Clara's Window

Reason number 6,412 why I like living in Maine: the people.

When we're down in Portland, Casey is visited twice a day by our neighbors. The original agreement was one visit per day by the wife, but I soon discovered that the husband -- a seemingly gruff man with tattoes and a smoker's cough -- is the real softy of the pair. (My tip came when he began showing up even on days when we were home to make sure Casey was doing well.)

On normal weeks, I may return to find a note on our stack of mail detailing any particularly endearing Casey antics. But this week the note was accompanied by an enormous bag of beautiful plump fresh sea scallops in the fridge.

OK, so Verizon can't offer voicemail here, and the question "Do you deliver?" is generally met with a blank stare. And yet on Good Maine Days like today, those types of complaints seem trivial compared to the gift of having good people around you.

I'll be cooking scallops tonight, so feel free to drop by for dinner. There's no way on earth we'll be able to eat them all.