposed to pass. At 7:00 a.m., the Boston area is warm enough for rain, but Maine is still getting sleet. I might have to cancel my trip.
My sister and I decide to wait out both the storm and the meteorologists, some of whom like to wreak havoc with their forecasts. "It's raining ... we're all gonna die! It's sunny ... we're all gonna die!" It's like watching Ollie Williams, the weatherman from Family Guy. In addition to this terrible, awful, deadly, catastrophic sleet (that has pretty much ended by the time the morning meteorologists are screaming bloody murder about it), the television is already warning us of the horrid, deadly, evil nor'easter snow due on Thursday that, from all the research I do on my own, sounds like a mix of rain and snow with about three inches of white stuff somewhere in between whatever hideous crap will come out of the clouds in the sky.This morning I head out a half an hour later than my original plan to give myself that "just in case" time, but the temperature is already 54 degrees when I leave my house at 8:30 a.m. By the time I've crossed the Maine bridge over the Piscataqua River, blue skies are pushing the gray clouds south, and Maine looks every bit like its touted "vacationland" moniker.
Between the two of us, my sister and I have always had a competitive rivalry when it comes to games. She usually kicks my ass in Cribbage and all card games, I tend to kick hers in word games, and we pretty much draw on Yahtzee. We're not just about playing games, though. We are also trying to be on health kicks (I say this as I polish off a small bag of M&M's). We decide that it's a perfect day to get outside.
So, we opt for a hike toward the nearby store. This route takes us the opposite direction than we usually go, which is past the golf course and up to the berry farm. This one takes us past the boat-building school, along the cow farm, and over the Kennebunk River. By the time we get ourselves going, the wind shifts, and it is starting to get briskly cool. We don't make it all the way to the small store, but we do make it to the bridge over the river before the biting wind turns us back. We end up completing 1.11 miles exactly.
Once we are back to her street, the sun is still shining and the tall trees protect us from the breezes, reminding us what a glorious, warm, spring-like day it is. Hard to believe that in less than two days, we will be back at shoveling and moving more plowable snow.
