The Planes Were Everywhere

Just one picture today because all of the others I took look identical to this one. I decided to share this one because it's a little different than the stuff I usually share. These planes kept flying closely overhead, so I finally decided to get a few pictures of at least one.

There was obviously an airport near where I was, but I never asked anyone about it or tried to find out. I just wanted to enjoy the different kinds of small planes I kept seeing flying above me. This one was the biggest. I wish I would have thought to get some of the others.

Maybe I could have turned up the brightness in this picture to show the plane a little better, but I haven't really been editing my pictures since I got the new camera. The picture shows the propellers stopped in motion. I guess that's something. I want to learn how to show motion a little bit though.

I've been trying to show something a little different with each post. This plane should fit that well. I still don't know what's coming next. I've been trying to go to places with at least a little bit of natural beauty or something to learn. I'll have to decide something good for my next trip. I'll talk to you next time.

Birds In Flight

I have focused my attention to the sky from time to time. There are many different things up there that are hard to ignore. Whenever I plan to take pictures of birds I always heads straight for an area at one park where there are birds in the trees.

The only problem is that they don't stay there for long. They always fly away just when I try to get my shot. I usually stand there and helplessly watch them fly away. The other day though I lifted the camera in quick draw fashion, like a cowboy, and pulled the trigger. I was right on target.

That bird was lucky he wasn't an old west bad guy because he would've gone down with a thud while the townsfolk cheered me on. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm getting pretty good at aiming my camera at moving objects. I still don't know how I got so lucky to center this bird with only one shot.

This picture shows the first flock of birds that I've had the opportunity to get a picture of. I guess that's because I spend most of my time under the trees of the forest. There just isn't the same view when I have to look up through the branches.

Click on the pictures to get a better look at the different poses these flying birds are now frozen forever into.

Here's the second photo of this same high flying flock. This one shows more of the birds. They were flying by at top speed so I didn't have much time before they disappeared over the trees and they were gone forever. I'm glad I happened to look up just as they passed by overhead.

This last one happens to be one of the bigger birds I've seen out there. It was so big that it made a strange buzzing whirring sound as it flew over. It also didn't seem to have to flap it's wings very often because I didn't see it do it even once. And it had one of the strangest shaped tails I've ever seen on a bird. Odd, very odd.

So there we are! I hope you liked this short look at birds in flight today. I know it was kind of goofy, but this wouldn't be The Everyday Adventurer if it wasn't, now would it.

Because Of The Huge Windstorm

I'm back! It probably wasn't even noticeable that I was gone, but I was. We had a huge windstorm! As a result, my electricity was gone for about a day and a half. I got lucky, because I had a post already queued up for yesterday. I was able to answer a few comments yesterday, from another computer, but that was all I could do here.

It was sometime in the middle of the night when my power went out. The wind sounded, and felt, like it was going to blow my house away. I'm glad I'm a mouse, and not a little pig, or I might be homeless right now. When the lights went out, I looked out the window, and saw bright flashes down the street.

It turned out to be a power line that had been knocked down by something. The huge flash, and the light it was giving off, brightened up the night. Everything was bright, except the things that were supposed to be, including my house. It must have been a very violent scene down there that night. I'm glad I wasn't anywhere near it.

The first photo above shows the area where the power line went down. They had to block the road, so that nobody would be killed by it. I really had nothing better to do than to drive around looking at the destruction. I don't like when people do that, but I had a reason. If I didn't do it, I wouldn't be able to report on it here.

For miles around, the traffic lights were out. Luckily the other drivers, for the most part, followed the rules of the road at these intersections. It was much easier getting through these areas than I expected. There were of course the crazies out there, but not really as many as there could have been.

I actually drove around for several hours looking at these things. I was hoping they would fix the power quickly, but it was obvious to me that it wasn't going to happen. I really hate when the power goes out like this. If it was warmer outside, it wouldn't be so bad. Since it's the middle of winter, it was a small disaster.

Here's something funny that I saw along the way. Look closely at the pickup. There are painted flames on it. This is an official truck from the fire department. Of course, you can see the official markings all over it. This is the only place that I have ever seen something like this. They must get a lot of money for this. Maybe somebody donated this. I really don't know.

As you can see, there are plenty of firemen and trucks from the fire department, but there is no sign of anything from the electric company. They must have been very busy, so they couldn't get to this yet. I really have no idea how many places like this there were around here. I didn't have much access to the news for a long time.

This is another scene that was repeated very many times near me. I took around a dozen pictures like this one. There were trees down everywhere I went. I saw another place with a row of trees down, and there were just as many more there that were ready to fall.

These others were uprooted about halfway, but had not fallen yet. I don't know what happens to them when they're like that, but I guess I'm going to find out. I couldn't get any shots of these, because of heavy traffic, but I'm sure you can imagine just from what's in the picture above.

Take a closer look at the size of this tree. There is a house behind it. The tree is almost bigger than the house. These were powerful winds that knocked that tree down. I wonder what kind of devastation these winds did at some of the nature parks.

Since I wasn't in any great hurry to go home, I decided to check out some of the parks. Woodland Hills has a history of fallen trees that I've documented here a few times before. I halfway knew what I might find when I went there, and I wasn't wrong.

I kind of figured it would be closed to the public on this day. I was right. I would have liked to go in there and see what became of this forest, but I wasn't going to do it even if this place was open. I'm guessing that it's not a very safe place to be right now. Trees seem to fall down in there every time there's a large storm. I'll check it out as soon as it's safe.

Well, that's a small sampling of what happened. My electricity came back on about forty five minutes before I got home from work on Monday. Before that, I had to stay with relatives. A day and a half before it came back. I'm happy to be able to sleep in my own bed again.

I'd like to say that the power outage is not really an everyday adventure, but my power goes out at least once a year. Usually it's during the summer, so it's not so bad. You would think they'd figure this out, and fix it in my area. I hope that's it for this year.

I had planned on showing another odd bit of weather. The snow that I've been showing lately is gone! Over a foot of snow melted in just one day! I have pictures of some of the flooding that it caused. I'll show you some of these things in the upcoming days, unless something else happens.

As I write this, the wind is blowing again. It's not as bad as before, and I hope it's not going to be another problem. I've had enough of this wind for now. Tomorrow will be a better day, and I'll be back to my hiking. I hope I'll have more time on here then too. See you then.

Covered In Ice

Yesterday morning when I went outside, I discovered everything was covered in ice. Unfortunately, I never thought at the time to take any pictures of the ice that was everywhere. The photos here are from a week ago, but they still fit the story, you'll see.

I've talked before about our unpredictable weather here. Well, we've gone from bitter cold to warm and raining. This morning it was too warm to snow, so it rained. The big problem was that it was still cold enough for the rain to freeze once it touched the ground.

And it did freeze in a big way. It wasn't a very big ice storm, as far as ice storms go, but it was just big enough to cause problems for anyone who was stupid enough to venture out. That would be me. I didn't really want to be out there, but sometimes you just can't avoid these things. I almost turned right around and went back inside.

As soon as got outside, I saw that there was ice covering everything, including my truck. Ice is probably the worst thing to have to scrape off of a vehicle. You only have to push snow off, but as I said, you have to scrape ice. It's not easy, and you have to get it off the windshield to see anything. Not fun at all!

I got the truck cleaned off and drove out to the road. There were car accidents every few blocks on my street alone. It was like driving on a wet sheet of glass. One false move and you could end up crashing your car. Hit the brakes to hard and you'd never stop.

The only thing to do was to drive very slowly, and be very careful with you brakes. Not everyone understands this, even people who've experienced this kind of thing before. That makes extra problems for everyone. Even if your driving is fine, someone else might have a problem close by your car. Then you're both in trouble.

I saw people that didn't want to use any common sense. They were driving way too fast, and too close to other vehicles. They were sliding around all over the place, but they still didn't have the sense to slow down. You would think they would begin to understand. Where is their sense of danger?

Others were in accidents even when they did nothing wrong. There was a car that had slid off the road into a snowbank. He was stuck with no way out. No rescue would come for hours, because everyone was busy. He'd have to wait his turn. There were others like that along the way, but to many to talk about.

I did what I had to do without incident, and I was grateful that I made it back home safe and sound. After getting back home, I decided that today wasn't really a good day to go back out. If it's not the cold stopping me, it's something else. Maybe tomorrow will work out a little better.


Related Posts

• Unpredictable Winter
  
• C-C-C-Cold
• After The Blizzard
• Cold And Snowy
• The Mist
  

Why Did The Geese Cross The Road?

You know the answer! To get to the other side. That's an old one, but it applies pretty well here. What? You thought it would be something different? I can't just change a joke around like that. Oh... Geese, chicken. Whatever!

Seriously, these geese were going across to join the larger section of the flock. I told you about this gigantic flock of geese yesterday. If you want to know more about it, take a look at "The Biggest Flock Of Geese I've Ever Seen." It's a really good story.

I like the way the geese started crossing the road and stopped traffic. I think most people around here would run over their own grandmothers, if they were in a hurry. But these birds had them waiting patiently. For one thing, it's against the law to hurt them. And for another, the geese are so cute. I guess grandmothers aren't as cute as geese.

Here's a picture of the last two stragglers. I wonder what they get for being last. You can see by their flapping wings that they're worried about it. Maybe they're just showing off for the people in that car. You know they won't get run over for it.

I like the way the geese formed a neat orderly line so they could cross. Humans always seem to have so much trouble doing that. Who's the smartest creature now? I know I'm no bird brain!

Do you think that car would've waited so patiently for me, if I had fallen in line behind those geese? Really. I mean it. Leave me an answer in the comments section.

View From The Top

More from the Clarenceville bridge. I took these pictures from the middle of the bridge while I was walking across. You can see just about forever from up here. What a great view, and what a great feeling, being up here above traffic, looking out at the horizon. This kind of everyday adventure makes me really appreciate civilization.

Did I ever mention that I like bridges?

UFO

I took this picture of a helicopter, and when I was looking at it later, I saw that it appeared to be chasing a UFO. You can see it in the top corner.
...Just kidding, but that bug is unidentified, I don't know what it is. I thought it was kind of cool the way the sizes matched up in the picture. Sometimes if you want to find an adventure, just look up. You can do that at least every day.