Poem for Wednesday

Book 1, No.5 ("To Pyrrha")
By Horace
Translated by John Milton

What slender youth bedewed with liquid odours
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,
   Pyrrha? For whom bind'st thou
   In wreaths thy golden hair,
Plain in thy neatness? O how oft shall he
On faith and changèd gods complain: and seas
   Rough with black winds and storms
   Unwonted shall admire:
Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,
Who always vacant always amiable
   Hopes thee; of flattering gales
   Unmindful? Hapless they
To whom thou untried seem'st fair. Me in my vowed
Picture the sacred wall declares t' have hung
   My dank and dropping weeds
   To the stern god of the sea.

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My parents, uncle, his wife and my last first cousin (who is younger than my older son) took my children to Arlington National Cemetery and the Smithsonian today, so I got three articles written and my laundry folded and otherwise thoroughly indulged myself with , to whom I would like to declare my undying gratitude and devotion for redeeming my OTPs for me (though I do blame her for the Snape now living in my head who apparently does not intend to shut up any time soon, even if I have other things I must work on). She managed to take all the little things niggling me about HBP and, with one sentence, point out to me a way to look beyond them, at least in terms of the characters who really matter to me. She is also a very lovely writer and just as importantly a very easy person to write with, toss ideas back and forth with, jump in and out of scenes with and drop in irrelevant porn asides. So I am very content and must do something nice for her, preferably involving Jason Isaacs and naked Jello wrestling.

In other news, well, is the news. I appreciated this from The Washington Post on how the women closest to Bush are all pro-choice but I doubt that is going to save Roe v. Wade. I spent all afternoon from the time the hour of the announcement was set going, "Gee, would I rather have a pro-choice justice who supports torture...?" How, how, how has it come to it that these are the kinds of things I know Congress will be weighing...which horrible choices to let slide? It has my guts all in a twist and I don't even want to think about it.

Because my uncle and his family live in L.A., I was feeling nostalgic for being in L.A. for my brother-in-law the chef's wedding in 2002. These are photos I have never posted from Starfl...er, that is, the Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, California!


The filtration plant that doubles as...


the main building of Starfleet Academy on the Star Trek shows.


Because the land is protected, it has become a wildlife preserve for pelicans...


...egrets...


...these lovely white tufted shrill birds...


...and many other smaller songbirds. Here is the whole complex nearing sunset. There's a pagoda for weddings, too, but all my photos of it involves a bridal party.

Wednesday my entire local family will be at my parents' for my younger son's birthday, my uncle's birthday, my great-uncle's birthday and various other family celebrations. My son meanwhile wants Burger King for lunch for his birthday, so I suspect tomorrow will be much taken up with overeating. *g*