Journal of a Sabbatical

April 2, 2001

time begins

Quote of the Day: "Play ball!" -- the last two words of the National Anthem

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

Today's Starting Pitcher:
Pedro Martinez
Red Sox lost 2 to 1 in the 11th

Well, it may not be spring here yet, but time has begun anew as it always does with the start of baseball. The Red Sox lost to the Orioles 2 to 1 in extra innings and without Nomar. Nomar had wrist surgery this morning. Supposedly he'll be out for like 10 weeks. They'd better figure out how to win without him.

Round the old coffee shop, people continue to surface now that the water has mostly receded (Rt. 133 is still closed near the lake). Tom and Julie were there when I got my coffee this afternoon. We caught up on flood survival news. They were without heat for 4 days but played Scrabble under the covers. The historical society escaped major flooding - just a little water in the barn. Thank the higher powers the water never got to the archives. We had a rousing discussion of Oliver Wendell Holmes (the poet/physician not the Supreme Court justice) and his time at Phillips Academy.

Here at the hovel I toyed with the dusty laptop but accomplished nothing, carried the SCSI card to the vicinity of the G4 but did not install it, stared at the beach grass opus but did not finish it, thought about booking a flight to Budapest but didn't, stared at my journal and flunked the comparison to Boswell (pick a Boswell either the Life of Johnson one or the Why Time Begins on Opening Day one)... All of it felt like trying to think through cold molasses. Thick and sticky.

Oh, and I uploaded some jpgs to Ofoto for printing but then it started telling me my jpgs weren't jpgs so I only got to upload and order half of the ones I wanted. I can't figure out what was wrong with the others.

I did reorganize the piping plover page to be in readiness for plover warden duty starting next week (beach is closed starting today but no law enforcement back up is available hence no plover wardens on duty). And this journal is like kind of sort of almost up to date except for not having finished the Tibet trip journal.