Bill Barnes

     Tella woke me up at 7 a.m. as usual by scratching at her crate, letting me know it was time to take her outside to do her thing. I decided not to take her on a full-fledged walk because I figured we’d be heading out early and she’d get a chance to run soon enough. I was wrong–we didn’t end up leaving until 11 a.m., because we spent the morning paying bills. Actually Sara paid the bills. I just hovered over her, being tense. We haven’t got into a good bill-paying rhythm yet. The idea is that our housesitter Amanda back in Seattle sends our mail every two weeks by priority mail to wherever we happen to be, and we pay the bills electronically using Microsoft Money 98®. In actual fact today’s effort is only our second in almost seven weeks. Old bills are scary bills, and they make me anxious. Once Sara was done I carried the laptop over to the campsite office and logged in, sending the payments and getting our e-mail. I also quickly checked Portage Bay Goods, the Web site I finished developing just before we left on our trip. It’s an online version of my friend Betsy’s quirky Seattle gift shop. As expected there’s been light traffic. We wanted to sit on the site for a month or two until she started advertising widely, but it’s held up fine and I think it’s ready for the big time, or at least the medium time. Finally Sara, Tella, and I got moving. Last night was the first of three at the Mountain View Campground in Dixfield, Maine. The plan is to spend today and tomorrow doing a figure-eight of scenic country in the midst of the autumn colors. Yes, we’re the infamous “leaf-peepers” who enrich the campgrounds and inns of New England in a sort of tourism Indian summer. Our first stop was Coos Canyon, where I managed to walk right into the corner of a wooden picnic canopy roof, hitting my head so hard it broke the skin and left an impressive skid mark. It hurt a lot–I just stopped and cried for about a minute. When I was done, my previously dark mood had cleared right up. Sara contemplated steering me toward more picnic shelters in the future. We next stopped at a turnoff called Height of the Land. Also stopped was a group of antique car lovers, several of whom were there more to be seen than to see the sweeping view of Mooselookmeguntic Lake (insert your joke here) and environs. We ate peanut butter sandwiches, but we were still hungry and stopped for lunch. Then we hiked up Bald Mountain, where Tella finally got to romp and run, and we picked up another great view. We drove home through moose country but to Sara’s great disappointment saw only moose prints in the mud. We had planned to make crepes for dinner and stopped to pick up some cheese. But in the middle of the store we both realized we were craving spaghetti, so we got some fresh pasta instead. And a cherry pie. And two kinds of juice. And coconut milk. And bread. And water. Your basic panic shopping. At home we ate dinner, then Sara did a drawing exercise from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She’s excited to learn how to draw and hopes it will help her pottery when we get home next spring. I spent the evening trying to get our laptop to talk to Slate’s digital camera. This is why I quit my job–I hate computers.