Thunderheads...towering Cumulus
Toronto - Romania Trip
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Getting ready for the big trip here. Lots to do...packing and so on. Staying busy and having a really good week :) The weather today is beautiful - for once! Temperatures will be in the seventies down here :) Maybe some big storms come Thursday and Friday...lots more heavy rain as well. We don't need any additional rainfall right now. Storm season is JUST now really starting to crank. I guess it will be a bit colder up in Toronto :) Romania will be warm though.
Wednesday...
TRIP DAY - LEAVING IN A FEW HOURS FOR TORONTO!!!!! I AM EXCITED :)
BIG BIG STORM DAY - COULD BE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND TORNADOES ACROSS THIS REGION THROUGH TONIGHT...HOPEFULLY NOT THE TIME MY PLANE IS LEAVING :)
Wednesday Evening...
We flew through thunderstorms on the way to Memphis. I took a few photos. It was actually nice to see above the clouds for once. Once in Memphis I had to wait 1 1/2 hours because of a delay. Thunderstorms moved in while we were waiting. Right when our plane was taking off there was an amazing few of thunderstorms with rolling lightning through them. The lightning would light up the billowing and majestic clouds and fill them with a glowing...the glow would then vibrate and spread down the storm line. Occasionally I could see a spike of lightning shooting out of the tops of the clouds. It was really an amazing light show. As we flew towards Toronto I could see the approaching squall line in Kentucky and Illinois. I was able to see this all the way to Ontario. REALLY amazing. I sat there and got caught up in the lights...you could see brilliant stars above in the night sky. You could then look below though and see a faint outline of what must have been the entire line of storms. I was in awe at just how huge all of this had to be. Thunderstorm tops must have been over 40.000 if not 50,000. I wondered what was going on underneath those clouds. Was someone getting hail or tornadoes. I knew it wasn't good.
I landed in Toronto at around 10:30 p.m. We made good timing. There was a 100 knot jet pushing us along. That same jet was helping to fuel the thunderstorms.
Once I had arrived I went through customs and showed my passport and on my way to the big city :) YAY Back home!
I think I tried to call as many people as I could think of and announce that I was "in" :) :) :)
Thursday...
Had a great visit with Erick last night. He told me the latest news on his music career and the fabulous trip he took down to Miami! Him and Doug both must have been in MUSIC HEAVEN! An entire conference with thousands of people from the music industry! I could see Ericks eyes light up when he told me different stories about their adventures.
I checked my email this morning. Julie had sent me an email telling me how bad things were in Pulaski County. They had to go down to their storm shelter. The winds and heavy hail were a bit much. I don't blame them after everything they have been through. I am so happy that they have a safe room now! I read the storm reports and baseball size hail was reported in portions of Alexander, Pulaski, and Massac Counties. Scary stuff. Trees were down in Grand Chain as well. ANOTHER severe thunderstorm passes through the same area. This makes the third one this year...and I have lost count on how many from last year and the year before. VERY weird.
Had fun walking around this afternoon. Went shopping for some colorful shirts and other stuff like that. Bought a couple of photography books...and got my haircut at my traditional Toronto hair cutting place!
Going out to eat tonight with Doug and Erick. Norman and I are eating lunch tomorrow...then Shawn and I are eating tomorrow night. Should be a nice weekend. My trip to Romania begins on Sunday. AN ADVENTURE AWAITS!!!
There are still small piles of snow here. LOL :) I know right?
Here are some photos from the airplane as we passed through Cumulus Clouds -
Thunderheads...towering Cumulus
Cumulus Clouds
Sun starting to go down...not landed yet (me or the Sun)
AND IT MAY SNOW HERE FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY!!!!! YES YES YES! I will HOLD OUT HOPE! LOL :)
Friday, April 1, 2005
The Pope is near death this morning. What an incredible person. Anyone who followed his life story will tell you that there was never a man like him that walked this earth. An incredible man of God. Very sad to hear the news out of Rome during the wee hours of this morning.
There was a woman who was hungry...she held out her
hands and was given a piece of
bread and the look on her face was that of thankfulness...
There was a woman who saw an animal that was
hungry...she held out her hands and gave
it some bread.
Do you see the difference....
And this is why I love photography. Photos taken yesterday afternoon on the corner of Earl Street here in Toronto at Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church.
Three Crosses below the Earl Street Skies.
Botanical Gardens here in Toronto - they are alive with
color and bloom!
Spring....
Keri showing me her birthday gift to Doug. A beautiful set of photographs of all
of us
over the past three years. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!
Keri and Beau :)
Erick and Beau
Muggles...Cheetah and Pinky together again
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We had a great time last night. Doug, Erick, Keri and I went to eat at Canoe. The food was amazing. I had Bison for the first time. It was delicious. It was nice to be back with some of my family here in the big city. I forgot just how much I miss Toronto.
Norman and Nanke went to eat out with me for lunch this afternoon. We had a great time talking about everything that is going on in the world. I think we even taught each other something. That is always a good thing. I wish I was able to get their points of views on current events more often. I miss that.
There is a huge storm coming. Major flooding for the East Coast...severe storms for the Southeast United States and HEAVY snows for this area. I think I might just see ONE last snowstorm before SPRING REALLY arrives!!!!! How fortunate is that! I LOVE my snow!
Saturday...April 2nd
Snowing hard this morning - big fluffy flakes! It is all going to change to rain soon. :( lol oh well :) at least I got to see it snow again! YAY :)
Should be an eventful 48 hours ahead. Norman and I leave for Romania tomorrow evening. It will be a very long day :) I believe the total flight time/hour change time is 19 hours! I have never had jet lag but perhaps tomorrow I will experience that for the first time.
Had fun last night with my friend Shawn. We ate at his apartment high above Wellesley Street. He has one of the nicer views of the north side of Toronto. It was nice to catch up on the latest news about what we are each doing. My friend Dru stopped by as well and while walking back to Doug and Ericks we ran into Andrew! :) So that was a nice surprise. Andrew just finished his University journey! Andrew is the guy that we will one day see on the news and go "hey I know that guy" :)
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