Every so often your columnist GOOFS! Here is the column which should have appeared in Sept. 4th's papers, embellished by doings and stirrings in the following week.

Ruth Bryant and Joan Myatt have returned from a rather warm trip to Amory, Mississippi and San Antonio, Texas. Joan's grandson, James "Trey" Childers - + 805 others! - graduated from Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base on Aug. 22. In spite of the heat, Trey coaxed ten of his family members to travel to Texas. After the ceremony at Lackland, the Myatt family returned to Mississippi for a few days. Trey is now at Keesler AFB in Biloxi MS. Joan has pictures if you'd like to see them!

We are disappointed to report that the Book Exchange box downstairs at the Town Hall has not been a success. Folks are taking books, but not bringing any in exchange. So far the big donor of books has been Lee Smith. Dare we give it another 2 months? You can clean out all the paperbacks you've picked up at airports, or read during rainy days in vacation cabins. Your neighbors will lap them up! (And then return, or exchange, of course.) Let's keep the Book Bin churning!

I was concerned to see the condition of the young blue spruces at the North Edgecomb Cemetery gate. I have since learned they have been invaded by aphids; the nursery says too late to do anything this year, but come spring, they will come by to spray them.

The Camerons had a wonderful Labor Day week with daughter Bisi and Johnny Yee and have sent them back to Cincinnati loaded down with produce, preserves and other oddments. Took them up the hill to the mica mine, and found it in one try! Went to Flickers, a wonderful restaurant off Route 202 in Winthrop, for their 7th anniversary celebration (a few days early). They helped us by clearing out long-standing piles of firewood here and there. After lobster three suppers in succession, (four, if you count the lobster omelet for breakfast), we shared a pork BBQ with friends Thursday evening, but we never did get a good look at Mars. [Hindsight: All this excitement may have been why I failed to push the SEND button.]

Meanwhile, I've had a chance to go through the papers I missed during my stay in Bloomington. I see that Fluid Imaging Technologies on the Cross Point Road has acquired Canada's Dept. Of Fisheries and Oceans as a customer, FIT's FlowCAM to be used at their Huntsman Research Center in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

I learn with sorrow of Frank McQuaid's death. He used to run The Book Barn on Cross Point Road, which our family frequented. My condolences, and I'm sure everyone else's, go to Maggie, now in St. Andrew's Village, and their children Kim and Kevin.

Let us welcome Elizabeth Blake, who is teaching science to 4th, 5th and 6th graders at the Edgecomb Eddy School.

Edgecomb authors on the move: Lea Wait will be speaking in the Maine Authors series Wednesday, Sept. 17 at the John Street Methodist Church in Camden. The program, sponsored by the American Association of University Women, begins at 10 a.m., following a 9:30 a.m. coffee. Book sales and signings will follow the program. Lea's latest, "Shadows on the Coast of Maine," is the second in her Antique Print mystery series. It involves the Marie Antoinette House, which is Lea's living address!

Meanwhile, Van Reid has just brought out the fourth Moosepath League installment, "Mrs. Roberto: Or the Widowy Worries of the Moosepath League." Mrs. Roberto, as I remember from prior books, is a colorful entertainer who does flying leaps from hot air balloons, kind of a pioneer sky-diver. Also, I'm dying to meet Mr. Various Moss.

And I'm glad to hear that Patty's Seafood has had a successful first season. Patty Grant will keep her new roadside eatery open through Columbus Day. It is on Route 1, next to Jackeroo's, just this side of the Newcastle town line.

The Friends of Fort Edgecomb have just received a shipment of videos, "True North – Living History," showing one of the recent Fort Edgecomb encampments, available from the club for $7.00. Raffle tickets for Sandy Griffin's beautiful painting of the Fort are still available from any member or at events. For October 4 and 5, they plan a "Close Encounter," a more casual (and more rumbustious) outing than the various public encampments. For full details, call FOFE president Matt Dunn, 377-5335. In addition to their various military interests, FOFE wants to investigate period theatre as a possible FOFE activity.

Important item requiring action: The US Postal Service is "restructuring" its system, which may cause serious cutbacks for small town post office hours and services, and may ultimately eliminate some of them. Sen. Olympia Snowe urges postal patrons to get involved. Call the Edgecomb Post Office, 882-5529, and ask Linda Reynolds, our postmaster, how you can help. Then do it! There will be forms at the post office which can be submitted to the town's selectmen, urging them to keep the Edgecomb office open.

Harvey the Harrier sits broodingly on a pole at the end of our garden, then dives like lightning for prey. Known also as pigeon hawks, harriers don't "pern in a gyre" but fly low, even chasing prey through brush.

Perning in gyres (see W. B. Yeats, "The Second Coming") over 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in The Boothbay Register, The Lincoln County News, The Wiscasset Newspaper, and at www.Edgecomb.org.