Still dicing with fate

    I'm now up to four miraculous saves from trees for the drone in three days. Today's rescue, also at USC's Horseshoe (or if you aren't from here, the nice part) required throwing a hiking boot at it. I was very much expecting to lose the hiking boot, too. The kick in the head (besides the hiking boot) is that I only went there because it's really pretty and I wanted some pictures from the drone camera of something other than me and none of the pictures were interesting at all, especially not the ones I was too focused on trying to take such that I wound up running it into the tree in the first place.
    I'm scanning what I wrote already and I don't think I've discussed the oint in the flyment (Thanks Terry!), which is that the video comes out in avi format. This is huge and can't be viewed on my phone. I have to convert it either to wmv to see it on my phone or to mp4 to share to Facebook. Not a major issue, but if anybody wants to get a Syma quadcopter, this is about the only criticism I have to make. Well, that and the fact that it'll probably be up a tree permanently soon, but that's all my fault. But seriously, I may as well blog the heck out of dronyism; how long is this likely to last? My sister said she was glad I liked it, especially as this means she can just get me another one every few months. Fair enough, no doubt.

Drone people

    I met my first fellow dronians. It was more than a little bit of a relief, as I was starting to wonder. Here I am playing with the best toy ever and nobody seemed to be taking a blind bit of notice. Granted that I'm grumpy and mean looking at the best of times, but it's a freaking quadcopter! Geez! Anyway, a couple were at Canal Park with a quadcopter somewhat larger than and upmarket from mine. Monsieur was much more charged about it than madam. I broached the topic (since I had no visible drone) by mentioning that mine was in the trunk of my car. I was worried about the proximity of the river and told him so. He said that that's what makes it fun, when it gets dangerous. I saw him flying later; he was much better than me, but he wasn't exactly skimming the river either (although he was way closer than I ever got).
    I took mine to Earlewood Park, where there's a very well-kempt ballfield that isn't secured in any way. As I wasn't goint to do any harm, I didn't feel guilty (though I do feel white-privileged) about invading. It was, of course, crazy-stupid fun. I also did some flying in a clearing in the neighborhood, where I freed Droni Moroni from a tree for the third time. (Jumped up, grabbed a branch, shook it down.) Yesterday late in the afternoon, Paul and I flew it a while at the Horseshoe at the University, where there are way too many big trees. That was the second time I got Droni out of a tree. We tried throwing Paul's flip-flop but we're the worst throwers ever, so I just flew it out of there, which was way more satisfying. Also impossible if it had been any worse ensconsed, but sometimes heaven favors its idiots with luck. This was one of those times.

Quadcopter

    The drone has been with me for 2 1/2 days and I haven't destroyed it yet, although it isn't for not trying. I flew it around in the kitchen a bit the evening that I got it just enough to realize that this wasn't a really fabulous idea. The next morning I flew it in the yard in hopes of getting a picture of the magnolia blossoms that only start about 20 feet in the air. This wasn't such a hot idea either. As I mentioned, I crashed it in one of the red cedars in front of my door. It was a plain miracle that it was exactly high enough but no higher such that I could get it down. Years ago, a tree fell on our cyclone fence, destroying part of it. Fence posts are hard to uproot but fence poles (the horizontal part) are easy to carry off and "neighbors" did so. But one was left so I liberated it. Getting up on my lawn chair, I brought my little friend down. It would barely fly, but I had been burning up the battery to make a noise so I could find the darn thing (red cedars are pretty dense). When I charged it up again, though it was fine.
    Yesterday, I took it to the park. It's remarkable how few tree-free areas there are around here. There's the river, but that doesn't help. Fortunately school is out today, so a lot of athletic fields suddenly become available. (Hopefully!) I had silly giggly fun flying it about and kept it out of the river and out of trees. Eventually it became too windy so I actually bailed before the battery ran out.
    Today I tried to combine my interests in hiking and aeronautics and went to a spot on 12,000 Year Historical Park trail where there is an underground natural gas line and thus the trees are cleared to road width. (The park I picked yesterday, Canal Park, is also dominated by high tension power lines which did indeed introduce an element of, you know, high tension.) The cleared area looks a lot smaller when you're trying to fly a drone than when you're hiking by. But it was a pretty good spot and I had fun. Interesting thing as that there are several switches for fine tuning flight but I never got around to trying them. The quadcopter seemed to correct itself, which was lucky. My first few experiences were very much "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD! THING REALLY FLIES!" which probably didn't help. But I don't think I was all THAT panicky; I think it's just flying better. Eventually I got a good enough hover that I could take pictures of it and with it. They haven't turned out great, but I bet a cloudier day will help. Dang thing is major fun; when the spare battery arrives and I can play with it twice as long, I'll be dangerous. (It takes an hour and a half to get eight or nine minutes fly time. Always a fly in the ointment!)

Exciting stuff

    ...that I'm probably too tired to post about. Forgive it please if I'm as brief as I can be. As today is worth about three blog entries, I'll probably wind up making it into that. First, I got my drone yesterday. Since FedEx brought it to the front apartment instead of to me, I didn't get it until dark though, so I couldn't play with it until today. It was mega-crazy fun! Also, the camera is surprisingly good. I crashed it high in a tree, but miraculously got it down, and played with it again in a more open area. I'll kill it sooner or later, but right now, what fun!
    This is one of those little annoying things not worthy of recording except to set up what followed. As I've said, my bank machine ate my ATM card last week and I was sore annoyed. But the bank sent another card the next day no problem. However, now they've sent another. It's identical except now the Member Since space is filled in. Also, there was no sticker with the validation phone number on it. So I went to the bank to ask what it was all about. They didn't know either so I tried it in the ATM to see if it needed validation. It didn't. But the driver's side window wouldn't go back up. And we are expecting rain.
    So I called the Toyota dealership that offers rent a car and asked if they had anything cool like an Avalon and they said not. So I called the closer Toyota dealership to see if they could manage a loaner and they said not. So I went to the far away one with rent a car. When I got there (4 pm), the service rep suggested that since they're open until 7, they might be able to get it done today. So I went to the waiting room and took extensive advantage of the free WiFi. Eventually I was offered a choice between after market parts for less money and being finished today or Toyota parts for more money and having to wait until Saturday. I bet you can guess what I chose. So they had me out the door again by 6:30, and I'm fairly pro Dick Dyer Toyota right now. Out $400 so not crazy pro, but comparatively well pleased. I still think I could have gotten that window up if I could find a big enough tweezers!

Scattered showers all over my daily walk

    Given the situation in Texas, I reiterate that I am NOT complaining about the weather. We are very lucky not to be under water. It's just odd that on a day when there seems to be very little rain, sporadic and brief, it decided to POUR the minute I tried to take a walk. And it rained every time I got into or out of my car going to or from a store. I started feeling like that character from L'il Abner whose name I'm not going to try to spell but who always had a rain cloud over his head.
    When I got home, it was gorgeous, but of course it clouded over within minutes. We have more important things to worry about where I live, although I don't know if it made national news. A gasoline tanker was involved in a fiery 10-vehicle accident on the main commuter route into and out of town this morning. The interstate was closed for hours although amazingly it's open again already. Equally amazing, no one has died at least as of yet. Pretty alarming stuff, makes me even gladder than usual that I don't commute. I'm not sure if the weather was a factor or not.

You're getting even while I'm getting odd

    (The above is the title of the first post Peter Wolf J. Geils Band record, which anyone who knows me even slightly could guess I went out and bought immediately because of the title. Or anyway eventually. Generally, it was a waste of space, although one number, I Will Carry You Home, was very much worth the trouble.)
    I've always had a phobia about or anyway a predilection against odd numbers. I don't care for odd years and I don't care especially for the more than half of every odd year where my age is also odd. However, this year has been so abysmal, I'm doing a rethink. Maybe it's worse to have an even numbered age in an odd numbered year. Maybe when both the year and age are odd, the fact that added together they make an even number makes everything all right. Yes I know it's insane, but hey-- all superstition is. If I can come up with a formula that lets me feel like I can have a happier time with the rest of the year, I think I'll run with it.
    For my birthday, yet another zebra butterfly taunted me and almost let me take its picture. I'm pretty sure supermodels would be easier.

Everything

    Oh maybe not everything. But as smart phones approach toward becoming one's everything-- toy, library, connection to the wider world, and, you know, phone-- it gets alarming when the battery runs down. Today I took a long walk and the butterflies gamboled and frolicked... unless my phone camera was switched on in which case, they scarcified. But I couldn't help it; I kept switching it on in the fantasy that I might just once get a picture. The funnest ones are zebra swallowtails. I've seen pictures, so somebody can certainly photograph them, but it isn't me. They would buzz my head if the camera phone was safely in my pocket but might as well not exist if it was in my hand and ready for action.
    You burn a lot of battery keeping the camera ready for minutes on end. I did get some pictures of another favorite butterfly, a swallowtail that might be the black form of the tiger swallowtail or it might be the spicebush or pipevine. They all mimic one another and my skills do not extend to telling them apart. The zebra would not cooperate, however, but I had a lot of fun trying to get a shot. Mercifully, the charger brings the phone back up to snuff very fast, which is lucky, because I'm supposed to be using it to read my friend Joe Abramos' very fine new novel Circling The Runway and give it a five-star review on Amazon. (I'm not just handing it out; I've read more than 3/4 and it definitely merits the five stars.) See? Everything!