Journal of a Sabbatical

July 24, 2000

continue to continue to continue to pretend
that life will never end and flowers never bend with the rainfall

Today's Reading: Cape Cod by Henry D. Thoreau

Today's Starting Pitcher: Tomo Ohka

Saturday: Work all day on the MRFRS volunteer newsletter, but fail to finish it. Little finger and adjacent finger on right hand begin to go numb. Thumb joint begins to hurt. Stop working on newsletter. Make airline reservations for China trip and inform Zsolt of same. Oddly, JAL only wants 65,000 frequent flyer miles for Boston to Beijing coach ticket while British Airways wants 130,000. Since I only have 128,000, choice is a no-brainer. Shower, change clothes, drive to Providence. Encounter humungous traffic jam in the greater Foxboro area due to 'N Sync concert. SUV-loads of girls wave "Honk if you love 'N Sync" signs at all all cars stuck in traffic. Many vehicles are adorned with photos of the 'N Sync boys. I resist urge to roll down the windows and start singing "Bye, Bye, Bye". Finally arrive Providence only 10 minutes later than planned despite 'N Sync traffic. Nancy and her parents are waiting in her Dad's car in front of house. After a full day of celebrating said Dad's birthday in Quincy with the rest of the family, they are now ready for more partying. You don't turn 79 every day. Dinner at Gourmet House, our favorite restaurant. Nancy's parents have never experienced crispy yellow noodles before. They are impressed. Ice cream at Maximilian's, home of best French Custard Vanilla on the planet. I am too full of crispy yellow noodles to finish even the small single scoop of French Custard Vanilla. Nancy wants to show parents some of the 28 artistic renderings of Mister Potato Head throughout the state of Rhode Island. I point out that the potato heads are not lit up at night and it is now dark. Parents retire to motel in Pawtucket without seeing potato heads. We urge them to visit Slater Mill in the morning before they leave Pawtucket for New Jersey.

Sunday: After not sleeping for most of the night, no known reason, I have to get up and deck myself out for Nancy's friend Susan's wedding at Blithewold. Coffee and a bagel at 729 Hope doesn't really wake me up but I manage to get us to the wedding on time. As we are not the ones being married, being on time doesn't matter much :-) The wedding is fun and Blithewold is gorgeous. I love Blithewold anyway in all seasons. It's perfect for a wedding. The happy couple leave by boat from the old crumbling dock where Nancy and I like to sit in the winter watching the ducks. We blow bubbles as they walk down the expansive lawn to the boat house dressed in matching khaki shorts and blue golf shirts. Best going away outfits I've ever seen at a wedding. Second marriages give you a little more freedom to be creative I guess. The mood is totally joyful. Afterwards, Nancy and I stop for iced chai at the Barrington Starbucks, where Nancy points out that I seem to have finally come to terms with Starbucks' buying out the Coffee Connection. I point out that while this is partly true, if the Center Cafe had iced chai I probably would have gone there instead. Must defend myself against possible total sellout to the man. Dinner later at Taste of India. Sublime as usual. They have new water glasses and new table cloths. We notice this right away and comment to the waiter. Our world is subtly altered.

About those Potato Heads: It's a trade, tourism, and convention promotion thing from RIEDC. Check out photos of all 28 of them and vote for your favorite at oso.com. Why Mr. Potato Head you might ask? Mr. Potato Head was born in 1952 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (home of Hasbro - his creators) and continues to entertain folks all over the world even in this age of Pokemon and Stone Cold Steve Austin, not to mention 'N Sync.

No sumo: I feel way better about missing this year's Black Ships Festival so we could go to the wedding (vastly more important in the human scheme of things anyway) now that I've found out there was no sumo this year. No sumo! How can you have a festival of Japanese culture without sumo? Of course, they never have Gojira movies, anime, or vending machines either, so it's not fully representative of Japanese culture anyway. But where will I get my annual sumo fix this year?

Apropos of nothing: It occurs to me that, although I mention deet repeatedly in this journal, I never added it to my glossary. Don't need to. It's got it's own home page. A chemical has a home page? Check it out. It's even got a little animated bug repellent bottle and stuff. Being deet's home page, it doesn't go into health risks from using deet, just health risks from mosquitoes and ticks. And it doesn't claim to repel greenheads.

And another thing: I hardly ever check the hit stats on my site. For some reason, today I did. The 1996 sumo pictures are still the most popular thing on the site. The Plum Island page and the piping plover page both get way more hits than the journal. I suppose I should get one of those hit analyzer packages and become more conscious of hits. Or not.

And lastly: Pedro Martinez had 15 strikeouts yesterday. Tomo Ohka has already given up 4 runs tonight as I write this. And I continue to be wicked tired.