Journal of a Sabbatical
The Plover Warden Diaries

June 8, 1999

still hot

Reading: Before the Dawn by Shimazaki Toson

I picked up Before the Dawn by Shimazaki Toson at the Brown Bookstore on Sunday -- for 86 cents! Who could pass up a fat novel set in 19th century Japan at that price? Not I. So yesterday after plover warden duty, I just curled up in front of my air conditioner and read.

I made the mistake of starting with the introduction, which is long and scholarly and contextualizes the work at great length. I was 25 pages into the long scholarly introduction before I realized I didn't have to read it to enjoy escaping into the fictional world. It's not like I'm reading this for a Japanese literature class.

Once past the introduction, I got so into the world of a small post station on the Kiso road at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate that it was as much of a shock to me as to the villagers when news of Perry's Black Ships reached the remote village. Now that I've finished the stack of Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries that Priscilla lent me, I've realized I need to get back into reading fiction. I've been reading so much history and science that I'm starting to feel like I'm back in college studying. I don't know why I insist on plowing through Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Gray Falcon in order to understand the Serbian attachment to Kosovo, when the newspapers and tv can summarize it all for me in sound bites. Nor do I understand the compulsion to read every natural history tome ever written about the east coast of North America before I can write my magnum opus. A nice novel to escape into is ever so much more fun. Of course, I had to go and pick a certified Great Work of Literature, but still...

We interrupt this discourse on literature as Charla and Bob, visitors from the left coast, have arrived.

We huddled by the air conditioner in the living room and caught up on each others' ongoing sagas as well as compared Sony Mavica cameras. Mine has a more secure lens cap and a faster disk. Bob graciously installed my new window screen, which finally came back from the hardware store. Umm, why do I say came back? The guys at the hardware store thought they could fix the old one but ended up having to make me a new one. So this isn't the old one come back, but a whole new one. Installed by Bob. Thanks, Bob.

All too soon the guests departed and I was back to huddling by the air conditioner with Before the Dawn, which I'm really getting into. How about that - a GWoL that's also escape fiction.

The rolling blackouts that Mass Electric has been warning about all day have not taken place yet. I've tried to do my share and use as little electricity as possible, but without the air conditioners I doubt I'd be able to stand up. Anyway, the state of emergency has passed so I can turn on this silly computer and write a journal entry for y'all. I have no idea how hot it got today. Yesterday's high was 97 degrees Fahrenheit, a record for June. Today's humidity isn't as bad and the air is slightly more breathable. The thunderstorms with giant hailstones haven't materialized yet, but we are supposed to get some as it cools way down into the 50's tomorrow. I just love the New England weather.