Oh fuck, you weren't kidding

> They did this by not catering to their college communities but their 20-40communities.

Bangor is doing this exact thing, though. Bars, pubs, restaurants, social activities, etc are all mostly available in town or nearby. I'm square in the middle of the age range you mention, and nearly everything in Bangor falls within my rough interests. I'd go so far as to say that Bangor could be doing a better job by prioritizing things for kids, parents, and older folks to do.

• Year-round family-friendly indoor entertainment. Where I live now, we have indoor playgrounds for kids of all ages that also have bars. They're apparently great for meeting other parents, arranging playdates (without having to clean up your house for company), hosting birthday parties, etc.
• A barbershop/cigar lounge/social club/billiards hall combo for folks who are into that kind of thing.
• A real wine bar. Bangor Wine & Cheese is a good stop-gap (especially for oils.. my god, I miss that place), but a dedicated drinking space would get many women's perpetual patronage.

> This is everything from the sushi and steal restaurant, to mexicali blues to walmart. A cursory look at the products from local shops tell you this.

Did you mean Smoke and Steel? They cater to people who like meat, beer, and throwing axes... and they're priced in such a way that it pretty much cuts out college students. I used to live right next to Mexicali Blues, and the only people I'd ever see in there aside from tourists were new-age hippy girls and older women. Walmart caters to everyone (which is why two of them can exist so close together).

Honestly, the only stores I can think of that primarily serve college students are the vape stores and maybe dispensaries... and even then, there's a healthy mix of folks who enjoy both of those things.

Genuinely curious here: What would you like to see as far as new businesses go in Bangor? A great skates revival? Another bowling alley or movie theater that can't turn a profit? Another microbrewery that sells skunky IPA with a Maine-based pun for the name?

Yeah, that relativity paired with our expectations is just fun to think about. Brains are weird.

Not picking on you, but it's wild to see how we all experience things relatively. I know exactly what you're talking about, and I also used to think that was bad... until I moved out of state. Stillwater and Hogan wouldn't even register on my radar as "traffic" now.

SF is absolutely stunning as long as you don't look at it at eye level or below :). The "relocation to SF/Bay Area required" recruiter messages are the easiest ones to turn down.

Yeah lol. We wanted to live near family for a bit before we moved back out of state. Neither of us are really in love with the area, so we figured getting a nicer apartment might make things more enjoyable for us.

I've lived in Bangor off and on since high school, and that apartment was definitely my favorite place I lived. It was newer, clean, didn't smell like cat piss, had central air, quiet upstairs neighbors, and reserved parking spots for us and guests.

The extra cost was definitely worth not having to deal with the stuff I went through at my previous Bangor rentals lol.

I've said it here before, but the "deluxe" apartments fill a large niche gap in the market in Bangor - high-earners who don't want to own a home in the area.

When I was living in Bangor, my options for rentals at the time were:

• A couple of shitty crackdens on the low number streets for $600-700/m
• New and Old Capehart apartments for $1,100-1,300/m
• A single family home next to Broadway Park for $1,500/m
• A "luxury" downtown apartment that I actually liked (with reserved parking!) for $2,500/m

I ended up picking the expensive place, which was a good thing for everyone in the area who was looking for a place to live at that time who also made less than or had a worse credit score/history than me. My neighbors were all physicians, business owners, or fellow tech people who also opted to live in that building over in other parts of town.

The sad part is, the "quality" of those "luxury" apartments is on par with units in other parts of the country that were going for 1/3 of the price.

I think the only worthwhile target in Maine outside of the ones you listed would be the VLF towers in Cutler. Not sure how much they're used, though.

Edit: apparently quite a bit

> This allows continuous transmission, crucial since the Navy closed Annapolis (NSS), the only other East Coast VLF station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLF_Transmitter_Cutler

My well casing/cap froze over a little a couple of months ago, despite having a hard cover (one of those fake rocks).

If you have a cover, I'd buy a heat lamp and run an extension cord over to the well and just leave it on. If you can't get a heat lamp in time, what I did was put a tarp and some moving blankets over my well and it worked out just fine. It didn't freeze again during the next cold snap.

You can also buy one of the insulated well pump covers - it's like an insulated ziploc bag that goes over the pump and does a pretty okay job.

Nothing will beat the heat lamp, though.

> What the hell does it feel like outside when it’s -44 degrees?

The air hurts your face and any other exposed skin (ears especially), boogers freeze, cheap gloves/mittens don't work, eyes can sometimes sting a little, and everything that is wet becomes ice. Having a beard that's completely iced over is a lot of fun, though! I always liked walking around indoors looking like Santa lol.

> How does one survive it, what clothes can you wear?

Layers and a good hat, gloves, socks, boots, etc.

My personal outfit for extended recreational outdoor time was usually: Wool socks, waterproof/windproof boots, regular underwear + long/thermal underwear, winter pants, long winter jacket with a fur hood, ski mittens (mittens are better than gloves for warmth), ski mask, and sometimes goggles.

When I worked manual labor, it was mostly the same minus the jacket and goggles, and dual gloves/mitten combo because I needed a bit of fine motor control. Had to wear the company Carhartt jacket, too.

> Does the car even start?

Depends on the vehicle, but most will so long as the battery is good. When it gets really cold, diesel vehicles have issues so they usually need to be plugged in overnight. There's this helpful mechanism called a Glow Plug that helps the startup process. Diesel fuel contains paraffin wax that gels up when it gets super cold.

"New New Capehart" lol

> I'm afraid to report it bc I know PCHC will retaliate against me.

Retaliation is a huuuuge no-no and can result in the loss of license to practice as well as some really heavy fines. The regulatory bodies for healthcare providers in the state can and will absolutely fuck them up for this.

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint/complaint-process/index.html

What you took a photo of us a pretty clear violation of HIPAA - those documents, if they contain HIPAA-protected data (PII and the like) - are required to be in a folder with a cover sheet when not in use. Reconciling the sheets on clear display with actual physical copies by the investigatory body will take like two seconds, and they'll be at fault. The fact that you were able to snap a picture of those documents is absolute proof that a violation occurred.

Report it.

There's a fire tower nearby (on Tower Drive) that you can climb for arguably much better views btw. Might be a good idea to hit it up on your way back through!

Snowboarding snow pants. The general style for* them has always been more baggy fashion-wise, which leaves ample room for folks who are hauling absolute wagons out back.

FWIW you can get a 4,000 watt portable gas generator for like $300-400 brand new - even less if you go used. They work just fine in a pinch.

Steal them from police cruisers? Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Charge up some batteries and haul them over 😂

This guy (a Mainer) did with his Gallardo lol - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlty7wjO3CA

There are quite a few supercar owners in Maine, although they're mostly older rat-fucked or heavily-modified Gallardo's. You could buy them for ~$80-90k used a few years ago. You can still get a semi-low mileage Gallardo Spyder for about $129k, which is only about $20k more expensive than the Ford F-150 Raptor or the new Range Rover. Still likely out of reach for the average Mainer, but not for an older car enthusiast or business owner.

But you're 100% right - unless you've got a fat bodywork budget, owning a vehicle with such a low ground clearance in Maine is ridiculous. Many have airbags to lift the front a bit, but you'd be stuck riding on those 24/7 in most places in the state.

I think maybe I've just lucked out, but that hasn't been my experience at all.

I moved to the South from Maine. All of my friends and neighbors down here are super religious - like, "my dad is a preacher" and "my family owns a church" kind of religious. I'm not religious at all.

We've been down here for a couple of years now and nobody has tried converting us to be Southern Baptists haha. We get invited to and usually attend the post-church Sunday barbecue events. We invite them over for dinner, attend their kids' birthday parties, have beers/bourbon together, etc.

Honestly, living here is the first time I've ever experienced anything close to a sense of community. I know and like almost all of my neighbors, and I've become good friends with many of their family members. We help each other out with lawn stuff, dog/house/short babysitting requests, checking to see if someone left their garage door open for them, etc.