Previous Entry
Previous Plover Warden Entry
July 1
bird list:
2 great black backed gulls
11 ringbilled gulls
1 double crested cormorant
2 common terns
1 purple martin
butterfly list:
1 monarch
other:
1 Hood blimp
July 2
bird list:
11 ringbilled gulls
2 double crested cormorants
2 common terns
1 herring gull
2 purple martins
1 great black backed gull
x
x
x
now
I'm sitting here after supper with the window open and a light rain falling outside. We are supposed to get more thunderstorms tonight but nobody quite believes the forecast. The number of truly terrifying thunderstorms we had since my Mac decompensated is amazing. The theme for the summer must be thunder and lightning. It wasn't even lightning that got the Mac though. At least I don't think so.
Monday
It was a humid day, make that a very humid day, and I was rushing to finish up the MRFRS volunteer newsletter. Under the mistaken impression that I was supposed to handle all the printing/copying myself, I tried to save money and time by printing all the copies on my Personal LaserWriter 320. It seemed easy enough: print 60 copies of page 1, stick them back in the cassette, print 60 copies of page 2 on the back. Wrong! The paper kept jamming. Finally the last paper jam wouldn't clear and I also managed to break off the the little plastic paper path switch so the paper would now come out the front instead of the top if any would come out at all. Totally jammed. Nothing helped.
I brought (took?) the printer to CompUSA, put down a deposit on the repairs, and drove over to Charrette with a diskette containing the newsletter. I don't remember what day that was. It was raining. That's no help. That could be any day. Doesn't matter. I sank into gloom when Charrette said the earliest they could promise me the newsletter was Tuesday. I sank further into gloom
now
We interrupt this entry to choke on the fumes of the Beans of Egypt Maine's charcoal grill. How much charcoal lighter does it take? Why is my office filling with the stink of not quite combusted charcoal? Gak. Cough. Choke.
Tuesday
OK, now where was I? It was Tuesday and I was sinking further into gloom as I attempted to send e-mail to Stacy explaining that the newsletter was late because my printer was at CompUSA. The screen froze. Hmm... restart without extensions...it freezes again... and again... and again... can't even start it from the Norton Utilities CD. Something must be wrong. The gloom really deepens. Oh, wait, that's the weather. Man, how could it be so dark in midday? Are we having an eclipse? No, just a thunderstorm. Guilt guilt guilt. I shouldn't have been using the Mac in a thunderstorm or in this humidity (since when is Massachusetts a tropical climate?) or on a Tuesday when I have to get the newsletter out and I have plover warden duty and Mom just called to say we're having dinner with Bobby (yes, he of Bosnia) tonight at the Chateau at 7:30.
So the Mac is obviously doing this because I disconnected the printer, right? Nope. I picked up the printer at Charrette with a note attached to it telling me it doesn't support two-sided printing from the cassette. You're supposed to hand feed each sheet. For 60 copies? No way, Jose! So with the printer under one arm and the box of 60 copies of the newsletter from Charrette under the other arm, I trudged from my car through my back gate suddenly noticing that a green slime is growing on the gate and the fence. Not just mine, everybody's. Not just the fence, the trees and every wooden structure in sight. Bright green tropical slime.
|
|
I brought (took?) the Mac to Computertown (cheaper and closer than CompUSA) wrapped in a plastic garbage bag. I stuffed newsletter envelopes until it was time to drive to the Chateau between thunderstorms. I called in soaked and otherwise engaged to the refuge. I had dinner with the family at the Chateau. Despite my having purchased a brand new roll of film for this occasion, I forgot the camera. Fortunately, I recorded last week's surprise stopover of said Bosnia-denizen at Mom's. Do we look related or what? |
|
|
|
|
Mailed out rest of newsletters. Worked grumpily at cat shelter feeling pressured. Worked non-grumpily at refuge (PM shift 3 to 7) and got to watch immense purple thunderstorm at sea. Lavender lightning and purple clouds. Pretty spooky. Glad I wasn't on a boat. The northernmost part of the refuge has re-opened. The boundary has been moved to just south of Parking Lot 1. Lot 1 is open. The southern boundary has moved to just south of Parking Lot 6. |
The sun came out! The sun came out! Worked the midday shift at the refuge. |
Friday
I have the day off. Nancy has the day off. We should do something, right? Nancy isn't feeling well and I'm pissed off about the computer. After I call to find out if they've looked at it (they haven't) I drive to the Borders in Peabody for a book binge. The binge books: Lawrence Kilham's On Watching Birds and a field guide to Galapagos birds.
now
Gak! What are they cooking out there? I'd close the window but it's hot in here. The Beans' dinner smells like burnt flesh or SPAM.
missing pages
I curled up next to the air conditioner with Lawrence Kilham's On Watching Birds and happily read the first 78 pages. I was deep into a description of the mating behaviors of the common tern - the male was just about to give the female a nice fish from his beak - and blank. The next page was blank. So was its facing page. So were half the pages in the middle third of the book. Why, you might ask, did I not notice this when I browsed the book at Borders? It was shrink wrapped. That'll teach me to buy a shrink wrapped book!
fireworks
My big outing for the 4th of July was the drive to Borders in Peabody to return my defective copy of On Watching Birds . I was actually kind of surprised they were open on the holiday. They didn't have another copy in stock so they had to order one for me.
I drove down to Nancy's the next morning. Fortunately, we got to see some fireworks over the Barrington River the night after the 4th. I spent the night and drove Nancy to work in the morning. Then for some reason instead of going straight home, I drove the extra mile or so to Newport and stopped in at the Armchair Sailor, where I picked up a book I had browsed at a year ago - I think this was the same copy, it looked a little faded - North to Thule. It's a recreation of the voyage journal of the early Greek navigator Pytheas. I've been wanting to read it for awhile, and I figured it would make a nice addition to the library.
topics remaining to be covered
The Morrises have good table manners.
the wrong connector
oh yeah somewhere in there I got the air conditioner up and running again.
x
x
x
x
