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Wonder's HeadJune 22, 2006 In recent months several inanimate objects have had it in for me. There was the ladder that beaned me on one occasion and on another slipped out from under me. The long one-by-four tipped up against a wall that came untipped and whacked my noggin. (I should probably be wearing my helmet 24/7.) And most recently the mattress that in two long nights gave me the bent-double look of a very old woman. Now you could add to the list Wonder's head, but since Wonder's head is not an inanimate object it's probably time to start a new list. Wonder is a horse. Helping with closing chores earlier this evening, I went to feed Wonder. Most of the horses eat outside in good weather. Each paddock has a round black rubber feed tub, maybe a foot and a half in diameter, on the ground. That's where the grain goes. I carried the grain out in a little red bucket. Wonder, a 16:2-or-so-hand dark bay Thoroughbred, followed me. I poured the grain into the feed tub. Wonder ducked his head down to eat. Up to this point it was business totally as usual. Then Wonder abruptly raised his head, connecting smartly with my head, which is quite a bit smaller than his. Horse heads are heavy, as you'll know if you've ever tried to pull one up from grazing. Or had one moving at significant velocity whack you upside the head. I'm not sure what provoked the sudden movement, but I suspect Rhodry had something to do with it. He was in the vicinity, looking out for my best interests, of course, and Wonder likes to charge him even when he's on the other side of the fence. After a few seconds I realized with immense relief that I could still see, my contact lens hadn't popped out, and my retina was still attached. The fingers I raised to feel around the area just to the northeast of my right eye, however, came away a little bloody. Not alarmingly so, but still . . . Ginny was impressed. She found paper towels, I applied pressure, she decided I didn't need a stitch. Out in the barnyard a crew of guys was hosing and cleaning and generally getting Darren's boat ready to launch. Darren's boat is a big sleek black number with two huge 225-horsepower engines on the back. Darren just moved back from Houston. Jim just (literally, like at 3 in the afternoon) got back from Sicily, having crewed on a boat that left Vineyard Haven over a month ago, crossed the Atlantic in 10 days, had a rough passage from the Azores to Gibraltar, and then proceeded to Sicily. The significant detail is that the guys had a cooler of beer in the back of Darren's van, and the cooler had ice in it. I appropriated four cubes, wrapped them in a clean towel, applied them to the side of my head, and kibitzed with the guys while watching them work.
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