Journal of a Sabbatical

January 22, 2001

snow removal: the madness continues

Today's Bird Sightings:
Joppa Flats
snow goose (48)
Canada goose (144)
mallard (22)
great black back gull (1)
herring gull (10)
gulls too far away to identify (approximately 1 zillion)
Plum Island
northern mockingbird (3)
yellow-rumped warbler (10)
fox sparrow (1)
American tree sparrow (1)
northern shrike (1)
herring gull (1)
European starling (50)
American robin (3)
Salisbury Beach
rough-legged hawk (1)
herring gull (36)
American black duck (5)
dark-eyed junco (10)
ring-billed gull (2)
great black back gull (1)
northern harrier (1)
Mammals:
harbor seal (31)

Today's Reading: John Greenleaf Whittier: Life and Letters by Samuel T. Pickard

Steeple by starlight. I took this from the parking lot behind Roy's church in downtown Newburyport just at dark when the lights in the steeple came on. The sky was so clear that the stars gleamed. It sure has been nice to have clear skies today.

When I got home last night, the Russian Parking Space Blocker told me I had missed a big mess here with yesterday's storm. I told him I was glad I had missed it. He had shoveled access to my back walk through the snow bank the plow left, for which I was grateful. Even though the parking lot has been plowed, there seems to be a lot less room for cars. You can only push the snow so far, eventually you have to move it somewhere else so I figured the plowing company would come by with a front end loader today for that purpose.

This morning when I looked out the window, all the cars except mine and the one parked opposite mine were gone and Busy Body was scraping the parking lot down to bare pavement with a shovel. I could not figure out why she felt she needed to do this as the sun was out and the thin layer of snow would have melted by noontime anyway. As she moved closer and closer to my unit with her shovel I got kind of panicky. I felt like I should move my car so she could scrape near it, or I would be in some kind of unnamed trouble if I didn't. I tried to ignore her and work on the newsletter as planned but I kept jumping up to see if I needed to do anything yet.

A front end loader finally did arrive to clear the parking lot. I pulled on a sweatshirt and jeans and ran outside to move the car. I thought I had sneaked into my car so that Busy Body wouldn't see me. In fact, I thought she had gone indoors. I started backing out of my space, trying to avoid the front end loader when I noticed Busy Body standing in front of my car. I couldn't drive forward because she was standing there with her hand up like a traffic cop. I couldn't back up because the front end loader was behind me. I opened my window and inquired "What?" She proceeded to give me detailed instructions on where to park. I just answered an short "yup" and got busy turning again. She stood there directing me this way and that but I ignored her directions. The front end loader is a lot bigger and more dangerous and has less visibility so I figured I'd best pay attention to it.

Having no intention of doing what she ordered, I took off for parts unknown to do a few errands. My thought was that I could just drive around for awhile and then go back to my space. Wrong. I completed my errands and the front end loader was still working on the parking lot. I parked on the street and walked back toward my unit. Busy Body materialized in front of me with a shovel and proceeded to talk me ear off and give me incomprehensible instructions, to all of which I simply replied "yup" while looking at my shoes. I avoided all eye contact and tried to back away toward my unit. She followed me.

Finally I reacted and responded to her when she brought up the fact that her son was going skiing in Utah and he's some big muck-a-muck who does some kind of computer training thing that he was going to a conference about out there. I blurted out "Why don't you go with him?" I got treated to the whole history of skiing in her family and how I am young and therefore I should be going skiing (right, with my knee?) and anyway she gets enough exercise shoveling the parking lot (which she does not need to be doing). I realized my mistake and went back to looking at my shoes, nodding, and mumbling "yup" as I backed toward my door.

Once I escaped to the safety of my own home, I was too anxious to do any work. I felt exposed. I was convinced she was watching me (she does watch me actually a lot of the time.) I couldn't just stay here. I packed up my binoculars, bird book, notebooks, and my Whittier biography and sneaked back to the car while she was briefly indoors and then just drove along the Merrimack and up the coast.

I finally calmed down enough to have a good time birding at Plum Island and Salisbury Beach and then enjoyed the drive up to Odiorne Point, which was just gorgeous in today's glorious light. I visited the Seacoast Science Center where I bought my 2001 Tidelog and a book on winter botany as well as enjoying the exhibits and the view.

After my New Hampshire seacoast adventure, I drove back to Newburyport and took myself out to dinner at Ciro's. I was in the mood for eggplant parmesan and they do it well. I propped up the Whittier biography in front of me and read pages and pages while I ate. The waiter knew who Whittier was and that he had lived in Amesbury so seemed pleased I was being so regional. By the time I finished dinner it was just getting dark so I knew Busy Body would be indoors unless it was snowing, which it wasn't. When I got back to my car I noticed how wonderful the church steeple looked with the lights on and one bright star twinkling above it. I dug the camera out of my bag and snapped the picture figuring Roy would get a kick out of it.

Busy Body left me alone the rest of the evening and I've started to settle in to the peaceful enjoyment of my premises again.