She didn't know you were supposed to be able to see the individual leaves, either.

Me either. Or individual bricks on buildings you weren't especially close to. I was 14, and I'd thought the stars I remembered from being 8 or 9 had disappeared due to increasing light pollution as Birmingham expanded. Seeing the night sky again was the best part. OK, at that age, being able to see from the back of the room and sit with the cool kids helped, too.

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you your weekly DRABBLE CHALLENGE!

Drabble #24 ("first time") is now closed.

Drabble #25 was suggested by Susan -- drums.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread, already in progress.

Who knew that seeing the leaves on trees for the first time was such a universal experience for the nearsighted! I, too, was about to jump in and say that I remember that, too. Nice drabble.

Oo! Drums. Must ponder. Back later.

"Drums. Drums in the deep..."

Okay, now that that's out of my head.

I'm sorry, I'm still working on The First Time. I just haven't been able to come up with anything. But I will, and I'll post it in my own LJ. I've made a vow, you see, to do at least one drabble for every topic, and I haven't not met that commitment yet. So I can't. Or something terrible will happen.

Meanwhile,

before she ever submitted to me.

Um, Amy, shouldn't this go in Bitches? Sorry. Yes, I'm twelve.

Meanwhile,

before she ever submitted to me.

Um, Amy, shouldn't this go in Bitches? Sorry. Yes, I'm twelve.

Mwa hah hah...

Drums:

The lyrics, in ragged harmony but perfect unison, spin tales of daring camaraderie, of love lost and won.

The berimbau gunga's grand, spare note dictates my mood. Angola, twisted and low, full of malice and trickery, or exuberant Regional, feet pounding out the pattern of the ginga's triangle, sliding, skipping, flipping and leaping. Berimbau viola spins and careens, mirroring the backflips and cartwheels.

But - atabaque. Atabaque tells me how to breathe - tanned goatskin expands and contracts with my lungs. Driving my pulse, controlling my ventricles, grounding me in the heart of capoeira, as my spirit soars above the roda.

Oh, ita, that's lovely. I saw some boys doing capoeira in a park in Orlando one Saturday, and went back every Saturday for 3 or 4 weeks in a row, hoping to see them again. It was amazing.

War, with Wind

If it wasn't a tornado that came through the campground, it was close enough. I watched the roof of our dome tent try to spin off counter-clockwise.

Giant royal pavilions down, telephone-pole supports snapped. Tents half-burnt when lanterns fell. The wind roared down the mountain side, flamed the fires. The following downpour put out the fires. People yelled for help or asked who needed help.

Then ... the drums. One, two, half a dozen, the familiar deep rhythm from the far side of the field.

We sighed in relief. If Rolling Thunder was drumming, then all was right with the world.

Argh. Three questions:

1. Am I nuts if I email an existing regiment of the British Army to find out the exact dates one of their ancestor regiments served in the Peninsular Wars? IOW, is that a stupidly frivolous thing to ask people who are presumably busy being a 21st century armored unit?

2. If I am nuts, where the hell am I supposed to find someone who can find me a cavalry regiment that was in the right places at the right times?

3. If I can't find such a regiment, is it kosher to make up a cavalry regiment when I'm using a real infantry regiment?

Further searching, with swearing at Google here and there, revealed that the Light Dragoons let you make historical inquiries from their homepage. I just sent them a nice note asking if any of their antecedent regiments were in the right place in the right time for the story, and promising a donation to their charitable trust if they help me and a mention on my acknowledgements page.

What I did NOT tell them was that I'm proposing to saddle one of their regiments with a pompous misogynist who dies offscreen in the first chapter so that his widow can learn the joys of hot NCO infantryman lovin'. But I can always apologize in the acknowledgements and say I'm sure the real officers were all much nicer.....