After Years
By Ted Kooser
Today, from a distance, I saw you
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer's retina
as he stood on the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell.
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Late last night we spent hours and hours sorting and packing things for the National Children's Center hurricane collection and early this morning we put three large moving boxes and eleven large garbage bags of clothes, toys, diaper bags, etc. out for them to collect. This is tiring work and you have to ask yourself questions like is it stupid to save that New York t-shirt that hasn't fit either of your sons in five years just because it has the Twin Towers on it, let alone the ones they made in nursery school with their handprints on them. It is even scarier though when your husband goes through his drawers and finds a pack of brand new bright red briefs at the very bottom that you can only hope his mother gave him for Christmas when you weren't looking or something. *g*
I saw my mother briefly, as she had new sweatclothes for older son and had promised to buy some wrapping paper to support younger son's school but had not looked at the samples yet; I ran out for a couple of shopping chores and remembered it was Jungle Noise Day at California Tortilla, so I went in and made a tiger noise so I could get free chips and salsa with my turkey chili; my whole family watched "Arena" so I can review it Friday, having a great time since we were all at Vasquez Rocks together and have seen them several times in TV episodes recently and it's always fun to watch Shatner push styrofoam rocks off the top; hubby and I watched Rome since we missed this week's episode Sunday so we could watch the Emmys. I really enjoy that series, suspect it has absolutely nothing to do with reality, but it has other virtues such as James Purefoy full frontally stark naked. Mmmyeah!
George Washington conceived of the canal, trying to come up with a business scheme to make the Potomac River navigable. Unfortunately by the time it was finished, the railroads were already making it obsolete.
One of the park officers, in period costume, explains how the lock system works...
...as people watch water fill this one almost completely.
Panels can be opened to let through just a little water at a time instead of opening the gates.
People on the towpath are surrounded by the sounds of waterfalls on both sides.
This really is George Washington week in this journal. Now we are debating whether to go to the Renaissance Festival this weekend with my parents, as it's one of the few times they could go, or whether to go to a War of 1812 re-enactment at Jefferson Patterson Park. Now a giggle for the night: Clinton and Lewinsky condoms! I just want to know whether the Clinton one won't have actual sex but thinks oral sex doesn't count, and whether the Lewinsky one overflows onto your dress. (I just thought of this because Joy Behar said on Bill Maher that George Bush is a liar and she'd like to bring back the blow job...)
Hope everyone in Texas and that part of the Gulf is out and safe with what you need. What a nightmare.
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