The Invalids Update and a Windless Tuesday

It was still dark when I went out to feed Corny this morning, but he heard the door slam and whinnied for me to hurry up with his breakfast.  His appetite is as robust as usual -- always a good sign.  The swelling on his muzzle had gone down a little.  By this afternoon it had gone down markedly so I think that we're safely on the tail-end of that little adventure.

Corny - still looking a bit rough, but on the mend 

Now, if I could just get Bruce to hurry up and heal as quickly as Corny.  Today his leg still hurts quite a bit and he has no appetite.  The doctor has him back on blood thinners and, hopefully, we'll see improvement very soon.

Today at school I'd planned to have a kite flying celebration with the students who'd met (or tried to meet) their reading goals for last trimester.  Before school, excited children hauled in a tangled array of all sorts of kites and now they're festooning every spare inch of classroom space.  Kites on the counters, kites hanging from the ceiling, kites in the windows.  Most of the kites have tails and these are dangling all over too.

 An open invitation had also been sent to parents who might like to join in our kite party.  And then this afternoon rolled around and...there was no wind.  Nary a breath.  Much to the disappointment of the children, I cancelled the festivities -- thirty children huffing across the back field with kites bumping behind them on the ground was not what I had in mind. They tried to talk me out of it, but I stood firm.  I looked up the weather on my laptop and saw that Wednesday will have rain all day.  Thursday is supposed to have sunshine and light winds, so Thursday it is.

I had just explained this to the class when there came a gentle tap on my door.  Outside stood five confused parents, wondering what was holding up the party.  I had no idea that any parents were showing up, so I tried not to look too surprised and then explained to them about the wind problem and putting off the celebration until Thursday.  They took it better than the students and went to the picnic tables under the trees to visit until school was out.

Several minutes later, the school phone rang and our principal was on the line asking why we weren't flying kites.  Once again, trying not to sound impatient, I explained about the need for wind when flying kites.  He said he'd seen the parents sitting outside and thought I'd forgotten about the party.  My room is filled with kites, I'm surrounded by nine-year-olds whose wish to be on one end of a kite string is so strong that they're ready to mutiny and HE THINKS I COULD FORGET???

And then I realized he was laughing at me.

I need to lighten up.  I need to fly a kite.
And I will -- on Thursday (wind or no wind).