Last Friday afternoon, Toby Leboutillier’s “Down Memory Lane”  on public radio was interrupted every 30 seconds, or so it seemed, by the familiar, awful buzz of the National Weather Service in Gray followed by stern warnings of severe thunderstorms, flash floods and hail.
Weary of weather warnings, I turned off the radio. But weather still ruled. I was back to asking a question that has nagged at us for years: What is the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny, or mostly cloudy and mostly sunny?

Last week I was determined to find the answer. I called WCSH 6 and asked for Joe Cupo, but he was on vacation and Roger Griswold wasn’t yet in the studio. I called the listing for the National Weather Service in Fryeburg and heard a recording with baffling terms like density altitude and zulu (yes).
Mistaking — wrong glasses — National Metrology, for Meteorology, I called a number in Raymond and spoke with a very nice man who said he hadn’t been a weather watcher since he was a quartermaster in the Army. Today, his metrology business takes him to corporations all over the United States to measure optical equipment. Doesn’t do much here, but is based in Maine “…because it’s a great place to live and do business from.”
With high speed wireless technology widely available in Western Maine, why wouldn’t the River Valley attract many other entrepreneurs? Food for thought and a question I’d like to put to Linda Walbridge. Ten months ago she became director of the Western Maine Economic Development Council. Walbridge is based at Community Concepts in South Paris where she works with Mike Burke. Walbridge is upbeat: definitely in the partly sunny, even — considering the riches of the River Valley — mostly sunny crowd.

Bright forecast

Witness the closing of the Ethan Allen mill in Andover and more jobs lost to the River Valley. Walbridge told me the unemployment rate in Western Maine is 12.5 percent, even higher in some of our towns. But with energy, planning and collaboration, she suggests, bright days are ahead.
Days are brightening right here and now for the Pennacook Art Center. Though underground for a while, now the center, as Betsy Bell put it, “is sprouting new projects.” June Dragoon is working with the River Valley Growth Council’s Jim Rinaldo on an agreement that would enable art center members to exhibit and sell their work at the tech center, a mutually beneficial arrangement. Carol Rickards connected with the Elsemore Clinic in Dixfield. Members’ works are installed for the pleasure of patients there.
As for Betsy Bell, she’s working on a Web site — her own and the center’s — at fineartamerica.com. That enterprise enables artists to sell copies of their work online and to advertise original pieces for sale.
The Pennacook Art Center’s Summer Arts for Everyone series of classes and workshops is past its midpoint, but several all-day workshops are still in the offing: July 11 and 18, and Aug. 8 and 15. To enroll, call Betsy, 364-7243; Pat Chandler, 743-8033; or Heather Westleigh, 592-5027.
Sunny prospects indeed, but the question remains: What is the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny?

Linda Farr Macgregor lives with her husband, Jim, in Rumford. She is a freelance writer. ljm@gwi.net

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