WINDING DOWN MAINE
Our airline threw us a curve when it changed our departing flight from a very civilized 12:45 pm to before sunrise at 6:00 am. Thus, we left our rental house a day early, drove down to Portland and spent the night at the airport Hilton Garden Inn,. We’d been told that the hotel was offering no services (no food, no shuttle) and that it was mostly empty. Imagine our surprise, when we arrived and learned that they were sold out that night! Granted, it was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, but early in the week, the hotel gentleman had said everyone’s gone home, back to school and so on.
We took an Uber to downtown Portland, the Old Port area, our first time there this summer, and wandered around a bit. Many streets in that neighborhood are closed off and restaurants abound, offering food and drink outside in properly spaced tables and booths. There were more people on the street than I’d seen anywhere.
We had booked an early table on the patio (really in the street) for dinner at Petite Jacqueline, a bistro we’d frequented in the past. The tables were appropriately distanced, and all the staff were wearing masks. It was a treat to be waited upon and served. We enjoyed a panzanella salad and roasted Brussels sprouts followed by lobster rolls with tarragon mayonnaise and a stack of sinful skinny fries.
FLYING IN THE AGE OF COVID
Maine is serious about social distancing and wearing masks and there were signs and announcements galore at the Portland airport. It’s paid off because they have one of the lowest numbers of cases and deaths of any state in the U.S.
American Airlines was also serious. Although they don’t block off any seats on the planes, they required everyone to be wearing a mask. The flight attendants on both flights went up and down the aisle several times checking. They also warned that noncompliant passengers could be denied the right to fly with them in the future. No food or drink was offered.
In the Charlotte airport, there were also announcements about masks, but they didn’t sound as forceful as those in Portland. I did see a couple of individuals without masks. And I was struck by how busy this airport was—-many more people traveling than when we’d flown on a Tuesday in mid-July!
Both our flights boarded efficiently, left on time, and arrived on time or few minutes early. Deplaning was done by rows from the front. Passengers were requested to wait seated until the row in front of them had been vacated, and folks seem to cooperate with this instruction. All in all, I felt as safe as was possible given everything.
FLORIDA RE-ENTRY
When we left home in July, the state of Florida was a Covid-19 hotspot. Our area wasn’t as bad as Miami-Dade, but still far too many new cases each week and very spotty mask requirements or enforcement. Now, there are more signs about masks and, it seems more people are being observant. Before we left town, Fresh Market required masks to enter, but Publix supermarkets did not. We are pleased that now masks are required for entering a Publix.
The Hannaford stores in Maine made their grocery aisles one way with green arrows on the floor on one end and red exit signs at the other. I’d gotten so used to this that I kept expecting to see a green arrow in Publix allowing me to proceed down the aisle, but not so.
It was 57 degrees when we woke up in Maine on Saturday, 82 the afternoon before in Portland, and 80 this morning here in Florida with a predicted high of 94! Boy, did I love the cool pleasant air of the Maine coast!
VIEWING
Radioactive (Amazon Prime)
I didn’t realize until this film was almost over that it is based on Lauren Redniss’ 2010 graphic novel of the same name. That’s a colorful arty book chock full of information. I had read it with science book club I facilitated at the Academy of Sciences in San Franciso.
Marie Curie, its subject, was a passionate, arrogant, brilliant, driven woman. She loved science and was determined to do science no matter who or what might get in her way. The film recounts her struggle to get lab space, her attraction to and then marriage to Pierre Curie, and their joint work on radium. That same radium sickened them both and he died an early death. Madame Curie was passionate in her personal life also. Her later affair with a married man sullied her somewhat suspect reputation as a “dirty Pole.”
The film is gripping and full of emotion. It is less successful with the interjection of more contemporary events, such as the use of radiation to treat cancer or the tragedies of Hiroshima and Chernobyl. While these events highlight the positive and negative sides of the Curies’ discoveries, they are jarring interruptions in the arc of Marie’s life. Nonetheless, definitely worth watching! (~JWFarrington)
Note: Header photo and other unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).
