and what will poor robin do then, poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm
and hide his head under his wing, poor thing.
(a poem from a poetry book read many times to our children)
I hope there are no robins in this vicinity. The other evening there was a cold north wind
blowing past our place. I went out to start the car and discovered my doors were all frozen shut.
That happens when one washes a car in winter.
locked and useless to try I felt my head covering slide off.
As I whirled around I saw it light on the
ground and skitter across the icy driveway. The ice kept me
from any fancy maneuvers as I watched
it blow ahead of me just out of reach. It flew under Ellis’s
pick-up out of sight. I considered my
options and decided to borrow Ellis’s pick-up instead of going
inside, heating water and thawing the
door on my car. When the pick-up was started and warming up I opened
the door and stepped out
in the biting wind hoping for one last chance to find my fly-a-way covering. “Oh
joy!” there it was,
just a few steps away. It was protected from the wind just enough to stay in place
until I reached it,
picked it up and pinned it to my hair.
This episode reminded me of a childhood adventure very
similar but with opposite weather.
Picture a pontoon boat on Lake of the Woods in northern MN. Blue sky, puffy
clouds, warm sunshine, sea gulls calling to each other as they fought for
minnows we tossed high over head. We were a family consisting of Dad, Mom and four
giggly, wiggly girls out on the lake enjoying the fishing. A picnic supper of egg salad
sandwiches, barbecue chips, a water jug filled with Kool-Aid was a happy way to
end this perfect summer evening. About the time Dad was pulling in a nice
walleye one of the wiggly girls pointed at a gentle wave not far from the boat. A
round, mesh object was softly riding the wave. “That looks like a covering!”
she cried. Another girl’s hand flew up to her head. “It is a covering!”
We watched it sink out of sight - laughing hysterically. Clearly we weren't the ones sewing our head coverings at that point in time.