Thursday, February 12, 2009

Poem for Thursday

The Man He Killed
By Thomas Hardy


Had he and I but met
   By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
   Right many a nipperkin!

But ranged as infantry,
   And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
   And killed him in his place.

I shot him dead because—
   Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
   That's clear enough; although

He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
   Off-hand like—just as I—
Was out of work—had sold his traps—
   No other reason why.

Yes; quaint and curious war is!
   You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
   Or help to half-a-crown."

--------

I hesitate to say anything because it is not yet midnight -- and our county is under a thunderstorm watch, having already had a line of storms go through that did damage in West Virginia -- but it appears that we have made it through an entire day without a mechanical disaster. Paul worked from home in the morning -- he had conference calls overseas, so it didn't matter where he did them -- and we went out to Minerva for Indian food for our Valentine's Day lunch, since we will have kid stuff to do all day on Valentine's Day. Then I dropped him off at work and made a couple of shopping stops before coming home to get Adam and take him for Bar Mitzvah tutoring. (The tutor was astonished at how quickly he picked up reading the trope symbols.) Daniel stayed at robotics till 7 p.m., so it was a relatively quiet dinner.


A vulture looks down from a tree overhanging the C&O Canal near Pennyfield Lock.


There were several pairs of them between the canal and the river -- they didn't appear to be searching for food, so I suspect it must be their mating season.


There were sleepy Mallard ducks and Canada geese in the river enjoying the beautiful weather.


The lockhouse -- which will be spared the demolition of Pennyfield Inn -- was partially shaded by the trees...


...but the sunlight reflecting off the river was intense.


Yet there was still snow in this drained canal ditch...


...and ice on the floodgate of the lock itself.


We watched Be Kind Rewind on Cinemax, which was so, so much funnier than anyone had told me and really delightful in its portrayal of Passaic, New Jersey as emerging pop culture utopia -- I don't generally adore Jack Black and I often loathe Mia Farrow, but I loved them both in this. And I will never be able to watch Ghostbusters again without bursting out laughing at the Keymaster scenes. I still haven't figured out who won the Israeli elections, but it sounds like I am not at all alone in that -- The New York Times is reporting that gridlock is the winner and Ha'aretz says that the votes of out-of-town soldiers must be counted before anyone can declare victory. Plus Jon Stewart is doing Indecision 5769 coverage.

No comments: