On A Wing and A Prayer...11/15/14

Or - It's Chilly, Willy...

It were cold today!!

Very, very, very cold!!

It was, freeze the water in the bird bath about an inch deep, cold.

Hahaha, let's play frisbee!!

The past few cold days have conspired to freeze the water in both bird baths and it hasn't let up. In fact, I took this out of the big bird bath this morning so the birds could get something to drink. The disk of water was still frozen on the grass where I put it when we got back this afternoon.

Muy frio, y'all!!

Mas muy frio.

On the plus side, we had a small ice rink should the birds want to do any ice skating. Also, we've got a new, novel way of preserving leaves...for a while.

But it was, ultimately, a very nice day...even if a bit chilly.

And it was a day of nothing, really. A busy nothing day. I like 'em!! 

We stopped by St Vinnie's in Renton this morning and then did some shopping at Wally's. Needed some spaghetti...whole wheat spaghetti to go with the turkey ground meat and no salt tomato sauce for our dinner tonight.

Hahaha, healthy and tasty!! 

Then we went out and dropped off a couple of books at Tom's. I had an instruction book and DVD I had gotten for the Canon D50 I'm letting Tom use and wanted to get those over to him so they'd all be together and, maybe, he'd read the one and watch the other and become the wonderful photographer he is capable of becoming.

Maybe.

And, just because it's sorta fun to rummage around, we stopped at the St. Vinnie's out in Kent, too. Almost bought a book from 1904. Like most things, I has to ruminate over it for a while before I makes a big purchase.

Then it was over to the bank to check on a couple things and, finally, a quick trip to the Dollar Tree. Hahaha, spice drops, tootsie rolls and chocolate chip cookies...all the necessaries plus a few other dollar-size essentials.

Since we were out that way and since we had nothing else to do, that retired thingie, y'know, we decided to stop by Coulon Park and see how the leaves were doing now that we were well into Autumn.

They weren't doing well.

Not well at all.

Hahaha, what a difference some heavy winds make.

Speaking of winds, we strolled over to the marina and saw they were having a regatta. There were six sturdy sailing craft out on the lake engaged in a spirited race around a laid out course.

As near as I can figure, the only thing that is powered, remotely of course, on these things is the rudder. Otherwise, like the sailing craft of old, they're powered solely by the wind. Thinking about it, I would suppose the masts would have to be remotely powered, too. You know, in order to manipulate the sails so they can tack and take advantage of whatever way the wind is blowing...sorta like Bill Clinton did as president.

Here's two of them coming into a sharp turn. It slowed them down considerably until they were able to get into a position to use the wind.

The crowds were going wild, cheering on their favorite.

Reminds me of a chanty my Mom used to sing...this is all I remember of it...

Bell Bottom trousers

Coat of Navy Blue,

I love my sailor

And I know he loves me, too!!

It was fun to watch the sailboats.

There were plenty of other spectators, too. Like this mean looking little &#%@*. Look at that Evil Eye he's giving me. 

Most of the time he just ignored me. 

No food?

No interest.

There's still a bit of the Autumn color left over here. This was just beyond the picnic float going north up Lake Washington.

Ah, here's one of the sailboats waiting to be loaded for the trip home. 

A final look at what was once a road covered in a blaze of glory. It's barely recognizable now.

It's beginning to look a bit like Winter.

We stopped at an overlook over the Renton Municipal Airport. As we were driving out in the morning we'd seen an unusual plane across the landing strip and I wanted to stop for a closer look on the way home.

So I did.

And as I started towards the grass to get a better view, and shot, of the airplane, I saw this plump little fellow, an American Robin, just calmly taking in the sun.

He was relatively fearless...of me at any rate. He moved, begrudgingly, to accommodate me as I came up the slight rise to get a view of the plane. 

Here's the jet that caught our eye this morning. 

Hahahaha, I did not miss the irony of this jet plane being painted up like a bird.

I don't know where he's going to or which airlines he'll be flying for but, hahahaha, they did a good job of painting him up.

As I started to leave, Tubby was able to lift off the ground and he made it to a nearby tree. Getting ready for the winter, I guess.

When we had been over at Coulon Park, we'd seen an eagle flying very high above us and moving southeast towards the airfield. We lost him in the sun but, still, were happy to have seen even the little we did.

So we're heading home along Rainier Ave which takes us past the airfield and the lake and decided to stop by our park just to see what was happening.

Sure enough, as we pulled up, I saw the eagle floating up around the Eagle Tree. We hopped out quick-like and I was able to get these pictures. Mind you, I put it on continuous and just started firing away...these are the best, sadly, out of about 50-60 pictures.

I was able to track him using the viewfinder and that was way cool. I'll get better as I practice with it a bit more but I was satisfied with most of what I did today with my new camera.

I like this one.

And he went to his tree. We didn't see Junior today. 

Not much of a day. Took the fans out to the garage and brought the heater back in. Had some fun visiting the Vinnie's. Got some good grub to eat. Watched a couple football games. (What happened to Nebraska!?!?!) Rejoiced that New Mexico State didn't lose this weekend. 

(They had a bye.)

And basked in the reflected good glow of having seen, and shot, the eagle.

That's some good living, y'all.

Life is good.

     Hooah!!