Poem for Saturday

Skating
By Robert Snow

When to his feet the skater binds his wings,
As of Jove's messenger the poet sings,
He, like the hare, outstrips the Northern wind,
And casts, in doubling, a keen glance behind.
By art that to the frozen lake conveys
A glowing interest in winter days,
Before the gazer now he seems to fly,
Now with a backward stroke deludes the eye;
Precipitating curves on curves anew,
Retuning ever, to his centre true.
With air of noble ease, and swan-like grace,
He balances awhile in narrow space;
Then sweeps far round with power not shown before,
And on his crystal plain does all but soar.
Yet is his pastime brief; the solar heat
Grows strong; again the lapsing waters meet,
And to dull, plodding earth confine his daring feet.

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We're still in Hanover, where we spent a quiet day gorging ourselves. *happy sigh* The weather was foggy in the morning, rainy in the afternoon, though the ice storm never quite materialized -- it sounds like things are far worse at home, where my mother called to tell me that our power was out, meaning we have to worry all night about whether the cats are freezing and the sump pump has stopped working, allowing our basement to flood (I doubt much snow will melt overnight because it's freezing, but it rained all day). We woke up and had stollen, pastries, bagels and cheese, then opened our belated Chanukah presents with Comcast's Yule Log channel in the background. Then we sat around reading for a while and had dinner around 3, which is always Swedish smorgasbord -- meatballs and potatoes, chicken swiss cheese stuffing casserole, farmer's cheese, limpa bread, lingonberries, my mother's carrot souffle which she sent up with us since she suspected they wouldn't get here due to the weather, and about ten varieties of Christmas cookies and candy. Mmmmm!


Adam with the Pictureka Flipper he got as a belated Chanukah present.


We were supposed to see Paul's parents and celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday earlier in the month, but an ice storm kept them away...


...whereas today one kept my parents away, so we caught up on Chanukah and birthdays as well as Christmas.


Here is Paul with his Bloom County collection. I got a Celtic necklace, a Baltimore Ravens sweatshirt, a Borders gift card and some other things.


Adam of course got several penguin items.


Clair and Cinda got calendars made by me, of our kids in New Orleans, and Brooke, of her and Jon's kids in Eugene.


Plus we got them Sudoku and Civil War desk calendars.


Here is breakfast -- stollen from Shepherdstown Sweet Shop Bakery in West Virginia, almond pastry, blueberry muffins, bagels, breads, cheeses...yum.

We talked to David and Jon on the phone, got our Superpoke Pets Twelve Drummers Drumming, played some very competitive Uno games, and watched some of the Titans-Chargers game and some of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation in the evening, though my main television event took place on the laptop: Doctor Who's "The End of Time, Part One." I won't talk about it till tomorrow when everyone in the U.S. who wants to see it will have done so, and I want to watch it again anyway since there were lots of distractions, so I will just say -- SPOILERS -- Wilf! (who of course must be of major significance, and whose Silver Cloak is awesome -- naturally everyone wants a piece of the Doctor) and Donna! (though if they kill her off -- at least, before she can save the universe again -- I will never forgive them). I am pretty unimpressed with the Master coming back by way of a Horcrux then playing Gollum, but I will forgive that if the second half of the episode is otherwise terrific.