The days of playing racquetball at the Damariscotta Y are numbered. As a feature of its new “Master Facility Plan,” the CLC YMCA has announced that the single fully usable racquetball court will not be available for play beyond an estimated two years.

Summer is gone, leaves have fallen and there is a crispness to the air – and ticks are still out.

It was hard to watch the scenes from Paris this week and not think of 9/11. The ways the news came out, the pictures of panicked citizens, followed, of course, by a steadily rising body count.

Rita Hester died on Nov. 28, 1998 in Allston, Mass. Her death didn’t make the news. It was just a month after the brutal murder of Mathew Sheppard, a young, white, gay man from Laramie, Wyoming and the few minutes of LGBT news coverage that day were dedicated to his death.

I would like to offer a word of thanks for the many people that stopped by our table at the Jefferson Polls last Tuesday to learn about Ranked Choice Voting.

On election day we had the privilege of spending a couple of hours at the Damariscotta Town Hall collecting petition signatures.

The news of the week is the student protest at the University of Missouri that has resulted in the resignation of the university president and a chancellor.

Memorial Day may be America’s official national day of mourning but somehow we feel Veterans Day, Nov. 11, is no less solemn.

When my home in Nobleboro sold quite suddenly this summer, it started a cascade of changes. Just before selling my house, I moved to Topsham. About the same time, Newcastle was fortunate to hire a full-time employee with municipal town clerk experience (Susan Anneley), therein substantially reducing the necessity of the planned transition training time.

Tuesday, Nov. 11 is Veterans Day. Please fly your flag and remember to honor all those who served in the past wars and those serving now.

By this time next year we will have elected a new president. Somehow, right now it doesn’t seem like anyone currently on the trail is a fit for the office.

The theory is humans gravitate to things like horror movies and carnival rides because most people like the pulse-pounding thrill of terror without suffering the unfortunate ill consequences that come with an actual threat.

Many of our older folks can still remember Armistice Day, Nov. 11, created in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson at the end of World War I, celebrating the cessation of hostilities.

My dog Bella was recently found after being lost for three days on the Pemaquid peninsula. The number of wonderful people who searched, helped, and offered words of encouragement was amazing! We are lucky to be a part of this caring town.