That’s my teaser title excuse for getting the blog up late today. I don’t have jury duty.
For some of the employed, including me, today is a holiday known as Presidents’ Day. I’m sitting on the couch, listening to BBC-Radio 3, contemplating these late winter Monday holidays. Do people still buy cars on Presidents’ Day? Maybe I need a new Jeep.
Just thinking about it makes my head hurt. Maybe I need a horse.
Yesterday, some good people in my town hosted a fundraiser called “The World’s Greatest Sleigh Rides.” There are lots of draft horse people in Maine, apparently, and the owners of these amazing animals haul their teams to a big snowy field at the edge of town, hitch them up to sleds, and offer rides through the woods. It’s a good exercise in learning what words and expressions like “whoa,” “hold your horses,” and “horsepower” mean.
I enjoyed my ride and yet I found myself wondering “can’t these horses pull this sled any faster?” Why was the pleasant pace not fast enough for me, given it was Sunday and I had no particular place to go? This disturbing dissonance was my Sunday afternoon contemplation. I have never known anything but the speed of an internal combustion engine. I was taken by automobile in utero to the hospital where I was born; I’ve been moving about this way my whole life. I know nothing else but the need for speeds greater than that of a horse. After all, animals led or driven are not allowed on the Maine Turnpike.
Perhaps I will never be able to slow down. That’s a depressing thought for a sunny Presidents’ Day, yet the cars outside my window go whizzing by.
Hail to the horse.
Julie-Ann Baumer 
You find so many interesting things to do…Did you take any photos of the great animals to post? Would love to see it. No matter how slow you think you are going-and by the way “How many cups of that high test java had you managed by that time?” we are all whipping around the sun at an incredible speed and in a constant pirouette or like a whirling dervish, that has nothing whatever to do with autos, jets or other man-made speedy objects, sistah. Slap on those snow shoes and keep on truckin!
Got to go, I’m writing the rules to a new game “What to do with another day of despair”. Number one looks like: Say a prayer and ask for help. Two: see how many things you can manage doing to be of assistance to those around you. Three might be go take a walk and breath some fresh air, 1, 2, 3, cha-cha-chah! 1, 2, 3, cha, cha-cha-chah!
Hi Slipper Sistah!
It’s true, there are a lot of interesting things to do in the world and many of them within walking distance right here in Lisbon Falls. I’m grateful I have been given a “new set of eyes” to see beauty in these things. (Only my usual allotment of coffee, by the way.)
I did go out on snow shoes later in the afternoon and that contributed to my internal combustion engine contemplation. It’s a lousy prayer. Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with, regarding the cha cha cha.
Cha.
What’s a lousy prayer?
It’s a lousy prayer to worry and my afternoon contemplation was that of the “walking worried” or the “sighing snow shoe-er.”
Maybe here’s the challenge for you: Go one week without using your car. Get your food, get your work done, get to Motel 4 and back, get to the Farm and back–all without your car.
Then see how slow those draft horses are.
It’s a good challenge and one I’ve considered. I think it would be easier on bicycle, but with advance planning, I could probably do it on foot, too. Thanks for the suggestion.
Call me if you need to be rescued, I’ll burn fuel for ya!
Seriously…I heard you shoveled three times yesterday…talk about generating horsepower!