Cool With Work

The Death Of A Toad

NOT ABOUT climate change, but Richard Wilbur's poem is relevant this time of year nonetheless. Rockaway Mall (where we shop when in Hopatcong) sits on what used to be a wetland but was prime location for the taking of corporations before the New Jersey Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act was passed in 1988. Many other parking lots and lawns in the lakes region used to be some little guy's happy home.

A toad the power mower caught,

Chewed and clipped of a leg, with a hobbling hop has got
To the garden verge, and sanctuaried him
Under the cineraria leaves, in the shade
Of the ashen and heartshaped leaves, in a dim,
Low, and a final glade.

The rare original heartsblood goes,
Spends in the earthen hide, in the folds and wizenings, flows
In the gutters of the banked and staring eyes. He lies
As still as if he would return to stone,
And soundlessly attending, dies
Toward some deep monotone,

Toward misted and ebullient seas
And cooling shores, toward lost Amphibia's emperies.
Day dwindles, drowning and at length is gone
In the wide and antique eyes, which still appear
To watch, across the castrate lawn,
The haggard daylight steer. 

Island Signs

White Horse Pub, St. George's

The Marketplace (looks and feels like Shoprite except the prices), Hamilton

Bermuda!

FROZEN STEAKS, Spam, spicy Ligo, Lucky Me noodles, everything needed to cook inside the club is packed to avoid paying $20 each for a restaurant meal and limit buying Bermuda groceries. Temperature forecast averages 70F next week, not sure if it's warm enough to go in the water, but bringing the snorkeling gear anyway ($10 each on eBay). Ready to see some coconut trees again on Friday.

Spring Cleaning

SOME PIECES in this blog must go because they haven't seen publication yet, and sending them to The Chattahoochee Review later on could be a problem if they already appeared online, blogs included. But look what I found--the high school English teaching license that wasn't put to good use and has long expired. I taught briefly at Lower East Side Preparatory way back, before Sara was born and just after 9/11. Didn't work for me.

Admin Time

AH, ST. PATRICK'S DAY. Maybe a couple of hours of paid walk on administrative time among rowdy New Yorkers will do the work-morosed mind some good. Community involvement, baby.

Because I Like Eagles

HARD-PARTYING Eagle kid Randy Meisner finishes an entire bottle of tequila the night before, and irate boss Glenn Frey says he is out unless he delivers the high notes of his signature song. Joe Walsh says take it easy.

Good To Go

SPRING BREAK in the Somers Isles for some snorkeling, and visita iglesia for the wife, except that Bermuda has only six Catholic churches. I think the Unfinished Church will make a good seventh. Pricey trip, but sometimes necessary. And today is a good day to buy. Now what was that about Trump?

First 150 Days

SARA'S FIRST SEMESTER in Stuyvesant. See baby, I told you 100% of success is just showing up!

Heebie Jeebies