Monday, August 31, 2020

Monday, August 31, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2009. Mattie was in the hospital, and surrounded in the child life playroom by all his hospital friends. Next to Mattie was Liz. Liz was one of the visiting artists who came in periodically and worked with the children and families. Liz's gift and talents revolved around poetry and capturing feelings and thoughts using the written word. Mattie was a rich target, because he always had something to say. Mattie liked Liz and allowed her into his world, which he did not do for just any visitor. Over the course of the year, these two produced many joint works of art together. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 6,023,368
• number of people who died from the virus: 183,431

I woke up at 4am today, in order to get showered, dressed, make breakfast for my parents, and clean up before catching my ride to the airport at 5:30am. I said good-bye to my parents (of course my dad was still in bed, as he wakes up officially at 8am), which of course was bittersweet. 

I continue to love how empty the LAX airport is, the one and only positive from the COVID lockdown. Typically trying to drive to the airport can take up to 2 hours because of the horrific traffic. Today, I was at the airport within 30 minutes. Everyone in the airport is less stressed and harried. Which makes flying that much easier. 

We had a wonderful pilot today on American Airlines! In all my years of flying, I have never had a pilot greet each of his passengers. He stood in the aisle and made a general announcement about the newness of the plane, the challenges of wearing a face mask during the flight but why it was important, and also he apologized that flight attendants would not be able to service customers given FAA regulations during COVID. He then walked up and down the aisle saying hi to passengers. Frankly I think every pilot should do this. It was a beautiful touch point and for a person who doesn't like to fly, it helped me to know who was flying to the plane. Don't you know he said goodbye to every passenger too! 

I snapped this photo as we were taking off from LAX. Do you see the Southwest  plane taking off on the other runway?

It was very foggy and misty in LA this morning, so I did not capture the best coast line shot. I wasn't sure how the flight would be, given the pilot said we would experience turbulence from St. Louis, onward to Washington DC. Fortunately in my opinion it was very tolerable and I had no problem. Though anytime a plane takes off and lands, it is a good flight. 

When we climbed up through the clouds, we could see the top of Catalina Island. One of the peaks on the Island is over 2,000 feet tall. 

Rest assured, one thing I can always find in Washington, DC is grayness, clouds, and rain. 

When I arrived back home I wasn't sure what kind of greeting I would get from Sunny! But he did not disappoint! 

He may have been with Peter for a month, but he has returned to his old ways of following me everywhere!