I don’t see too many tourists coming way up this way. Unfortunate, because tourism spending trickles down in small towns in so many ways.

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 common. Knowing that back home we were still paying under $3.70, we felt smug. But that’s no longer the case.

I may have written about gas at $3.45 just two weeks ago, but it’s 27 cents higher now in town.

The candidate in me needs to be watching local news. The wife in me is afraid that Frank will turn on the TV more often than I care to hear it.

We have signed up for the most basic of options. It’s called Tech TV, an option that I believe is federally mandated and aimed at low-income households (with tax, it’s $11.08 a month). But, cable companies aren’t obligated to advertise it or even offer it when asked about all the options, so no one knows about it. They steer you to the higher-priced packages (”150 channels!”), but have to provide it if the customer asks specifically.

I learned about it when I asked a friend, “How much do you pay for your TV each month?” Because we’re so rural here, you need to have some kind of cable plan even to pick up the local stations (ABC, CBS, NBC) out of Bangor. Other people talk about spending $40 or $50 or $60 minimum for different packages.

For this $11 — totally an amount I can live with — we also get a Canadian news station, Public Broadcasting and the local access station. That’s all I need in my life. The fewer, the better.

No wonder no one in Machias has any extra spending money these days.

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). But it was the Monday when the Pulitzer prizes were announced. Seriously.

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 for Frank’s legal seminar, and there was a Tim Hortons.

I have a problem with that. What’s a Tim Hortons, if it’s not in Canada? I first saw a Tim Hortons in Ganonoque, Ontario, where we went for Louise and Brian’s wedding, what, about 10 years ago?

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, at Flapjacks in Potomac, in his honor. I remember all holding hands around the table as she tried to help the kids (mostly Jane, then 10, Gil, then 9, and me) understand.

I know that I didn’t understand at the time. But I do recall looking down River Road toward Washington (it was just 12 miles from Potomac to downtown DC), and seeing the red glow of flames and rioting.

Grandmother Williams, it turned out, had a very, very strong sense of social justice in her. That became very clear to me years later, when she was so upset over the death of Mitch Snyder, the leader of the homeless cause in Washington. I always admired that in Grandmother.

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 up in luxury at the Marriott Sable Oaks in South Portland, Maine. Never in our married life had we had a room so fancy. The fluffy pillows and duvet, the huge king-sized bed, it’s all delightful.

Did I note that we’re not paying for any of this?

Frank is attending a “Moving Mountains” seminar for today and Friday on child protective issues put on (and paid for) by the state legal system. Hundreds of attorneys are here — and to get them here, lawyers who live more than 200 miles from Portland were offered three free nights at the Marriott. I reckon that about nine or 10 Washington County lawyers made the trip, some with wives. Why not?

When snow had melted somewhat, he did rake away the bit against the house where we would see the first signs of spring, where he has planted crocuses. Sure enough, the bright yellow ones are peeping through.