Alls quiet on the Pine Tree Front....

ARC Girl at Oktoberfest 2008

Probably shouldn't say that because then all He-- will break loose..but my god it was quiet this week at ARC! Went to the Bangor office on Thursday to break the monotony, pickup some stuff etc and Hillary was feeling the pain too...looks like the "disaster Princesses" have no idea what to do with themselves when there is nothing to do! Literally we had no fires, almost no meetings no disasters, upheavels, major issues or anything to deal with this week....BOOOORINNG!!! So what do we do...catch up on all that stuff we don't have done? Yeah right! Like Lynn says..you guys don't know what to do with yourselves with nothing to do!!

Its true...I tried really really hard to finish up the Northeast Harbor cases which need to go into CAS and I did ...almost! I had a ton of health forms to put in...didn't....did start on my Emergency Services directors course stuff for the workshop at the end of the month...but really did not accomplish a grand lot this week!

Don started in Boothbay on Monday but was back by Tuesday night and worked at Hewes for the rest of the week...then of course all I heard was about the stock Market...had to check the internet before I talked to anyone, every evening...scary stuff. Glad I work for an agency that doesnt have any money to begin with...where can it go from here??

Tylers college fund is taking big hits though! Don't even open the retirement fund envelopes.

Heading to DC next weekend...Diva daughter had a play last weekend that I missed due to Oktoberfest...which was subdued this year!! but fun none the less.

She is designing the costumes for the Mainstage production this fall, so I will see that..and her internship companys show is up and running, will see that also. They have asked her to train with them. They said she has "the look" they want! Hmmm a real job...in theater even! We shall see!

So happy autumn all...oh and by the way...I am the proud owner of my very own ticket to the Drop Kick Murphys concert at UMO next month....god save the Princess!! Have to take Ty and Henry...yikes!

ARC girl

Updates from me!

Hey less than a month and I am posting again....scary!! Things have actually quieted down at work, now that its "officially" fire season and we are getting at least one a day. NOT like this summer when entire villages burnt down, or major apartment complexes, or giant hurricanes as in 4 at a time hit the gulf! I mean really, what's a fire a day compared to all that?

This weekend was a little interesting as an unnamed storm on Thursday all of a sudden decided it needed to form into a Hurricane named Kyle on Friday and head north! Nice! It was a good exercise. Things that had been on my mind to do... like cleaning out the old shelter kits and redoing them..done! Labeling the new cots..done! Getting that order of comfort kits in....done!
Printing off the new forms and shelter handbooks...done! We were ready. Alot of volunteers put themselves on standby. The two affected EMA directors were great to work with, lots of calls and communication, and in the end, nothing to do...but it was good to have a few things in order.

Ty very busy with Soccer. Games or practices take up my afternoon schedule. Show choir and band going well also. Pep band has played at a couple of the games..funny to see the JV's get off the field grab their instruments and go play for the varsity game!

Oktoberfest this weekend...hope the weather is nice. I have alot to do between now and Saturday and little time to do it! good thing I can do this party with my eyes closed mostly!

Well before I fall asleep....good night everyone ARC Girl

Its the Middle of the Night....

Hey, I have time to post....when else do I???? Now I get up at 6, shower, coffee, dry hair and then drice Tyler to school to be there by about 7:45...get some more coffee and head to the office. Check email, eat breakfast, and then start the day....of course the end of the day is now soccer games, practice or something like that in between...picking him up and feeding him and bringing him where he has to be next!

Just read Sib #2's blog who took her oldest off to College for the first time...wait till you do it for the third time and think...I am not sure she is coming home anymore....

And Sib #3, she can't catch a break with her achilles tendons.....and that is why they have that conotation of being you're "achilles"

Sib #5 is apparently engaged...no mass email here to announce this and I have not been formally told, but that is the word thru the grapevine

Lets see what else is going on in my world tonight at 1 am..oh yeah I am officially full time at ARC..duh, been that way for months but had to push to get the final paperwork on it!
Oh and hubby has a new job...In Boothbay Harbor...no we are not moving...he is ...sorta
Kinda one of those commuter kind of things...really good position with Hodgdon Yachts, CFO, and they gave him 4 day weeks, and housing etc. so works for everyone...

Well, I think this foot cramp which got me up in the first place has finally susided and maybe I can go back to bed...See you all in the AM, which means I probably wont see you here again!!
ARC girl

I'm BAAAAAACK.......maybe!

So where has ARC GIRL been you ask??...Well lets see, the last day she blogged July 24..about 5 days later she got a phone call..5;30 am, downtown Northeast Harbor...on fire...Main Street, at least 3 buildings, apartments many homeless. out of control....ARC girls home town.

I drove over, got thru the barricades, parked the car and walked over hoses and past companys of trucks and men to find the chiefs of the operation, They were at the rear end of the buildings that were still completely engulfed. At least 18 homeless they said..not sure of whereabouts...

Hours later I had processed over 22 people, Hillary had come down, and then left, 14 Russian national students had been re housed. The State had been notified there would be documentation issues and I had started to help different organizations set up relief funds, centers and central contact places. It is now September and I am still picking up bits and pieces from this disaster. The home town girl just couldn't be allowed to get away....it was one of the most rewarding yet difficult disasters to date. I did PR, I did fundraising, I did foreign diplomacy and government liasion work, I did chapter health and client case work, I did disaster mental health and psychological first aid and most of all I gave back to a place that gave me alot growing up.

Thank god for Hurricane Season, so I could get out of Northeast Harbor!! Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and Josephine have wreaked havoc with my one week vacation and all the weekends in between as I deploy people and the ERV's to the south. Then the storms think about heading north and everyone up this way wants a volunteer, an ERV, a red cross!! Its the job you love to hate sometimes!!

Then there are the back to school duties..Ty in Ellsworth, JV soccer team, practices etc. Caroline back to DC, life is never dull. Believe me I can run circles around Sarah Palin!!
And quite frankly...The ARC girl is more qualified than her to be a heart beat away from the Presidency! I know CPR!!

Work for ARC? Use a Pencil on your Calendar!!!

Ok...Typical DAY for ARC girl....Thursday July 24 2008 Schedule looks like this:

9:30-11am Volunteer subcommittee meeting at Jackson Lab for MDI Pan flu committee

12:30-4pm Ellsworth office

6pm Peninsula Ambulance Board meeting.

THEEEEN.....the ARC Board of Directors decides to have the Staff interview Patrick Adams for the Executive Directors Job...ok...Cancel Jax Lab meeting. Meanwhile find out that there is a Hancock County meeting regarding Heating crisis at 10am ...nope can't attend that either...have to go to Bangor for the Board meeting.

So, get up, drying hair..power goes out..damn...put hairdryer in car and head to Ellsworth office to get ready for Bangor meeting...phone rings.,.power out in Ellsworth and MDI...hmmm! Call Ralph Pinkham EMA director, he's on his way to EMA, doesn't know whats going on. Phone rings again...power out in Bangor, all of Penobscot county....Hmmmm! Head to EMA....Ralph is talking to the Hydro and MEMA in Augusta...Huge outage...ALL Bangor Hydro Customers are off line! Ok, so we are not going to Bangor today...that meeting is cancelled!!
Governor comes on radio stations that are on the air to say they are working on the issue.
Power comes up in Ellsworth first. Yeah!!!

Ralph and I decide to attend heating meeting...the 'third option' I had for the day..but didnt think I could attend because of Jax lab meeting, and Board meeting. Back to Ellsworth office at 12 noon, by 2pm...TORNADO watches!!!!! All the counties completely surrounding Hancock county...OK!! Me and toto know where to go, the basement at the courthouse!! Its not here in front of these floor to ceiling windows I can tell you that!!

Hillary calls...says "I want a schedule" so we can figure out where to be, how to dress, if we get a shower, and our hair done in the morning?????? Yeah Right!
Welcome to our world...
No Day is ever the same, and NO DAY is ever as you planned!!!

You can not keep a neat date book...so don't even try!!!!!!!!!!!! For some of us type A's this is a very hard thing to get over!!!!

ARC girl...hanging on to the Ruby slippers.

Why do they call it the "MOTHERBOARD?"

So, why DO they call it the MOTHER BOARD??? Do you want to know why I haven't been posting...because of the Mother board...it died!!! Yes I turned my laptop on and it didnt turn on!!
Tried all the things you are supposed to do, no luck. Took it to my husbands office..he turned it on..nothing...took to the IT guy...nothing...so I took it to Circuit City...no Geek squad, but guys in Geeky green polos at a certain desk..."Guy" in polo turns it on...looks at it and then shuts the cover. Says to me..do you want the bad news or the good news first? Just tell me!!!

"Its the Mother Board" Now, I know nothing...NOTHING...about computers and electronics in general except the on/off switch, but I do KNOW that the word MOTHER BOARD means BIG trouble!!! He tells me its gone...so I say what is the good news about all this?? He says, all HP 6000 Mother Boards are failing and have been recalled...I say and this is a good thing????????
Yeah, because you get a new MOTHERBOARD! Well grand!! How much is this, and what about my data and when do I get my computer back??? Free, we will back up your data, and 7-10 days!!

Well, we are on day 5 now and ARC girl is suffering miserably without her laptop...at least she is in her office today with a computer to herself to play on!! It has not been fun! So why do they call it the Mother board..not the father board..because everyone has to have a mother?? Because females are the "control" of everything?? Huh?? I mean seriously why?? Did a man come up with this name?? I am guessing so!!

So what else is up...or down...as the situation may be??? Took three teens to a concert in Portland on Friday.. they had a blast, (Tyler and Kyle even ended up ON STAGE with the band!!) and I went to a barbeque with my sister in law and it ended up being Old Home Week with all these MDI people there!! Some I had not seen in years!
Came home and took Caroline and Aisha out to dinner for Care's 20th and Aishas last meal in the USA before three weeks in Africa on a Grant project. Then took Aisha to the Bus the next morning..She is an amazing young woman! I am so proud of that one!

Then to top it all off coming down the stairs the other night a couple of heavily framed portraits came down and one hit my leg directly on some veins, causing quite a bit of swelling and bruising and alot of pain. I was petrified I was going to have phlebitis or compartment syndrome or something the way it was looking...it went down a little overnight and then I had it looked at the next day..out of work for a day and I am back...no worse for the wear... a little swollen and black and blue...

Well the office is very warm today, no AC for ARC girl...don't want to overstay my welcome today!! Have a good one...and take care of your MOTHER>>board!

People...Keep your fires to yourself!!

You wonder where I've been? ARC girl, deputy director of disaster etc...has her hands full!
What on earth is wrong with people..its summer! In the past week..we have had two apartment fires two trailer fires and three house fires!!!!! IN one WEEK!!!!!!!!! three of them over the 4th!! Not sure what the problem is here but it's one-a-day...two in one town!! Lots of homeless people!! Now if this was the middle of heating season, that would be one thing....NOPE!!!
DO NOT leave your citronella candles burning, or your cigarettes burning out on your porches...!!! And if that was not enough, there were three terrible car accidents on the Blue Hill Peninsula this weekend that invovled kids, life flight helicopters and two deaths from a burning auto..not pretty.

BUT on a nicer note, the weather was perfect for the weekend. Attended the Brooklin Parade, a very small community parade that the former owner of the Sedgwick Store used to have a float in (moi!) and win first prize every year!! Then had some fun friends over for a barbeque, hung around the house on Saturday working on my poor neglected flower beds and pots and enjoying my backyard, the Reach, and the sunshine.

Busy week this week, travel to Washington County, Staff meeting in Bangor and then..taking three teenagers to a rock concert on Friday!!! Wish me luck on that one!!
I'll be "Shippin' up to Portland" for DKM...luckily I am not a ticket holder, just a chauffeur...dont mind the music, but only for about 30 minutes or so..then it starts to sound the same!!
So this should keep me off the list...until next time, "Tessie is the maiden....

Summer in SEDGWICK yoo hoo!

So I have not fallen off the face of the Earth...YET!!! Just a little on the busy side..!! As you can see by the pics Tyler graduated from Sedgwick..Handsome as ever..Class Salutatorian!! Just like his Mom in Junior High. Before he gave his speech, he said "I want to make one thing clear..My mom made me wear this!!" I sure did and he looked Fantastic!! As you all can see..he actually picked out most of the attire! I just steered him the direction of the Mens department instead of the skate board department!!

After Graduation we had a party at the house for family and close friends, that Tyler wanted, including girl friend Becky and her Dad Mark, The Sullivans, Henry being one of Ty's oldest and dearest, Ian, and Bjorn, The Buckinghams and the Dentino's family friends. Caroline and Tyler who have been working on a few duets entertained the group with three numbers, she singing he playing the guitar..including a Rolling Stones song, A Cranberries song and White Stripes piece..this is the first time they have been able to collaborate together as their skills have finally caught up with each other. Pretty cool! and a pretty proud moment for Mom!

A week later Alex came up for a visit from DC..making Caroline the happiest girl on the planet.

Lobsters were the entree on Saturday night..steak and chicken for Caroline and Gretchen who are allergic to the red bugs.

Speaking of RED...the ARC girl does not stop! She gets to Portland tonight on her way to a neices graduation party and there is a three unit apartment fire in Hancock county! Ugh! Spent the night on the phone! The volunteer on call was not reachable tonight for some reason..oh well it was my territory and my fire department guys so we all worked it out over the phone..!

Besides that we have had a National Review of the Floods in Aroostook County, some major upheavals in Portland, been named the State coordinating chapter for Disaster Response until further notice and had another annual meeting!! NOt to mention the midwest is up to its neck in water and the west is on fire...

So, hope you are all having a good start to the summer season..you may hear from me again..before Fall! If nothing else I have to try to stay off Ginnys list!!

ARC girl

THE WALL

Its done! Tyler's eighth grade project! A full wall size mural designed for the Sedgwick School, approved by the Principal and the School Board and finished the week before graduation!!

Big Sis picked him up everyday after school once she got home from college so he could stay late and work on it!! Then took photos for the final display project for Graduation night. Tyler hopes to continue Art in High school

and pursue some type of arts or graphics program in College some day!! Being the first student to ever get his work permanently on the walls of the Sedgwick School is probably a good start on his career...yeah Ty!

She did it!!

Thats right...Aisha Anjali Woodward graduated Saturday from Bowdoin College with a liberal arts degree in Government and Legal studies. I can not say how proud I am of my "other girl"!

She was also the receipient of a couple of grants for further study as well as the award for Initiative in Leadership and Public Service. In a month she will travel back to Ghana to do some

community work after studying there last year. In January she plans to travel to Italy to teach English learn more Italian, study Dante and then apply to Grad school.

She took advantage of every opportunity Bowdoin offered her, and gave it back three fold. She helped research and author the second Mitchell Institute Study on secondary education in Maine, she took two groups of students to the Bronx to teach during spring breaks, and she continued to help find ways to make entrance to colleges like Bowdoin something every Maine student has an option to do...

Whatever effort we put in to getting her there, pales in comparison to how she ran with her education once there...she made everyone that helped in that process very very proud.

It was a wonderful day, sun stayed out as long as possible, the speakers were for the most part very good, the traditions of a campus like Bowdoin are always so nice to see, Alumni in their straw hats, the band marching the grads all over the ENTIRE campus before they hit the stage,

statues dressed in caps and gowns!

We all went out to lunch afterwards, Aisha her two brothers, sister Becky and husband Tom, Nancy Buckingham and our family, to Jamesons Tavern. Then we presented the "little wanderer" with a suitcase, from LL Bean, so she doesnt have to drag back packs and duffels throughout Europe!

She is a wonder and a delight and we are so lucky to have her in our lives...I look forward to seeing what she will accomplish in the years ahead..

Ok she is somewhat back on the planet..sorta

Hello fans...Now let me explain that last blog..I actually wrote this long detailed blog about where exactly ARC girl had been and the darn website lost it so I was just too exasperated and tired to deal so I just left it that way..it actually had a better effect! Besides do you all really care that all I do is work, work and more work...?

Well I do have a little bit of a life if you call going out for a drink at 10 pm in the county after driving thru a hail storm .. and singing broadway tunes from the sirus radio broadway station with Hillary to annoy Pat Adams a life well than there you have it!!

Honestly folks its been nothing but the Bangor office and flooding and FEMA for weeks. With the exception of a quick trip to DC to pick up the diva daughters stuff but not her..she stayed behind for boyfriends graduation and flew home this week... and do you think those people from National ARC left me alone..nope..the staffing person (Beeethhh)
actually called me in the car on the way to Washington..that woman never did get it!! AND I almost had to room with her in the county because there were not enough hotel rooms...I had Pat Adams put a stop to that one!! He of course is now our interim executive director and finding me to be a "tiny bit" high maintenance! I mean really! MOI???

So I have been in the Ellsworth office this week two days...this is a record..I havent been there two days in one week in a month!! Tommorow though I head back to Bangor for Suzans party and then to Portland, as Aisha (my adopted one) graduates from Bowdoin on Saturday morning.

In other news my dearest friend is a new grandfather...as of last Friday. Connor is his name and he is very sweet, I actually had the opportunity to see him as I was in Bangor the day he was born. Grandfather Mark is very proud and quite smitten. As well he should be.

Caroline is home with all her attendant stuff...it will take weeks to put it all away ...and Tyler is slowly finishing up his Elementary school career with his eighth grade project of a mural on the wall of the school..its really quite incredible.

So there you have it...I am alive..and well not necessarily well but getting there!! Looking forward to the long Memorial Day weekend...Hello Super sibs!! xo

ARC Girl

Where oh Where is ARC girl??

"water water everywhere....

So..Do you want to know what ARC girl has been up to? Or do you? Heard of those Floods in Northern Maine?? yep! We have been preparing for such an event for well over a month now...the fact that it would be a 100 year event though is not lost on this newbie to disasters that require DR #'s and telephone calls to Washington DC..because we no longer have a service center..closed the day of the flood!!

Last Wednesday the flood waters reached that 100 year event in Fort Kent and as I was driving to work, I was quickly diverted to Bangor..and with the exception of a quick drive home that same day to pick up clothing I moved up there to take over chapter disaster operations and Hillary moved up to the County. It was "hell on wheels" for a couple of days. The phones literally never stopped ringing...and at times I had my cell on one hand and a regular phone on the other. They rang through the night..and when they were not ringing we were on conference calls..the situation changed rapidly, but nothing was as telling as the calls I got...I had the Chapters phones for all flood related calls, so I would get these calls from some small town, and a person saying...I am flooded out, the roads are all closed where do I go what do I do? Some of these towns were miles from open shelters..some I could not find on maps as I talked to these people thru the night..

Thursday, the National Red Cross gave us a disaster relief number and we started to put into place the makings of an operation..unfortunately without the normal advice of a service center the process was thrown into chaos and it was one of the worst days I have ever spent!! Friday National was up and running..bare bones but none the less we had a place to put our complaints and issues...I started to deploy volunteers from the chapter Hillary meanwhile went toe to toe with the EMA directors and relief operations at the EOC!! I think she was the only woman in that building in Fort Kent!!

By Saturday we were exhausted but we knew we were both going to go home and sleep in our own beds!! She left the county and I left Bangor...
NO the phones have not stopped ringing and things are no where near normal...but we made it thru the first 72 hours and then some and even though the hassels and communications and frustrations have been immense..we haven't lost anyone yet..we are delivering the best our chapter can under the circumstances..and we did when it counted the most!! And we will continue to push forward with this relief operation and in the end will be better directors because of it...

In the mean time send chocolate, coffee and wine in care of Hillary and Gretchen
ARC Pine Tree Chapter...

Playing catch up...

And actually having some time to do so!! Whoo Hoo! After ARC girls week from another place you don't want to go to ...it has been nice to not have the phone ring.



Friday morning Myself and another volunteer drove out to Eastbrook again and met with all the teachers at the school where the young boy attended that died in the fire last weekend. They do not have a guidance counselor on staff, so they are borrowing one from another school. We shared our perspective of the family, the brother and just basic psychological first aid for the students and the staff themselves. Really liked their superintendent, who got them all together for this, and who had done this with other staff before. And that folks was the end of the week, I went back to the office and closed it!!!!! Hillary was going to be at a wedding all weekend but everyone knew my number, I had checked all the weather service flooding reports and everything was status quo except the Canadian Border..and quite frankly...thats not exactly my chapter..so until it becomes bigger than they can handle...I was "going home"



Don went to his Dad's for the night to straighten out Red's finances and go out to camp and check on it...still snow and Ice on the camp road and in the lake!

Tyler had Becky over for dinner so Mark drove her and we had sausages and potato salad and a pre summer BBQ meal for a Friday night! Spring and Summer might actually be on its way!



Now its Sunday, and I have Guiness Brownies in the oven, a couple of sewing projects to do and some free time...what a luxury! Don't think Tyler is looking forward to going back to school but he is definitely on the down hill slide now..Graduation will be in about 6 weeks, with lots of stuff going on, in between including a trip to DC to get Care's stuff. Plus he is in the middle of his mural project, so he has something to keep him very occupied.
So happy Sunday all....

Day off!!!!

The ARC girl had a day off from ARC!! Fresh off two television appearances, phone interviews and basically the weekend from you know where...she took the day off and NO one was allowed to call her cell!!! AND it worked!! Ok, ok, I really don't need an agent, just mental health!!
Besides I promised Tyler I would be at his "Beck and Call" for the day.


Which meant Beck-y! New "friend". So we headed out and picked her up...(the daughter of a dear friend by the way!) and off to Bangor, for some shopping, lunch and a movie. First stop of course though the ARC office to meet Pat and Hillary. Tyler got the full scoop on how the "wanted" poster of his mother came to be, and Hillary and Lynn were overwhelmed by his height! (not that they wouldn't be, sorry girls you are short!). Then off to AC Moore to buy paint for his 8th grade project which is a large mural on one wall at the school. It is the first time a student has ever been given permission to do something like this. He had to take his design before the school board and principal for approval.
After that we had lunch at Chili's, where those two continued to chatter away, which they had been doing since I picked her up in Ellsworth.

Movie for the afternoon was Forgetting Sarah Marshall...funny, cute, and boy do they show alot in an R rated movie now...or am I just a 'conservative mother!!' Yikes! Ok, I know its not PG 13!
Then back to Becky and Marks house for some chili..(and some wine!)

All in All a great day, spent with two kids who just laughed and giggled the whole day, and I didnt have to think, cook, or answer the phone! Of course I did tell everyone if they did have messages for me not to call but just send it in an email...(19) when I got home...still worth the peace and quiet of a true mental health day!! (other than of course that consistent hum coming from those two kids who never ever stopped talking to each other!)

Back to work tommorow ...ARC girl

TM 4/19/08

Do All the Good you Can
By All the Means you Can
In All the Ways you Can
In All the Places you Can
At All the Times you Can
To All the People you Can
As Long as Ever you Can

-John Wesley 1791


All I can say.... after Saturday April 19th, and responding to a fire that resulted in the death of a
12 year old boy, his father the fire chief air lifted to Portland, and a large extended family dealing with their losses, and the complicated scene before them.

This work is hard at times, but I can honestly say that was truly the most complicated and difficult scene I will probably see in a long while. Jean Dickson was my right arm, and did an exceptional job for her first case...the fire departments really leaned on us to take care of certain aspects of the day...and we all functioned exceptionally within the chaos. Everything I have ever learned or read probably came into play. There is much more to do on this case, but for now ..

Enough is Enough...

ARC girl

Calls, Concerts and Conferences..

Ok, there has to be an end to this constant roller coaster ride...called work...yesterday there were two conference calls one was 2 hours long! and I ended up driving to Bangor between them, to help out with an AFES case, ended up getting a fire call and I honestly don't remember what else..and then on the way home I get a call that the fire client lost...LOST the debit card! So I start to head back to the Ellsworth office to activate another one...just as I get to town, they call from Presque Isle to say he found it!! Good thing..I was heading home to pick up Tyler for a concert back in Ellsworth.

Jefferson Starship, which should have just renamed themselves (again!) Jefferson Airplane, because that's the music they did...and quite well...played at the little old Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth Maine. A friend and I took our two teenagers who seemed to just love it. There was a female singer who apparently had the role of Janis Joplin off Broadway and she did Grace Slick like nobody's business. She was worth the concert alone...one of the original members..looking like an old hippie straight out of Haight Ashbury had the audience roaring over his Catholic and Pope jokes...all in all an entertaining evening.

Speaking of which...the diva daughter calls during Conference call #3 this morning and says she is behind a barricade waiting for "his emminence" to drive by in the Pope mobile! An hour or so later I get a picture on my cell phone of the Pope in his little car driving by! So funny, we were in DC the day he was elected, on the campus of Catholic University..that was a trip..all of a sudden it was innundated with Press etc...almost three years ago exactly!

So tommorow I get a quick trip out of town for a conference on Friday on the clinical aspects of emergency preparedness, like how to treat patients with chemical, WMD or biological exposures!
Great breakfast topics!! Get home on Friday afternoon sometime and We head back down to Portland for the weekend on Saturday! Oh well I am not driving....
Thats it from the Ellsworth office today...ARC girl

My Kingdom for a girl....

Don't get me wrong, I love all the boys who clutter up my house...but eventually all that testosterone, plus the husband with the basketball, baseball, golf whatever on TV...it all becomes a little loud, a little dirty and a little old. I begin to crave anything Pink or quiche or chick flicks and I start to count the days until Caroline lands evening out the gender gap in this household.

Tyler and friends are just about the funniest crew going, but they are tall, (most around 6 feet), loud, and messy! And boy do they eat! I left for the grocery store today, after picking up Ian, skate board and a some kinda long skate rail, and was told to get subrolls for sandwiches...Don said we had roast beef for lunch. So I arrive home..counter is cluttered with dishes, cheese, mayo covered knives and a cutting board. Well fine I can eat my sandwich in peace...after cleaning up their mess and putting the grocerys away, I take out one of the rolls I was instucted to buy and go to look for the roast beef....GONE!! I have rolls for a sandwich and nothing to put on them! Jeez!

A while later they reappear with vanilla cokes in their hands..."where did you get those?" Tyler said that he and his dad bought a case of them...(yuck...why not regular?) Tyler says they remind him of the store (my old business!) Ian says "they remind of the first video game he played"..he says this mumbling and I whirl around because I think I have heard something else and say "WHAT did you just say?" He looks at me quizically and repeats what he said. What did you think I said he asks me, by that time I had to tell them..I said I thought you said...

"It reminds me of the first time I got laid" The boys are hysterically laughing at this point because once again they have gotten me bad..and didnt even try!!

They are currently upstairs banging on guitars and making the kitchen ceiling shake....ugh!



So Friday was Ginny's retirement party...a fun time was had by all...Paul Clark and Dave Francoer came up from Portland, Pat Adams stopped running all over New England to come back to the chapter, several volunteers, our staff and John from the board..it was great. Paul and Lynn snapped a ton of pictures including one of Hill and I sneaking up and leaning on Ginnys shoulders! Should be cute! God knows she has been "our Mom" and we will miss her! Paul had Hillary feeling guilty all afternoon with his knee brace, and reminding her that if he had not knelt down in Augusta for her...it wouldn't have happened! She kept asking him if he wanted her seat!
And one month from now a Party for Suzan who leaves us at the end of the month to go to work for the Humane society! She has been a great Exec. but she is ready to move on..so things are definitely changing in ARC girls little world.

This week is Pat Simmons (last!) Hurricane conference call...2 1/2 hours two days in a row..yippee and Pat Adams is having an afternoon "call in show" for us to ask questions about whats happening next in ARC land..so if I cant comprehend anything by Tuesday afternoon its because I have been on the phone..LITERALLY all day!
Tyler and I are going to see *Jefferson Starship* at the Grand that night with a friend and his daughter so that will break up the misery!!
Thursday I head to Portland for an early morning conference Friday on clinical treatment of Bio terrorism, WMD's etc...nice breakfast talk!

So that's it from my post here on Sunday afternoon on the Banks of the Benjamin....the Masters Golf tournament is on TV, the boys are banging on guitars and there are dirty skateboards and sneakers in the mud room....where is Lily Pulitzer when you need her? I need PINK!!
ARC girl

Could it be....

Spring? Two days in a row...sunny, warm...pleasant....its almost too good to be true. Its Maine though and we all know Mother Nature will throw us a curve ball and that awful stuff they call
"poor mans fertilizer" or something like that..in other words the late spring snow storm will eventually happen.

In anycase the sun has made what could be a really rough week exceptionally pleasant for "moi".
Monday morning started with an email, that I was not expecting, in the form of a very late apology from a young man who should have never behaved the way he did in the first place...so 4 months later...I guess he can wait for me to respond to that email...cause I havent quite decided what to write yet....

Then there was ....yep...a fire...Saturday actually but in typical Hancock county fashion...oops. We didn't call the Red Cross...so I get the fire Chief on the phone, and then plan to head out to Sullivan...BUT not before going to my office to check on ......YOU GUESSED IT....the FURNACE!!! Yes, ARC girl stopped into the office on Sunday to take care of shelter drill messes and such, and no heat....so she goes down to the dreaded basement and finds out the oil tank is empty....OH JOY! Calls the building manager...the ever helpful Nancy...and leaves message...
Calls Hancock Oil on Monday morning who says...no cash no oil....The owner of this mall is about 800 years old and on his way out and living in New Jersey!! So I call Suzan, the Exec Director and she is not in a good mood and asks me what do I want her to do...well I say, I have called everyone...but my hands are tied otherwise and I do not have the check book! She then ordered some oil....and then a little later in the morning..She called a meeting and resigned her position as Exec Director!!! Yeow! (not because of the oil mind you!)

So Monday, is going well...fire client just barely got out of her house, lost several pets and all her and her husbands belongings...I saw the house...the fire was devastating. As all fires are, this burned very hot and hard from the looks of it. We are up to 127 fires now...a real record year and a huge strain on the disaster budget, director has resigned effective end of the month, Flooding is still imminent in the county and elsewhere, and the furnace...but its sunny.

Its Tuesday and Sunny again. and warm..Red Sox are back at Fenway, Tyler is out on his skate board every afternoon ....meetings today, new volunteer from CA who will be an excellent addition to our chapter with an ever decreasing staff of directors!! Someone asked me if I was going to leave today and I said "heck no...I am going to stay to watch this whole thing shake out, I certainly do not want any of their jobs, but it will be an interesting next few months...no service center, new emergency services dept...new executive director or acting director...BIA drill and of course that omnipresent threat of floods from 18 feet of snow in the county!!

So off to Bangor tommorow...get the car in for service and meetings at the office...maybe it will be Sunny again!!!

ARC girl has Spring fever!

No rest for the weary...or is it the wicked?

So here they are in all their Glory...the Princesses of PTC....the disaster dynamic duo....ARC girl and the Gigabyte queen herself..Miss Hillary. We survived about 50 boyscouts, 20 something college students from New Brunswick, 12 or so PTC and two Portland Chapter volunteers, EMA directors from Hancock and Penobscot county, a slew of fire and police men, parents, scout leaders and a somewhat surly janitor! Oh and the Press and Sib #3 Kim in the Gym who happens to live in Brewer and of course had to see what was going on in the Gym!!



After a long day at the office and a BIA drill meeting at EMMC we headed to the auditorium and set up, with in a half an hour the first casualty walks into my health office holding his hand and dripping blood into the sink....John Buckwalter! He was trying to open a cot that snapped on his finger tip...it was a nice little mess! Who would have thought I would do Staff health before the clients!! Luckily as far as nursing goes he was the worst of it...the rest were basically "bandaids for boyscouts"..kid you not!



The kids arrived just after the "power failure" and we went on the generator. Supper was spagetti and salad.. and then it was a kids everywhere...although some were working on merit badges. Noise level did get a little high on decibels in the gym...Lots of papers, TV and radio came around to talk to us...The EDGE, an alternative paper had their editor sleeping over with his son and a reporter there..they brought copies of their April fools edition which we were all sitting around reading about 9:30 (waiting on those late college kids) I got to the Horoscope page, read mine and thought wow, that was a good one, so I read a significant others and .....

IT WAS THE SAME HOROSCOPE!!!!!! They were all the same!! April Fools! Cell phone rang and Sib #3 had to come over and join the fun for a few minutes...she and Brenda Moody quickly hit it off and sat there making jokes back and forth! Kim said "really you guys nothing this exciting ever happens in Brewer!!" We had hit the big time...of course we couldn't convince her to stay...as the college kids started to arrive..one van at a time....

By 11 pm Hillary and I told the volunteers they were all set to be on their own and we headed to her apartment for a few hours sleep, but not without a glass of wine first! That of course was only about 4 hours and then we were back over there by 5:30 to help with breakfast checkout clean up and so forth.
All in all it was a great drill, we learned what we need and what we can do better and what we do well and that we really can open a shelter if need be...like when the St John floods in the next month or so!

ARC girl is quite exhausted, and she has a big dinner date tonight she cant really get out of as its been on the calendar for two months!!! Oh well...I guess I better get off this couch and find something decent to wear and some makeup for those dark circles under my eyes!!!

Keeps the flood waters at bay please....and dont start any fires....I am tired!!!