Manana -

You know that song - Manana - All the tasks that can be put off for tomorrow~~
Summer in Maine means this is MANANA. The roofers are in the Creek doing all of the units. It was a necessary job as the original roofing by the builder was so shoddy, our roofing material did not last and the shingles were, according to the inspector, "fried." Each day at the very reasonable hour of 9:00 a.m. they arrive with machinery and men and the tapping begins. They are still a couple of units away from me, but I hear them and the sound is actually welcome. I don't want to wake up some rainy morning and to find water water everywhere.

Other things that have to happen in Maine in summer is road repair. It has been said we have only two seasons, "road repair and winter." It makes timing my usually routine trips become uncertain treks. Closed lanes, shut down ramps to the interstate and state routes, impatient drivers, overloaded trucks with overtired truckers - and thousands of tourists.

Tourists! Amazing that they keep coming and coming from all over the world to this vast state with its variety of attractions. I saw in today's paper that a ski resort which is struggling to find the right mix of all-season reasons for becoming a destination, is holding some kind of competition for supermen.
They will have to slog through a mud wallow, climb through pipes, scale walls, run up hills, and various other challenges to prove they are "the best." I am not sure what it proves they are the best at, but some one of them will go away with the trophy, and if the event goes well, the resort will have made money, as will the surrounding communities where tourists will spend, spend, spend.

There are cruise ships coming in to Portland all summer; five will be in this week alone. The Old Port, Portland's "shoppe" area will do well as long as they passengers don't all decide they need to see the Bush summer home in Kennebunkport, or make a trip to L.L. Bean in Freeport.

The beaches, beautiful sandy stretches or secluded little coves among the great rocky shoreline, are filled daily with colorfully almost-clad, well SPF oiled folks, some of whom actually go in the ocean to swim or play. Kids don't mind the cold ocean. I spent many hours in it myself as a child. The lakes have shore areas too. I cannot bring myself to call them beaches. The sand is commonly more like fine gravel, and the little swells that reach shore cannot be called waves - unless, of course, a large speed boat passes near by. Or a summer storm churns up the usually placid fresh water. The first time I swam in fresh water, I was about eleven years old, and I gagged. Warm and tasteless, not at all tangy and icy like sea water.

Maine is a beautiful state from May to November. And even from December to April, if you don't mind cold, snow, ice, mud, the quiet of no roofers doing their jobs, roads that are already constructed, and many fewer cars on the road.

jem