So what have John and I been doing. Well, we weren’t putting up pickles. Most of our time has been spent waiting for a suitable house or condo to come on the market, looking around at our new surroundings, and looking around for new doctors. You think this latter item might be easy, but it is not. Trying to find a doctor who is accepting new patients, is a Blue Cross/Blue Shield “preferred provider," and takes Medicare too is quite a detective feat. Regardless, I think we are seeing some light at the end to the tunnel. We actually have made appointments to see a doctor who meets the criteria, is Board Certified, and whose patients gives him high ratings. We’ll see how our first meetings go.
We also read the local newspapers. In crime news Portland has its share of serious crime, but a lot of the crime here is somewhat minor. The headline read in the Portland Sun (the little local newspaper we read daily), “City nabs couple under new graffiti ordinance.” Not much of a chase scene, however, “A couple that attracted the attention of police by lying in the roadway early Monday morning, were the first to be arrested and charged under the city's new graffiti ordinance, police said.” This all occurred about 1:40 AM in the morning. They were spotted tagging mailboxes and street signs with a heart shaped symbol. Both were in their twenties and I won’t post the pictures of the couple that were included in the newspaper, because they are innocent until proven guilty. Let’s just say they had a very dazed looks on the faces. It may be just a case of young love gone wrong, but violators the graffiti ordinance face “at least $500 fine, plus costs incurred for cleaning the tagging, as well as no less than 25 hours of community service. Possession of graffiti paraphernalia is an additional fine of up to $250.” Hmmm! Young love turned to tough love.

speak. Regardless, we aren’t going to go collecting and eating any wild mushrooms anytime soon. It is just that here in Maine during the fall, right after a good rain, we’ve seen a great variety of mushrooms all over the woodland floor. They are white, brown, yellow, orange, red, purple, and green, and some will even glow in the dark. They are tiny to huge, lay close to the ground or hang off the trees. We’d just like to know what they are when we see them, based some key identifying features, even if we can only get them into their basic categories. In the store, wild mushrooms can be 15 to 20 dollars a pound, so of the students were avid collectors. Still as noted, we are not about to collect. A few mushrooms are foolproof in their identification. Others have very
subtle difference and can mean the difference between delectable to noxious to downright poisonous. Case in point; our instructor is on call at the local Poison Control Center. We know this because he got a call during class. Someone was in the Emergency Room after eating a bad mushroom and the ER folks emailed him pictures of the type that was eaten. Fortunately, it was just the noxious variety and not the Destroying Angel (in a twisted sense, don't just love that name!), so someone was just in for some intestinal distress, instead of liver failure. We will buy our mushrooms at Whole Foods, thank you very much. Pictured here first are bright orange Little Chanterelles, quite edible and tasty we hear. The others are Pigskin Poisonous Puffballs, whose name tells all. Most puffballs are very edible when young, but if cut a young one open and it has a tough skin and a really dark inside, don't bother getting out the sauté pan.
Well, all for now.
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