Labor of love

I just finished a week of a much-needed vacation.  I had a number of projects around the house that had to be done and wanted to spend some time with my boys.   I love my job, but I have been working a lot of hours in recent weeks and needed to recharge.  

My job is a labor of love and it was fitting that my first day back was Labor Day.  I have covered the same two events for the past 6 years.  I take Christmas week and Easter and Thanksgiving off, so I get to work the majority of  Memorial, Labor and Veterans Days.  Most everyone is out-of-town this weekend and not much happening except the traditional Buckfield Labor Day Celebration and the Labor Day picnic at the union hall in Lewiston.

The parade is not the biggest, and the field full of activities and vendors is not as full as some of the others I go to during the summer, but the people there seem to have more fun and are into it more than any of the others.  It’s a real small town affair and the folks are wicked genuine and friendly.

It kicks off at 10, which isn’t too early.  I got to go have coffee with my dad before heading out to it, so that was a good way to start the day.  The skies were threatening and a few drops of rain on my windscreen on the way, so I didn’t bother to apply sunscreen to my balding head….big mistake.  The sun appeared just about the time the parade started.  I mounted my GoPro on a stick, my invention I came up with using a extendable painters pole, onto a telephone pole using a bungee cord.  (One of my future blogs will highlight my nerdy inventions)  I kept the video running for most of the parade and condensed about 20 minutes of the parade into about 10 seconds.  It’s pretty much at the beginning of the video if you want to check it out.   Click here to watch it.

I headed to the SJ to download the video from Buckfield and while that was going on, I headed over to the union hall to shoot some photos of the annual picnic.   Being an election year, the place was mobbed with every candidate except the King.   It is hard to get a unique photo from this event.  Speakers, tables with flyers, face painting and people eating.  Not the most visual assignment, but if you spend more than a few minutes at most any assignment and work it, you can usually find something creative, or a moment.  I think I got one here.  My son needs the computer now to do some homework, so goodnight.

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