Journal of a Sabbatical

March 29, 2001

how much are you supposed to tip your used book dealer?

Quote of the Day: "RENEWED FLOODING IS POSSIBLE ON RIVERS AND STREAMS FRIDAY" -- The National Weather Service

Relevant hydrographs:

Shawsheen River - updated every 4 hours

Merrimack River

Concord River -- at the gage closest to Andover

Today's Reading: A Visit to India, China, and Japan in the Year 1853 by Bayard Taylor

Sleep interrupted at 9:45 AM by phone call from Ned: "I saw lots of fire engines at Tom's house yesterday but the house wasn't in flames. Some fire guy was coming out of the basement. Do you know anything about this?" Me: "Huh?" Ned: "Did I wake you up?" Me, deeply embarrassed,: "Uhhuh." I communicate haltingly that I don't know anything and I really need some coffee so suggest Ned call Tom to find out if Tom OK.

After coffee I call Ned back and leave voice mail that Tom lives on 2nd and 3rd floors so if crisis was in the basement it was probably not Tom having a heart attack. I finish breakfast and go to fetch laundry. Laundry closed without explanation. Oops.

I install Eudora on the dusty laptop and discover my ISP is not answering the phone. So much for testing out dusty laptop and for that matter uploading yesterday's journal entry. Grumble. Must be time for more coffee and perhaps some human contact other than sleeptalking.

Dan and Geri and George are at Starbucks when I get there. This is fortuitous as I have a story to tell Dan.

There's this weird woman who comes into Starbucks sometimes, the one who thinks I'm married to Queen Isabella (who is so flamingly queenly that we make quite a pair - I suppose I could be the butch and he the femme), and she now works in the bread department at Wild Oats. So on Tuesday I went to score some Iggy's 7 Grain bread, hard to come by in these parts as it sells out well before noon. The weird woman is on duty in the bread department. She sees me and starts in with a long story:

"I saw your friend the other day he was in here with his grandson and I thought he was [name] and I gave him the evil eye because I hate [name] and what he did ... love-child in Cohasset ... what he did is wrong ... love-child... support .... and I gave him a look because I thought he was [name] and the grandson got scared and ran away..."

I keep asking for Iggy's 7 Grain, sliced please, but am not sure she even hears me.

"You know who I mean the French guy I mean he's French and he won't speak it and his wife is Swiss and lives in the Alps and he was in here with his grandson and I thought he was [name] and I hate [name]...

This goes on until she finally either gets out of breath or notices other people are queued up behind me trying to buy bread. She gives me the last loaf of Iggy's 7 Grain and asks me to apologize to Dan.

So I tell this whole thing to Dan and Geri in my best breathless incoherent babble and have them in stitches. Then we get to the inevitable subject of water and I am loathe to admit that I have not looked at my basement. I know I need to swab down the walls with bleach, but if more flooding is coming on Friday it seems pointless to do anything now. I hate the smell of bleach... Dan suggests diluting it...

So, do I go buy bleach or groceries in preparation? Nope. I got to David Bookstore's place and browse the used books while engaging in witty banter with David. Everything is all crowded into the ground floor because the lower floor flooded. He saved all the books and managed to convince a plumber to elevate him from 25th on the list for a second pump to first thus saving everything. Must be a book-loving plumber. He's not daring to put anything back down there because the flood warnings are still out and the forecast for tomorrow is for WAY more rain.

I spot a copy of Oliver Wendell Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, which Nancy has been wanting, and a beautiful illustrated edition of Whittier's poems (laugh at me if you must, Whittier is much more worthwhile than you think), and strange little book called Fast in the Ice, which seems to be a fictionalized account of the Franklin expedition. Yessirree, stock up on them thar used books before the next storm, before the stock market totally crashes and I have to sell books instead of buying them and have to get a real job and and and... maybe I could get a job in the bread department at Wild Oats and harass Dan's grandson... I put this all on my credit card and David jokes that he assumes I don't want to add a tip. Hmm, how much are you supposed to tip your used book dealer? He says a really wealthy guy tipped him $50 bucks at Xmas. I tell him I gave Phil a photo of Domino but that doesn't count as a tip exactly... and we wish each other luck in the upcoming flood.

Thus spake the National Weather Service:

RAINFALL OF 1 TO 3 INCHES IS FORECAST FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY THROUGHOUT THE REGION...WITH AMOUNTS OF 4 OR PERHAPS EVEN 5 INCHES POSSIBLE IN RHODE ISLAND AND EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS.

IF THIS AMOUNT OF RAIN MATERIALIZES...IT WILL CAUSE RENEWED RISES ON RIVERS AND STREAMS STARTING FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND CONTINUING THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

and thus also and of most interest in my narrow little world:

THE GREATEST THREAT FOR FLOODING IS IN THE MERRIMACK VALLEY OF NORTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS AS WELL AS RHODE ISLAND...WHERE RIVER AND STREAM FLOWS REMAIN HIGH.

Forget white bread and batteries, I think this calls for a sump pump and a boat.