The End of the Earth

Many years ago, my sister and her husband were looking at lots to build a new home. They found one they liked in a cal de sac about a mile from their suburban residence. Not wanting to leave their current home, their young elementary-school daughter took one look at the wooded lot and decided it looked uncivilized. My sister said, "Wendy and the boys live in the woods."

My niece replied, "No, Wendy lives at the End of the Earth!"

I couldn't help remembering my sister's musing today as I walked the dogs. The morning sky was bright blue and completely clear in all directions. It was truly a beautiful day to walk in this rural setting - forested foothills stretching from the western horizon across the north and to the east. And to the southeastern and southerly horizons, meadowed wetlands with groves of birch and oak adjacent to hundreds of acres of open farmland on the southwesterly side.

On the last leg of my walk home, I noticed a few jet streams overhead and more forming as other airlines cruised across the sky. In a 15-minute timeframe, I counted a dozen jets traveling overhead in all directions. I thought how infrequently we see two trains meet at the town's railroad crossing. To see such a busy skyway was even a rarer occurence.

Still it happened today, here at The End of the Earth.