Continuing the horse thread: We watched the movie, Seabiscuit, the other night after a bowl of Matzo Ball soup.
I had, of course, heard of both the horse and the movie. I had no idea, however, of the great drama involved, not only between "Seabiscuit" (above) and his rival, "War Admiral," and their great head-to-head race--a dual heard by forty million Americans--but also of the drama involving the horse's rider, "Red." For those of you who have not seen the movie, and might, I will say no more except this: It is not a great movie by any stretch, but it is a valuable and entertaining one.
Sitting here this dark dawn, Michael might imagine he is Tarzan in Africa, rather than Mike on the Myakka. I hear two Sand Hill Cranes (below) "talking" as they fly over this place a moment ago and only the peacock calling to peahens beyond the bridle path sounds more exotic to my ears than these huge birds. Flitting or sitting around, waiting for light, other smaller birds make the air weird with tropical sounds. Then a rooster crows nearby and Mike is back on the Myakka, or the Missouri farm. Seems that both our gators have crept from the coop, though. Michelle can find not the two little orange eyes floating on the surface of our pond at night and on our evening bike rides we haven't seen the "10" down on the creek in several days.
Speaking of gators and the nearby Myakka River: A rental company here advertises that "Ain't Nuttin' Finna than Kayaking the Myakka!" Maybe I am a craven, crawling coward but no way am I renting a kayaka on the Myakka. Gators? Bull Sharks? poisonous snakes?.....and all of 'em there close enough to jump in the boat with you? Right! And even though "they" say that Manatees are passive, fact is they are as big as submarines; a little love from these huge things that cruise up and down the river could go a long way toward terminating your stay on this third rock from the sun. Although we are maybe only twenty feet or less above sea level here, believe this native Kansan will keep his feet on the sandy terra infirma and leave the kyaking to bolder (dumber) sorts.
