Greetings From True's Point - Dispatches From Maine

This is the first of several “Dispatches from Maine” which I will posting throughout the summer. 

 

I apologize; it has been a month since my last posting. We have once again returned to our beloved True’s Point cottage on Sabbathhday Lake, in New Gloucester, Maine, spending the past weeks settling into our summertime routine. We have been coming up here every summer for the past 25 years, and since 2010 Sally Ann and I have spent the entire summer here, returning home to Maryland only in early October at the height of autumn colors in New England and only a few short weeks before the first snow flurries are in the air here at the lake. In fact, it is hard to believe that in early April the remnants of winter ice were still found along the edges of our lake. Summer is a short but glorious season here in Maine.

I was chomping at the bit during the last two weeks before we departed home for these familiar and welcoming environs. The last week was hell . . . literally . . . as the temperatures in the Washington, DC area, like much of the eastern half of the United States, climbed into the triple digits for several days. The murderous heat, coupled with intense humidity, spawned storms that ravaged the metropolitan area. One dumped marble-size hail stones that turned our neighborhood white while a tornado touched down just a mile away and cutting power to thousands of households, some for several days. A week later, and two nights before our departure, a rare deracho formed west of Chicago and raced across the United States at almost 100 mph leaving a wide path of destruction in its wake. Much of the Mid-Atlantic states was left in the dark for days as trees were uprooted and power lines snapped. We were happy to get out of town while the getting was good!

For awhile we were not sure we were going to make it to Maine at all this year. The same line of storms that spawned the tornado that touched down near our Maryland home also produced the bolt of lightning that struck and detonated the stately white pine which stood sentinel over our Maine shoreline for over 130 years. Thankfully the tree and most of its arboraceous shrapnel landed in the lake. Had it fallen the other way, the cottage would have been totally destroyed and with it our dreams of restful summer months in Maine. To make matters worse, the lightning arced into the cottage destroying the fuse box. Luckily there was no fire. So, as we endured the destructive storms and unbearable heat at home, we waited on tenterhooks to learn the fate of the cottage. Our luck held, and the rest of the tree was brought down and all of the large debris removed from the lake and hauled away while power was restored to the cottage and all was in order again. Well, sort of.

It could have been worse . . . much worse . . . and we keep reminding ourselves of this fact. Still, we mourn and miss our sentinel pine and the shade it has long afforded our cottage and its lakeside decks here on True’s Point. We will make do, but it is just not the same.