Last Friday to celebrate the end of the boy’s first week at their new school, we broke out some sparkling grape juice to go with dinner. For Charlene and me, I selected a little champagne, which was of course more for the fun of it, rather than any actual enjoyment of the drink. Speaking of fun, what is one of the most fun aspects of champagne? Yep, you guessed it, the launch of the cork.
To make the most of it, I encouraged the boys to gather in back of the house for an official cork launch. Standing with my back to the house, I opened the bottle with great drama, as the cork launched into the night sky.
The next morning, well after my champagne headache subsided (a not so charming aspect of champagne), I sent the boys into the backyard to locate the cork. No dice. The cork had either entered into low Earth orbit or had landed in some random winterized backyard brush. The incident would be classified as a “cold case.”
Flash forward to earlier this afternoon (one week after the cork launch). Entering into the garage, I was followed by my faithful and rather shadowy pup, Kirby the Beagle. Before I saw that the garage had accidently been left open, Kirby bolted for the sunlight. Running at full speed, with me at partial speed in annoyed pursuit, Kirby turned sharply left and then with another quick left headed into the backyard. As I yelled a stream of commands, “Kirby, sit!,” Sit, Kirby!,” so on and so forth, Kirby continued to run, until suddenly something caught the attention of his elongated beagle nose. This smell stopped my curious pup in his tracks and allowed his rather slow master to catch up. Grabbing hold of Kirby’s collar, I saw what he had found so interesting, the cork.
According to my official estimate, the cork had traveled 65 feet (or 21 and 2/3rd “Dave Paces”) to just beyond our yard. There we have it, a new standard for cork flight and also a new alternative to invisible fencing for dogs.
The cork in its landing spot, which shows a near tree collision. Oh the dangers of backyard air travel.