http://cassidyreports.com The view from Downeast Maine, via the Cassidys Thu, 22 May 2008 10:15:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Gas hit $3.95 here yesterday. Wonder if they’ll hold off posting the very real, not-so-symbolic $4.00 per gallon before Memorial Day weekend, which AAA considers the start of the summer travel season? I don’t see too many tourists coming way up this way. Unfortunate, because tourism spending trickles down in ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=269 And I thought the $3.74 gas price in town a few days ago was high. This is today’s news. Still, we have seen worse. When we drove across Long Island last week for Frank’s nephew’s wedding, $3.75 was the lowest we paid, and that was a deal. Signs of $3.99 were ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=268 Our PT Cruiser, now a year old in our hands, is lovely in every way, except for gas mileage. We can count on about 25 miles to the gallon. Which, since it’s 22 miles to Berta and Unc’s house, means we’re spending close to $3.67 to get there, and the ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=267 This isn’t about reality television, but about having television be a reality in my life again for the first time since I was 17 or 18 and still living on Thrush Lane. The candidate in me needs to be watching local news. The wife in me is afraid that Frank will ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=266 Yesterday in Machias, with gas at $3.45, I spent $45 to fill up the tank. No wonder no one in Machias has any extra spending money these days. http://cassidyreports.com/?p=265 You have to admire a newsroom that comes up with six Pulitzer prizes in a single year, what the Washington Post has just done. Years ago, when I was in college, my favorite Monday in all of April wasn’t Patriots Day with the Boston Marathon (well, that was a close second). ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=264 It used to be such a special thing, stopping at Tim Hortons when Frank and I headed for St. Stephen, New Brunswick. But now there are 10 Tim Hortons in Maine. You don’t have to be in Canada anymore, to go to Tim Hortons. We were in South Portland last week ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=263 How much does an 8-year-old comprehend about the national news? I can reflect on that, because it was 40 years ago today that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. (And I’m 48). Grandmother and Grandfather Williams were visiting with us at the time. At her suggestion, our family went out for dinner, ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=262 Like I said before, I should blog more often. Okay, so Frank and I have been married three months short of five years. In all that time, we generally seek out the most basic of hotel rooms — Motel 6 is our style, thank you. But for three nights, we’re living it ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=261 It’s March 20 today, so we do deserve something spring-like, even though it’s raining today. We still have gobs of frozen snowbanks on street corners. Frank has chopped through the ice pack that has covered our deck since December, although half of it remains. When snow had melted somewhat, he did ... http://cassidyreports.com/?p=260