FEB-B-9
HOLED UP AGAIN IN DERWOOD HERMITAGE
AS
RAIN REPLACES SNOW IN A BLEAK WEEKEND OF SNOWMELT AND CONTINUING TO DIG OUT OF
THE HOMESTEAD
February 21—25, 2003
I have spent a second weekend “at home,” or, to be more accurate, “in home.” It snowed all weekend last closing down the capital, the government and all schools from the big blizzard of 03. My high point in that week was getting the bindings to work, and snow shoeing the woods among the deer which are not doing as well as I am in getting enough to eat and making their way through the deep drifts. The Bronco has not moved in 10 days, and is sitting at the circle in my woods, awaiting the spring thaw.
This
weekend was characterized by 36 hours of rain, which did not melt much of the
snow, but fogged up the air, and flooded the stream, where ice flows are now
floating passed my windows looking about the size of canoes. The next weather happening has been the high
winds today, feeling like the March winds I remembered as a kid in Michigan
when they blew apart my “house”, a cardboard appliance box. A few branches are bouncing off the roof,
but the major tree falls have already occurred earlier this year. It looks like another trudge through the
snow drifts down my drive to get to Metro by walking the roads on Monday, if I
go to work at all.
It has
persisted long enough for me to get cabin fever already, and I just completed
an outrageously large extensive and expensive phone catalog purchase from
Sportsman’s Guide of the catalogs that I have saved for purchase of many little
items that will be needed for my next travels, with the objective of leaving
many of the items of clothing and other things I have been working toward
packing for the later series of expeditions, when it will not require snowshoes
for me to get clear of the door. Some
people peruse seed catalogs at the fireside at this time of the year, while I
have worked on planning the medical missions and the hunts that will be coming
next.
I also
wanted to try to use this time for the long-postponed update of my CV, which
had nothing added or edited since 1990, so it was woefully past due. The “Presentations” and Bibliography
listings were field in for the interval,
but one of the longer projects involved a particular year of the International
Experiences—1996. Most of the year’s
travels I simply note within a sentence or short paragraph, but this was “The
year of Fulbrightness,” which I had worked on so hard as the “Author in
Africa,” completing a book that lies now on the floor of Kurt Johnson’s garage,
along with the completely finished and edited “Surgical Endocrinology” text and
atlas, also simply blown off after completion of all the effort at the point of
its publication. Since I had been asked
on the “YOF” repeatedly for things that I had already done (such as an outline
of its contents, indicating that none of the material of the “YOF” had ever
been even looked at before being condemned to oblivion.) I took special care to outline the travels
of the Year (1996) of Fulbrightness in hopes that I can again interest someone
in publishing the book that many readers of the messages from the field have
insisted be published as a book. Where
are they now?
I also
composed several letters of the kind that I often spend much of my day in the
office trying to send, so I thought I would compose them here on the laptop
before getting to a point where there are other distractions, so I might send
them out as soon as I get back to work—presumably by Metro, and therefore
carrying much less stuff than I can with the Bronco..
All of this
is an efficient way to use these computers—if they are dong their part to
respond to the commands put into them... Just when I need it the laptop begins
acting up, stating that I cannot save a document since the (brand new) disc is
full, and that “Microsoft will have to shut down and all formatting will be
lost” and a dozen notes about an “Illegal function” so that the local Word
Processor has become as squirrelly as the desktop which has been reprogrammed
once already this week, adding fresh errors each time. At least, I got the “YOF” outline finished
before the laptop shut down on the other items, and will attach a copy for you
to see the book that lies aborning
while the imbedded essays in several points ( a few of the 102 travelogs
chapters and 101 essays written along the way in 1996’s travels) were
written. But, that is also the year in
which I finished editing the Surgical Endocrinology, which has also recently
been killed off. Sigh!
I am
planning this year’s Malawi mission (with multiple big boxes awaiting the other
travelers who will each carry at least one) with a possible brief weekend stay
at a safari lodge on the way out. I
will also be planning the 2004 Malawi mission to be split with Zambia, with a
potential safari to follow it. I have
sent off a dozen letters to try to integrate all these plans with those hosting
on the other side of the ocean as things change here with the schedules of
those on this side.
AFTER TWO WEEKS OF BEING MAROONED,
THE BRONCO UNDER 4 WD-LOW DRIVES OUT OF THE DEEP SNOW,
AND WE MAKE A BREAK FOR THE GROCERY STORE AND ERRANDS
I tried twice, and after rocking the Bronco in 4 WD-High I crawled out of the snow cave in which the Bronco had been locked, and got it to the top of the drive. But the snow was not only deep, but now ice-hardened, and I went back after lunch, and put it in to 4 WD-Low and the Bronco crawled out by grinding through the snow to about a third of its depth, and made its way out to the dry and open Kipling Road, having to break through the plowed in piles of snow at the foot of the drive. I had already brought my driver’s license and the filled in 2002 tax forms and I went off immediately to the Giant to restock groceries and then dropped off the tax data at the accountant’s office. I brought the Bronco back to the foot of the drive and left it there, having to carry the groceries up the difficult footing of the long drive two bags at a time. So, I packed up all the leftover items and the large package of the Surgical Endocrinology manuscript of the text book and had them ready for a full day at GW.
THE LONG DRIVE IN TO GW IN FALLING SNOW
I mis-spent an extraordinarily long amount of time driving in during the “rush hour.” Given the snow and the crawl of the whole 270—495 gridlock, I listened to an entire book on tape in the 4 hours it took me to crawl in to the parking structure. I had a lot of running around to do and it was still snowing so that there would be a similar gridlock on the way home. So, I decided to stay through the completion of the projects I had begun by typing up the letters and other initiatives, so I made the meetings of the people I needed to see, and then hand-delivered each of the packages to see them off to do what they will have to do. I worked late, and therefore came home behind the rush, in half the time it took to go in. But, this is still too long to spend in the expensive, dangerous and nonproductive use of time in vehicle So, I decided to stay at home with snow predicted for the next two days, and I will try to avoid a repeat of the waste of time I used up the morning in transit. I called Christian Elwell, who had determined to come down by vehicle on Friday, so that we can talk about future plans and then go off to Annapolis to attend the Chesapeake Chapter of the SCI of which I am a new member. I may be here at home to greet him, since I have just cancelled my appointments on Friday, the day through which the snow is falling and we may have to be careful about our longer trip to Annapolis if the snow falls, as predicted, through Saturday.
In the interval, I am awaiting the outcome of negotiations on final settlements in two other areas, for which deadlines are approaching. I have never been more cooped in the ‘hermitage<” and am long past due for a good run, but I may send you a few of the items that have been generated in this winter doldrums of immobility.