Monday

An Air France airliner was lost over the Atlantic Ocean last night flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The Aerobus 330-200 was carrying 228 passengers and crew when it went down in bad weather about 4-5 hours after it left Rio. As much as I like to travel to Australia (five trips so far and I'll do it as often as I can) this is the only thing that can creep me out about the trip...something going wrong and literally disappearing somewhere out over the blackness of the Pacific Ocean. My philosophy about flying has always been that once I'm on the plane everything is out of my hands and my control. I leave it up to God and decide to just go enjoy the trip. My feeling is that the pilots have plans for the upcoming weekend, too, and are just as interested in getting to the destination safely as I am. Mutual interests are always good....


I still miss Farley. I'm getting used to him not being here but his sleeping spot in the living room continues to have that empty look. I sometimes catch myself dodging around there when it's dark and I'm heading off to bed. When he was alive I always had to make sure I didn't accidentally kick him in the nose, head, feet, or butt (depending on how he was laying) since I usually couldn't see anything after the lights went out. So I'd make these exaggerated movements around him to avoid any contact and then bend down to pet him goodnight. Like I said, sometimes I find myself still doing that, and then I'll stop to squat down for a look as if he's still there. Jonnene told me that she finds herself doing that every once in a while, too. Who knows? Maybe he IS there for a short visit from Up Top to check on us and that's why we make that move? Maybe we can feel him there?

I checked on his grave at the Bossier house earlier today when I had to let a technician do a maintenance check on the A/C and heating units there. I talked to him a bit and admired how the grass has really filled in...you almost can't tell where the digging marks are anymore! The ground has settled some so next time I'm there I'll throw some more dirt to fill it in. I wonder what he chased up in Heaven today?

We had a large group for the 5:50 morning ride, eleven of us and it was a little faster than usual. I took the first pull on the parkway and kept it at around 22-23 mph to give everyone a chance to hang on and not get dropped. So I pull off and it's off to the races after that! My apologies for going so slowly! I got home almost 10 minutes sooner than I usually do and that was with some added hill repeats as I got back into the neighborhood. Jonnene and I are thinking of doing the Racing Rapides Stage Race down in Alexandria this weekend...well, I'm thinking....she's pretty much decided to suffer thru it.