Annie Get Your Gun...

I was gonna tell you all about Rockport today, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.... First I must vent about my day...

It started like any other day here in this coastal paradise that is Mid-Coast Maine... Cool breezes... Sunny skies... Impossibly blue ocean... So the axeman and I decided to got to our favorite little coffee/book shop here. The drive that normally takes about 7 minutes took 20... There were tons of cars on the road... Ahhh... Tourist season is upon us... When we couldn't find parking within six blocks of the coffee shop we should have taken it as a bad sign and went home... Not to re-emerge until after Labor Day... But alas, the siren call of a good cup of coffee and the local newspaper called, so we forged on. When we got to the coffee shop the line was about 20 people deep, so I left the Axeman in line while I went to get the paper and pay for it under the huge sign that says: "This Register is for Book Store Sales Only"... Apparently the very cranky customer in front of me trying to pay for his coffee there missed it. As the poor girl at the register (near tears) tried to explain that the book store and coffee shop are separate businesses in the same building, only to be interrupted again, I intervened and suggested her get back into the coffee line and stop harassing the poor girl. After dropping the "F-bomb" he slammed his coffee down on the counter spilling it and stormed out of the shop... I had just survived my first encounter with a tourist. If I had known this was setting the tone for the day and not an isolated incident, I might have followed that earlier instinct to hide out... Not naive Rebecca...
We headed across the street to my cousin's bakery and she was mobbed too... But being family has privileges so we helped ourselves to a couple muffins and when things died down a bit and her helper could handle it she joined us for a little break... I was so happy for her... Business was great... She was exhausted, but felt prepared for the holiday weekend... By the end of this weekend every year she is usually in the black for the year... Oh... yeah... Tourist's are good for the local economy... I put the coffee shop incident behind me and bravely went on with my day. After the now 30 minutes it took to drive home, my resolve was wavering, but since the girls needed to be at the church to paint set decorations for VBS by noon I headed right back out...
Now admittedly Mane has some confusing streets and traffic patterns... I grew up here, so I get it, but even the Axeman gets confused who has the "right of way" as it often seems illogical and the signs are at times vague... I was at just such a spot behind a family from Vermont... They had the right of way but were confused and stopped... It happens there a lot, everyone figures it out in a moment... Tell that to the New Yorker behind me laying on his horn... When I finally looked up into my rear view mirror he gave me the finger... Clearly he is enjoying his relaxing weekend away... But soon all was figured out and he sped around a whole line of traffic in the breakdown lane at the next light... Off to take out his "relaxation" on some one else no doubt...
We have been going to this little church that my Aunt & Uncle (& and other family) goes to... It is admittedly on the prettiest piece of land you can imagine... Behind the brick church with the prerequisite white steeple is a beautiful lawn with sweeping, panoramic views of the harbor... Too pretty for words... Or so thought the couple from Massachusetts who nearly plowed Sparky down drive at full speed through the back parking lot with both the passenger and driver snapping away on cameras... Thankfully her looked up just in time and although his over-correction almost caused him to plow into the van of the man there to service the furnace, we all lived...
I left the girlies there and headed over to the grocery store to pick up some last minute supplies for the weekend... Why I didn't shop in advance is clearly and argument for my own insanity... Let just say after all those years in Tennessee I was rusty on the ways of the "tourist"... First of all, the parking lot was so full you'd have thought they'd just announced the end of all food production and distribution... There were literally no spots and you just had to circle in hopes somebody would leave and you'd be close enough to grab their spot... A frustrating exercise in near futility... But alas... I got a spot...after only a few minutes... a prime one near the exit door... Some Vermonter (a different one) in a Prius tried to grab it, but he realised at the last moment that I was driving a much older vehicle and had no intention of stopping...
I got inside to discover that we were indeed experiencing a food shortage... They we bought out of so many items... The produce guy told me there were no fresh strawberries because some woman from New York had bought them out that morning... At the deli a woman in madras shorts was clearly stymied by the "Take a Number" procedure and even though I'd been waiting nearly 15 minutes for my turn she had the nerve to just start ordering... Since I was holding up my number, the girl in the deli told her to please take a number... At that she turned to me and said "You don't mind if I go right?"... WHAT???..
It became clear it was time to head home... So my question is this... Every one of you knows what happens to the deer in "deer season... And the same goes for moose, bear, and even turkey season... So if it's "Tourist Season" why can we shoot them?

Thanks for listening,