camel crossings

My house has a new sign on the lawn: Camel crossings! In response to the interminable water main construction project by the house, the partner of the Town's Manager has begun offering signs to home owners with a sense of irony? humor? She began with a sign reading: 'Welcome to East Beirut!' This was taken down, so she put another up:'Welcome Back to East Beirut!" This has remained. The General Store now sports : 'Welcome to the Oasis." Another reads: This is not a mirage. She offered me a sign, and I took "Camel Crossings." though I have yet to find a camel to go with it. Another has an arrow pointing toward Kabul.
The reason it is so dusty is that it hasn't rained in a very long time and what was once all mud and ice, is now dust. It gets in my nose, it covers my hair while I work in the garden. It has been endless. All this during the most glorious springtime in Boothbay history.
So yesterday I went off to the Harbor for the Fishermens' Festival...which is actually by, for and of the fishermen of the Harbor and their families. It was a glorious day in the 60's, starting at 8 am with the highschoolers' codfish race, an updated suitcase race involving boots, slickers and pants put on and then running around the block holding two large codfish. It was funny and looked like it was good fun. Then came the bait shovelling race for sternmen off a lobsterboat. This was serious and involved barrels of baitfish dumped on the street and shovelled into baitboxes.
But the best race of all was the trap race with 100 or so lobster traps linked together in a line and tied to a dock at one end and a boat at the other. Kids, generally between 5 and 12, then tried to run the gamut of traps floating in the water without falling in. Amazingly enough, several kids could run the whole long line of traps several times without stopping or falling in. Many others however, flopped on in and had to be hauled out by the rescue boat. Little ones were wearing life jackets, bu the water was cold anyway! It was heroic for those who made it, as well as those who didn't!
It was a truly wonderful festival with more things like a tug o war, fish frys, and donuts etc. Today the fleet was blessed in a parade passing by the Catholic Church, though several denominations were present.
So it's been a busy week here in East Beirut, but we are very glad that the Harbor is just over the hill, where we can go when the dust gets to be too much.