Matter of Moment


A day of sun and showers lures me to check out the pond albeit a little later than usual this morning. It has a very peaceful look today, with only a few ducks leaving nice vee-wakes as they rush from the bank at my approach. There is a cluster of one-legged geese on an island relaxing in close unison. If one falls off its leg, the others will go down like dominos. However, there is no mischief-maker there to give one a push.

Even the heron seems to have had her breakfast as she sits on a downed tree on the bank preening her untidy and long gray feathers. As she spots me, the preening goes to hell in a hand basket and her neck gets very long. But as I continue my walk, it gets shorter with each step until she’s lost it completely as I draw level. I wink but she gives me the brush off as usual and gets back to trying to decide between fish and frogs for lunch.

Suddenly I notice that a dozen or two hardy, but foolhardy, small slugs have forsaken the grass and herb shelter of the verge, lured away by the promised delights of the blacktop just five feet away across the moist concrete. Just like the last time I saw them, they are all on parallel courses to the road but not taking the shortest route. If the sun wasn’t hiding behind the skirts of a large motherly cloud, they would have been lined up with the sun’s rays on their back providing them with the maximum warmth. With no sun having been visible for a little while, they seem to be taking this all on trust.

Leaving the bookstore on my return journey the light shower turns nasty and my pace becomes ‘with purpose’. The slugs have clearly thought better of their foolishness and my thoughts turn to the question of was a thunderstorm forecast. Not a nice thought to linger on as the ground is flat and open. Whilst bolts of lightning are bad enough prospects, the recent news from the Fermi-lab that thunderstorms spew out streams of anti-matter make dawdling even more unattractive than the water running of my coat onto the back of my trouser legs. Might some jogger find just a pair of smoking shoes on the sidewalk and wonder how could someone spontaneously combust in a rainstorm?

3 Responses so far.

  1. Unknown says:

    well done - you took up the challenge and worked it in! I have often wondered about those smoking shoes on the sidewalk - now I know!

  2. So far its second hand smoke!

  3. jazgal says:

    Ah, smoke and mirrors - that's what Fermi is up to!

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