Celebrating my psychic whisperings that my chemo is working, I like to take advantage of the days that my side effects are on the low end of the activity range. When we got up this morning, we knew the weather was inviting us to spend the day outside in the beautiful mid-70-degree sunshine. My mobility is not great, so we choose places that I can get around with my walker-wheelchair. I love being able to walk as much as possible, but I also recognize that my mobility now is scattered between periodic breaks of sitting on my walker-wheelchair. Some places, like the beach, are not conducive to wheels, so we choose carefully.
Today, I picked our outing as we have not been there for a while, and it is a place I can negotiate easily. March Field Air Museum: an aircraft museum featuring static exhibits outside and in and including my favorite aircraft, the SR71 Blackbird, still the only aircraft to achieve speeds over 3.2 Mach and to fly 85,000 high, which the museum moved to the inside of the building almost a year ago. That’s when I realized how long it had been since we visited. With March being in Riverside, closer to the desert and far inland and away from the ocean, it was a dry 90-something degrees this afternoon, but, luckily, with a lovely breeze that felt delightful in the shade.
Spending the afternoon among some stars of the air was a great way to enjoy the outdoors today. I even walked over 2,000 steps, quite an achievement for me. Of course, I still compare my 10 to 20 thousand steps of the past to today but realize after pushing my limits at 2 thousand that I need to quit that. I don’t know why I think I should continue to compare when my basic mobility is between a hobble and a wobble with much determination to avoid looking like I’m a centenarian, who in many cases are often rushing past me.
© 2004–2012 Donna Peach. All rights reserved.
Donna Peach 
Thinking of you often, and still wishing soft healing light for you, and the comfort of owl wings to enfold you on those days when all is not so good. You are a brave warrior, Lady! Hugs to you.
Good for you for getting out there. Hope you can go more often.
Donna!
I also love military aircraft and have always called myself an SR-71 junkie. I love everything about that fabulous plane as well as the U-2 and P-38 which were all designed by the same man, Kelly Johnson. Back in the 1970s, I kept track of all the SR-71 tail numbers I either saw in a magazine or in person, trying to figure out how many of these super secret planes were built.
When I was a journalist, in about 1974, I spent two days with two of the SR-71 pilots and their Wing Squadron Commander. The plane was still very secret and hush, hush. I watched the pilots de-nitrogenate their blood for two hours in what can only be described as a full blown astronaut suit & helmet, before they went up so they wouldn’t get air bubbles in their blood stream, watched them suit up, then rode with them out onto the tarmac.
I watched the crew fuel the plane and even got to climb up the ladder and look inside. The crew was shocked because everything inside was classified. I even took pictures, but of course never published them. Some of the dials had red leather covers over them. I’ve always assumed they were the real classified ones & because they were covered, I got to look inside.
After the pilots took off, they came around for an INCREDIBLY LOW, FAST pass between two hangers in front of me as they rocked the wings back & forth. Their crew was hooting & hollering & going ballistic over this move. I could hear the pilots on the radio with the crew say, “Tell Brenda that’s her goodbye gift.” The crew was dumbfounded and stared at me in awe. They said they’d travelled with the pilots all over the world and they’d never seen them do anything like that before.
“Who are you?” one of them asked me. It was the experience of a lifetime.
XOXOXO,
Brenda
So glad you had such a wonderful day. I’m a fan of all types of planes myself. i hear you on those steps. You are doing better than me. I would probably still need my WC for that type of day. Keep up the great work. It is a blessing when we have those days when we are almost feeling like our old selves. Here’s to many more.