By Matthew Arnold
Creep into thy narrow bed,
Creep, and let no more be said!
Vain thy onset! all stands fast.
Thou thyself must break at last!
Let the long contention cease!
Geese are swans, and swans are geese.
Let them have it how they will!
Thou art tired; best be still!
They out-talked thee, hissed thee, tore thee?
Better men fared thus before thee;
Fired their ringing shot and passed,
Hotly charged -and sank at last.
Charge once more, then, and be dumb!
Let the victors, when they come,
When thy forts of folly fail,
Find thy body by the wall!
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When not trying to get an article written, I spent a lot of Tuesday doing laundry working on a project that involved small pieces which needed to be spread out on the kitchen table. Everything was going very well, then I realized I needed to move the laundry from the washing machine into the dryer and -- since one cat was asleep in my bedroom, one was asleep in younger son's bedroom, and one was asleep in the front window -- I thought it would be safe simply to shut the kitchen door (which does not close firmly, as Daisy proves every night when the dishwasher is running as she bangs it open). This was a monumental mistake. At least my kitchen floor is now cleaner, since I had to use a broom and dustpan to retrieve my scattered small pieces.
Otherwise, it was not an eventful day. Adam went to cross country practice, then went to a team spaghetti dinner to get them all ready for their meet tomorrow (for which he gets to miss two academic classes, which he is not devastated about). Paul made tofu au vin for dinner for the two of us, then we watched the premiere of Ringer, which was reasonably entertaining mostly because for me to dislike Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ioan Gruffudd, they have to be in something like, well, Scooby Doo 2 or Fantastic Four 2. I thought the writers spent too much time on plot twist after plot twist and didn't really show us Gellar's range -- Siobhan and Bridget seemed too much alike -- but I'll certainly keep watching to see where it goes.
Some more photos of Great Falls National Park last weekend, recovering from two hurricanes:
Dozens of damselflies enjoyed the the puddles left by the receding Potomac River.
In addition to the usual collection of small shells, big oysters had washed up (and hadn't broken yet) through the woods.
There were lots of snail shells, too.
Branches were down from the big trees where Adam was climbing.
The canal had been drained so that rushing water couldn't damage its walls, leaving the boat high and dry.
The ducks did not appear happy about the lack of water in the canal, and the Canada geese had migrated elsewhere.
The grasshoppers did not appear to have suffered great losses during all the rain, though.
And the canal ruins didn't appear any worse for wear than usual.
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