October 30, 2008
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The day is closed, as is my window. It is getting cooler, even colder, as October fades into history, falling leaves and blowing grass brown on the open pastures. I am thankful for the change, when the world loses the colours and the tones, and takes on the browns and the greys that make her respectable, if demure. She's lost the bright shocking colors of the spring and the summer, she's lost the smells and the sounds of young animals and late nights, and she is getting the wrinkled hands and the quiet manners of a gentle friend.
I suppose that I look back gratefully on the summer for its abundance of food—for the animals that spark through the pastures and the woods, the quiet ponds and the tree-ringe glades, but especially for the cows. Today was the first day this season that I've hayed the cows. It takes a while to properly move the bales from the haylot to the feedlot, and to remove the wrappings from each bale.
Leslie, the local travel agent, has a few horses that she keeps, and she's getting very excited about the price of hay this fall. She came into the coffee shop today, and sparkling her jewish eyes she announced that she was "shocked, just shocked" that really good Prairie hay was selling for fifty dollars per round bale, announcing that she didn't think they were worth a penny more than forty-five. "Besides," she added, "I'm going to convince somebody to take them to the pasture for a couple of dollars. That's how much I'd pay to have them deliver it thirty miles. It's not worth more than that." Leslie, honey, hay delivery's going to be a little bit more than pocket change.
It's fascinating just how well a person can be predicted when the only thing you know about them is their ethnicity. Jewish People are Smart with Money, the Ewells Don't Bathe, The Germans can Handle Their Beer, and Mexicans Love To Siesta. I've known many exceptions to all of these (except the second. I don't know any Ewells.) but the broad strokes have a bit of consistency to them. How much of this is genetic? How much of it is nurture?
That's a classic question fo psychology. How much nature? How much nurture? Which reminds me, I found a fascinating book at the college library booksale—It's called Introductory Psychology through Science Fiction. It presents various psychological concepts through the use of sci-fi. As I said, fascinating. I'm enjoying it right now.
Also on the subject of psych, I have a psych test tomorrow. I'd better go to sleep. Good night.
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