Journal of a Sabbatical

November 11, 2000

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Today's Reading: Circling the Sacred Mountain by Robert Thurman and Tad Wise,Autumn from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake

Somebody came to pick up one of the kids in the Russian boy's band at 2:00 this morning. Whoever it was could not be bothered to go knock on the Russian parking space blockers' door, but instead sat in the car honking the horn right underneath my window until the kid finally appeared. One honk and I was awake. Two honks and I was looking out the window to see what on earth was going on - with my heart pounding in that weird fear you get when awakened suddenly out of a sound sleep. By the fifth or sixth honk I was wide awake and unable to go back to sleep. I picked up Circling the Sacred Mountain and read for awhile until I finally went back to sleep at about 6:00.

Imagine my surprise when the alarm went off at 6:30! I vaguely remember getting up to go to the bathroom then sitting down on the edge of the bed. Next thing I knew it was 8:00! Uh oh! Claire's picking me up at 8:30 for the North Conway trip!

Somehow I managed to shower, finish packing, make a pot of coffee and some toast, and put the coffee in a travel mug. I was putting the toast in a plastic bag with some cherry tomatoes and cheese for a breakfast to go, when Claire pulled in to the parking lot. We picked up Joan-east and then Rita. I munched my toast, cheese, and tomatoes in the car. I sucked on the coffee until well past Plaistow on Rt. 125. The whole drive north I fantasized about going back to sleep as soon as we got there.

By the time we got up there, picked out the traditional chick flick video to watch tonight, made and ate lunch I revived. Also, it was no longer raining. In fact it looked like the deluge that we left behind in the Andovers hadn't made it to North Conway. The sky was still pretty gray but little patches of lighter clouds were beginning to appear. Thus saved from the shop-til-you-drop alternative, we got in our walk.

Because of the changeable weather and Rita's knee, we chose a path that goes around the North Conway country club, which is closed for the season. The scenery is spectacular. I can't imagine how Rita and Charlie, or for that matter any of the people who play golf there, concentrate on their swing with the beautiful views from every tee.

A few maple trees still have yellow leaves clinging to them. The poison ivy is still brilliant red. Even some of the sumacs still have leaves faded to a pale red-orange. Probably the most beautiful tree on the golf course was a tamarack tree whose needles have all turned golden but haven't fallen off yet. The walking buddies asked me if it was dead. Dead? Nope. I explained that some conifers lose their needles in the autumn just like other deciduous trees. And the needles turn this beautiful golden color first. Suddenly I became the fount of all knowledge about plants, conifers or not. Remarkably, I was able to identify most of the things they asked about (like sumac) and only stumbled on one I should have known - one of the zillions of species of blueberry/bilberry type bushes that grow in New England. So I must be retaining more than I thought. Maybe there's hope yet that I can learn the names of New England's plants.

It took us about an hour to circumabulate the golf course, then since we were already in the downtown, we visited some of the shops we traditionally go to like Zeb's General Store , the lace store, the North Conway Five and Ten, and of course the toy store. We spent a long time at the toy store where Rita was picking out Xmas gifts for the grandchildren. As Claire and I were looking at the Beanie Baby selection, one of the store employees came to restock the shelves of Righty 2000 and Lefty 2000 (that's a red white and blue Republican elephant and a red white and blue Democratic donkey). She told us that Lefty was far outselling Righty! I joked that Gore was leading in the Beanie Baby count, which cracked up Claire, the shelf re-stocker, and the cashier. We talked a little bit about the ongoing recount, and the cashier mentioned how lucky we are that the American system works and does not plunge us into leaderless chaos when we have a close election. I joked "Yeah, at least we don't have tanks in the streets." The shelf-restocker told us she had a moment of doubt this morning when she saw a tank rolling down Main street. Then she realized the tank was in the Veterans' Day parade! Not that the military takeover would be likely to start in North Conway... :-)

Back at the ski condo, Rita made her trademark pesto sauce for the pasta (it's very green as it contains parsley and spinach too - delicious). After dinner we watched Hanging Up, a movie about three sisters whose father is dying. Odd theme for a comedy, but it's VERY funny. Walter Matthau is a scream as the father. Diane Keaton is the self-involved oldest sister (she's runs a magazine that is named for her). Meg Ryan is the overwhelmed caretaker help everybody sister, and Lisa Kudrow is the sister whose primary relationship is either with her dog or with the character she plays on a soap opera. All three sisters walk around with their cell phones all the time. Everything important transpires over the cell phones. There's also a hilarious subplot involving the Nixon library. We all decided we liked the movie and none of us fell asleep (last time we rented a Kevin Costner movie that put us to sleep and made us seasick (Message in a Bottle)).