While I don’t mind people smoking, I am happy that back home the anti-smoking laws in pubs and restaurants have been introduced last july (I hate it that my clothes smell of smoke the morning after a pub night, smoking is really a ego-centric addiction). However, Maine has gone a step further and joins other states and Canadian provinces that have made it illegal to smoke in a car while children are present.

Developing lungs of young children are severely affected by exposure to secondhand smoke, the EPA says. Children receiving high doses of secondhand smoke, such as those with smoking mothers, run the greatest risk of damaging health effects. The U.S. Surgeon General also warns of links between secondhand smoke exposure and cancer and heart disease.

Maine’s law authorizes police to hand out only warnings until Sept. 1, 2009, but after that violators can get $50 fines.

California’s law, by comparison, authorizes fines of up to $100, while Ontario violators face $250 fines. Another Canadian province, British Columbia, also followed Nova Scotia’s example in passing such a law. Some Australian states also ban smoking in cars where children are present.

I wonder when this law will be copied to The Netherlands?

A couple of days ago I ordered an Adidas Duffel Bag with footlocker (such an annoying chain of sports stores), the shop I swore never to buy anything from. But I really need a Duffel Bag because my things don’t fit in my backpack anymore, and they were the only one to sell a classic Adidas bag for a mere $ 25,-. So I sold my soul to Satan and ordered the red (a bit feminine color but the other colors were sold out) duffel bag with them. Today I got the shipping notifaction that it was on it’s way to Colin & Amy. Just in time

At least I can bring my stuff with me (British Air allows 2 checked bags of 23 kg on flights from the US to Europe) and I have a bag I can use for short trips… or sports….

Today I woke up at 05:00 after a mere five hour sleep. The reason was that I wanted to see the sun rise at Marshall Point, where Portland’s (and Maine’s oldest) Lighthouse stands. Waking up went better than I thought and I was the first photographer to reach the scene:

After shooting several photographs using 2 stop bracketing (in order to create HDR photographs) I drove -accidentily- past Scarborough Marsh.

The Scarborough Marsh accounts for 15% of the state’s total tidal marsh area, making it the largest contiguous marsh system in the State of Maine. Salt marshes are one of the rarest habitat types in Maine, consisting of less than 19,000 acres (or less than 0.01% ) of Maine’s total 21,146,600 acres. Salt marshes account for only 0.4% of Maine’s entire wetland acreage.

After having spent about an hour in the marsh, making photographs of the fog, I drove off passing several more fisherman’s docks.

Nice old gas pumps near the Covered Bridge, Newry, Maine.

A covered bridge near Newry, Maine.

This nice yellow Honda Trail 90 is for sale for $ 1295.-, a bit much as I would have expected much lower prices here in the US. The engine would be nice for my CD 50 though