§ Up in the sky...it's a dragonfly...no, it's a Hellicopter!!

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Even knowing very little about helicopters, I do know that it takes a special talent and extreme hand and foot coordination to just get them off the helipad and off the ground to fly one! Not to mention the extreme repetitious skills to actually get them to hover in one spot for just a minute....let alone SEVERAL minutes. While driving along the highway on Mustang Island the other day, Bud and I came upon a phenomenal sight. Granted, when we first spied it from a long distance it actually looked like a dragonfly atop the power poles!! Literally something from the SciFi Channel [oops, guess it's now called SyFy] . But, seriously, the closer we got, the more the whole incredible scene came into view. This huge helicopter was hovering...right next to power lines no less...and there was a guy hanging on the rudders, working!!! Dang but that was something I have never EVER witnessed before. Luckily there was a space in the marshland that I didn't think would have the car sink...so I pulled off the highway and watched; being so very mesmerized with the whole picture. I have no idea what they were doing, but I figured it was some kind of repair work. And being where the power lines ARE along the island, the land is very unpredictably shallow and the water table would make it dangerous for the heavy repair trucks to be with their 'cherry picker' ladders. I imagine this was the only logical way to do it. Trust me, it was simply something that was, for the lack of better words, an exceptional feat to watch. The helicopter pilot needs to be given a medal for his excellence in keeping the rudders just what seemed like inches off the power lines....AND the guy out there, hanging, needs a medal of bravery!!! Enlarge the photos and check out the movement of the top rotor blades! And tail...you can see the 'movement'. Oh and the ruby for this post? I'm not sure what it all is, but there seems to be a counterweight-balance of stuff on the other side....




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Today...as in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar...."Beware of the Ides of March".

On his way to the Theater of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar saw a seer who had foretold that harm would come to him not later than the Ides of March. Caesar joked, "Well, the Ides of March have come", to which the seer replied "Ay, they have come, but they are not gone." This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned to "beware the Ides of March"...

... and I love the play!! I saw it for the first time in High School on a field trip with my English Lit Class and will never forget it!! History of the drama - Julius Caesar is a dramatization of actual events. He was assassinated in 44 B.C. By the way: It is believed that his mother endured agonizing surgery in order to extract him at birth. This belief gave rise to the term "cesarean birth".


FYI: No, it's not a typo in my title - we call 'em HELLeecopters.