A Day of Extremes

When I left New York yesterday morning at 7:30 am, it was warm and rainy. I didn't even wear a coat when completing my "walkaround" (kicking the tires etc.) of my beloved B-757. We were flying Song flight 2041 to Aruba. I hadn't flown a 757 in almost 2 years and couldn't wait to fly what I consider, the "sport" model of my category. Smaller (and cooler looking) than the B-767ER we fly to Europe, it's a fun airplane to fly.

It took a little over 4 hours to get to Aruba, where it was partly cloudy and 82 degrees. It is a small island and a non-radar environment where we tell the controller our location and he clears us accordingly. We called the island in sight and were told to descend into the pattern at 1500 feet. He then cleared us for a visual approach to runway 11, which brings us in over the resort end of the island. I had a great landing, remembering to pull the power at 30 feet instead of 10, and keeping the nose from dropping.

I wish I could say we went and sipped margaritas on the beach, but instead went through security and customs (preclearing to the states, which is nice) and back to the airplane. Because the flight time round trip is longer than 8 hours, we carry 2 pilots for each leg, and I was done for the day. Since I commute back home through Boston, I went over to another gate and hopped on an American Airlines flight to Boston. Luckily the Captain agreed to give me a ride so plopped down in an open seat in first class. What a deal! I couldn't take a picture while I was flying in, so I took these on departure:


This picture has most of the island in it. Aruba is smaller than I expected!


(Not much happening on this end of the island... )

So I made it to Boston ahead of the winter storm. The front was passing over Providence RI as we flew over and it was rainy in Boston. I ran over to the Delta terminal and caught the employee bus to my car. After nearly 2 hours of miserable driving, I was almost home. The rain had turned to snow at this point, so I was happy to be home!

The wind was howling and the temperature had dropped dramatically. Around 11:00 pm we heard a loud crack! A large pine tree had fallen in our driveway and it fell the only way it could without doing damage. It fell at an angle between the house and the barn and only scraped the barn a bit as it fell. If it had fallen backwards, it would have taken out power lines so we were very lucky! Here are some pictures I took this morning:


Here's the tree trunk that snapped!

This tree fell across my husband's normal parking spot. Fortunately he puts his truck in the garage in the winter.

(The boys were out playing in the snow as I shoveled and cleared branches)


What a day!

6:30 am -- rainy, 45 degrees
12:30 pm -- sunny, 82 degrees
9:30 pm -- snowy, windy, 20 degrees