Dear Readers,

I believe it is always good to say nice things about Mother Nature. After all, we have little control over her moods, whether they are sunny skies or chilly winds.

So, just for the record, I officially thank Mother Nature for a beautiful fall. And, off the record, my fingers were crossed when I said it.

At our house, we are still trying to put the garden to bed in between snow days and cold spells. The first round of leaf blowing was successful. As soon as it dries out, we will do it again.

We were able to wrestle the flower pots from the back deck, remove the remaining plants and stow the pots in the garage.

Of course, that meant we had to first clean and organize the garage, but that is another story.

The heating man has been scheduled to do a tune up on the furnace, the screens are down and carried down to the basement. Next on the list of my pre-winter chores involve the cars and testing the snow blower.

As for the snow shovels, they were located and well used a couple of weeks ago.

At least gasoline and heating oil prices are down.

Get ready folks. Here comes Mother Nature's pal Old Man Winter.

Does this sound familiar?

Just up the coast, the healthcare experts from Maine Health have appointed a committee to look into increasing the shared services between Waldo County Hospital in Belfast and Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport.

The sharing, they say, is needed to save money for the hospitals, so they can recruit and keep medical specialists, according to Mark Bascone, the chief executive of the two hospitals.

Both hospitals are members of the Maine Health family. They already share a whole list of services from laundry to tele-psychiatry, he said.

As outlined in a recent story in the Bangor Daily News, Bascone said it was unlikely that the two hospitals would merge.

The story also noted that in the next 11 months the two hospitals and the Miles Campus in Damariscotta would combine their home health services.

Of course, most folks who live on the Boothbay peninsula believe Maine Health's experts, professionals, and well meaning civilian committee members would never, ever, even think of closing/merging any of their facilities.

Or would they?