The world is OK again

Yesterday driving to work I saw a bald eagle on 520 again! I actually yelled out loud, “Yes!” I wasn’t on the bus, so it was alright to yell.

Goodbye, Eddie

Remember how I kept seeing bald eagles when I’d drive or ride the bus into the city? And remember how the eagles would always be in the same spot on the bridge?

Well it turns out that it was always the same eagle. His name is Eddie. He has a Twitter page.

Also, he got hit by a bus last week.

So now there’s nothing good about this state.

Double mind-blowing!

On the bus heading to work I just saw two bald eagles sitting next to each other on the same ugly statue! Just when you think you’re getting used to it, those eagles go and do something even more amazing! Like sitting there! Next to each other! At the same time! I was so excited I could barely stand it.

If my was phone/camera wasn’t so slow I’d have taken a picture, but I knew I wouldn’t have gotten it in time. I should have just screamed for the driver to stop the bus so we could all behold the miracle. Instead I just looked around the bus excitedly, hoping that someone else was as amazed as me.

I did get the attention of this old Asian woman sitting behind me. She mostly looked confused as to what I was doing. I tried pointing and mouthing “two eagles” while holding up two fingers, but she only seemed to get more confused.

Another lady at the front of the bus mouthed that she’d seen them, too. She had a huge grin on her face, too. Though I’m not sure if she was just as happy as I was about the eagles or if she was just laughing at me for being so excited.

Bald Eagles

How many times can you see a bald eagle before it stops being exciting? I only ask because I’m on the verge of losing count but I still get excited when I see them.

When I moved to Washington I’d never seen a bald eagle in the wild before. It was so exciting the first time: a real, live, bald eagle, just sitting there as if it was as normal as a seagull.

So I’ve been keeping track of them, and here’s all of the eagles I’ve seen:

Kelly took this picture of a bald eagle while we were waiting for the ferry to depart. She has two more if you click through.

1. Kelly and I were using the ferries across the Puget sound for the first time, and it was even one of the first times that we’d been down to the waterfront after we moved here. After we got our car loaded onto the ferry we started exploring the boat. When we got to the top when we saw a crowd of people at one end of the deck. We went to see what they were looking at, and there it was: a big bald eagle, sitting on a catwalk overlooking the water. It was too far away to be sure, but it looked as almost as big as a human sitting on that railing. I don’t know if the crowd was made up of newbies like us or if it’s just awesome every time.
2. There’s a floating bridge from the east side across Lake Washington into the city that we drive across a lot. On the Seattle-side of the bridge there’s a series of bays and smaller lakes and marshlands that are all interconnected and go back to the lake. One time we were heading into the city and driving through this marshy bay area by the university when Kelly saw the eagle fly and then land on a street light. She pointed it out to me just in time for me to turn and see the eagle sitting on the lamp post.
3. Over the summer our friend Matt came to visit. When we driving into the city for some good old-fashioned tourism, we saw an eagle sitting on a platform in the bay, right by where we had seen it the second time. Kelly and I both got really excited, and we chastised Matt for not getting as excited as us.
4. Since I’ve started my new job I take the bus across the floating bridge every day. One day as we were driving past the bay I realized that we’d seen bald eagles in the exact same place twice before. So I looked up from my book and sure enough, there was a bald eagle sitting on that same platform again! (It turns out the platform is a sculpture. Who knew? I thought it served some navigational purpose or something.)
5. Another trip into the city, driving with Kelly past the same bay. This time the eagle wasn’t sitting perched, but it was flying overhead. I was so excited this time that I kept repeating over and over: “A bald eagle flying! We just saw an eagle flying!”
6. A few weeks ago my brother Troy came to visit. As we were driving into the city we told him to look out for the place where we always see the bald eagles. It wasn’t in vain: we saw a bald eagle sitting on the same old platform. Troy did a slightly better job at being excited: he said, “oh, wow.”
7. Just the next day when Kelly and I were driving home from the airport after dropping Troy off, we saw an bald eagle flying overhead chasing a seagull! It was really exciting. It looked like the eagle was gaining on the gull, but I was driving and couldn’t see the rest of the action. Kelly said that the eagle got close and had it’s talons extended, but that it missed the mark and the gull got away. Too bad for the eagle, but lucky day for the seagull. Also, Kelly pointed out that “eagle” and “seagull” rhyme. That’s pretty exciting by itself.
8. Yesterday! On a light post at the same place by the bay driving into the city!

That’s all of them, but I’m sure there will continue to be more sightings. It’s getting hard to keep track of them since we’ve seen them in the same place several times. (Kelly’s even seen them there a few more times than me.) So, I just thought I’d share the excitement before I lost count. Of course, it’s probably a good thing that I write this post now so I can save you from a much longer post in event that I don’t ever stop counting!

Look out!

I saw this truck walking from the bus stop. I was glad for the warning.

Spider in my pants

I found this in my pants today: a 3/4 inch-long spider.

I reached into my pocket and felt a little prickly lump between the fabric of the pocket and the denim. I thought it was a burr from a weed or something, but when I pulled it out it was a dead spider.

I’m kind of creeped out right now.

Fire Creek credits

Look how famous I am!

Fire Creek unleashed

A long time ago in a valley far far away, I got to be an extra in a movie called Fire Creek. Some of my friends went with: Roy, Becca, and of course Tyler, who got the imaginary crap beat out of him.

Despite it having been 4 years ago this month, they finally decided to release it. I don’t know if we’re still in it or if they cut that scene or if they just had to start over because they took so long making it, but I want to go see it just in case.

Not a turn-friendly zone

What does San Francisco have against left turns? It seems like every street we’d cross while we were there prohibited left-hand turns. I understand the ones that are one-way streets, and I appreciate the sign helping me not get killed by an oncoming bus. But what about all of the other streets? What’s their excuse? It’s like this city just has something against ambi-turners. You’d think that a city that’s so accepting of people swinging both ways would be more tolerant of those of us who like to turn both ways.

Fire Creek

Tyler and I were in a movie this week. Well, mostly Tyler.

We went to be extras in BYU’s first feature film, which is to be called Fire Creek. I don’t know all of the details of what the movie is about, but this week they were filming a boxing tournament, and they needed extras to play the spectators at the boxing match, so that’s what we did. At first.

They wanted to show one of the boxers with a broken nose, to kind of give the feeling of how badly hurt someone can get (one of the main characters gets trounced pretty badly). Tyler volunteered and they made him up pretty nicely. It looked so good, in fact, that the director decided not to just show him with the broken nose, but to show it happening.

So Tyler got pitted up against this big Polynesian guy. The guy kind of tackled Tyler and got in a few shots to the face before the referee could pull him off. Then Tyler was pulled back onto a stool in his corner where a skilled actor (me) played his buddy who tried to clean off the blood. Tyler wouldn’t let him touch it (despite the buddy’s pleas to help clean him up), but demanded to know if it was broken, which his coach admitted that it was.

We had lines and everything. It was exciting. I have a few pictures of Tyler in action.