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3/4/1999 Bodies in ActionIt was clear, cold, and very windy today, with gusts of 40 to 50 m.p.h. The boys and I took a walk after we picked Daniel up at school. Dried leaves, scraps of paper, and other refuse skittered along the sidewalk and into the street. The boys raced on ahead of me, stopped, circled, ran back, and then dashed ahead again as if they too were being blown along in fits and starts by the wind. I was surprised Matthew agreed to take a walk today; usually he is apprehensive of windy weather. I think he's afraid the wind will pick him up and carry him off. I recall having the same fear, once, when I was about 7 or 8 and visiting Washington, D.C., with my parents. I remember that trip for two reasons: because it is only time I ever went on a trip with my parents by myself (for some reason my younger sisters did not accompany us), and because a strong wind was blowing around the Washington Monument the day we visited. Fifty flagpoles encircle the small hill on which the monument is situated, and I still recall the sound of all those American flags snapping loudly in the breeze. I felt very small and helpless, and I clutched the back of a bench, certain that one of the stronger gusts would blow me right off the hill. I've been back to the Washington Monument four or five times in the thirty years since, and it always seems to be windy on that hill. On the ride home from Tab's office this evening: Daniel: "Where is my pee before it comes out of my penis?" Tab: "It's stored in your bladder. Your bladder is like a balloon that can stretch and get bigger or smaller." Daniel: "How does it get out of my bladder?" Me: "There is a kind of a tube called the urethra that takes the urine from your bladder through your penis." Daniel: "Our bodies are really cool, aren't they?" Me: "Just wait a few years, Dans, it gets even better!"
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