My First Ballet

It's hard to imagine that at the age of 39, I have never seen a ballet. Until tonight, that is. Cara and I went to the Nutcracker, performed by the Atlantic Ballet Company at the Camden Opera House. Now, I must say, I am not the most cultured person in the world. Far from it. I've never been to an opera or a symphony. I did go to three presentations at the Maine Center for Performing Arts at the University of Maine at Orono many years ago. I'm not sure they would qualify as culture.

The first was a speech by Jessie Jackson, who was running for President at the time. I went with two friends, and one of them slept through it. It was highly cultural.

The second time was to hear Leonard Nimoy speak. You know, the guy that played Mr. Spock. Personally, I thought it was highly cultural, especially when the entire audience greeted Mr. Nimoy with the Vulcan salute.

The third probably did qualify; I went to see a musical, one of the classics, one where you know most of the songs, and one whose name I've forgotten. But it was highly cultural.

Actually, this was my second trip to the Camden Opera House. A few years ago, Cara and I took her mom and gram and Seth to see My Fair Lady. It was a fantastic show and it was highly cultural.

The Nutcracker had no words. I found that highly cultural. The music, a lot of it anyway, was familiar to me. It was classical music, written by one of those familiar classical composers, whose name I can't remember. But it was highly cultural. The lead ballot guy wore his tights rather, well, tight. Let's just say he didn't leave much to the imagination. I did NOT find that highly cultural. Disturbing, maybe. Cara might have found it cultural, however.

I felt bad that the Opera House was less than half full. I guess the people of Midcoast Maine don't know culture when they see it. People need to get out and try some of these highly cultural events more. You never know when it might culturize you.

Well Laid Plans

I had planned to get to school early this morning and get some things prepared for today's math lessons. I was going to try out a new computer program called Noteshare. The way that works is that I prepare some notes ahead of time (in this case a chapter from a mystery that goes right along with our current Math module) and I can electronically "share" those notes with my students. They can all see the exact same thing on their laptops as I have on mine. I had the pages all ready to go, except I needed to use the morning to make sure it worked properly.

I arrived at work at 6:30 this morning, had just quickly photocopied some papers and was getting my laptop out, when the cell phone rang. It was Cara; her car would not start.

I rushed back home (about a 12 minute drive) and tried to jumpstart the car. After several attempts, no luck. It was not going to start. At this point we only had one choice. I would have to drive Cara to school (25 minutes in the opposite direction), then take the car to work. Or she would have to drive me to work and take the car. Obviously, choice number two was the only logical choice. As we started for Searsport, I looked at the car clock. It said 7:17. Students start arriving in my homeroom at 7:15. I called Milaine, our wonderful school secretary, and explained what had happened and that I was ten minutes away. Meanwhile, Cara had already let her school know she would be even later than that.

I arrived at school (for the second time today) at 7:26. My first class started at 7:28, giving me just enough time to take attendance for my homeroom. I did not even try to use Noteshare with my first class. I ended up reading aaloud the part I was going to "share" with them. I explained the predicament and they understood, even though they had been looking forward to trying Noteshare.

During my prep period following my first class, I checked to make sure I understood how to use Noteshare, so I could try it in my next class. I re-familiarized myself with the basics of Noteshare. I wanted to test it, but could not find anyone to test it with, but everything looked like it was working okay. When I tried it out in the next class, it would not work. My computer said I was sharing, but none of the students could find me on their Noteshare network. I'll have to find one of our computer guys and see if I'm doing something wrong.

All in all, it was not a very productive day. But things like that happen. That's life. You have to learn to go with the flow.

Family Tree Part 1: Merrill Line

I have spent years doing research on my family tree, and I must admit I have had huge success. Today we will be looking at the Merrill line, starting with me.

1. Brian Ray Merrill, b. April 20, 1968, Lewiston, Maine
m. Cara Leigh Kelly, dau. of Leighton and Patricia Kelly,
b. August 5, 1967, New Milford, CT

2. Lionel Leroy "Bud" Merrill, Jr., b. Oct. 28, 1943, Dover-Foxcroft, Maine
m. Mary Jeanne Mills, dau. of Raymond Mills and Mary "Mae" Falconer
b. May 16, 1947, Bangor, Maine
children: Brian Ray Merrill
Allen Ross Merrill, b. Aug. 3, 1970
Karen Lynn Merrill, b. Aug 17, 1971

3. Lionel Leroy Merrill, Sr., b. Mar, 16, 1907, Willamantic, Maine
d. May 17, 1971, Guilford, Maine
m. Arlene Mildred Howe, dau. of Ralph Howe and Nellie Carver
b. Feb. 5, 1908, Greene, Maine
d. April 6, 2001, Brooks, Maine
children: Joanna Merrill, b. April 17, 1939
Lionel Leroy "Bud" Merrill, Jr.

4. Preston Wilde Merrill, b. June 7, 1872, Parkman, Maine
d. Aug. 2, 1957, Willimantic, Maine
m. Maggie May Knowles (1884-1957), dau. of Edwin Knowles and Ella Jane Ferne
children: Lola Arabell Merrill (1903-1990)
Olive Evelyn Merrill (1905-2003)
Lionel Leroy Merrill, Sr. (1907-1971)
Opal Annalee Merrill (1909-2001)
Irene Iola Merrill (1916-2000)

5. Christopher Columbus "C.C." Merrill, b. April 20, 1834; d. June 1, 1917, Willimantic, Maine
m. Ellen Leavitt (1830-1907)
children: William L. Merrill
Sylvie Merrill
Emma Merrill
Maud Huff
Preston Wilde Merrill (1872-1957)

6. John Merrill, b. 1795; d. 1880, Parkman, Maine
m. Percy Smith
children: Howard Merrill, b. 1822
Elizabeth Merrill, b. 1823
John Merrill, Jr., b. 1826
Sarah Merrill, b. 1827
Zenith Merrill, b. 1828
Loring "Loren" Merrill, b. 1830
Esther Merrill, b. 1832
Christopher Columbus Merrill, b. 1834
Alonzo Merrill, b. 1835
Layfaette Merrill, b. 1837

7. Abner Merrill, b. Nov. 6, 1752, North Yarmouth, Maine
d. May 4, 1812
m. Elizabeth Royall (?-1840)
Note: Abner Merrill served as a corporal in a North Yarmouth company in the Revolution, but moved to Greene, Maine after the war.

8. Benjamin Merrill, b. Feb 22, 1728, Newbury, MA
m. Sarah Brown

9. John Merrill, b. Nov. 30, 1701, Newbury, MA; d. 1775, Falmouth, Maine
m. Anne Knight, dau. of Benjamin Knight and Abigail Jacques

10. Nathaniel Merrill, b. April 3, 1676, Newbury, MA; d. 1742, Newbury, MA
m. Hannah Kent, b. 1679, dau. of John Kent and Sarah Woodman
Note: Nathan Merrill was born in Newbury on 3 Apr 1676. He lived in the part of town later known as West Newbury. He is listed as a "snowshoe man" in 1706, one of the militia who were equipped with winter gear for forrays against the Indians. He and his brother Nathaniel are decribed as weavers in a 1721 deed. He married Hannah Kent on 6 Sep 1699, in Newbury. She was born on 10 Sep 1679, daughter of John Kent and Sarah Woodman, and died 3 Feb 1735/36 in Newbury. He died 29 Jul 1742.

11. Abel Merrill, b. Feb 20, 1643, Newbury, MA; d. Oct. 28, 1689, Salisbury, MA
m. Priscilla Chase (1648-1697), dau. of Aquila Chase and Ann Wheeler
Note: He served in the company of Capt. Thomas Noyes.

12. Nathaniel Merrill, b. 1601, Wherstead, Suffolk, England
d. Mar. 16, 1654, Newbury, MA
m. Susanna Willerton (1610-1672)

13. Nathaniel Merrill, b. 1571, Belstead, Suffolk, England
d. Feb. 28, 1626, Wherstead, England
m. Mary Blaxall (1574-1624)

14. John Merrell, b. 1545, Wherstead, England; d. Feb 1, 1599, Wherstead, England
m. Prudence Bird (1548-1609)
Note: John Merrell, yeoman, probably meant free holder, a farmer who owns his land.

15. John Meryell, b. 1495, Wherstead, England; d. Jan. 28, 1551, Wherstead, England
m. Katherine John (1507-1551)

16. John Meryell, b. 1475, Wherstead, England; d. Mar. 12, 1528, Wherstead, England
m. Anne Belchum (1475-1528)

17. Thomas Meryell, b. 1444, Wherstead, England; d. abt. 1480, Wherstead, England

Thanksgvings Apart

This was the first year since Cara and I got married that we have spent Thanksiving apart from each other. The original plan was to have Thanksgiving at my parents' house in Searsport on Thanksgiving Day, then the next day Cara would drive the five to six hour ride to her parents' home in Allagash and she would have a late Thanksgiving with them, while I stayed in Belfast with Harry (our miniature pinscher). As do many well laid plans, things changed.

Cara's grandmother passed away about a month ago and this would have been Cara's mom's first Thanksgiving without her. Cara wanted to be there for her mom on Thanksgiving Day and decided to go up earlier than she had originally expected, which of course would mean missing the Searsport Thanksgiving. It would also mean missing spending Thanksgiving with Seth, home from college, who would not be too apt to drive the extra five hours to Allagash after driving two hours home from Portland.

So, this is what happened:

Monday night (of Thanksgiving week) after school, Cara and I drove to Portland to take Seth out to dinner. This would be the only time the three of us would be together for Thanksgiving. We got to see his new apartment and met one of his roommates before taking him to Vinny T's, an Italian restaurant that I would highly recommend. We had a great time, a nice visit with Seth, and managed to get home before nine o'clock.

Wednesday morning, Cara drove north. She met her mom in Presque Isle, where the two did some Christmas shopping together, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. I spent much of the day at my parents' house, visiting with my brother Allen, his wife Sara, and their adorable two-year old daughter Rachel, plus my two nephews (my sister Karen's boys), Jacob and Kevin. We had a great visit. Seth arrived home from school that night.

Thursday, I woke Seth up at ten o'clock so he could meet his birth father in Bangor and ride with him to Millinocket to spend Thanksgiving with his dad's family. When I woke Seth, he let me know that his dad had just called him on the cell phone and cancelled due to weather. I, of course, immediately invited him to come with me to my parents' for Thanksgiving.

I went over early to Mom and Dad's and enjoyed visiting with Allen, Sara, Rachel, Karen Jake and Kevin, Mom and Dad, and shortly before dinner, with my grandfather and with Seth. We had a great turkey dinner. It was a bit strange in three ways. 1.) Cara was not there. 2.) Most years we also got together with the Leightons (my Mom's sister, and family) which usually doubled the number of people, but they weren't available at the same time as us this year. 3.) This was the second year without my grandmother, who had passed away in 2006. All things considered, though, it was still an awesome Thanksgiving. Cara had her Thanksgiving dinner at her parents, brother and sister-on-law that evening. I'm sure it was tough after the recent passing of her grandmother, but I am also sure they had a great time and the food was equally as delicious as the Searsport meal.

Friday, I spent some more time at Mom and Dad's and also went to my grandfather's apartment in Searsport, where we finally got together with the Leightons (Aunt Jan, Uncle Ron, Amy and Dan and their new baby Avery, plus newlyweds Sarah and Chris). Later in the day, I also got to meet Seth's new girlfriend.

Tomorrow, Cara comes home and Seth goes back to school. Christmas season has begun, my favorite time of the year. And it won't be long before the first snowfall will stick to the ground.

The First Thanksgiving

Our image of the first American Thanksgiving celebration is not exactly as it happened. Yes, the Pilgrims and the Indians did eat together in 1621 and give thanks, but it did not happen the way we all learned in school.

First, it did not even likely happen in November. More likely it occurred in late September or October. In fact, some historians wonder if it was held in the Spring. However, it was more likely a Harvest Festival. Harvest Festivals had been held for generations by the English as well as by the Native Americans. There is also some evidense that other settlers in America had already held Harvest Festivals. This was, however, the first combined English/Native Harvest Festival.

As to the menu, it did not consist of turkey, stuffing, mashed potato, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. These were the foods available:

Fish: cod, bass, hering, eel.


Seafood: clams, lobster, mussels, and perhaps oysters.


Wild birds: mostly goose and duck, although possibly wild turkey, partridge and eagle.


Venison (deer).

Vegetables: Lots of corn (they had a great crop, although they used most of it to make cornmeal), squash, pumpkin, and some peas (although reports were that the peas grew poorly that year).

Fruits: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, plums, grapes, cherries.

Other foods: eggs, onions, walnuts, chestnuts, Holland cheese, maple syrup.


The reason that Thanksgiving is celebrated in late October actually can be credited to Abraham Lincoln, who declared the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. (It was later changed to the fourth Thursday by Franklin D. Roosevelt.) Lincoln probably was trying to coincide the date with the anniversary of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts, which was November 21, 1620.


So, if you really want to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, you should have it most likely in early October. The menu should look something like this: lobster, clams, venison, wild duck, squash, lots of berries, and plenty of eels. Yum!

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Cara and I watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" last night. We love to watch holiday specials, particularly Christmas specials, but I must say "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" is one of my favorites.

The music alone puts me in the mood for Thanksgiving. (Not that it takes much.) Vince Guaraldi's music scores for the various Peanuts classics are amazing! And to me, this is his best. Cara loves "Little Birdy", although I just love the way he mixes his most famous music, "Linus and Lucy", into the music he wrote specifically for this special.

The special first aired on November 20, 1973 on CBS. Amazingly, it was the 11th Peanuts special to air. The first was "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in 1965. The special won an Emmy Award.

A few of my favorite scenes:

When Snoopy and Woodstock are cooking popcorn and toast, and Woodstock unknowingly sticks Snoopy's ear in the toaster, than proceeds to butter it.

When Snoopy wrestles with the uncooperative folding chaise lounge chair.

When Snoopy dishes out the Thanksgiving meal to each person, making sure each one gets two slices of toast, a handful of popcorn, some jelly beans and some pretzels.

The scene where Peppermint Patty invites herself to Thanksgiving dinner, even though Charlie Brown is supposed to go to his grandmothers. "Chuck" can't get a word in edgewise.

When Linus tells the tale of the first Thanksgiving, between the Pilgrims and Indians, then leads them in a prayer originally said by Elder William Brewster. I am particularly fond of the prayer, since I am descended from William Brewster.

When the gang is riding in the back of the station wagon (very unsafe by today's standards) and singing "Over the River and Through the Woods". I find it strange that nobody can seems to sing in sinc.

Finally, when Snoopy and Woodstock sit down to their own Thanksgiving dinner.

Two things have always bothered me by that final scene.
1. If Snoopy was capable of making a full Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey and all the fixings, why did he go through the ruse of making toast and popcorn for Peppermint Patty and her friends?
2. Did you ever notice that Woodstock is eating turkey? Woodstock is a bird. Isn't this borderline cannibalism?

Anyway, "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" remains one of my favorite Holiday specials.

A Day of Decorating for Christmas

Cara and I spent yesterday decorating the house for the Christmas season. We decorated 2 Christmas trees, put up many, many decorations, and set up several Nativities. And it was only November 17th.

Too early? Nonsense! Refer to my earlier post, "Too Early For Christmas" http://coachbmaine.blogspot.com/2007/11/too-early-for-christmas.html for my response to that.

Now, to what we did. We have two artificial Christmas trees we purchased last year. We keep them up so long that it is not practical to use real trees, even though they smell wonderful. To partly make up for the lack of scent, we often burn scented candles, either evergreen or balsam, or something similar. One of the trees is decorated with rustic, old fashioned decoration and Cara did an amazing job with it. That tree sits in front of our living room bay window and has colorful lights.

The other tree, the taller of the two, sits just on the living room side of our archway that separates the living room with the dining room. This one has all our other Christmas tree decorations. We added some new ones this year, including the Disney World 2007 decoration we bought to remind us of our trip there this past August. The decoration that brought tears to my eyes was the simple wooden dog bone decoration with the name "Washington" on it. Washington was my German Shepard/Golden Retriever/Wolf Hybrid mix that we had for 13 years and that died last month. Washington was a Christmas present to myself back in 1994, when I adopted her a couple days before Christmas when she was just a puppy. This will be the first Christmas without Washington since I first moved into this house the very day I adopted her.

Cara has a huge collection of snowmen, that invade our home this time every year. We have several Nativity sets we have set up. I have yet to set up my huge nativity, and I am searching for a space large enough for it. We also have not yet done the outside lights. That will come soon and will probably be my responsibility.

I will try to post some photos of some of our decorations in the next few days, including the outside when we get that part done.

Opposition to Everything

One thing I am really getting sick of is this constant opposition. No matter what group there is or idea someone comes up with, there will be a group that forms to oppose them. It doesn't matter what it is, either. When a group decided to buy an old seafood processing plant here in Belfast, Maine to tear the eyesore down and build condominiums right on the water, there was a group that formed to oppose the project. When a group tried to bring much-needed jobs to Washington County here in Maine by proposing the building of a racino, there was a group that opposed the idea. When the Governor proposed the regionalization of school districts, there was a group that opposed them. There is a group that opposes the war in Iraq. There is a group that opposes the group that opposes the war in Iraq. When Wal-Mart wanted to build a store here in Belfast, there was a group that opposed them. When Plum Creek proposed a new development project on and around Moosehead Lake, there was a group that opposed them. When former President George H.W. Bush mentioned that he hated broccoli, there was a group that formed to oppose broccoli-haters.

There are people who oppose smoking, others who oppose smoking bans. There are people who oppose books written about magic, and others who oppose book bans. There are people who oppose change, and others who oppose lack of change. There are people who oppose abortions and others who oppose freedom of choice. There are people who oppose Republicans and those who oppose Democrats.

It seems nobody can have an idea, a proposal or even an opinion, without somebody opposing it now-a-days.

We need to be careful what we choose to oppose. At one time, there were people who opposed the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement, freedom of religion, and the suffragist movement. People once opposed women, blacks, Jews, and anyone who was not blond-haired and blue-eyed.

There are even a few groups popping up who oppose everything. I call them professional oppositionists. They will oppose any movement, political candidate, land-use proposal, economic proposal, educational reform, or change going. They will oppose lack of change, too. For the right price, they will help any opposition group get started, then slowly pull out and let the newly upset opponents take over.

The opposition that makes me the most upset is the constant opposition of one political party by another. A Democrat can't sneeze before a Republican cries foul. A Republican can't fart before a Democrat is insisting it's a violation of pollution laws. No matter how good a new proposal is, the opposition party always opposes it. It could save the country billions of dollars while saving the taxpayers billions, and provide much-needed aid to the suffering, but the other party will find a reason to oppose it. If you don't believe me, watch C-SPAN for a couple hours and watch the votes. 99% are divided by party line. It disgusts me.

I have decided to form my own opposition group. I am forming the Anti-Opposition Group. I think it should be illegal to form a group in opposition to anything. I'm sure my group has no chance of getting off the ground. There is sure to be a group that opposes it.

Cow Falls off Cliff, Lands on Minivan

I found an interesting article:

MANSON, Wash. (AP) — Charles and Linda Everson were driving back to their hotel when their minivan was struck by a falling object — a 600-pound cow. The Eversons were unhurt but the cow, which had fallen off a cliff, had to be euthanized.

The year-old cow fell about 200 feet from the cliff and landed on the hood of the couple's minivan, causing heavy damage.

A Chelan County fire chief, Arnold Baker, said the couple missed being killed by a matter of inches in the accident Sunday on a highway near Manson.

The Eversons, visiting the area from their home in Westland, Mich., to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, were checked at Lake Chelan Community Hospital as a precaution.

Everson, 49, said he didn't see the cow falling and didn't know what happened until afterward.

He said he kept repeating: "I don't believe this. I don't believe this."

Too Early for Christmas??

As I was sitting in the teachers' room at school today, the discussion turned to Christmas. There was frustration by several people that the stores were already selling Christmas decorations, Christmas music was being heard on the radio, television commercials were featuring Christmas sales, some people had their Christmas lights up, etc. The majority opinion was that it was too early for Christmas. "What happened to Thanksgiving?" our secretary (I love her to death) said. I suggested that Thanksgiving was part of the Christmas season. That idea went over like a fart in church. Nobody could believe that people had already started celebrating. I didn't dare tell them that Cara and I were planning on putting up our decorations in another week.
But this is how I figure it. We should celebrate Christmas all year long. Several of my family members keep a Nativity set up all year. Some years I do too, although this year we did not. To me, Christmas is the best time of the year, and why not celebrate it longer than a couple weeks. I really do believe that Thanksgiving is a part of the Christmas season, as is New Years.
What is thanksgiving all about? Giving thanks to God for all our good fortune. Isn't that the point of Christmas, too. To think about all the good there is in the world, to forget the bad, to thank God for Jesus, and to spend time with family and friends. That sounds like Thanksgiving and Christmas to me. Both are a time for family. I love both holidays equally. It's not the receiving of gifts that makes Christmas special, nor is it the giving of gifts (although I love watching people open gifts Cara and I have picked out). It's the family time that is most important.
Family time is so precious to me. Each year it gets harder and harder to find times when the whole family can get together. This year, thanks to email, we have actually worked it out so that everyone will be able to be together from the afternoon of the 25th of December to the morning of the 26th. Most of the family is spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our respective spouses' families, as this time is equally important. Cara and I will use the morning of the 25th as travel time, making the nearly six hour drive from Allagash to Searsport. We will have spent several days with Cara's parents and her brother and sister-in-law. Most of my side of the family will also be able to spend Thanksgiving together. Again, very precious time.
As the family gets bigger, it also spreads out. So why not spread the Christmas season out as well. It is most precious time, so make the most of it.