This past summer, I had a wonderful Mother Nature experience to share. While working outside one morning, I noticed a Hairy Woodpecker stuck on our kitchen screen door.

Back before 9/11 united Americans in a common purpose, back before the Challenger disaster, before the Kennedy assassination – there was Pearl Harbor.

Today it seems Pearl Harbor has largely been swept away in the rush to the mall but there was a time when remembering the most successful foreign assault on U.S. soil since 1812 was a big, big deal.

It is very refreshing to see the swarm of support for our “Toys for Edgecomb” effort. It wasn’t that long ago that the Edgecomb Republican committee sat around a table at the Town Hall and brainstormed a way to give back to our town. Sometimes a great idea stays a great idea and never gets implemented. The “Toys for Edgecomb” project has snowballed very quickly.

It’s tough times we are living in. Pick a subject, any subject it seems and we can find a problem to concern us.

However, this coming year there will be time and energy enough to spend on the issues before us and, while they are significant, they are not bigger than we are.

‘Tis the season of Christmas angels and snow angels and the YMCA has their very own – fitness instructor Mary Snow. Mary’s joie de vivre is infectious and spreads to all who are fortunate enough to be her student. She cares about fitness (in a very broad sense) and the fitness of others. To that end she has raised money to purchase stationary cycles so that more people can participate. On Christmas Eve morning as a gift to her students she offered a longer than usual spinning class followed by a relaxing yoga session. She exemplifies what we love about this community. Thank you Mary. Thank you YMCA.

Looking over the last year in LCN pages, the story that kept drawing us back was our tribute to the late R.H. “Bob” Reny, who left us in July.

We have already had our first frost and, recent decent weather notwithstanding, winter is on its way. A few degrees colder this past weekend and we would still be shoveling snow.

Last week I received a letter from the State of Maine Revenue Service. My interpretation of its contents is that our Legislature passed a law regarding monthly 911 surcharges on the sale of track phones when it already had a law on the books regarding the issue.

Thank you to everyone who sent along warm wishes for a speedy recovery. I am home for a few days en route to Maine Medical for chemotherapy. My writing and speech is poor so I am delivering this greeting via the newspaper.

We knew a Vietnam veteran who once said he didn’t mind being shot at so much. It was the mortar fire that scared him. There was no telling when a mortar round was coming in or where it was going to land, he said.

I read in the paper last week that over in Waldoboro the Rev. Mr. Murphy is retiring. I met him when I was distributing low-energy light bulbs to the food bank he has headed all these years.

America is the Greatest Nation Ever to exist on the face of the earth. However; America has become untethered and drifted far from the sure moral moorings of our Founding Fathers, so when in the course of human events history calls we all must be prepared to respond with the principles of life and liberty.

Dear Editor and citizens of Lincoln County:

I have kept my lips sealed long enough. I am a concerned mother of a teen-aged boy that has gone astray by hanging out downtown after school and engaging with others in smoking, etc… He has been told by his parents and officials to “shape up.” He is now going to attend outpatient rehab for his behaviors.

Watch television during any election night news coverage and note that almost as soon as the first visible percentage points of the vote total rolls in, some pundit will opine with authority that the preliminary results are either a humiliating defeat for one side or a sweeping emphatic victory for the other.