Now This Is Stephen King’s Maine

I have to admit, Modern Philosophers, that when I moved to Maine, I expected it to be exactly like something out of Stephen King’s scarier novels.

In fact, when we were deciding where we wanted to live, I told J (my wife at the time) that I wanted to be out in the middle of nowhere.  I pictured an old cabin, a huge fireplace, an awesome porch, and lots of woods.

J immediately dismissed this by exclaiming: “That’s the kind of place where people get killed in Stephen King books!”

Exactly!

So I got overruled on that one.  J is long gone, but The House on the Hill is still mine.  I love where I live, and it has turned out to be very much like a Stephen King novel now that the Otherworldly Beings have revealed themselves.  They told me they didn’t stop by while I was married because J scared them too much!

This morning, when I went for my run, I discovered a world very much like something out of a horror movie.  I said to myself, “Now this is Stephen King’s Maine!”

After my run, I took a few photos so you could see what I meant by that comment…

The fog was incredibly thick this morning.  Doesn’t this photo look like it could be a still from “Stand By Me”, Modern Philosophers?

There is a very good chance there is a dead body somewhere along those railroad tracks, but there was no way I was walking into that fog to find it.

The House on the Hill looks like it’s about to be swallowed up by the fog.  Or should I refer to it as the mist since this is Stephen King country?

The grass was covered in an odd dew as well.  You can see the shiny spots on the section of the lawn near the garbage can…

The streets were eerily quiet.  As I was running, I kept waiting for something to jump out of the fog and attack me.

If you recall, the one horror movie that scared the crap out of me when I was younger was The Fog.  This morning, I was certain there were pirate ghosts stalking me under the cover of the soupy mist…

The street sign warns that there is no left turn ahead, but when I took this photo, I had a sense that there might not be anything at all up ahead.

The fog just seemed to be swallowing up everything in sight…

I thought the church looked especially creepy in these conditions.  Of course, a church played a big part in the plot of The Fog, so my overactive imagination had me thinking that I would be under attack at any moment.

I definitely felt like a character in a horror movie, and this was the point when the scary music would swell up, and I would meet my end within spitting distance of the church from which I’d strayed over the years….

I can usually see the church and the other side of State Street clear as day through this opening down the block.  Not today.

This foggy world seemed very claustrophobic…

I actually made very good time on my run.  Perhaps I was eager to get the hell out of the fog as quickly as possible?

Still, that didn’t prevent me from wandering around with my phone taking photos once I was done.  I blame that on the loss of bodily fluids…

I really like the way the color of the Railroad Crossing sign jumps out at you from the upper corner of this photo.

Look at me trying to put my Film School expertise to work with a camera phone…

Nothing ended up jumping out at me from the fog, and it eventually burned off (or moved on to haunt another town!).

It took the longest time before I could look down my street and see Bangor again.  It was a creepy morning, and definitely made me feel like I lived in Stephen King’s Maine.

Wish you were here, Modern Philosophers.  It would’ve been nice to have a little company out there in the fog…