Congratulations to the organizers of the Boothbay Harbor Tuna Challenge and to the boat owners who hauled in 28 tuna in the first two days of the tournament (Sept. 4-8). The fish were pretty large with the largest in the first two days being 712.5 pounds. We will do a tournament wrap-up article after the Sept. 9 lobster bake and awards dinner.

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With summer winding down, it appears the incoming traffic has let up some. The Labor Day Weekend was busy in the region and hopefully the leaf-peepers will be coming around when the foliage peaks. September is a great month to visit the region – fewer people and usually good weather. Hopefully the area restaurants can stay open despite some staff leaving for college or other endeavors. Be sure to read Jane Carpenter’s article on what local businesses thought about the summer season.

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Yes, I make errors. Especially when it comes to dates.

In last week’s column, I mentioned that John Edwards worked at this newspaper until 2004. He worked at the paper until 2012. How I spaced eight years, I don’t know. I do know that we went to digital photography in 2004, so I think I had that on my mind. I fixed those dates online … but only after about 90 people read the column. To those who read the wrong dates in the printed version, I apologize.

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In the past few years during this time, I have usually written about losing our 6-year-old dog, Ruby, due to her having a bad case of pyometra in 2018. We said our tearful good-byes to Ruby and vowed to tell people about pyometra. If you don’t know about this affliction which strikes female dogs, please read about it. If you don’t want to go through what we went through, get your female dog spayed when she and you are ready. But don’t wait.