Dear Reader,

Are you tired of bad news? Me too.

Friends of this space have endured my rantings for the last several weeks as I explained the utter stupidity of Lincoln County Healthcare’s plans to shutter our dear St. Andrews Hospital. I haven’t changed my mind. But I am tired of the bad news. 

For the record, I am also very tired of political commercials and know the election is two months away. Argh. 

So here is some good news. 

This week Mother Nature flipped the switch and suddenly it was fall. The breezes blowing in the bedroom window were downright chilly. A few trees started to show hints of red and brown and the lawn sported a few elderly leafs.

Good-bye short pants; hello jeans. Now if I could just find that light jacket, the dark blue one. I thought I put it in the downstairs closet. Oh well.

While driving up Route 1 the other day, I got stuck behind an elderly log truck that was doing “upper downers.” You know, he slowed down on the up side of the hills and sped up on the downhill slopes. 

We crept along, sometimes 40 miles per hour, and other times 20 miles per hour. A line of traffic followed suit.

Then for some reason, the logging truck guy pulled over. No one honked. No one flashed the dynamic digit at him. He just pulled over out of the kindness of his heart. Everyone smiled at him and waved as they passed, thanking him for his courtesy.

Here is some more good news. Not long ago, someone in Boothbay Harbor found a wallet stuffed with cash. Did they pocket the swag and pitch the wallet?

No. That special someone walked to the police station and turned it in, intact. We tried to convince Police Chief Bob Hasch to tell us the name of the good citizen so we could do a story patting him or her on the back for their honesty. But Chief Bob declined.

Well whoever you are, thanks from your friends at The Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper.

More good news. We all live here because of the wonderful geography and stunning scenery, but most of all, we live here because we like the folks who live here. 

Which brings me to the political silly season.

Mitt Romney called my bride the other day. 

You know him, the handsome businessman who used to be the Republican Governor of Massachusetts. You might have noticed that he was recently nominated to be the GOP standard bearer in the 2012 presidential sweepstakes.

My bride is a registered Republican, and I suspect that registration put her on the calling list for Gov. Romney. Yes, he asked her for money. She said no. It is no secret that she is not a fan of Mitt Romney.

Now, she admitted it was not really Mitt who called. It was a computer generated recorded call, known in the trade as a RoboCall.

They have been used by both sides and single issue advocates to personalize their message. Some times they work. Sometimes they don’t.

One time, in the distant past, a candidate for Sheriff hired an ad agency to inflict these RoboCalls on the county voters. His pitch went something like this: “Hi. This is your Sheriff Jack. You know I am a good guy and would like to ask you to please vote for me on Election Day.”

After huddling with his campaign manager and the ad strategist, they decided the best time to start the computer calls was around the time most folks get home from work and not to end them until the early evening. They were designed to start at 3 p.m.

Then there was a little glitch. Not a big one, but a teeny tiny glitch. Well… it was just one letter. The guy who set up the call changed “p” to “a.”

So the next day, starting at 3 a.m., phones started ringing at bedsides all over town. “Hi this is your Sheriff Jack. Please vote for me.”

I did not get one of those calls. But I did get the calls from folks who jumped out of bed when the phone rang at 3 a.m. 

Let’s just say it wasn't a very effective political campaign for Sheriff Jack.

Until Election Day, I am afraid we will be inflicted with political commercials and phone pitches urging us to believe our Republican neighbors are Nazis and our Democratic neighbors are Commies. 

That is just plain wrong. This is America. We are allowed to be whatever we damn well please. Our private politics is nobody’s business. Period. End of paragraph. 

Joe Gelarden