Thursday, August 4, 2011

Flight

As I was driving down our road today, I left a voicemail message that went like this:

"Hi, this is Carla - WOW! A crop duster just flew right in front of me! I was just ... okay, I think I might have to brake. It's coming back over. WOW! That seems close. Okay, call me back."

People were standing along the road, looking at it. It was a little yellow and blue plane. When it first crossed the road, it really surprised me. When it came back, it was going to go right over my car. I wasn't sure whether I should slow down or not - was the pilot thinking I was going to slow down? Obviously it was higher than my car, but it didn't seem like it ... I braked just to make sure I wouldn't be making headlines. DRIVER FAILED TO BRAKE FOR PLANE CROSSING THE ROAD.

When I grew up, a crop dusting company used a field alongside our house as a landing strip. On my eleventh birthday, as a surprise, my parents let my sister, brother and me take a ride with them. I got to sit in the front seat and move us up and down. It was my first time in a plane, and it was great! I'm glad I went when I was fearless. My dad and brother are pilots and I haven't flown with either of them.

I'm not sure what it was spraying for - could be for insects or fungus. It's also possible to spray for weeds, but that usually happens earlier in the summer. Later in the season, it's even possible to use a plane to drop wheat seeds in a soybean field.

Kris also finished chopping the alfalfa. Alfalfa grows back on its own. Reliable, but I'm glad there's some variety in the neighborhood so I can continue to leave such scintillating voice mails.

1 comment:

Mom said...

I could hear it from our house but couldn't see it and it was driving me crazy! It's quite a sight to watch a crop duster at work and I was MISSING THE SHOW! I could have loaded 5 little kids in the car and driven in search of it, but the thought just made me tired.