Yep, id that. PERSIST = True. Here is an exert from the log:
2014-09-18 12:18:39.247856 Loading shares...
2014-09-18 12:18:39.248590 ...done loading 0 shares (0 verified)!
2014-09-18 12:18:39.248912
2014-09-18 12:18:39.249201 Initializing work...
2014-09-18 12:18:39.348426 ...success!
2014-09-18 12:18:39.348967
2014-09-18 12:18:39.349484 Joining P2Pool network using port 10555...
2014-09-18 12:18:39.378120 ...success!
2014-09-18 12:18:39.378794
2014-09-18 12:18:39.380525 Listening for workers on '' port 10554...
2014-09-18 12:18:39.392583 ...success!
2014-09-18 12:18:39.393179
2014-09-18 12:18:39.393579 Started successfully!
2014-09-18 12:18:39.393984 Go to http://127.0.0.1:10554/ to view graphs and statistics!
2014-09-18 12:18:39.394453 Donating 0.0% of work towards the NeoScrypt development :(
2014-09-18 12:18:39.394812
2014-09-18 12:18:39.401381 Outgoing connection to peer 162.217.250.224:10555 established. p2pool version: 1300 '13.4-53-gdd55fa7-dirty'
2014-09-18 12:18:42.395641 P2Pool: 0 shares in chain (0 verified/1 total) Peers: 1 (0 incoming)
2014-09-18 12:18:42.396364 Local: 0H/s in last 0.0 seconds Local dead on arrival: ??? Expected time to share: ???
2014-09-18 12:18:44.774816 Incoming connection to peer 95.85.57.10:41458 established. p2pool version: 1300 '13.4-22-g0c7c431-dirty'
2014-09-18 12:18:45.397174 P2Pool: 0 shares in chain (0 verified/3 total) Peers: 2 (1 incoming)
2014-09-18 12:18:45.397358 Local: 0H/s in last 0.0 seconds Local dead on arrival: ??? Expected time to share: ???
2014-09-18 12:18:47.727850 Incoming connection to peer 95.133.102.185:55690 established. p2pool version: 1300 '13.4-53-gdd55fa7-dirty'
2014-09-18 12:18:48.397701 P2Pool: 0 shares in chain (0 verified/3 total) Peers: 3 (2 incoming)
2014-09-18 12:18:48.398471 Local: 0H/s in last 0.0 seconds Local dead on arrival: ??? Expected time to share: ???
2014-09-18 12:18:48.555249 Outgoing connection to peer 115.28.24.213:11555 established. p2pool version: 1300 '13.4-32-gf3abd63-dirty'
2014-09-18 12:18:50.163271 Outgoing connection to peer 107.161.164.223:10555 established. p2pool version: 1300 '13.4-53-gdd55fa7-dirty'
2014-09-18 12:18:51.399398 P2Pool: 0 shares in chain (0 verified/3 total) Peers: 5 (2 incoming)
2014-09-18 12:18:51.399588 Local: 0H/s in last 0.0 seconds Local dead on arrival: ??? Expected time to share: ???
2014-09-18 12:18:52.412369 Incoming connection to peer 46.4.0.101:57470 established. p2pool version: 1300 '5b90f6c'
2014-09-18 12:18:54.399976 P2Pool: 0 shares in chain (0 verified/3 total) Peers: 6 (3 incoming)
2014-09-18 12:18:54.400492 Local: 0H/s in last 0.0 seconds Local dead on arrival: ??? Expected time to share: ???
2014-09-18 12:19:00.401199 P2Pool: 0 shares in chain (0 verified/4 total) Peers: 6 (3 incoming)
2014-09-18 12:19:00.401803 Local: 0H/s in last 0.0 seconds Local dead on arrival: ??? Expected time to share: ???
2014-09-18 12:19:08.525252 Incoming connection to peer 217.253.113.14:63158 established. p2pool version: 1300 '13.4-31-g47a6475-dirty'
2014-09-18 12:19:09.403070 P2Pool: 0 shares in chain (0 verified/4 total) Peers: 7 (4 incoming)
2014-09-18 12:19:09.403688 Local: 0H/s in last 0.0 seconds Local dead on arrival: ??? Expected time to share: ???