Journal of a Sabbatical

April 11, 2000

opening day

Today's Reading: Early Spring in Massachusetts: from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H. G. O. Blake, Thoreau's Country by David R. Foster

Today's Starting Pitcher:
Ramón Martinez

My agenda for the day was simple: go to therapy, listen to the game - uh, that would be the Red Sox Opening Day at Fenway -, and buy a new color cartridge for the printer. Missions accomplished.

Red Sox 13, Minnesota 4 - winning pitcher Ramón Martinez, his first of the season. I listened to it on the radio, my favorite method of taking in a ball game if I can't be there live. Believe me I was glad to be home in my nice warm house wondering if the snow would come before the game went 5 innings and therefore counted. My red parka from Antarctica would have come in handy at the old ball yard today, but in the comfort of my condo I enjoyed it in shirtsleeves.

Carl Everett hit two home runs, one from each side of the plate. I never go the trick of switch hitting when I was a kid. I just felt all backwards and twisted up when I tried to bat lefty. I've often wondered what makes a person able to switch hit at all, let alone hit with power from both sides. It must be some different kind of brain wiring. Anyway, Everett was the star of the game.

I emailed inning by inning summaries to BiB in Kosovo. I had told him on Sunday when I talked to him that he could get the home radio broadcast of the game over the Internet at the Red Sox web site. I didn't ask if he had Real Player Plus installed though, and I'm not sure how live Internet radio sounds over a satellite link. Me, I used a garden variety radio perched on the windowsill. Much easier than the net, especially since I haven't installed Real Player Plus yet.

Once the game was over, I drove up to Staples across the border in Salem, NH (yes, that's the closest Staples store) for the printer cartridge. There's Barnes & Noble down the street and I couldn't resist browsing for awhile. Two hours later I emerged with Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson, which I'm previewing for possible giving to Andrea since release of the third Golden Compass book is now delayed until September, and Cat on the Scent by Rita Mae Brown so I can get back into the good graces of my walking buddies/cat mystery reading buddies. Not only was I behind in The Cat Who... series by Lillian Jackson Braun - by two books! - but I somehow missed the latest Rita Mae & Sneaky Pie Brown one too. Joan-east has had to resort to borrowing them from the library (looong waiting list) or buying them herself since I got behind. Of course, Priscilla could always pick them up used at a yard sale later on, but that wouldn't be timely.

I also read huge chunks of Thoreau's Country, trying to get a sense of how the landscape has changed and what farming was like in 19th century New England. The thing that sticks in my mind is the image of wheat fields growing next to temperate zone forests - so unNew England nowadays. I guess I'm so used to the idea that wheat grows in the Midwest that I never thought about its ever growing in New England. So my picture of the landscape that Thoreau was writing about walking through is getting a little clearer. I'm not picturing rolling Vermont dairy farms anymore :-)