don't be that way dude.

You be you.. but not everyone like mowing. My husband has hated it for as long as I have known him... our 30 yo son hates it as well.. though tbf he has horrible grass allergies.

I am also not a fan of gas powered chores. And even less of a fan of paying to water the damned lawn. The lawn is mostly clover... never had any issues with it for decades.. until the last 2 or 3 years.

So between the weather and the lawnmower... I'll be happy as heck to turn my yard into something other than grass.

I don't much care what it looks like as long as the neighbors don't complain and I don't have to mow.

Who the heck wants to come off their meds for 30 days in order to take a pre-employment test if they don't have to?

You are an idiot if you think they only test for illegal drugs.

And no.. a note from your doctor ISN'T usually good enough.

If you are paying 'way more' than $2K in Maine income taxes then you are making WAY MORE than most Mainer's ever will.... which is probably why you are being downvoted. Totally not fair.. but some people do start getting twitchy when 'rich' people bitch about paying income taxes.

But you aren't wrong. The reality is that the mill rate in NH is all over the place.. the same as the mill rates in Maine. In some towns it's $5 in others it's $30.

Everyone says 'oh NH property taxes are so much higher'... and back in the day.. they used to be. MUCH higher. But these days.. not so much.

In more ways than one...

...you must have an AMAZING boiler if you are only burning 60 to 80 gallons a month.

I burn about 1200 gallons a year. I'm on a budget plan with the oil company. Last year we paid about $300 a month. This year it's almost $600 a month.

This is good idea. Unfortunately my local group is bunch of right wing political bullshit so I'm not in it. But the group in my son and DIL's area has been really helpful finding plowing and lawn care and stuff like that

And I would suggest NOT using EAP unless you don't care about your job.

Using EAP gives the business access to parts of your medical records. And they can and will use this against you.

If you are just working retail then don't worry about it. As those jobs are a dime a dozen. But if you have a real job or are in any public career.. I do not suggest it. Just the fact that you are looking for a therapist can still be used against you.

I'm with you. I've been searching for a therapist for literally years at this point Spent months and months (over a year at one place) on various agency waiting lists... only to be bumped off them because they finally had to admit that it was unlikely they would have any openings because of my insurance.

So I go to my PCP last summer and request a referral because I'm desperate and they claimed to have access to mental health providers... for the referral department to literally do nothing but say go to Sweetser... who literally fired their entire outpatient staff years ago due to LePage's cuts to Medicaid reimbursement.

It appears that the only 'resource' available now is Psychology Today... who is apparently not exactly particular about whom they allow to sign up for their listing. But at least it gets you some phone numbers to call to get on more lists.

After Reagan the school boards across the state cut home economics, shop, art and athletics pretty much across the board. Not going to spend a penny that is not mandated by the state to confer a diploma.

I'm pretty sure that the only reason that there is any sports at our local school is because the boosters do all the fundraising to pay the coaches and the transportation. Players are expected to pay for each sport they participate in. The coaches are someone's dad or the math teacher who played sports in HS and remembers it fondly. Sometimes they are ok. But without any real coaching training sometimes you get people as coaches that absolutely should not be training children.

Also anyone who is any good at sport these days is expected to 'specialize'. That means playing one sport year round. Which normally means moving to non-school leagues. So that cuts down on the number of athletes on the school teams.

Add to that COVID restrictions and parents like me. I told the kids I'd give them one sport a year. It was all I could afford. The costs of uniforms, shoes, gas for trips for practices and games.. all on top of the 'participation fee'... times three.. gets freaking expensive.

In the end however it didn't matter. They didn't last in high school sports. No one plays for fun anymore. They play for their college resume. Like taking two years of a foreign language and racking up X number of hours of 'socially significant' volunteering. As my kids were never going to be able to go to a private college they didn't bother playing a sport. I was not cut out for the cut-throat nasty politics between player families and coaches. So they never got any play time. They were bored benchwarmers. And since they were going to state schools for college they didn't need the resume filler. So they quit.

edit: word

So.. frankly sounds like my house (and not that far away from me either so we have similar weather)

The quick answer is not to 'replace' the oil furnace. Central heating systems are expensive.

Adding a heat pump could make a big difference for you. Keep the oil heat as backup. But the new heat pumps are good down to -15 and we rarely see that these days. Larger heat pumps can support multiple units so you can spread the heat throughout the house (upstairs and downstairs or whatever your layout).

Heat pumps are not as expensive as new central heating. They are easier and cleaner than wood (though it never hurts to add a wood stove if you have the time, money or inclination or if you are worried about extended electric outages).

Wood is great if you are active and able. But at my age.. I'm about over wanting a woodstove. The wood heat is lovely.. the work is exhausting. And the heat pump will also cool the house in August.

ICK

Not because they look like they should have been thrown out weeks ago.. but because I am a weirdo who dislikes Maple.

So much this.

Corporations own the government. The Labor Board is much like the PUC. The people appointed are there to serve the corporations.. not the people.

Markham Associates as well.

MaineHealth hit me with a $2K ER bill a couple months ago.. with a special letter with my first bill telling me I had only until the end of the month because they were planning on sending it to collections. I get it. I have lousy insurance and no income. But honestly.. 2 weeks? What normal person can just write a check for something like that.

Now working on my second bankruptcy due to medical debt.

So.. negative?

We can't get good internet or natural gas because of the lack of housing density. Corporations decide that because there are fewer people per mile of road that they will not distribute things like water, sewer, internet, gas... some of these things we can do privately like a well but other like internet? Not so much.

Positive. Everything else. I fucking hate people

... why do you care? Seriously. It literally makes no difference to you other than supposed greenhouse gas emissions. It certainly won't be cheaper than the electricity you are already getting.

Besides that... we already have natural gas pipelines throughout Maine.. but only for commercial businesses not residents.

We have natural gas here. There is a pipeline and a repressurization station a couple miles from me. Natural gas runs through most sections of the state to support what used to be papermills.

They just don't let residents use it because they say it's too expensive to pipe to our houses.

Soo.... I know that this is the Maine sub.. but does anyone know why a possible NJ redesign would be Yellow with a blue cross? It reminds me of the Swedish flag only backwards... but there must be more significance to it than that..

argg.. our current flag is ugly and boring.

And looks like about 20 other state flags that all did the same thing. The state seal on the blue background.

I'm not crazy about the 'old'/'new' flag.. but it's miles ahead of the one we have and if that's what it takes to get it changed then I'll go for it.

What a bunch of crap.

Most of the houses around me have been sold recently. Half of them sold to NY'ers. Most of them kept as second homes. I'm happy enough with the people that moved here. But it kills me that the houses that used to house families with children are now empty 99% of the time. The neighborhood is really quiet now. The house across the street barely got a bite when they put it on the market before covid for $300K. This year it sold in less than a day for over $500K to a couple that doesn't even live there. I've seen lots of tradesmen and furniture deliveries... but I don't think they've been there two nights out of the last 9 months.

In the meantime... there is no such thing as a starter home anymore. Young local families can't even afford a decent apartment. Couples like my son and DIL have decided to skip kids altogether because they don't think they will be able to afford a home.

I don't know what the agenda is of the person who put this map together. But their method is suspect as heck.

oh yeah.. heated mattress pad is the bomb... nothing like slipping into that already warm bed... ;-)

Don't know if you are in an apartment or a house. But you might need basics like a snow shovel and a covered bucket of salted sand (which you can often get sand from the local public works department in my town we are allowed at least one 5 gallon bucket per storm.) Make sure to clear the snow from your walkways and sand any icy spots. You will be glad you did.

If you drive... you should have emergency gear in your car in the winter. Flashlight, warm blankets, maybe spare coat/gloves, jumper cables, folding shovel. That kind of stuff. If you go off the road in a storm sometimes the car won't run and you might need to shelter in place. My husband and I always joke that in Maine when you go out.. you don't dress for the drive in the warm car to the warm office... you dress for the walk back to civilization after you skid off the road. So we keep spare gear in our trunk in the winter. oh.. and a phone charger if you don't already keep one in your dashboard.

It's good for mental health to have a winter hobby. I know that lots like outdoor sports.. even in winter.. but for me I'm too old for that crap now. (The orthopedic told me I'm not allowed to fall on my replacement knee because it would shatter my kneecap... I've never made it through a day of skiing or skating without falling.. so I gave them up) But I still have inside hobbies that I focus on. I don't do the TV thing. But books, crafting, cooking and baking... they make me happy... especially if it's storming out. So find your happy.

The sun lamp thing is a really good idea for nearly everyone who lives north of the 37th parallel. Because of the angle of the sun in the winter we don't get enough UVB to get our bodies to make the Vitamin D it needs even if we are outside all day. Some people are more sensitive to it than others. But the lamps are generally lower cost now and worth trying to see if it helps.

Wool socks, hats, sweaters... (if you can stand wool some people can't) Layers! Layers, Layers.. Invest in some decent long underwear if you are going to be doing outside sports. Merino wool or some people swear by silk... but they can be expensive. Even plain old waffle weave long johns are better than nothing. I don't think they work as well once they are wet but fine on days when that's not an issue.

If your house is cold or drafty... then I prefer a heated mattress pad over a blanket at night because heat rises. The cats like both so they don't care. ;-)

Having been here basically my whole life I'm sure that there are things I do automatically that people from away would wonder about. But time and experience will help you decide how you prefer to handle things.

Honestly I don't know why I didn't think of that. Back when we had a snowblower I used to end up walking to the hardware store at least once a year during a blizzard. :D

damn.. really? That's alot of pickup trucks.

They are cool for arachnids.

The lobstermen refused to put stripes on their lines so that it would be proved who was killing the whales.

It's easy to say there is no evidence if you refuse to allow an investigation.

Much like Gun or MJ research. If you outlaw it and refuse to cooperate... then you will never see a study that disagrees with you.