Journal of a Sabbatical

August 6, 2000

gizmo redux

Today's Reading: Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit

Nancy and I are at the cove setting up the gizmo, as I've taken to calling the Nikon Field Image System, and trying to get something - a goose, a mallard, an egret, a tanker in the harbor, anything - in focus to determine whether the gizmo actually works for the purpose for which I bought it. We've gotten up early and breakfasted on bagels and coffee from Ruben's Deli instead of a nice Sunday brunch out so we can try out the gizmo before I drive up to Groton for Elizabeth's birthday party. I just get the brick wall of the sewage plant in focus as a test when the beeper goes off. I resist the urge to growl. I take the gizmo apart again and drive Nancy home.

While she's dealing with this morning's unwell, I take off again for another cup of coffee at 729. (Actually it's not the unwell it's an intra-agency communication snafu.) I like 729's coffee way better than Ruben's. I come back with a giant corn muffin to share with Nancy when she gets off the phone. I hang around longer than I meant to expressing frustration with both how difficult the gizmo is to use and how we keep getting interrupted by the unwell or the servants of the unwell.

At least the sun is still out. The family gathering in the back yard is remarkably mosquito-less. This is good as I'm running low on deet. It's pretty quiet as family gatherings go.

Elizabeth is 12. Practically an adult. She's getting acne already. Adolescence begins. It was a challenge for me to pick out a gift that was grown up enough for a 12-year old yet not too grown up, and girlie enough for a femme but not so girlie it would make feminists nauseous. She likes jewelry and has a thing for butterflies, so I picked out a beautiful silver necklace with a tiny silver butterfly on it at Oop! in Providence. A purple pen shaped like a dragonfly (she also has a thing for dragonflies) adds a little humor when I slip it through the ribbon on the necklace box. Ah, relief. She likes it.

I set up the gizmo in Kevin's yard to get input from the sophisticated engineering minds present at the gathering. We get it focused on the bird feeders. Not a single black capped chickadee shows up. No downy woodpeckers or chipping sparrows or even blue jays. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. But if there were a bird at the feeders, we'd have a really good view. I feel vaguely better about the gizmo.

Back home I research alternative glare screens and hoods for the gizmo's monitor, and search for a user group BBS or something. Nikon's own web site doesn't even have the gizmo listed, never mind any FAQs or user BBSs or anything. I poke around until past my bed time. In desperation, I write a long email full of questions to the support people at Eagle Optics.

I watch the rain float in the beam of the streetlight and wonder how the kids got to be this grown up already.