Journal of a Sabbatical

August 23, 1999

monday already?!

Today's Starting Pitcher: Pat Rapp

Today's Reading: Up and Down the Merrimac by Pliny Steele Boyd

Not only do I still feel like I'm on Budapest time, I still feel like it's last Thursday. How can it be Monday already?

Nancy and I spent the weekend getting reacquainted, somewhat over Wilbur's objections. He seems to think he should get all of my attention every minute of every day to make up for leaving him.

Yesterday I tried to recreate the Hungarian breakfast experience for Nancy - minus the salami and of course minus the communist logo Herend dishes- with bread and cheese and fruit and tomatoes and hot peppers. It was actually fun to sort of put my own spin on it. Besides, the Stop & Shop was out of multigrain Cheerios and I don't really like any other cereal. Bread with bread and more bread is the typical Hungarian fare. We both enjoyed it and Wilbur kept trying to steal the cheese.

None of my coffee buddies were at Starbucks yesterday so after we downed our coffees we drove up to Newburyport to get Fowle's coffee. OK, so I'm a little crazy but there's nothing like a fresh dark roast fresh out of the ovens of a local micro-roaster.

And since we were at Fowle's, we had to go across the street to Old Port Book Shop for a long browse.

The trip must have put me in a weakened state because I actually came away with an 1891 copy of John Greenleaf Whittier's Snowbound, which I've been threatening to read aloud to Nancy since midwinter. It's anthologized all over the place but all the anthologies only have excerpts. The complete unabridged poem is out of print.

I'd browsed Up and Down the Merrimac, a hilariously funny travelogue of a 19th century boat trip from Amesbury upriver and back, several times before I left and felt that its still being there yesterday meant I had to buy it. So I did. It is a worthy addition to my collection of every book ever written about the Merrimack River.

For some reason I feel more tired and jet lagged today than I did over the weekend. I was still full of the energy of new experiences and not weighted down by chores I guess.

Oh yeah, Friday afternoon I went over to Zsolt's house to return the books that István had borrowed (which I had carried over there in my suitcase and then carried back) and deliver stuff he'd left at his mother's house and at Zoltan and Marilee's house in Eger and all over Hungary... I thought I could just get by with delivering stuff and showing a few of the pictures but Gyongyi wanted to see all the pictures and Zsolt is having a bizarre problem with his computer (the cursor disappears hourly in Word 97 - if any of you Microsoft gurus out there have any clues I'd appreciate them) so I ended up staying for four hours. At least I missed the rush hour traffic on Rt. 9 and 128, always a blessing.

After I drove Nancy to the bus station yesterday, I came home to a phone message from Zsolt informing me that the cursor was disappearing hourly again. It had refused to do it on Friday while I was there, but on Sunday night when the last thing I want to think about is computers, especially Microsoft ones... Grrr. I searched the Microsoft knowledge base with a fine toothed comb and found nothing that matched what he claims is happening, but I did find a few hints about disappearing cursors in general so sent off e-mail with some suggestions for things to try.

This morning's e-mail revealed that Zsolt had tried the things I suggested (slowing down the mouse tracking speed was one) and nothing helped.

I showed Dan and Geri my Hungary pictures and gave them the two-bit trip report, and then spent the afternoon researching disappearing cursors. I drove up to Barnes and Noble and bought Word 97 for Dummies and More Word 97 for Dummies to give to Zsolt for self-help purposes and speed-read every Word 97 book in the store looking for the one what would give me the wizardry to be an expert but found no such book. Back home I spent more time on the Microsoft knowledge base until whatever I asked it crashed Netscape. It took it that long to realize I was using Netscape instead of IE? The upshot of all my research is I think it's a macro virus so I e-mailed Zsolt telling him to delete any macros he didn't create and get the latest upgraded to his antivirus software since his copy predates the onslaught of macro viruses. No wonder I'm tired.

Somehow I still found time to read about 50 pages or so of Up the Merrimac and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Despair not. The trip entries are coming.