Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Just A Sprig

Just a few weeks ago, the rains started coming. Long, slow, drizzling rains. Soaking into the roots rains. Making the tomatoes happy. And the cucumbers.

Guinness and I were out running a week ago, and all the rain had pushed up the little weedy things giving him much cause to stop and sniff and pee. Much cause. Every five feet, he'd pull this way or that until I finally started jogging, pulling him behind me on the leash.

But some time between then and yesterday, the mowers cut the grass in the fields by the school, and the little weedy things were cut down to size. No more cause to stop or sniff or pee. And when we went out to the track, Guinness was so well behaved. He just pranced along beside me with his tongue hanging out and his tail wagging. It made me proud to have him next to me. I wondered of the soccer moms saw. Or the kids at the middle school football game. What a good dog!

Until we came to the far turn.

There on the outside of the track was a sprig of grass that had escaped the blades of the mower. A single sprig shooting up a single seed head at most four inches from the ground. Just a sprig. But to Guinness it was evidently a towering fire hydrant. He pulled with all his might as I ran past it, tugging relentlessly to go back.

He had been so good up to then. And after all, these jogs are just as much for him as for me. So we stopped and walked back. And he sniffed. And he peed. And with that bit of business taken care of, we finished our run.


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Triboelectrification

Grey weather here. Grey weather there a few hours ago. But their clouds are clearing, and the video shows spots of blue.

The rocket is on the pad. The engineers are ready. They are green for launch but are watching the clouds closely.

Maybe this will be the day if the triboelectrification constraints have mercy.


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