Come on, it's Christmas for Christ's sake. There is no reason to be so angry and lash out like this.

I was talking with a meteorologist relative today at the Christmas gathering and apparently the storms original track would have gotten us snow. It last minute changes to tracking inland which is why we got the better temps and rain.

Ellsworth Library is good.

Even in areas with good transit it can't compete with driving (in my experience.) I lived in Seattle, and right on a rail like in Pittsburgh and transit would still take longer than just driving to your destination. Normally a good 3x as long.

You would need massive growth in Bangor to be worth doing an Amtrak line, and that comes with a lot of its own issues. It's not a very large city. Personally I kinda like Bangor how it is. Not too big and busy, not too small as to have nothing.

If lobsters become cheap enough I'll buy enough to single handedly save the industry. I'll make that sacrifice for Maine.

Sorry your going through this.

Would it be possible to return to the old company for one year? May eat some cost on your prepay and may not be the most environmentally friendly decision if your tank is leaking, but needs must.

Outside of that I'd think it's too late to try and do a whole new heat source. Even if you want to switch to something like a wood burner you'd need to acquire the wood, the burner and get it all installed very quickly. Would probably end up running you a similar amount of money you don't have.

Home ownership is always one expense after another. Especially on older homes it seems like it never ends and everything is more expensive than expected. If you can get a personal loan to handle the tank and the plumbing issue I would. Water is something you have to take care of as it will cause more, cascading damage. It's not something you want to let go if you can at all avoid it.

Stove plus self installing ran me about $3.5k. I made some mistakes on the initial chimney install so it could have been done cheaper. I'm rocking a pretty small stove so it was fairly cheap.

Not all of the railroad unions ratified the new contract and they will be going on strike in a week or so. Congress has the power to intervene so people will want you to call either to support the workers, or to support preventing the strike.

It's a rough situation that we should all hope gets resolved to everyone's satisfaction before a strike. A strike will make a hard winter even worse.

If you're looking for something easy fogtown brewing does great pizzas (they have a bar harbor spot as well but I've never been) 86 This in Ellsworth does really good burritos, in Belfast Chases Daily is a great coffee shop with good food options.

Honestly I found the food in bar harbor almost universally more disappointing than other towns. Eaten a few different places there and would say just go to Ellsworth or Belfast instead.

I always try to start my shopping buying local and then move to online as time constraints kick in. There's a lot of great small businesses in Maine selling wonderful products if you can take the time to hunt around. Supporting your neighbors is far better than supporting mega corporations that care far less about your local area.

Not for the same amount of interior space. I compared both options and a yurt was far cheaper for the size.

Hey I currently live in a yurt in a small town near Bangor. Space wise it was a lot cheaper than a similar sized cabin. It got permitted as a raised camping platform, really no issue with permitting. This is a small town with a really relaxed view on code enforcement though. We were told to start building, by the code enforcement guy, even before they had approved us.

If you have any questions or want any information I'd be glad to answer!

It's very wholesome to return them to their natural parking lot habitat. Nature is really healing.

I use starlink near Bangor. Works well for the most part. Would be probably perfect if you have enough clear space to get a good view of the sky.