Waiting for Atlantis
Jun. 22nd, 2007 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keladry_lupinThe space shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert about half an hour ago. Once I read via Yahoo news that it would be landing here, I called a few people, among them my dad:
ring, ring, ring.
Dad: Hello.
Me: Hi!
Dad: What's up?
Me: The space shuttle is landing at Edwards.
*one-second pause*
Dad: It's too late for us to drive out there, though.
Too true -- Edwards is a good five hours from Long Beach -- but I wanted him to know about it, and he taped the landing for me. (Yes, I am a geek.)
I decided to wait outside for the two-part sonic boom. It's a lovely day out there. I sat on a bench under a tree and just watched it all go by:
- hummingbirds chasing each other and chirping in their kissy-noise way,
- the smell of the eucalyptus trees and the occasional sniff of the sea,
- a beetle with very loud wings buzzing by my head,
- something hit my leg; thank goodness it was a leaf and not bird shit,
- feeling the warm sun that made it through the leaves,
- didn't want to concentrate enough to read my book,
- watched the mass exodus of a couple hundred former law students emerging from their Bar Exam prep class, get in their cars, and form queues at the parking gates,
- and one of the hummingbirds performed acrobatics: he flew about twenty feet up, dove, looped back up again, dove again, looped one more time, and flew to examine the tree under which I sat.
Ba-ba-BOOM, Boom!
It shook the air in a way that was almost visible, though it wasn't terribly loud. It scared a few dozen birds from their branches and set off a couple of car alarms, though, which were louder than the boom itself.
Grinning like a fool, I went back inside. Thus ends my lunch.
I worked late last night (10:30) and then came in early this morning (7:15); I got about three hours of sleep. (Anxiety hits me like a sledgehammer during the end-of-fiscal-year mess.) But coming in early means I get to leave early; I'm going to get some Chinese for lunch at my favorite place, take it home and eat it, clean a bit, then hunker down to get some writing done.
(I also called Mom -- this is one of her Aunt Millie weekends -- to tell her about the sonic boom. While we talked, she told me that Aunt Millie's son, Jim, is taking his daughters to the mountains for Independence Day. I've been invited to spend the Fourth with them! I'll go up after work on Tuesday, spend the night, swim all day until I'm red as a cooked lobster, then we'll barbecue some fish for dinner and have something yummy for dessert. Sounds like a perfect day to me!)
ring, ring, ring.
Dad: Hello.
Me: Hi!
Dad: What's up?
Me: The space shuttle is landing at Edwards.
*one-second pause*
Dad: It's too late for us to drive out there, though.
Too true -- Edwards is a good five hours from Long Beach -- but I wanted him to know about it, and he taped the landing for me. (Yes, I am a geek.)
I decided to wait outside for the two-part sonic boom. It's a lovely day out there. I sat on a bench under a tree and just watched it all go by:
- hummingbirds chasing each other and chirping in their kissy-noise way,
- the smell of the eucalyptus trees and the occasional sniff of the sea,
- a beetle with very loud wings buzzing by my head,
- something hit my leg; thank goodness it was a leaf and not bird shit,
- feeling the warm sun that made it through the leaves,
- didn't want to concentrate enough to read my book,
- watched the mass exodus of a couple hundred former law students emerging from their Bar Exam prep class, get in their cars, and form queues at the parking gates,
- and one of the hummingbirds performed acrobatics: he flew about twenty feet up, dove, looped back up again, dove again, looped one more time, and flew to examine the tree under which I sat.
Ba-ba-BOOM, Boom!
It shook the air in a way that was almost visible, though it wasn't terribly loud. It scared a few dozen birds from their branches and set off a couple of car alarms, though, which were louder than the boom itself.
Grinning like a fool, I went back inside. Thus ends my lunch.
I worked late last night (10:30) and then came in early this morning (7:15); I got about three hours of sleep. (Anxiety hits me like a sledgehammer during the end-of-fiscal-year mess.) But coming in early means I get to leave early; I'm going to get some Chinese for lunch at my favorite place, take it home and eat it, clean a bit, then hunker down to get some writing done.
(I also called Mom -- this is one of her Aunt Millie weekends -- to tell her about the sonic boom. While we talked, she told me that Aunt Millie's son, Jim, is taking his daughters to the mountains for Independence Day. I've been invited to spend the Fourth with them! I'll go up after work on Tuesday, spend the night, swim all day until I'm red as a cooked lobster, then we'll barbecue some fish for dinner and have something yummy for dessert. Sounds like a perfect day to me!)
