Journal of a Sabbatical

March 14, 1999

coots

March 14, 1999

Turner Reservoir
24 coots
60 Canada geese
2 mute swans
80 ring billed gulls
50 mallards
3 domestic ducks
38 common mergansers
4 great cormorants
1 northern mockingbird
15 ruddy ducks
5 canvasbacks
12 domestic geese
Bullock's Point
12 monk parakeets
Watchemoket Cove
38 mute swans
2 domestic geese
75 Canada geese
6 common goldeneye
12 mallards
1 red breasted merganser
1 American crow
1 herring gull
hordes of ring billed gulls

Where did the expression "dumb as a coot" come from? Coots don't seem to me to be noticeably dumber than other birds, and besides that they can walk on water. Actually they run on water. The coots at Turner Reservoir are pretty tame - not that they eat out of your hand or anything, but they do hang around where people feed the tame ducks and geese - so I got to watch their walk on water act up close this afternoon. I'm not quite sure why they don't sink. It must have something to do with those weird lobed feet. They're a trip to watch.

Why are there so many feral domestic geese? And why do they all gather at the Turner Reservoir? There's a flock of about a dozen who all hang out together. They regard all cars that stop near the reservoir as sources of food. Nancy loves geese, so we stopped to look at them. They surrounded the car. I couldn't back up or go forward or get out of the car. I thought they were going to start pecking the windows any minute. Fortunately a car with actual breaders appeared further down the road and they walked over to it and left us alone.

Why is it still snowing? We're having this strange compressed late winter this year. After walking around in shirt sleeves in February it is disorienting to be shoveling snow in March. What is up with that groundhog anyway? Why, he's no better than the local tv weatherman. Spring is like, umm, next week. Maybe we have to get it all in by then.

The flower show opened yesterday. I'd like to go tomorrow but the weathermen are predicting a huge storm. Maybe I should put it off. Between the flower show, the NCAA March madness at the Fleet Center, and the St. Patrick's Day parade, not to mention the snow, driving in Boston this weekend makes no sense. This is when having a whole other life in Providence makes sense.

What's this about Fleet buying BankBoston? I just got through with BankBoston messing up my credit cards when they took over BayBank. This is even less fun than a new area code (oh, yeah, we just got a new area code and they're saying we're about to change again). Will it be fun to be a customer of the 8th largest bank in the country? How messed up will my account get? Will I have to get new checks? I could easily become one of those little old ladies who hates change and keeps her money in the mattress.