There's a new guest blogger at The Babbling Brooks who will be posting from time to time. Please welcome Legend, our grandson!
Hi, I'm Legend and I am 9 and 1 half years old. I've been learning Photoshop and making covers and I wanted to share this one because it is my best one. Thanks for looking!
We've had a mild winter. We got out the sleds only twice. We've missed the snow. Mother Nature must be feeling sorry for us because this is what we received on the second day of spring. I've enjoyed getting up to snow this week. It's been melting off the trees by late afternoon and the roads stay clear after they've been plowed in the morning. There was no new snow this morning and I'm assuming it'll warm up in the next couple of weeks. I certainly hope so...baseball practice starts soon!
Those of us born in 1956 will turn 56 this year. I've made it. Yesterday was my birthday. It was uneventful for me as we were busy with other things that needed to be taken care of. John gave a presentation to the EAA in Kalispell last night, so dinner at one of my favorite restaurants didn't happen either. Shayla, Legend, and I did go out to dinner at Trapper's Saloon and Legend and I shared a yummy ribeye steak. At home I was presented with birthday brownies decorated with a basketball candle. Yes, Legend did the decorating and I loved his choice :) The required birthday photo was taken by Legend. Not too bad for a 9 year old attempting a non-flash photo with no tripod. Thanks to all of those that sent birthday wishes via e-mail and Facebook! That dinner at Mambo's Italiano in Whitefish still awaits.... (Yes, I know there is no photo! I'm working on it. Typepad is giving me fits. It mush be punishment for lack of blogging.)
Most Americans today are remembering where they were ten years ago when they heard the news that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center in New York. I remember vividly. I had gotten up that morning and turned on the small television in the bedroom that we used to listen to the news. I showered as usual, stepped out to my hot cup of coffee (which John always had waiting for me), and started to get ready for work. I heard something about breaking news on the television and went to take a look. It struck me that something was wrong as I listened to the report. There were the pictures...it was a bright, sunny day on the east coast. How could a plane possibly have hit the building? Was the pilot disoriented, sick, unable to fly the plane? I hollored down the stairs to John to turn on the news. It just didn't make any sense. Then reports started coming in that it was an airliner of some sort. I knew what the talk was going to be about at work all day and started wondering how something could go so wrong that controllers and pilots would all miss it. Just before we were ready to go out the door to work, the second tower was hit by another plane. We now knew that this day would be like no other and had no idea what to expect when we got to the control room. We listened to the news as we drove to the control center. By then we knew that America had been attacked. It was a sickening feeling to hear that Americans had been attacked and killed on our own soil. By the time we got to work the order to clear the airspace had been issued. There had been more reports of hijacked planes and every precaution possible was being taken. I signed in and began helping get the rest of the aircraft cleared to an airport for landing. I could remember practicing this in training, but no one ever dreamed that terrorism would be the reason we'd have to do it. When our airspace was empty, it got real quiet in the control room. I think we all were a little shell shocked and just waited to see what would happen next. There was an electronic board on the wall above our heads that showed all the air traffic in the United States. It was an eerie feeling to watch those targets disappear until there were only a few left. Only the military was flying and they were doing it on their own with no help from us. It stayed that way for two weeks. We had to stay fully staffed because we never knew when the air space would be opened again and we'd be called to duty. We worked a mid-shift configuration 24 hours a day, but with next to nothing to do. Two hours after hearing the first report I was sitting in the work cafeteria watching the reports when the twin towers of the World Trade Center fell. I was horrified and in disbelief. I think that was one of the most difficult moments for me because I saw it as it happened. Private aircraft were grounded much longer than two weeks and the Cessna Skyhawk we owned at the time waited patiently in her hangar to fly again. John waited not so patiently and because we lived near a major city the restrictions on private airplanes remained longer than in other areas.
Six years ago we happened to be in New York on September 11th while we were on our way to Russia. We were able to spend the day at the World Trade Center site and be there for the memorial service. The name of each victim was read, one by one, many of them by family members who brought photos of their loved one. The reading of the names has been done every year. I hope it will continue. It was a sober reminder of all the lives lost and the unified response of America to the loss. The joined hearts on September 12th, 2001 was an amazing response by America. I hope someday we can find that strength and hope again and keep it!
That time will always be ingrained in my mind. It was so divergent from normal, so unexpected, and so life changing. That day took so much away from us. In a way it took our innocence, our innate belief that these things didn't happen in America. It happens somewhere else. That day we learned differently and we can never go back. We can never again take for granted that being in America will keep us safe from evil. We've had to make changes in the way we do things, but I hope we'll never stop doing them. I won't, because if we do...evil wins.
No, no, no...not his year. This year was uneventful. John flew to Arizona and will be coming back on Wednesday with Legend and Lennox in tow. (Legend went to Utah to visit family just after school was out and then he and Lennox spent two weeks in Arizona with Uncle Kyle and family.) Shayla worked and I hung out at home. So let's talk about last year cause that story is a lot more interesting...
Shayla and I had driven to Utah to pick up Legend and were on our way home. We'd spent the night at the rag-tag Ramada in Idaho Falls. (Note: Do not stay there. It's cheap, but there's a reason. Stay at the Best Western Cottontree Inn which is our usual stop. It's worth the extra dollars.) We left Idaho Falls on the morning of the 4th of July to make our way home to Eureka. It was getting dark when we entered Lincoln County and we were glad to be almost home. And then it happened! At milepost 165 alongside Murphy Lake there is a grassy slope down to the lake on the east side of the road. As we're buzzing northbound in ROVER (my new red Beetle) a deer was springing up the slope and into the road with the intent of crossing to the other side. I had about one second to hit the brakes hard. I must of done it cause I left tire skids on the pavement that were good enough that one of the law enforcement guys commented that the Beetle must have ABS brakes. The front air bags deployed when we hit the deer and the car immediately began to fill with smoke and the explosive smell from the bags. Shayla started asking if everyone was okay and then asking Legend cause he didn't answer right away. I was stunned for a few seconds and I think maybe had the breath knocked out of me. The air bag hit me hard in the stomach. I had a zipper image burn on my skin from the zipped sweater I was wearing and a deep purple/blue/red bruise the size of Rhode Island between my ribs and naval, also an abrasion and bruised left thumb and a swollen/bruised left knee (which I think must have hit the bottom of the dash board). Shayla and Legend were, thankfully, unhurt...but Legend was very scared because of the smoke and the loud explosion sound. I got out and grabbed him and got him to the side of the road. I went back and grabbed my purse for my phone which turned out to have a dead battery. (Legend had been messing with the GPS feature a lot that day). Shayla went back to get her phone and we realized we'd better get the car out of the road. No one was stopping to help and we were worried that someone would smack it at 70 or 80 mph, it was dark and even with the flashers on people don't pay attention.
Here's where it really goes bad....if I'd been thinking straight I would have simply tried the key to see if I could drive it to the shoulder. But no....we pushed it. Do you know how easily a Beetle will roll? We got it to the shoulder and it was then we realized it was also sloped and the car picked up speed...it was downhill from there, literally. It started down the slope and I tried to get the brake but missed. I yelled at Shayla to let it go, slipped on the grass, and got up to see my red Rover rolling down the slope to Murphy Lake. A quick list of what was in the car...laptop, camera, photos, meds, etc went through my head. It rolled into the edge of the lake and stopped! I expected to see it start to sink, but it had stopped on the only little grassy spot sticking up near the edge of the lake. There it was...high-centered on this small boggy knoll with the bottom half of the tires in the water!
As we were standing there staring at it Legend started up with, "Why did you guys do that? My (Nintendo) DS is in there!" I don't know what he was thinking, but he thought we'd pushed it over the hill on purpose :) We couldn't believe how lucky we were that it didn't have to be dragged from the bottom of the lake. Shayla headed down to see if she could get her phone and I ran back up to the road to flag someone down. A pickup full of people stopped for me and in the meantime Shayla was able to get her phone out of the car and call 911. We had the (1) MHP (2) county sheriff (3) Fish, Game, & Wildlife and (4) US Forest Service all respond. The ranger said he was with the border patrol and they all looked at each other with weird looks when they heard a call that the car wheels were the only thing in the water. They helped us get most of the things out of the car before the tow truck pulled it up to the road just in case something happened in the process. We still didn't know for sure if it was driveable, but it appeared to be. They were able to get the crumpled hood open and the engine looked undamaged. It's built with a "crumple zone" to take the impact and it looked like it worked. The hood, right fender and headlight, the front bumper area and grills, and a mount under the radiator had to be replaced. There was also some damage to the driver door. It was open when the car started to roll and hit the mile post marker. They were able to repair that without replacing it. We learned that in a Volkswagen when the air bags are deployed the seat belts also automatically release after the crash and roll themselves all the way out so no one is trapped. Great idea! But it also means that all the seat belts have to be completely replaced. With all that labor involved the cost was over $9000! Now we know why our insurance went up when we left the city and moved to the country. The deer? It was thrown 50-60 feet and landed on the side of the road. It was a yearling and had not had a fawn, so there was no orphaned Bambi. Safeco must have loved us last year for adding this to the other big pay out they had to make. That's a story for another time...
We're back in the USA! We had an amazing trip to Israel and I'll be posting about it when we get home. We're in New York now and will be seeing "Wicked" on Broadway tonight. Tomorrow we're flying to Knoxville to visit the Martinis for a few days...assuming the coming blizzard doesn't postpone those plans!
I got back from New Orleans late Monday night after a great week with my sisters and some geneology hunting in Arkansas on the way home. Here's a sneak peak!
