“I shot an arrow in the air, where it lands, I know now where” – I dont know where this quote came from, but I remember doing this when I was a kid. In retrospect, standing in the wide-open and releasing a projectile straight up, only to watch it fall back to earth and embed itself in the ground next to you; is a wonder. And something you should never really admit to.
Straight lines. I have decided not to tempt fate or the temperatures in the low desert by driving poor Ranger Rick through Vegas in mid July. Rather, we are going north through Wyoming and on to Cali through the Sierra Nevadas.
As I ponder the Google map, I can sort of imagine what the pioneers must have seen when first they looked out the windshields of their covered wagons. 1000 miles of straight, all the way to the coast. And all on one interstate. Sheesh.
I shot an Arrow into the air
It fell to earth I know not where,
For so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breath’d a Song into the air
It fell to earth, I know not where.
For who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of a song?
Long, long afterward in an oak
I found the Arrow still unbroke;
And the Song from begining to end
I found again in the heart of a friend.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1946
It was actually a blowgun, and the darts landed upon the roof of your neighbor.