Journal of a Sabbatical

October 1, 1999

turkey vultures? migrating helicopters?

Today's Starting Pitcher: Bret Saberhagen

Today's Reading: Danube by Claudio Magris

Three turkey vultures just passed by my window. One landed on the telephone pole and preened a little bit while the other two circled the parking lot. One of them came close enough to the house that if I could've gotten the screen out, I could've touched it. They stayed for at least 10 minutes circling in the general vicinity. The normally ubiquitous house sparrows, mockingbirds, blue jays, pigeons, and crows were nowhere to be seen. Sometimes at this time of year when the raptor migrations are going on I get kestrels and the odd merlin here, but this is the first time I have seen turkey vultures.

While I was watching the turkey vultures, I noticed at least four helicopters and a couple of small planes passing overhead. It looked like the helicopters were migrating too. As I write this, two more helicopters have flown over. I never knew they were seasonal! :-)

In a fit of extreme impatience, I called the Honda Barn this morning to see if they'd talked to the insurance company. They haven't. In fact they just started making a list of the damage. I feel like I am supposed to be harassing everyone into getting the car back on the road as quickly as possible. Enterprise keeps calling me about the rental car: they forgot some question on the form, the previous renter left some CDs under the arm rest and could I look for them, the insurance company isn't paying them, when is the car going into the body shop (they asked this before the car was recovered - they didn't seem to grasp the difference between accident and theft). At least once a day I get a message from Enterprise on my voice mail. And one from the night crew at the insurance company who can only take my recorded statement at night between 6 and 9, during which time period I have not been home the last several nights: family gathering, MRFRS annual dinner, free child care so Kevin could go to open house at the middle school... . Finally last night the guy took my statement as I was on the way out to go to Cambridge for my meeting.

I'm suddenly feeling like everything is way out of control. I guess that shouldn't be a news flash. It is exceedingly unsettling to have your car stolen right from its assigned spot under my bathroom window. Had I gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom as I often do, I might have seen the thieves. One of my neighbors, who has never said more than hello to me, asked why my car out of the whole parking lot. He said it was weird. I started to feel like it's my fault.