Signs You’re in Maine
Maine’s got some pretty wild road signs. Some are odd. Well, odd to anyone who lives above the 45th Paralell.
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Maine Things: Signs You’re in Maine
3 FebMaine Things: The Cold
7 JanFor as long as I can remember, the “Ice Bowl” has been the image that comes to mind when I think of unbearable cold. That is until I moved to Northern Maine.
I’m 4/5 of the way through the 1968 best-seller Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer. The book recounts the entire season in which the Packers would go on to win Superbowl II. I’m just getting to the book’s climax: the 1967 NFL Championship Game between Dallas and Green Bay, also know as the “Ice Bowl.”
Maine Things: Bargain Hunting
10 Dec
I got really lucky when I moved up to Presque Isle. There was an available, affordable apartment for rent that suited all of my needs spatially.
I’d arrived with only the things I could cram into the cab and truck bed of a Ford F-150 truck, which I am eternally grateful to my older brother for allowing me to lease from him for the time I’m in Maine.
But the apartment was empty. I needed and desired a few things to fill up my space and allow me to live efficiently and comfortably. There certainly wasn’t enough money in the bank to go out and purchase all new furnishings, so I had to get creative.
Maine Things: The Hidden Gem of Presque Isle Pt. 1
2 Dec
It takes a lot for me to endorse a chain restaurant. I’m the kind of guy who admires independence, embraces local atmospheres, and favors excellent unheralded eateries. A chain has to have something special to get me in the door. Something that separates it from the rest. Something you can’t put on a menu. An intangible.
I’ll give a chain restaurant a fair shake. I’ll dine. You know what I always say, “Hey, I’ll try anything twice.”
So on a crisp fall Saturday I stepped into the Aroostook Center Mall’s Ruby Tuesday’s with the goal of sampling the mozz sticks, watching some football, having a few beers and checking out the joint. Continue reading
Maine Things: Basic Cable TV
11 Nov
As someone who’s grown up with the benefit and distraction of cable TV my entire life, it was certainly a change having my television scope being shrunk from hundreds of channels down to only 18. Like most downsizing adjustments in life, there’s multiple obvious unfavorable outcomes, along with underlying advantages that are visible only to those with the proper perspective, and also speak French.
My Time-Warner cable package here in Maine includes 18 channels: the 4 big networks, the CW, PBS, TV Guide Network, 2 French language channels, CBC, 3 religious channels, 3 home shopping channels, 1 infomercial network and a mysterious channel 8 that is never on air. Continue reading
Maine Things: Fall Foliage
4 Nov
I arrived up in Maine at the perfect time: late August. Late August when daily high temperatures are still hovering around 90 degrees. Late August when you’d rather be outside and feel the breeze and smell red-hot the grills sizzling. Late August when the skies are blue, and the forests are green.
Fall comes here in Northern Maine about three weeks earlier than I’m used to. The leaves on the trees start turning in early September. It’s a slow and gradual process, and because of the climate, the sequence seems to go by so quickly. Continue reading
Jake Berent 
