Journal of a Sabbatical

March 2, 2001

half price

Today's Reading: Kossuth in New England edited by Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Boy Travellers in Central Europe by Thomas W. Knox

After another insanely productive morning, my day sort of gradually unraveled into a meandering digression from whatever my real agenda is. Having used the last of the Fowle's coffee from my freezer for breakfast this morning, I decided a short trip to Newburyport was in order. It was snowing a little here, those big sparkly flurries that never amount to anything. I took 133 to 1 instead of 495 to 110 for the leisurely pace and scenery. The closer I got to the coast, the wetter and thicker the snow became. No more sparkly flurries; it's a snowstorm.

Undaunted, though slowed down a little, I stopped at The Tannery Cafe for a veggie burger and then a browse at Jabberwocky, suddenly feeling liberated from all the undone chores and under the illusion I had all afternoon to goof off. I was going to check out the clearance sale at Catch of the Day (not a fish market, a tea room and interior design store) afterward. Between the time I entered The Tannery and the time I emerged into the parking lot again, Catch of the Day had locked up and put a note on the door that read "Closed. Snow." Gee, I didn't think this was going to be a big storm. Then I noticed how much snow had accumulated on my car, fished the brush out of the trunk, and cleared it off.

Plenty of parking on State Street. The snow emergency light wasn't flashing but nobody was parking there anyway. Getting myself somewhat more on task, I went directly to Fowle's and ordered a half pound of French Roast ground for a flat filter, shelled out my five bucks, and started back to the car. The siren song of used books drifted across the street. Olde Port Book Shop is closing in a couple of weeks. Everything is half price now. I decided to stop in to say hello to Domino and Person of Domino and see if maybe there was some book I just had to have that I've been missing all this time.

As I was browsing the local history section, the woman at the cash register (wife of Person of Domino? employee of Person of Domino?) asked "Are you aware that everything is half price? Half price shop closing sale?" Me: "Yes, and I'm in serious mourning about it." Her: "A lot of people are saying that. If I had a nickel for everyone who said that today..." She didn't finish the sentence and I didn't want to feel guilty for not having spent the nickel that would have kept it there. Instead I told her how the used bookshops in Budapest were jam-packed with people when I was there - um that was just earlier this week. She said something about how we don't appreciate what we have here... is she bound and determined to make me feel personally responsible for keeping Olde Port in business? Heaven knows I have spent way more of my sabbatical nest egg there than I should have . I did keep the place in business fer cryin' out loud.

Downstairs I browse in peace. Domino looks at me out of one eye from her perch on a stool in the middle of the room. She's practicing that Miss Newburyport trick of sleeping on full alert. I guess there are no more John Marquand novels that Domino thinks I need because she doesn't get up. I pet her for awhile then continue browsing. In the kids' section, The Boy Travellers in Central Europe, which I've browsed and failed to buy at least a dozen times, is still here. At half price the fact that the section on Budapest is tiny seems like less of a drawback.

Back upstairs in the local history session, a collection of poetry by B.W. Ball whose muse was the Merrimack River beckons. It's not really very good poetry, but it is about the Merrimack and it belongs in any complete collection of the literature of the Merrimack River. It's so bad it's entertaining. At half price the strained metaphors seem like less of a drawback.

So I leave Olde Port with two more books.