A few thoughts while waiting for the early spring the Groundhog predicted:

- My mother advised me never to become a minister or a farmer.

Those in the ski business this weekend find themselves practicing attributes of both those vocations, to wit, praying for seasonable weather.

By seasonable, I mean snow. The recent flakes notwithstanding, this is a winter when the lack of snow is killing those in the "cabin country" of the western mountains.

Ski resorts are making snow, but even the big mountains are fessing up that up to a third of their trails are without snow. Receipts have suffered accordingly.

And ski gear and apparel went on sale in mid-January because so little of it had been sold.

Maine already has two of the most difficult-to-make-money-in vocations: logging and fishing.

Working in the ski industry seems to be emerging as another.

Think of the proposition: trying to convince people to travel long distances to spend a lot of money for an experience that can be very disappointing in poor trail conditions.

Mom, I didn't become a minister, farmer or a ski-industry operative.

- Is there a Maine college or university that has an accredited Hotel Management degree?

I ask the question because I am still fixated on the supposition that there are 44 million tourist "visits" to Maine each year, according to the state tourism bureau.

Given this eye-opening stat, you'd think that some schools would develop a program to enable young people to hit the ground running following college.

The University of New Hampshire has a major-league program, as does Cornell University. The old SMVTI had a form of hotel and culinary arts, but I don't know of any university that offers a major degree.

And with the aforementioned logging, fishing and skiing industries going through a sinking spell, tourism will be the big industry in the state's future.

(An aside: State economic officials are rightfully trying to develop high-tech and life-science industries, but convincing companies to skip the Boston market to come to Maine is a tough chore to accomplish.)

- Susan Collins has been more visible in the past six months than in all her years in the Senate.

As a Republican, she is fighting for her life to be seen as a moderate as she prepares to face tough Democrat Tom Allen.

On Iraq, especially, she is publically breaking with President Bush on the future course of the occupation.

Both national parties would love to land this seat in 2008.

In a subtext that doesn't matter but about which I muse is that Collins appears to be a "true" Mainer with modest academic credentials and a tepid political resume.

Allen, meanwhile, is a Harvard product, a former Portland mayor and an ambitious politico who has been waiting in the bushes for a decade to run for higher office.

I suppose I should have a "cabin country scorecard" against which to judge the candidates.

And maybe I will, for I certainly have time to develop one. Despite all the positioning, the election is almost two years away!

E-mail this entry to a friend