By Collier Nogues
The hillside was blocked
with pens, horses of other colors
five or six to a pen,
and one long fenced strip
from the base of the hill up,
with dark brown horses flank to flank
not moving,
but their necks craning over
each other's backs.
They were looking towards
the dip at the top of the hill,
and the stream running through it.
They were looking at what
was on the other side,
which was my mother,
whom I had just walked over the bridge.
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I had lots to get done on Friday and I kept getting distracted by other things, so it was a very busy day. In the morning, Hufflepants called to tell me that she was practically in my neighborhood, so I met her at the mall and we did a bit of shopping and caught up because we hadn't seen each other in weeks. Then I came home and had the neighbor's kitten over for a while so she could have her upstairs professionally cleaned in the hope that her husband will be able to breathe tonight when he's back from his trip. Again, the kitten was adorable but required much supervision, because Daisy was cranky and growly, Cinnamon was nervous and mewly, and Rosie was glaring and hissed when the kitten got too close. Probably in time they would learn to get along, though the kitten is not as cooperative with Rosie's insistence on being Head Cat as Daisy and Cinnamon were -- they both dropped and rolled when she batted at them, the kitten bats back -- but we had come to the conclusion that this house is probably not big enough for another feline, and thankfully one of my friends wants to take the kitten in! She is coming in the morning and we are all excited!
Adam got back from track practice having discovered that he needs new running shoes and a stopwatch, so I interrupted work to take him to Sports Authority to find both, plus tennis shoes since he shredded his last pair of running shoes playing tennis in them. Then I came home and finished a review of the animated Star Trek episode "The Pirates of Orion", which I like a lot -- it's all about Kirk/Spock/McCoy with a side of Uhura and Chapel being entirely competent, and it's sort of a sequel to "Journey To Babel" which is always a plus. We had ravioli for dinner, watched the beginning of the Redskins-Steelers preseason game (which to our astonishment the Redskins won, making them the top story on the news), then watched Torchwood, which continues to be superbly paced and well-acted and whose characters I am determinedly not caring about because I am expecting that everyone but Jack will be dead by the season finale. Here are some photos from the Wright Brothers National Monument in Kill Devil Hills, where they tested the glider that made the first manned flights:
The life-size heads of Wilbur and Orville are dwarfed by their monument...
...atop a peak in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, where they came because of the terrain and the wind.
Cacti grow on the side of the hill.
A plaque nearby identifies the starting point for their four successful flights in December 1928.
Small planes still use the nearby landing strip within the park.
Inside the visitor center is a replica of the glider...
...and the borrowed sewing machine on which Wilbur made the final modifications on the fabric.
The little museum is ringed with portraits of other famous flyers and astronauts. This is my favorite, though I think the photo of Earhart upon which it is based is more flattering.
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