Tag: flying

Surviving the Wrath of the Flying Gods!

My travels to and from Oregon were good. Flights were on time for the most part with perhaps a 15 minute delay between them. As there were at least 90 minutes between Burbank – San Francisco and San Francisco – Redmond, and on the reverse, nothing happened there.

A few days before I left I had to jump out of the way of a car that could have hit me and wrenched my left ankle, but I decided to go on my trip despite my discomfort. On the way home, it was really acting up, so I requested and got wheelchair service, and that made a big difference. I used United to fly, rather than Hell-ta, and am glad I did after seeing their meltdown after the CrowdStrike disaster.

And so, I survived the wrath of the Flying Gods – they attacked after I came back with CrowdStrike’s catastrophic push of a Windows-based patch. How did that happen? Didn’t they test it in a development environment before pushing it to production? Hard to believe.

Oregon! I do enjoy visiting there – such beauty, from wild beaches, woodlands, to high desert. I reconnected with a college room mate from years ago, and with whom I have remained friends with for 50 some odd years.

The first night in Bend, Oregon, I spent at my friend Stephanie’s house. Our plans were pretty low key – a few days on the coast, and the remainder inland in Bend. First, though, get settled for the night before heading west to the coast.

I landed, Stephanie picked me up, we had something to eat and then went to settle down for the night. Visiting good friends like Jay and Stephanie is always wonderful – we pick up where we left off as if time and distance do not exist.

Iowa Flappers

A couple of months ago  I posted the live link to the webcam of the eagle’s nest in Decorah, Iowa.  At that point,the eaglets were tottering around and just a few days out of the egg.  Today, they are grown into young eagles as big as their parents.  Still dependent on their parents for food, they are now practicing flying by flapping and flapping their wings.

Today, one is able to get a bit airborne.  The other is not far behind.  A third, though, has me a bit worried – it likes to stay lying down for the most part it seems, even though it does get up to walk around the nest.    Since I can’t tell them apart, it may be a different one that stays lying down while the others wander and flap.

Eventually, the eaglets will fly to a branch.  And then another, and then soar away.  I am  not sure at what age they become fully independent, but it is always exciting to watch them grow and flap and fly every year.