HIATUS

It was a long winter, but it's gone now. Mud Season has arrived with a vengeance in Maine, the ground is soggy, driveways wrinkle, yards quiver like over saturated sponges and many of the state's rivers have overflowed their banks. Rain, falling steadily for more than a week yields to bright sunshine and blue skies only for a day before sulky clouds are goaded back into place and the glum meteorologists say once again that it will rain for the foreseeable future. We are in New England, so this is a chilly monsoon
Work has accumulated in wait while we have been on the other side of the world. Of the eight members of the supposedly working fleet, only two were working upon our return. One awaited reregistration, another sported a mysteriously flat tire, a third had a case of Total Wiper Failure, which, given the current weather circumstances, rendered it useless.
One, thoughtlessly rammed by a speeding pickup truck in a snowstorm some months earlier was still unrepaired. A call to the automotive surgeon elicited excuses and promises. Another car, AWOL for more than a year was promised "soon". The 86 had mysteriously lost the capacity to produce the necessary electricity to run headlights and radio. Welcome home.
We arrived at 4 am, after delays for weather, delays for mechanical problems, delays for food. We arrived to find that although the water worked, we had only hot and cold cold running water-- the water heater had stopped working after a power failure. Oh, and the heat hadn't worked for several days. More welcome home.
In the ensuing few days since our return, the water heater has been cajoled into heating water, the furnace has been soothed and mollified, one additional car has been returned to working status, with the hope that another will join that happy brotherhood in the next week.