PACKING UP

I've never been to Portugal before. But after doing some Internet surfing I can picture it a bit now. I arrive there on the 14th and will stay until the 19th. In addition to speaking at the Portuguese Green Party conference they say they are going to set me up with some other talks in the area. I am going with an open mind.

But first I buzz down to Ft Lauderdale for a ball game and a talk. It's a different bunch of clothes that I will need for this trip - things like shorts, T-shirts, lighter socks - no long-john underwear. I had to do some digging to find some of these clothes as they were put away in the attic. After searching everywhere for my shorts I still couldn't find them. Mary Beth found them tucked away with some of her clothes. I thought I had lost them somewhere. Imagine a man without his shorts in Florida.

We've got a meeting tonight in Portland of our April 3 Town Hall Meeting on Economy, Health Care, War and the Environment planning group. There are now 45 organizations around the state co-sponsoring this event and have invited our governor, our congressional delegation, and leaders from the state legislatureto attend. So far we have heard from our new Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and her daughter Hannah Pingree (Speaker of the State House of Representatives) that they are coming to the Town Hall meeting. Our idea is to give the public a chance to speak directly with our elected officials about their deep concerns on these crucial issues. The Town Hall will be held at USM (Hannaford Hall) in Portland beginning at 6:30 pm on April 3. Last time we did one of these in 2006 on the war we got about 500 folks to turn out. It should be another fine event.