Encounter 2

This one was equine.

Driving a few days ago and I saw some horses in a field. It’s crazy cold, like in the 20’s, and they’re just hanging out outside all day. (Sometimes they have green horseblankets, but I don’t think they really need them. Maybe the green horseblankets are really to make owners feel better. Greenownerblankets on horses.)

So this one almost black horse who really shows up against all the snow just starts rolling. Horses are great to watch when they roll because they are built to stand up, and when they roll they combine grace and awkwardness in this weird blend that I just can’t not look at. He rolls, legs kicking, and I think maybe something’s wrong with him. But then he stands up. Then he drops and rolls again. Leg kick. Up again. Roll and kick again.

He may have been scratching

–interruption: sometimes when I talk I use the word itching when I mean scratching, which annoys me when other people do it but then I do it too. I wrote “he was itching” and then had to correct it. Maybe he had been itching which was why he was scratching–

He may have been scratching, but it looked more to me like he was just feeling good to be out there in the cold. Maybe running had gotten boring and he decided to try a roll. Maybe he liked it, and rolled more often than ran, and was a slight embarrassment to his green blanket owning owners.

Anyway, it was a nice moment. Sometimes I feel like that, right when I step outside into the cold from an overheated room. The feeling fades when the cold and numbness sets in, but that first crisp jolt is great. I can almost hear it.

Encounter 1

So I’m sitting on a plane at night. We’ve landed and we’re waiting for the gate monster to latch onto our door like those suck-fish on the side of aquariums, and the first classers to get their black leather articles and de-plane.

I’m in the window seat and looking out. It’s snowing–the first big one of the year–and I’m watching it fall, when I notice the plane next to us. It’s dark outside and I can see inside the plane’s windows. Apparently this one was beween flights, when they do the mysterious and sometimes inadequate cleaning of your seatbacks and tray tables in the full upright and locked position. I saw some torsos walking up and down, doing the cleaning thing. I went back to snowgazing.

I looked over a few minutes later and I saw a flight attendant, slowly walking the aisle in the abandoned plane. He had a bottled water and he was casually making his way down. He found a seat–an exit row seat–and sat down. It was the ’sit down’ we all do when we’ve been on our feet for too long. Saw his face: middle aged guy, balding.

He took a long drink and just sat there. He looked around, and looked outside the window. I think he saw me, but we didn’t wave. He turned back and took another pull on the water bottle.

I guess I never wondered what they do when they get their breaks. This guy had the plane to himself, and enjoyed a little of what his clients did earlier. A seat, a sigh, and a drink. It was kind of nice to have a window glimpse into that moment.

I could relate.