Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Poem for Tuesday and Antipodean Baltimore

The Portent
By Herman Melville

Hanging from the beam,
Slowing swaying (such the law),
Gaunt the shadow on your green,
Shenandoah!
The cut is on the crown
(Lo, John Brown),
And the stabs shall heal no more.

Hidden in the cap
Is the anguish none can draw;
So your future veils its face,
Shenandoah!
But the streaming beard is shown
(Weird John Brown),
The meteor of the war.

--------

Monday was a shopping day with Daniel, one of his least favorite things, but that wasn't a big deal considering that our internet was down from yesterday evening through late this afternoon. The local Comcast operator said she'd have to have a supervisor call me back, which was supposed to be within the hour but wasn't; meanwhile, while waiting for him, I tweeted @comcastcares, who said he didn't see any local outages so it was probably our modem and he could get someone out to look at it the next day. (I am told that FIOS guarantees same-day repairs -- anyone have experience with that?)

Since none of us could get anything done at home, neither work nor play, we all went to Minerva for lunch -- Paul took the week off to hang out with Daniel and help get him ready for college -- then we took Adam home so he could go to track practice and went to Target to get Daniel everything from scissors to under-bed containers to a first aid kit to an insulated mug. Asked what else he thought he needed for college, he suggested an eight-pack of Mountain Dew. We were just watching a special on the Civil War in Montgomery County on our local public television station, hence the poem. Before that, it was Warehouse 13 night, with some Myka backstory that wasn't my favorite but let her and Pete have some lovely moments -- meanwhile Claudia, Steve, Artie, and the dog are adorable. Here are some photos from Australia at the National Aquarium on Sunday:















No comments:

Post a Comment