Must.Get.To.School

For some children getting a good eduation means everything, and for some it could also mean getting breakfast. That just might be the case in an incident today involving a young boy in Virginia.

The Associated Press reports:

A 6-year-old Virginia boy who missed his bus tried to drive to school in his family's sedan -- and crashed. His parents were charged with child endangerment. State police said the boy suffered only minor injuries and authorities drove him to school after he was evaluated at a local hospital for a bump on his head. He arrived shortly after lunch, Sgt. Tom Cunningham said. [...]

The boy, whose name wasn't released, missed the bus, took the keys to his family's 2005 Ford Taurus and drove nearly six miles toward school while his mother was asleep, police said.

He made at least two 90-degree turns, passed several cars and ran off the rural two-lane road several times before hitting an embankment and utility pole about a mile and a half from school.

The boy told police he learned to drive playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam video games.

"He was very intent on getting to school," said Northumberland County Sheriff Chuck Wilkins. "When he got out of the car, he started walking to school. He did not want to miss breakfast and PE."

His parents have both been charged with child endangerment, but notice the subtle sexism in this story.

The AP reports that his mother was asleep while all this was taking place, but they neglect to tell us the whereabouts of his father. The report also says the child's 40-year-old father was released on a $5,000 bond, but his 26-year-old mother is being held without bond.

County Sheriff Chuck Wilkins had an interesting response as well: "This really is a story of miracles," Wilkins said. "The Lord was with him, along with everybody else on the highway."

Why do I get the nagging feeling that the overtly religious message from the Sheriff is connected to the harsher treatment received by the child's mother?

I'm certainly glad the child was not hurt, or others on the road this morning. I would, however, like to hear more about this story.

... just because!

Santa Gretchen

No sooner did I confess that I was a little distracted from birding and thus hadn't gone out anywhere, than I spent this past weekend out in nature and looking for birds! I didn't see anything too exciting--the hawk in the post below, an American Kestrel, some bluebirds, and a whole lot of Canadas, starlings, and crows--but Gretchen came back from her winter holiday bearing gifts for me! (I got her a camping mess kit, because we looooove camping and are planning to do a lot of it this spring.)

Gretchen said a new Half-Price Books, a chain I loved when I lived in Texas, opened in Pittsburgh, and here's what she found:

1. Why Birds Sing: One Man's Quest to Solve an Everyday Mystery, by David Rothenberg

2. In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, by Jerome A. Jackson

I haven't started on either book just yet, as I'm finishing up another couple of books, but I'm so excited to start reading each book. Why Birds Sing was written by the guy who played his clarinet out in the Australian forests, and the IBW book is of course about the search for the Grail Bird. As I always do when confronted with an impossible choice of which book to read first, I'll go alphabetically. Grail Bird ho!

Not that kind of ho.

Words Rain Poetry

Here's a wacky assortment of poems for any January mood:

Note - somehow there were more snowfalls back in the day and nothing was better than a snow day!

Jenkins Lane Snow

nose against frosty windowpane
eyes squint at snow reflections
yesterday’s gray bitter blur
erased by blue skies
radio babbles school closings

yank on thermals, match gloves,
tuck slick blue pants into boots
bound outside
crisp air energizes
tang of chimney smoke
tink and thunk of shovels echo
snowplows hum a chorus

pack a snowball firm
crunchy Frankenstein footsteps
one ear pops from ski cap
re-adjust, grab rope, pull sled
toward muffled yells
kids in line
trudge to the hill

steep, daunting
swerve left or right
avoid creek
sled runners trace snow
packed tight underfoot

exhilaration, tears, exhaustion
only the hill wins.


Note - This one came after I proved to be very un-Wii fit. Had fun, but my scores were pitiful.

Wonder Which

teeter on Wii board
respond, react, rebound
results indicate
unbalanced

physical

or

mental?




Note - Always sad to hear of an unnecessary death:

Somber

Crooked ties and too tight shirts
pants pulled up and belted
no sag, no underwear shown
cowlicks slicked down
somber eyes blink back tears
no flash of braces, no goofy grins
hands stuffed in pockets
another's arms crossed
controlled movement

shoulders slumped
boys, young men
shuffled too large feet
past a casket
glimpsed life’s fleeting
moment

aware


January is a rather schizoid month. Especially here in Texas - go from 80 degrees to ice and 30s. We'll see what the rest of the month brings - weather and words.

Joanne