Journal of a Sabbatical

March 26, 2001

water receding

Today's Bird Sightings:
I-93 & I-495:
great blue heron (5)
Out my Window:
great blue heron (1)

Today's Reading: A Visit to India, China, and Japan in the Year 1853 by Bayard Taylor, Stabilization of Coastal Dunes by Ann Olafson, A Guide to Dune Stabilization by Mike Magnifico, Mass. DEM

Sunday's Eagle Tribune Flood Coverage

Today's Eagle Tribune Flood Coverage

All people seem to want to talk about is water. The rest of the world is getting on with their lives while we wait for the water to recede. Receding it is. Rt. 28 a.k.a. North Main St. is now open again. A whole block of houses is cordoned off with yellow caution tape and the sound of pumps is everywhere. I took a few pictures this afternoon in the same areas as Saturday's.

It's gotten really overcast and dark since this morning. Snow is supposed to start mid-afternoon but as of 2:33 PM it's not doing anything except getting darker.

Evidently there is some mass movement of great blue herons going on today.

Driving home from returning the extra parallel PC file transfer cable (the box for Aloha Bob's PC to PC transfer software didn't mentiont there was already a cable in it) to CompUSA, I saw a flock of five great blue herons circling over the intersection of I-93 and 495. They circled around a bit and then all landed on the tops of some trees just west of I-93. It was weird.

Just before the snow finally started around 4:00 PM a great blue heron flew right by my window. That's almost, but not quite, as weird as the time turkey vultures descended on the parking lot, but it is fairly strange for a great blue to be this close to my hovel (er, condominium). It must have been heading for that little pond behind the hardware store, which is normally the closest it gets to my place.

The snowstorm was supposed to be fast moving, dumping an inch of snow quickly and then departing, but it's still snowing as of 9:40 PM. Not accumulating much though.

I don't have even an inkling of a hint of spring fever. Spring? What's that? The way too much snow turns into way too much water and the sky stays gray and I forget what daffodils look like. I'm beginning to feel battered by the weather even when the weather isn't behaving badly. It was the looks on people's faces in Starbucks when one of the baristas said she heard on the radio that it's going to rain on Friday that said it all. Numb and stricken all at the same time.