Somewhere in Central Maine

Yesterday, I went on a walk in a small town in central Maine looking for things that could as easily be from the 1930's as 2009. Since the 1950's, central Maine has changed little short of the infestations of Walmarts, McDonalds, and Timmy Hortons. Textile factories, logging, shipyards, and paper mills dominated economic landscape of of central Maine until the fifties and sixties when these companies either closed for business all together or moved out west or abroad. Now the largest employers in the area are hospitals and colleges. My friends and I affectionately call central Maine the deep south of the far north.

Here is a panorama I made of the abandoned Lockwood Mills cotton textile plant. The plant has remand relatively untouched since it closed its doors for business in the mid fifties.

I really liked this sign, for Laverdiere's Rexall Drug.

Juicing

I have been juicing all day. Not in the Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens sense but in the Jay Kordich, aka the Juiceman, stealing-produce-from-the-college-dining-halls sense.

My brother brought a copy of The Juiceman Audio Cassette Series for comic relief on a cross country drive in late August of 07. The Juiceman's soothing voice got us through a flat tire in South Dakatoa, the let down of Mt. Rushmore, and a shitty motel in Minnesota.

Today, I stumbled across a 4.99 (5.25 with tax) Juiceman jr. in the electronics section of my neighborhood Goodwill. After giving the cashier a five dollar bill and one quarter and telling her to keep the change, I ran across the street to my apartment tenderly holding my bounty like an LA Riot looter. In my kitchen, I rummaged through the cabinets and refrigerator looking for anything juice-able. Eventually, I found some baby carrots, next to the humus, and some apples and made a nice cup of nutrients and vitamins.

Here are some videos that ad context to the juicing movement.

The Sugarloaf USA logo

For the last three winters, I have spent a lot of time at Sugarloaf, a hellishly cold and desolate ski area in central Maine. Regardless of the current chapter of my love/hate relationship with Sugarloaf, I am always on the lookout for their simple, yet eloquent logo. Anyone can draw the simple equilateral triangle with a snow cap on one corner, putting it in league with logos like Nike and the Obama Campaign. I also really like the timelessness of the simple blue and white color scheme.

I saw this bumper sticker in Jackson Wyoming in front of a brewpub.

Sinn U2 EZM 5 Diver's Watch

Diving watches are rugged, classic, and wearable in any situation. However, most people limit their search to conservative, icon brands, such as Rolex, Omega or Panerai, and miss the point. A good watch contrasts and adds texture to a person's style. For high school graduation, my family gave me the watch of my choice. After much deliberation, I picked a Rolex Submariner Date for boring yet rational reasons. Few watches can stay relevant, hold their value as well, or last as long as a Submariner. As denoted in the title of this blog however, I am restless and often wish I had a less conventional watch.

From time to time, I poke around watchbuys.com, similar to how I reminisce about ex-girlfriends and occasionally look through their pictures on facebook. My mouse usually finds its way to the Sinn section of the site, a little known but well respected German watch maker, and specifically the U2 EZM 5 divers watch.

Sinn watches are crafted from the same scratch, magnetic, and corrosive resistant steel used by Emden GmbH (a leading provider of steal for military applications) to create the outer hulls of German submarines. The steel used for the U2 EZM 5 is rated to 2000 Hardness Vickers (a metric form measuring hardness), nine times harder than the 200-240 HV steel used on most diving watches. In addition to sturdier bezel and body construction, the U2 also boasts a pressure resistant, Argon lubricated Swiss movement that functions between -45 to 80 degrees Celsius. This all means that a U2 EZM 5 will keep the H2O out below 2000 meters, 6.6 times deeper than my Rolex Submariner.

The exclusive, excessively rugged and rarely necessary (being a mile underwater) U2 EZM 5 is near perfect lifestyle watch. Eventually I would love to have a watch like it.