Van Reid will be the first speaker in a series of lectures presented by the Boothbay Railway Village, the general topic to be Transportation in Maine Stories. Reid will be reminiscing on the Sheepscot Post Office of his youth this Saturday, from 1:30 to 3 p.m., in the Spruce Point Chapel on the RR Village grounds. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

Wednesday, Jan. 29, 6:30 to 8 p.m., will be SVCA lecture number two. John Pratte, a Maine Inland Fish and Wildlife biologist, will talk about the successful program engaging citizens to maintain boxes for wood ducks and other cavity nesting waterfowl. This talk will be at the SVCA Office, 624 Sheepscot Road. $5 donation suggested.

Bob Rose called me to ask that I warn everyone: Ticks do not hibernate! He was bringing in firewood from his outdoors pile, and got what he and his doctor agreed was a tick bite. He was diagnosed with Lyme disease, but fortunately, was put on antibiotics in its early stages. Let's wish Bob a swift recovery, and be especially careful around our woodpiles.

On the Boulevard of High Praise: In what has become an annual activity, Edgecomb Eddy School’s fourth, fifth and sixth graders brought some holiday cheer to assisted living residents in Edgecomb and Boothbay by singing Christmas carols and delivering homemade cards to them. Also, as part of their community service, these students delivered almost 200 food items to the Boothbay Region Food Pantry.

Wiscasset schools' Feed Our Scholars program, under the guidance of Gretchen Burleigh-Johnson, has received a $5,000 grant from the Elizabeth Ann Leach Charitable Trust. This helps the group to fund its Backpack Incentive Program for the current school year.

Let us note our young people: Avae Traina, a consistent scorer for Lincoln Academy's Lady Eagle basketball team, and Hunter Reed, on LA's wrestling team.

High academic honors for Avery Genus, and honors for Johanna Neeson, both sophomores at Lincoln Academy.

I shall now lean back and swig my second cup of coffee of the morning. Actually, it is probably my seventh, since the first cup gets cold, and I dump it back into the pot, cup two gets cold ... basically, I'm drinking the same cup over and over again. Repetitious at 234 River Road, 207-633-2978 and jocam@tidewater.net.

Not much in the news department, but hey, it's only the fourth week of January.