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Journal of a Sabbatical |
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March 28, 2001 |
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whatever happened to the infantry? |
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Today's
Bird Sightings: Today's Reading: A Visit to India, China, and Japan in the Year 1853 by Bayard Taylor Plum Island Bird List |
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Today's Naval Discussion Topic: Land attack destroyers Today's New Cats: Mia and Opal Today's Addition to Bird List: green-winged teal Today's Cute Sandy Pose: Rolling over in the laundry room sunshine
For once I'm here before Roy. In fact, I think I'm here before myself. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and could not get back to sleep but seem to need every last drop of Perfecto's dark roast of the day (Vienna, I think) to be able to act like I'm awake. At least I'm getting a head start on the dishes. Sandy, who's been sunning himself on the laundry room floor and ignoring the yellow bucket altogether, jumps up and runs to the door the instant Roy arrives. He's crazy about Roy and finds watching Roy do whatever he's doing a thrill second only to eating donuts. Of course, Roy has brought a few pieces of a a plain donut to share with Sandy this morning. Before you know it, Sandy is back on top of the bucket licking up donut crumbs and Bandit is off loving up somebody else. As usual, Miss Newburyport sleeps through all this with one eye open. I've gotta learn her secret.
There's not a lot of new kitties because we've got a URI going around. Poor sneezy, watery-eyed, runny nose kitties in the sick room. Anyway, Mia is new. She's a real lap cat who just loves attention. She's also the darkest orange female I've ever seen. This sparks discussion of how come Americans call this color cat orange and the Brits call it ginger and why the Brits all name their ginger cats Marmalade if they don't name them Ginger. Roy calls Sandy Ginger half the time anyway. He likes to make up his own names for the cats. Cynthia didn't hear any of this discussion and suggests we name an orange cat Marmalade. We all crack up. Stormy has moved into the office by herself and has undergone a complete personality change. She's much less stressed and hostile away from the other cats. Methinks Stormy would appreciate a one cat household. She's rolling over for me while I'm trying to set up email on this dusty laptop hidden under a bunch of other stuff. I thought this was going to be easy. Nope. I set everything up in Outlook Express (which is the only thing that was on there - should've brought a copy of Eudora with me) and go to dial up the ISP. Hmm, this isn't plugged in to a phone line. Hmm, there's no phone cord. Hmmm, I dash to the hardware store down the street - the one that advertises "Open 7 Days Including Sunday" ... like what does that mean?... - and buy a phone cord. Hmm, where's the modem port? I poke and prod and don't find it. The office is a madhouse and the phone is constantly in use anyway so I decide to take the dusty laptop home with me where I have phone cords and a Eudora 5.0 CD and other useful stuff. I'm passing this PC repair place on my
way to Fowle's to get some revivifying coffee to wake me up
right now plus another half pound of French Roast for the
upcoming flood part deux. Hmm. I pull into the parking lot
and haul the dusty laptop into the repair place. I wait
around while he's serving another customer. Finally he asks
if I need something. I ask how much he charges for a stupid
question. He says there's no stupid question and I can ask a
question for free. So like is there a modem port on this
thing and if so where is it? He pokes and prods and finally
the little modem thingie pops out. He says that's all I get
for free. I tell him that's all I need. Guess it just needed
expert poking to get the popup thingie to popup. I drink the coffee at the boat ramp while watching buffleheads and goldeneyes having a grand old time trying to impress other buffleheads and goldeneyes. By the time I get to the refuge I'm really too tired to do serious birding and besides that there are tons of people here. I gamely try to find some interesting birds but mostly it's the usual suspects and I'm worried about getting the dusty laptop working and finishing the minutes of the last board meeting and Saturday's half day meeting in time for tonight's board meeting so I pack it in after spotting the most gorgeous gaggle of green-winged teal males in full breeding colors. On the way out, there's a car stopped in the middle of the road with its 4-way flashers on. This usually means a "good bird". I whip out the binoculars expecting maybe the short-eared owl or something. Nope. It's a deer. She's beautiful and makes the drab brown landscape almost idyllic just by standing there grazing. Finally the car moves on, unblocking the road and I head on home. I didn't quite leave myself enough time to shower, change, eat supper, finish the minutes and get back to the board meeting by 6:00. So I skip supper. I'm so tired I start to fall asleep in the board meeting when the FurBall committee is discussing tiny quiches. When the meeting's finally over somebody mentions my sleepiness and I tell them I woke up at 4:30 AM and couldn't go back to sleep. Two people on the Feral Committee say "Me too!" They however seem to be able to continue to function. Maybe that dust on the laptop is some kind of fairy dust. |
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Copyright © 2001, Janet I. Egan |
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Today's
Lord of the Yellow Bucket: Bandit
Don't
think I've ever seen Bandit on the yellow bucket before, but
there he is purring up a storm, head-butting me when I come
in, and demanding all the attention I have to give. Never
mind the dishes, never mind the laundry, never mind the
laptop, pet me, pet me, pet me. After an hour of cuddling
with the demented orange boss of me (that would be Wilbur)
at home, do I have enough lovies left for Bandit's outsized
needs? Guess so. I pet and I pet and I pet some more with
one hand as I finish off the coffee I picked up at
Perfecto's on the way.
Roy
asks Bob if he saw the thing on the news about the new type
of destroyer called a land attack destroyer. They fire guns
that can strike 150 miles inland from out there on the
water. Bob wants to know what the Navy is doing fighting on
land. Good question. They discuss this for awhile but I'm
not really following it until I hear the line "Whatever
happened to the infantry?" I get this weird picture in my
head of ships rising up out of the water and swarming onto
land sort of like when our primitive fish ancestors became
land animals. The destroyers are growing legs, and lungs,
and marching on Belgrade or Pristina, which are quite far
from the sea. But if we ever need to invade the Riviera or
Salisbury Beach... Man, what happened to the naval brownie
recipes?