anyone here from Maine?

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I'm from Waterville,Maine and my husband is from NewYork.We own and run our own painting business just outside of WTVL,just the 2 of us so we do not have alot of time on our hands wework 6to 7 days aweek 14 to 16 hours aday,2 kids,dog and 2 cats and caretake on the side.If anyone from here can tell me how CMP is doing? It would be a big help.Also I know the town of Fairfield is almost all set up to take care of a little over 3000 people, are anymore towns doing this? thanks for any info. Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 14, 1999

Answers

Hi Darlene

I'm from Lewiston, Maine. I've been lurking on this site since last fall. I rarely post.

As far as I can see no one in Lewiston is doing much of anything. I was at the library after the senate report came out and the people that worked there were having a discussion about the mess that health care is in, but other than that I haven't seen or heard anything about Y2K.

If you get the Maine Sunday Telegram you may have seen some recent articles about the Belfast area. From what I have read there is a group there that are doing community preperations. Lincolnville and Mt. Vernon have been cited as areas that are addressing the problem also.

Yeaterday we went to Johnny's Seeds in Albion. They were out of some items (open pollination corn especially), and were limiting other items. I asked an employee if there was any reason she could see for being out of seeds, and limiting seeds so early. She said it is Y2K.

As far as CMP goes, the last I read, they said they were ready and compliant. They added that they were not sure about their vendors. From what I know they buy power from the nuke plant in Brunswick Canada. The thing that gets me is that I understand power is generated mostly from coal fired plants and nuke plants. Coal is transported by train. There have been articles saying that the railroads are in trouble. Nuke plants, it has said, will not be ready. So I don't see how CMP or any other electric co. can claim everythings OK with them.

When I read that CMP is compliant, I read it as their internal system.

I don't want a generator. If there is a problem with gas distribution a generator will not be much good. We installed a wood stove last year. We can cook on it and it heats great. The new wood stoves use a lot less wood than the old types too.

Have you been reading this site for awhile or are you new here? I've looked at lots of other Y2K sites but I like this one the best. I espicially like the technical posts. Although I'm not a geek (I'm an RN) the things those people post are extremely interesting. I have learned many valuable thing here. We are not ready yet, but are in fairly good shape. How about you?

-- monique (me@home.here), March 14, 1999.


I have a friend in Portland, Maine. He does not know about Y2K. Starting to slowly educate him, but he does not show interest. I do not know anything about Maine. In the winter, how cold does it get, and for how long? How much snow and ice?

-- concerned (for@friend's.survival), March 14, 1999.

Who has experienced a Maine winter? Please describe.

-- concerned (for@friend's.survival), March 14, 1999.

Can be cold, dull and depressing with some gloriously sunny days. Not from Maine. Beautiful state!

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 14, 1999.

But how cold? Below 320? For how many days, typically? Without electricity, would the canned food freeze?

-- concerned (for@friend's.survival), March 14, 1999.


I live in Rome(about 10 min. away from Mt.V)POP. around 900 in the winter and goes up to around 1500 to 1800 in the summer.We have 2 wood stoves in an 11 room farm house,not my house,rent for 150.00 a monthas long as I take care of the camp,my parents live with us and my husband and I just bought 56 acres of land over a year ago in R ome because we love it so much.

Been reading this site for awhile ,about 7 months now befor that was Gary North fan only,(still am).

Not much time for the paper,but picked it up on March 10th and on the front page was the town of Fairfield,has plans to shelter have food and water for 3000 households and nearly 7000 residents!!!

As for the weather in Maine,what weather?It gets cold,then it gets colder.I do not go in the water befor the end of June to mid July,It starts to cool down alot in late Aug.,we have a few warm weeks at the end of Sept. and come Oct.your in your winter clothes everyday.

Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 14, 1999.


Yes food will freeze and so will alot of other things,pipes,people and animals.Yes it gets well below 32 here,0 to 25 just in and around towns sometimes with the wind and sometimes even lower,I've sent my kids to school more times than I can count on days that are below 0.But thats part of Maine and if your friend lives here he knows people from here and should be ok.We take care of each other,we have to it's hard here,alot of poor people,state does not care and under paid with a long winter takes up alot of your money.But the people stick together.For Maine Portland is big so I don't know what he could do but save food,I'm not from Portland it's about a 2 hour drive from me been only a few times.Not that I've never lived outside of Maine,just never spent that much time in Portland,NY 4 years,TX 1 year,PA 6 months,VA 3 months and a few others,just dont like big.If he lives here like I said he should be ok. Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 14, 1999.

Thank you Darlene. That is cold. Worry; must make him realize the necessity of getting prepared. He has two children 9 + 10 and he is naive of practical things.

-- concerned (for@friend's.survival), March 14, 1999.

Tell your friend to look up the Morn. Sent. paper for March 10th, the town of Fairfield will be feeding 7000 people,that's no small task. Was your friend here for the ice storm last year?That was some ride we had.Do I have some funny tales about that.Most people just come here in the summer and never in the winter,have you ever been to Maine? It's slow living but what a place. Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 14, 1999.

Have never been to Maine. Cyberfriend lives there with wife + 2 kids. Friend's mind is on "loftier" matters and it will be tricky to convince. Darlene your info will help much. Thank you. They are poor, but good people. Sad.

-- concerned (for@friend's.survival), March 14, 1999.


If they are watching what they spend Walmart had a big salelast week in WTVL. boots and shoes from $2 to $4 and flan. shirts for a $1.50. I bought 21 shirts 4 pr boots and sweats at $3 pants or shirts,seeds 10 pks for $1 and so on and so on.The seeds are 2nds but I'll start them inside and baby them and save my good seeds for next year.

I'll look up the news paper and get it back to you,if you want I can email it to you, that is my email address.

Now for a funny story. Like I said my parents live with us and we have about 4ac. of land to mow,we have 2 dogs between us, when the ice storm hit us we did not have enough water to drink and flush toilets so we melted snow to flush with and wash clothes,My dad (god bless him) went outside and filled the 5 gal buckets with ice not snow,(did not dig deep enough),ok so it took longerto melt but as the chunks of snow are melting in big pots all over the wood stoves we start to see things in the water,this is after hours of waiting,ice or snow does not melt very fast,my mother took alook at what did she find after all our hard work?????DOG POOP!!!!!My father picked the same spot off the 4ac. of land that for the last 4 years our dogs poop on,my dad realy wanted to get out of this so he told my mom that it was only being used for the flush anyhow,mom ended up washing the hell out of the pots and dad had to go get more ice!

Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 14, 1999.


Darlene LOL aromatic too ;(

Now there's a designated "clean" snow patch area? The newspaper article sounds very interesting. I will eMail you, thanks. What a perfect sale you found. Such low prices, don't find that even in thrift shops.

-- concerned (for@friend's.survival), March 14, 1999.


Quite a kick to read the responses of people who are from Maine who read this site. We are fr. Oxford county NW, ME, yes our county has a low standard of living and yes it is cold. After all, we have winter and then we have the 4th of July; your basic two seasons!Chose to return here after college and very glad I did(none of my 4 siblings did). Both of us travel into Androscoggin Co. to make our living, but very much enjoy the daily retreat into the Oxford Hills! I know precious few people that are preparing in even the most rudimentary way for y2k. We have our own power system with 2 yrs. of fuel and same w/food, abundant gardens, several yrs. worth of heirloom seeds (plenty to give away) and lots of hand tools; three wood stoves, one a cook stove and already 15 cords of wood at the ready. Sound extreme? Wonder what our neighbors will think or do if CMP has some glitches? During the ice storm we were without grid power for 13 days. Many of the neighbors went to motels and waited it out. Wonder what they'll do if in 9 months there are no motels w/A.C? Our 3 grown children chuckle over our "extreme" outlook. But then again they live in safe areas, Chicago, Austin and San Francisco, so obviously they have nothing to be concerned about! Hah. We've been looking forward and preparing ie. y2k for 4 years and yet still wonder if all of the bases are covered. We're not fretfull, just frugal. Both of us are civil servants, so paychecks could be nonexistant in 9 months. Where's Angus King going to get the $ to pay us if severe recession hits? Most if not all of our workplaces are replete with DGI's, still going to the credit union and borrowing for a new fishn' boat, etc. Life could get very interesting in a very short time. I sincerely pray for those who believe that society will continue as we know it indefinitely. Anyone else out there from ME? Mine is a real email, feel free to drop us a line. Heard in church this morning that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Maybe that's a good place to start! Keep your seeds cool and dry. Ed.

-- Ed Carl (ed_carl7@hotmail.com), March 14, 1999.

from the Central Maine area - attended program in Bucksport which included reps from Bangor Hydro and CMP...in each case the statements were made that they were still working hard on the problems but felt it would not be a problem come 1/1/00...the ??? was asked how that could be and how they could feel so positive. The long and the short of it was that they felt good about what they had control of (internally) however the external situation was another issue. The conversation ended that possibly utilitiy companies should include not just the close view internally but provide the public with the honest truth including the external such as tele, fuel, transport, etc. If there is the potential in the Eastern grid of brownouts or blackouts, the power will go to the population centers and you can be relatively certain the rural Maine will get the blackouts for sure. If anyone in a utility company is asked about generators, the best answer provided is : if you live in Maine in January, you should have a generator - last January was the ice storm - next January ?????? j.w.parker

-- j,w,parker (j.w.parker@usa.net), March 14, 1999.

Hi Ed,I feel the same way about Maine,no place like it,my husband is from NY but loves it here,he feels more at home.

What do you think of FPL buying out CMP?We heard alot of people talking about how CMP still has not got all the bugs worked out from the ice stormand never got the money needed to pay for it all.Like the saying goes "someone farts here and the power goes out."And it does!

I'm not as far ahead as you are on preps,well ok not even close but I feel good about what I/we have done,I shop,spend and stack while my husband looks on,he is a GI but just not into it,thats my part I read alot and then inform him and I save the food and he knows he'll eat he chops the wood.I'm lucky that he takes my word on all this because other than my own parents we know of know one else.I live on a lake and have a brook behind my house,want to get a hand pump soon.

Funny thing we just got done painting a house for someone who worked for Microsoft,made some big bucks when he sold what he made to Bill and plans on being all moved in by this summer.Never did get a chanch to ask him why,I will be going back to his house this summer to do touch ups and so on,I'll ask then. Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 14, 1999.



Re: Central maine Power, last statement I heard from them was that they had missed their Dec. 31 remediation deadline but are confident they'll be done by March 31, with the rest of the year for testing. Haven't heard anything from Bangor Hydro except the usual happy talk. Maine's PUC was having trouble getting info from the smaller utilities aorund the state.

You Mainers might want to visit the Maine Forum page at the Portland Press Herald web site. You can access it off the Viewpoints (editorial) page. Last time I checked there were two rather inactive Y2K threads that could use some new life. Most of the posters looked like DGIs, altho there was one feisty GI who wasn't afraid to speak up.

As for Maine weather, yeah it gets cold, been there, done that, still close to the border. I've seen four, five days at a time in the 1970s when the high temperature never got above 0 F. That was in Bangor. Northern Maine still gets that cold sometimes, but winters lately have been considerably milder. The cold isn't the problem. The real problem wiht living in maine is the black fly, god bless 'em. It's the only way to keep the tourists from becoming permanent settlers, according to my friends there.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), March 15, 1999.


Goodmorning Cash,it's 4:10 been up for 20 min. I'm about 45 min. away from Bangor,it still gets that cold here,all the time,just last week.We do have our good days we even have good weeks but we do go below 0 and when the wind blows it's even colder.Like Ed said "We have winter and then we have the 4TH OF July." I've kept my kids home twice this year because it was to cold to send them.

We do have alot of people come to this state,most would never stay for a winter.Like I said in one of my other post my town goes from around 900 to 15 or 1800 people,we have a mom and pops store,part time fire department,a plow and well that covers it.The black flies are bad,(the state of 10,000 lakes and ponds)but they only bite the flatlanders,haha.Ilive near a lake and it's hard to get yard work done with those things all over you,and the lady bugs in the winter are a,well you know! But I do love this place.

I've been over to the paper you talked about,do not know if I looked into what your talking about but will have a look tonight when I get home.I've gone to Gov. home page but was never any good with #. I have an uncle in Mass.and inlaws and friends in NY and none of them are even close a GI,when I bring it up,they clam up and sometimes I do not hear from them for weeks after.

Thanks for the info.

Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 15, 1999.


I lived in the Moosehead Lake area for awhile. We used to say we had two seasons: 1) winter is coming, 2) winter is here.

-- monique (me@home.here), March 15, 1999.

I love Maine, so it is neat to hear the stories. Gosh, here in the NY Catskills, it's practically summer, only a few inches of snow on the ground and all of 35 degrees. Break out the swimming trunks!

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), March 15, 1999.

Thanks for backing me up on the weather,it's hard for anyone to understand what it's like here when they only come here for the summer.That was good!LOL.Just what I needed.

Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 15, 1999.


Hi Big Dog I lived in Vernon for 4 years.But came back here just to big.HA I did love the schools,but do not miss most of the people.Not that everyone was an a-hole because I have some realy good friends back in NY,but it just put a damper on things for me.And I got teased alot about the way I talk don't know why - HA-have you every heard anyof us talk?Realy Funny

I'm all talked out about y2k hang out here to keep up on all the good info.Just realy wanted to know if any other Mainers came here.It feels good to know some are but not as many as I had hoped for.

Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 15, 1999.


Darlene --- Not to worry. NY is an odd state in many ways (actually, it's multiple different states, culturally and politically). Where we live, folks mostly just say "yup" or "nope" to everything (you see how well I fit in) and have their own peculiar German-Dutch-Catskill accent.

While true of (some) other states, not many, Maine people have always struck me as "real", if you know what I mean. Texans have that too in their Texish way (hey, Greybear), Iowans, Cascadians (there you go, Leska). Many of the rest of us have had our indigenous cultures shooken up into a media-homogenized, transient, gov dependent soup.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), March 15, 1999.


Never made it to the Catskills,hubby told me about it.I lived off base from Fort Hood for a year that was fun!!But I did go to Dallas for a weekend once and that was a site to see,loved it and have always wanted to go back.First husband was in army liked to jump out of things!!TEX was so big,loved the mix of things and the food.With my 2nd child I lived on hot food.That was another thing I loved about NY was the food.

Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 15, 1999.


Hi Darlene. Saw this just now on csy2k:

"Get Out Of Maine, Now!" by "SB"

From YAHOO:
"(AUGUSTA) -- Governor Angus King is getting ready to tackle the year 2000 computer glitch. Today in Augusta, King will unveil a special ``Y-Two-K'' task force. The 19-member group is made up of utility officials, government agencies and emergency-service groups. Task force chairman Robert Mayer says state officials need to show the public they will be able to cope with power outages and other challenges associated with the ``Y-Two-K'' problem."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Getting ready????
They should be almost done!!!!!!!
"......state officials need to show the public they will be able to *cope* with power outages and other challenges associated with the ``Y-Two-K'' problem." - At least these boys are NOT pretending that they will be ready and compliant. They just want to demonstrate that they will be able to COPE!!!!

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xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx x

-- trying to help non-interested friend (allaha@earthlink.net), March 16, 1999.


Ah, the simple pleasure of shoveling 18" of fresh snow yesterday. So much white stuff that the logger doing some clearing for me quit at noon and went home! By the way, don't think there are any embedded chips in his John Deere skidda'. All travel came to a screechin halt yesterday on the roads-- wander what it'll be like in 12 months if there's no money to pay the plow operators, or no deisel for the trucks. Hmm. We just hunkered down and put a pot of venison stew on the cookstove and sharpened our shoveling skills. We'll be skiing at Sugarloaf in June at this rate. Short growin season heah, don't ya know? Keep your heirloom seeds cool and dry. Ed.

-- Ed Carl (ed_carl7@hotmail.com/), March 16, 1999.

Allah: Don't know what task force gov. King is talking about. Maine state govt announced several months ago that it had finished remediation and testing and was advertising for an outside consultant to confirm the work. That matches what the state IS czar told me last summer. Maine adn New Hampshire were the only two states that far along at the time. A state representative just within the past week introduced a bill calling for the state to buy $50 million of emergency food rations to feed residents post-y2k. It's being greeted with great guffaws of derision. Local talk radio in Portland devoted its whole morning show to making fun of it today.

Regards: Searcher

-- Searcher (Searcher@mainiac.com), March 16, 1999.


Hi Searcher -- that entire post quoted above was from csy2k, and I posted it here hoping for refutation/confirmation from a Maine resident. How sad the radio show mocked a sensible suggestion. There is a thread about this now:

State of Maine to buy rice and beans?

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx

-- just praying for that friend (allaha@earthlink.net), March 16, 1999.


I never go to csy2k and you never gave a hot link did find it on another post,did go,did not spend much time on itbecause I had to go to work.

Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 17, 1999.


Just found an article about the task force in this morning's Bangor Daily News, it's not posted on the BDN web site. Gist of it seems to be a small-business awareness-raising group, sort of a folo-up to Senator Snowe's y2k meetings around the state last year. More interesting/alarming to me is a quote from King saying the state's y2k work is "75 percent complete," a major contradiction from earlier statements. No indication in the article about what he means. does the last 25 percent include certification by an outside auditor, as reported earlier? Dunno. Anyone here with more info? suddenly I'm not so confident about state govt anymore.

-- Searcher (Searcher@mainiac.com), March 17, 1999.

Darlene, sorry, don't know how to hotlink a post from csy2k, which is why copied the whole thing. csy2k is a newsgroup; does it have a URL? does each post have any addy? How is it linked? Anyway, just presenting what was read for Mainers' (?) inspection. Many times on this Forum information is displayed with the intent of trying to get *more* info from more informed ppl. Just trying to guage what that friend is up against.

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx

-- just praying for that friend (allaha@earthlink.net), March 17, 1999.


csy2k URL (one of several ways of getting there):

http://x5.dejanews.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=%7Eg++comp.software.year-2000&DB S=2&maxhits=25&format=terse&showsort=score&ST=QS&LNG=ALL

-- Cash (Cash@andcarry.com), March 17, 1999.


Hi Darlene,

I'm the person who posted the "State of Maine to buy rice and beans?" thread. I live in Yarmouth. I've been reading this forum for a long time - never posted before because ... well, Maine is different. I know lots of GIs around here, they just keep kind of quiet about it. Most are well prepared, all are ready and willing to help their neighbors, just as they did during last winter's ice storm.

The Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce had a Y2K information meeting two weeks ago. The speaker was (not surprisingly) addressing small business owners, emphasizing the importance of having their own computer systems up to speed, but - more importantly - checking on their suppliers for the same. About 30 people in the audience, all taking it very seriously. I believe the town of Freeport had a similar meeting last week.

I would be happy to hear from you again - Cam.

-- Cameron Gales (Cameron59@yahoo.com), March 17, 1999.


Hi Cameron,

I work with many contractors and word is that things never did get fixed from the ice storm,(temp. fix),and it takes money,I hope they can do both. If the price of oil and gas go up how can they fill gas tanks on boats or trucks? I think alot about how Maine depends on the money madeon fish,seafood and wood we ship out.If we can not ship this out I think our economy will fall and fall hard.

If King can pass this food thing off,good for him but I do't think it will happen,why else would a place like Fairfield spend so much time and money on it's own food when they could get it free from the state. King just wants to make himself look good.I almost always have WTOS on and never heard anything on it,but I can miss alot when saw blades ore on!!

Do you know how the trains are doing?And what kind of company is FPL? They put up a fight about buying CMP?Ihope they don't make things harder.

My small busines is compliant,bought this dam thing to play on,costly toy!!Have always done my paper work by hand.

Darlene

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 17, 1999.


Darlene: They're supposed to start work on renovating the train tracks between Portland and Boston this spring. Guilford Trandsportation, which owns the tracks, has been dragging its feet again -- last I heard, it was claiming that two construction seasons would be needed to rebuild the line, even though a mile-a-day repair schedule is standard and there's only 100 miles of track involved.

-- Searcher (Searcher@mainer.com), March 18, 1999.

Hi Searcher

So 2 construction seasons to rebuild the lines and it's standard to rebuild 1 mile a day and we only have 100 miles,then it should only take 100 days,so the ? is,why do they need so much time to fix so little line.Do they have a wed page or any y2k info?Do they have enough workers to change lines by hand? Mabe that's why part of why King wants to buy the beans and rice.(just thinking to myself more or less).

Darlene (just thinking to myself)

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 18, 1999.


I read my first thing on the beans and rice and let me take the name King out of the last post I made.Thought he had more guts!!Like I said I try to keep up with everything but I just do not have the time.

-- Darlene (boomer@tdstelme.net), March 18, 1999.

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