Little Jo' has been crawling for months. He started crawling months ahead of both Sam and Grace. In some ways I think this made him take longer to learn to walk, because he is so proficient a crawling that he could get around quite fast and thus had no motivation to walk. Or maybe he didn't want us to know that he was a zombie. I was watching him walk and thought "I have seen something like this before". Stiff legs, funny arm movements, strange sounds coming out of the mouth... that's when I realized the uncanny resemblance to a zombie(though if Jonah is a zombie, he is the cutest darn zombie that every existed). Check him out:
Also as a bonus extra feature here is re-release of Gracie's first time walking, we were at a wedding reception, and Gracie wanted to be part of the action. She had taken a few steps before, but here she finally figured out how to put all together. Unfortunately, we have no footage of when Sam first started to walk.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sam's First Mountain Bike Race
So Sam, without any prompting from Mom and Dad, decided that this summer he wants to train and bike a marathon (26.2 miles). This last Saturday, I was doing a mt. bike race and there was a kids race and we asked Sam if he wanted to do it as some training. He totally wanted to try it and he did great (got 5th place and had lots of fun). They let parents come along and so I got some great action highlights.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
I Said A Bad Word Today
Friday evening there was lovely weather. In fact it was it had been a lovely morning too and so I had decided to ride my bike to work. And now work was over I was on my bike headed home.
Just a half mile from my work, there was some construction going on and the workers had used barrels to narrow the road from 5 total lanes to 2 very narrow lanes. I had ridden through this construction area before and had found it was safer to actual ride on the right side of the barrels in the construct area. I don't know if this was technically legal, but there was plenty of room there and no active construction. Plus when I had gone in the official lanes before, sometimes cars would try to squeeze past me or if I took the whole lane, they would drive right up on my tail.
So I road through the construction area. As I neared the end of it, I looked back to see if any cars where coming, because usually as soon as cars got to the end of the construction area, some of them would try to move over into the lane that had been blocked off and I wanted to see if I need to get over. There were no cars and so I look forward again.
This is the point where I said a bad word.
If you know me, you know that I hardly ever cuss. I think in general it doesn't contribute much to conversations and is mostly unpleasant. But there are some occasions when you find yourself in a really bad situation, when I think it is forgivable to describe that said situation with a word that accurately reflects the current state of affairs. I think this was one such situation.
Now maybe if I had time to think about it, it would have been better to say something more descriptive, like - "Wow, I think this going to hurt like the dickens". Or maybe I could have said something totally devoid of emotion that just relayed the facts - "This is an unsafe situation, there is a high probability that I will receive bodily harm". Or maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all, because there wasn't anyone there to here me anyway. But I cannot change the past, so now I will just relay in words what prompted my unseemly outburst.
So I was looking back for cars and then turned forward. At which point I saw about three feet in front of me, that since the last time I had ridden here, someone had tied a thin nylon rope from the last barrel all the way across the lane to another barrel.
I was going about 17 mph, which if you do that math is about 25 feet per second. So since I was three feet away from the rope, I had about 1/8 of a second to try to do something before I got clothes lined.
So if you do further calculations, you can see that really I didn't have time to do anything. Except maybe say a bad word.
My brakes hit the rope first and I desperately slid my hands back on the handlebars so that my fingers would not get ripped off by being caught between the handle bars and the rope. The rope popped over the brake hoods, hit my arms and slammed them to my sides as it wrapped around my body. As I was wretched backwards, I somehow managed to keep my bike more or less under me, so that as I slammed into the ground, the bike took most of the fall and the all the bodily harm I got from the actual fall was a nice scrape on my right knee. Now the bodily harm from the rope was another story. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So here is two thousands words worth of pictures:
If you are wondering if rope burn across your arms hurts, the answer is yes, it hurts like the dickens. On the pain scale of 0-10 I would put it at about an 8-9 when it first happened, probably a 3-4 when just standing around and a 20-21 when water is poured on it. That being said, I feel very fortunate that in spite of the painfulness, the wounds are actually pretty superficial and will probably only leave small permanent scars. And I feel very very fortunate and blessed that I was able to stay up long enough so that the rope didn't hit my neck or face and that I was able to move my hands out of the way so that my fingers didn't get ripped off.
And finally, in regards to the most important question: "How is the bike?", Big Mac received a couple of scuffs on the brake hoods, a little tear on the bar tape, but other than that it seemed to be unharmed and I was able to ride it home.
Update:
I found this video on youtube that kind of gives you an idea of what happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OM1zD7Ipc8
Just a half mile from my work, there was some construction going on and the workers had used barrels to narrow the road from 5 total lanes to 2 very narrow lanes. I had ridden through this construction area before and had found it was safer to actual ride on the right side of the barrels in the construct area. I don't know if this was technically legal, but there was plenty of room there and no active construction. Plus when I had gone in the official lanes before, sometimes cars would try to squeeze past me or if I took the whole lane, they would drive right up on my tail.
So I road through the construction area. As I neared the end of it, I looked back to see if any cars where coming, because usually as soon as cars got to the end of the construction area, some of them would try to move over into the lane that had been blocked off and I wanted to see if I need to get over. There were no cars and so I look forward again.
This is the point where I said a bad word.
If you know me, you know that I hardly ever cuss. I think in general it doesn't contribute much to conversations and is mostly unpleasant. But there are some occasions when you find yourself in a really bad situation, when I think it is forgivable to describe that said situation with a word that accurately reflects the current state of affairs. I think this was one such situation.
Now maybe if I had time to think about it, it would have been better to say something more descriptive, like - "Wow, I think this going to hurt like the dickens". Or maybe I could have said something totally devoid of emotion that just relayed the facts - "This is an unsafe situation, there is a high probability that I will receive bodily harm". Or maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all, because there wasn't anyone there to here me anyway. But I cannot change the past, so now I will just relay in words what prompted my unseemly outburst.
So I was looking back for cars and then turned forward. At which point I saw about three feet in front of me, that since the last time I had ridden here, someone had tied a thin nylon rope from the last barrel all the way across the lane to another barrel.
I was going about 17 mph, which if you do that math is about 25 feet per second. So since I was three feet away from the rope, I had about 1/8 of a second to try to do something before I got clothes lined.
So if you do further calculations, you can see that really I didn't have time to do anything. Except maybe say a bad word.
My brakes hit the rope first and I desperately slid my hands back on the handlebars so that my fingers would not get ripped off by being caught between the handle bars and the rope. The rope popped over the brake hoods, hit my arms and slammed them to my sides as it wrapped around my body. As I was wretched backwards, I somehow managed to keep my bike more or less under me, so that as I slammed into the ground, the bike took most of the fall and the all the bodily harm I got from the actual fall was a nice scrape on my right knee. Now the bodily harm from the rope was another story. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So here is two thousands words worth of pictures:
 |
| Left Arm |
 |
| Right Arm |
If you are wondering if rope burn across your arms hurts, the answer is yes, it hurts like the dickens. On the pain scale of 0-10 I would put it at about an 8-9 when it first happened, probably a 3-4 when just standing around and a 20-21 when water is poured on it. That being said, I feel very fortunate that in spite of the painfulness, the wounds are actually pretty superficial and will probably only leave small permanent scars. And I feel very very fortunate and blessed that I was able to stay up long enough so that the rope didn't hit my neck or face and that I was able to move my hands out of the way so that my fingers didn't get ripped off.
And finally, in regards to the most important question: "How is the bike?", Big Mac received a couple of scuffs on the brake hoods, a little tear on the bar tape, but other than that it seemed to be unharmed and I was able to ride it home.
Update:
I found this video on youtube that kind of gives you an idea of what happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OM1zD7Ipc8
Monday, May 23, 2011
Grampa-isms
This month was my Grandpa Westwoods 90th birthday. In celebration of this, I decided to write down some of the sayings my grandpa always says and also a few of my favorite memories of him.
Grandpa Sayings:
When asked how he is doing:
Finer than frogs hair, split three ways.
I can't complain, half the people don't care and the other half think I deserve it.
After saying "Thank You" to him for something:
You're a Welshman
When asked for advice:
Don't take any wooden nickels
Regarding food:
When we used to go on long camping trips, the rule was that if you complained about the food, you had to do the cooking. So whenever someone asked me how the food was, I would say "It's burnt, it tasteless, and it smells bad... and it's just the way I like it.
When someone says he/she is full after a meal:
Yeah, and we know what you're full of.
Some Favorite Grandpa Memories
Once, before Connie and I were married, we went to Grandpa's house to make him dinner. Connie was a little self conscious about meeting grandpa for the first time and wanted to make a good impression. Then she accidentally burnt the chicken and kept apologizing. Grandpa looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said "Well, at least she's cute". From then on, Connie loved him.
Grandpa Westwood wrote an autobiography about growing up in Moab, UT called "Chompin' at the Bit". In one part, he describes a secret oasis that he and some friends found on top of the large plateau south of Moab. In the book he describes how they took a new kid up to the oasis once and the kid kind of freaked out because the final approach to the oasis was a kind of sketchy incline above a hundred foot cliff. So to help the new kid, Grandpa and his friends took off their shirt and pants and made a rope to pull him up the incline.
I had always liked this story and so I decided I would go to Moab and find this place and take some pictures of it to give as a gift to Grandpa. The books details about the location were pretty good and Grandpa had an old picture of the site from a distance, so I used some maps and figured out where it was. I found the best way to get to it was via the Moab Rim Trail. This is a rough and ledgy jeep trail that ascends 1000 feet in 1 mile. I road my mountain bike up this trail with my friend Peter. The trail was so steep and tough that as I was trying to shift gears in one place I put so much torque on the chain that it bent my gears and I ended up having to walk the rest of the way. By the way, this was the "easy" way to get there. The way that my grandpa would get there was a more direct route to the top of the plateau, where you climb up the steep talus and then shimmied up some of the big cracks in the cliff face. Once I got to the top of the plateau it took me a little while exploring the sandstone dunes to figure out where to go, but then I found the first hill described in Grandpa's book. This first hill was kind of steep but you could walk up it without using your hands. There were drop off on either side of it that Peter was not too keen on so he waited for me at the bottom. I made my way up the sand stone rock about 100 meters and then followed a couple ridges until I found the place that matched the book exactly. The book talked about a steep slope above a 100 ft cliff and that there was a crack in the middle of the slope that you could follow up to the secret oasis.
I had figured that I had done some rock climbing and any crack that some kids was scrambling up barefoot with no safety equipment barefoot in the 1930s would probably be no big deal for me. But when I saw that crack, my heart sank, the slope was glassy smooth sandstone going up at probably a 45-50 degree angle. The crack was shallow and wouldn't really allow for any good handholds. It was definitely something that looked doable with a little trial and error, the only problem was the high coast of error. If that slope had had a nice patch of sand at the bottom and you slipped and fell, you would have a painful slide down the sandstone and probably end up with some road rash and a few bumps and bruises. That would be a risk that I could take. But since the slope ended in a 100 foot cliff, if you slipped you would have a painful slide down the sandstone, followed by a few seconds of exhilarating free fall, followed by some painful bone crunching. I think at the bottom of the cliff there was actually some sand, so you might actually survive the fall, and instead lie there in pain with road rash and compound fractures, bleeding to death for a couple days (because it would be hard for anyone to find you there, without knowing exactly where you were). At this moment I thought of one of grandpa's other sayings "There are bold climbers and there are old climbers, but there are no old, bold climbers." Then I decided to turn around. I was disappointed I didn't get any pictures of grandpa's secret oasis, but I returned home with a new respect for the boldness of grandpa as a youth and for the guardian angels that had watched over him.
Grandpa Sayings:
When asked how he is doing:
Finer than frogs hair, split three ways.
I can't complain, half the people don't care and the other half think I deserve it.
After saying "Thank You" to him for something:
You're a Welshman
When asked for advice:
Don't take any wooden nickels
Regarding food:
When we used to go on long camping trips, the rule was that if you complained about the food, you had to do the cooking. So whenever someone asked me how the food was, I would say "It's burnt, it tasteless, and it smells bad... and it's just the way I like it.
When someone says he/she is full after a meal:
Yeah, and we know what you're full of.
Some Favorite Grandpa Memories
Once, before Connie and I were married, we went to Grandpa's house to make him dinner. Connie was a little self conscious about meeting grandpa for the first time and wanted to make a good impression. Then she accidentally burnt the chicken and kept apologizing. Grandpa looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said "Well, at least she's cute". From then on, Connie loved him.
Grandpa Westwood wrote an autobiography about growing up in Moab, UT called "Chompin' at the Bit". In one part, he describes a secret oasis that he and some friends found on top of the large plateau south of Moab. In the book he describes how they took a new kid up to the oasis once and the kid kind of freaked out because the final approach to the oasis was a kind of sketchy incline above a hundred foot cliff. So to help the new kid, Grandpa and his friends took off their shirt and pants and made a rope to pull him up the incline.
I had always liked this story and so I decided I would go to Moab and find this place and take some pictures of it to give as a gift to Grandpa. The books details about the location were pretty good and Grandpa had an old picture of the site from a distance, so I used some maps and figured out where it was. I found the best way to get to it was via the Moab Rim Trail. This is a rough and ledgy jeep trail that ascends 1000 feet in 1 mile. I road my mountain bike up this trail with my friend Peter. The trail was so steep and tough that as I was trying to shift gears in one place I put so much torque on the chain that it bent my gears and I ended up having to walk the rest of the way. By the way, this was the "easy" way to get there. The way that my grandpa would get there was a more direct route to the top of the plateau, where you climb up the steep talus and then shimmied up some of the big cracks in the cliff face. Once I got to the top of the plateau it took me a little while exploring the sandstone dunes to figure out where to go, but then I found the first hill described in Grandpa's book. This first hill was kind of steep but you could walk up it without using your hands. There were drop off on either side of it that Peter was not too keen on so he waited for me at the bottom. I made my way up the sand stone rock about 100 meters and then followed a couple ridges until I found the place that matched the book exactly. The book talked about a steep slope above a 100 ft cliff and that there was a crack in the middle of the slope that you could follow up to the secret oasis.
I had figured that I had done some rock climbing and any crack that some kids was scrambling up barefoot with no safety equipment barefoot in the 1930s would probably be no big deal for me. But when I saw that crack, my heart sank, the slope was glassy smooth sandstone going up at probably a 45-50 degree angle. The crack was shallow and wouldn't really allow for any good handholds. It was definitely something that looked doable with a little trial and error, the only problem was the high coast of error. If that slope had had a nice patch of sand at the bottom and you slipped and fell, you would have a painful slide down the sandstone and probably end up with some road rash and a few bumps and bruises. That would be a risk that I could take. But since the slope ended in a 100 foot cliff, if you slipped you would have a painful slide down the sandstone, followed by a few seconds of exhilarating free fall, followed by some painful bone crunching. I think at the bottom of the cliff there was actually some sand, so you might actually survive the fall, and instead lie there in pain with road rash and compound fractures, bleeding to death for a couple days (because it would be hard for anyone to find you there, without knowing exactly where you were). At this moment I thought of one of grandpa's other sayings "There are bold climbers and there are old climbers, but there are no old, bold climbers." Then I decided to turn around. I was disappointed I didn't get any pictures of grandpa's secret oasis, but I returned home with a new respect for the boldness of grandpa as a youth and for the guardian angels that had watched over him.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
The Amazing Race - Gateway Edition
Connie and I love the Amazing Race. We don't watch much TV and watch even less 'reality' tv. But one of the shows we do like to watch is the Amazing Race. We like to see all the cool places around the world that the racers go and like to see the different activities the racers have to do that represent activities from the cultures they are visiting. We also like to see how the teams interact, especially when some couples pull together when time get tough and others implode. It is often educational and sometimes inspiring.
We currently have a goal to make it on the show in 2020 and we often talk about what skills we should develop so we would do well. Even if we never make it on (but we will) it is a fun way to broaden our horizons and learn new things.
So anyway, quite a few fridays ago (I actually started this entry over a month ago and then never finished it), some friends invited us to participate in a couples date night "Amazing Race" at the Gateway. We of course jumped at this chance to test our mad skills.
We actually have footage of us figuring out this clue (It is the Clark Planetarium). After the goldilocks story, Connie forgot to turn off the camera. I would post it, except it would probably make you throw up, since I am running with the camera and all you can see in swinging glimpses of store fronts, random people, and my pants.
We currently have a goal to make it on the show in 2020 and we often talk about what skills we should develop so we would do well. Even if we never make it on (but we will) it is a fun way to broaden our horizons and learn new things.
So anyway, quite a few fridays ago (I actually started this entry over a month ago and then never finished it), some friends invited us to participate in a couples date night "Amazing Race" at the Gateway. We of course jumped at this chance to test our mad skills.
The Start
We met at the Gateway food court where we were given 5 clues. The first couple to finish all the clues and make their way to the Applebee's would be the winner. We had to film or take a picture of us completing each challenge on the clues. So we read the first clue and then took off like lightning!Clue One
Find the staircase where there is graffiti.
Run up them like Rocky then yell the name of your sweetie.
Challenge:
Record yourself running up the stairs while humming the Rocky Theme Song, then yell your sweetheart's name when you get to the top.
Run up them like Rocky then yell the name of your sweetie.
Challenge:
Record yourself running up the stairs while humming the Rocky Theme Song, then yell your sweetheart's name when you get to the top.
We guessed that "graffiti" referred to the names inscribed on stone near the big fountain which has some stairs next to it. It was kind of stretch to call that writing graffiti, but we figured it was the place that made most sense. Fortunately we were right. Unfortunately for one other couple, they tried to find actual graffiti and ended going a block south of the far end of the Gateway on a dark and deserted street. This caused them to lose about 25 minutes to all the other teams, effectively eliminating any chance of their winning. So anyway, We ran full speed to the fountain, turned on the camera and ran up the stairs humming the rocky song (which if you read this post you know I am familiar with), at the top Connie screamed "Kevin!" and I screamed "Connie!". Then as I went to stop the camera from recording, I realized that camera wasn't actually recording. So... we ran back down the stairs and did it again with the camera recording this time:
Clue Two
Skip on down and take a look
Inside a store that has a book,
In fact you'll find much more than one.
And lounging there is so much fun.
Hold hands there and don't let go
If you're in love then let it show
Challenge:
Find a book whose author's name is the same as your own
This proved to be the hardest challenge for us. Figuring out that we had to go to the Barnes and Noble was easy, finding a book by a Kevin or Connie was hard. We tried to find a computer we could look up a book on, but only employees had access to the computers. We tried to get help from the employees, but they were busy. We tried to just randomly walk down aisles and spotting a Kevin or Connie book, but that didn't really work either as it seems that there are not a lot of authors named Kevin or Connie. (At this point we were a little jealous of our friend Stephen who was also there since we could come up with multiple authors named Stephen) Finally, Connie remembered that there was a book "The Sonoma Diet" that her friend had read that was by a Dr. Connie Something. Not knowing the last name, it took us a while to find, but finally we got it:
Clue 3
Make your way to the "fruit" store...
You will find gadgets, gizmos and so much more!
While inside you must find...
The newest device that will blow your mind.
Challenge:
Take a picture of yourself next version 4 of the devices sold in this store.
Being over anxious to get to the next challenge, I saw "fruit" store and thought of "Banana Republic", then Connie pointed out that it was probably the Apple Store, since they sell gadgets and junk. I couldn't believe I made such a fundamentally mistake. If you watch the Amazing Race you know that one of the most common mistakes teams make is to not read the clue completely. Fortunately, I redeemed myself by knowing that challenge refereed to the iphone 4 and I knew right where it was:
Clue 4
Find a store whose commercials have mannequins who speak
And tell the mannequins what they need to do this week
Challenge:
Find the correct store and record yourself talking to the mannequins.
And tell the mannequins what they need to do this week
Challenge:
Find the correct store and record yourself talking to the mannequins.
Freaky talking mannequins? That would have to be Old Navy. We rushed over there, walked in the door, saw a mannequin and despite the stares of passerbys started talking to it:
Clue 5
Some are pink and some are blue
But all of them are brand new.
Some get dressed and some go "bear".
But either way, I don't think they care.
Some are real and some are stuffed,
The kind at this store aren't so tough.
Challenge:
At this store, find someone to recite the story
of Goldilocks to.
If you have a child under 10 you have probably been invited at some point to a Build-A-Bear party and would recognized immediately what store this clue was talking about. Having three children under 10, we figured it out instantly and we sprinted there and I recited to a patient employee the story of Goldilocks:
Last Clue
Okay I cannot remember what the last clue was. Actually, I couldn't remember exactly what clue 1 or 4 where either so I just made up poems that fit the challenge. But now I am too tired to make up a poem for the last clue. I know it was somethings about planets and the earth, Atlas, blah, blah, blah.
Challenge:
Find a big model of the earth and take a picture of you holding it up like you are Atlas.
We actually have footage of us figuring out this clue (It is the Clark Planetarium). After the goldilocks story, Connie forgot to turn off the camera. I would post it, except it would probably make you throw up, since I am running with the camera and all you can see in swinging glimpses of store fronts, random people, and my pants.
It took us a while to figure out which earth we were supposed to take a picture of because there was a big globe in the front that kept changing which planet it showed. We didn't want to risk getting the wrong thing so we ran around for a while until we found a earth that fit the description perfectly:
Race To End
Now we just had to make it to AppleBees first. We sprinted as fast as we could, I pulled ahead of Connie and on rounding the corner saw K of our friends KAR already there. But A was not there! I yelled at Connie, "Run! Run for you life!". She dug deep down inside and pulled into the finish mere seconds before A, giving us the absolutely undisputed* victory.
All in all it was a fun night and though it was much shorter and much less stressful then the real amazing race would be, it was fun to pretend it was the real one and I am pretty sure it was foreshadowing our future Amazing Race 2020 victory.
*Okay so there was a small dispute about the victory. You see, our instructions said that after we had finished at Applebee's, we were supposed to get a table for the whole group. Well, while we were waiting in line like good polite people, a certain person jumped in front of us and got the table under their name, trying to make it look like they had gotten there first. We were not going to let this stand, so we started throwing punches and then a huge brawl erupted. 5 police cars showed up and hauled our whole group to jail. It made the whole night very expensive because we had to pay bail and we did not get back home until 6 in the morning and so we owed the baby sitter a lot of money**
**Okay so only part of this actually happened. I just like to see if people read all the way to the end.
*Okay so there was a small dispute about the victory. You see, our instructions said that after we had finished at Applebee's, we were supposed to get a table for the whole group. Well, while we were waiting in line like good polite people, a certain person jumped in front of us and got the table under their name, trying to make it look like they had gotten there first. We were not going to let this stand, so we started throwing punches and then a huge brawl erupted. 5 police cars showed up and hauled our whole group to jail. It made the whole night very expensive because we had to pay bail and we did not get back home until 6 in the morning and so we owed the baby sitter a lot of money**
**Okay so only part of this actually happened. I just like to see if people read all the way to the end.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The Bird Whisperer
We were enjoying a nice day at the beach, when we noticed a gull that appeared to be enjoy the waves more then other birds. Instead of flying out of the water when waves would come, it would flap its wings a few times, and then let the wave crash over it. Sam and Grace kept asking if the bird would drown and we were like, "he's fine, he is just having fun". But then after a few minutes we began to realize that the bird wasn't having fun. Something was stuck on it that made it so he couldn't fly away.
Oh nos! We had to do something or else the gull would be battered by the waves until it drowned.
I walked out into the water and tried to approach the bird. But the bird was scared of me and flapped farther into the water, where the waves were bigger. So then I decided to circle around it and try to get to go back towards the shore. Using this approach, I was able to get close enough to see that there was a black plastic bag around its neck. I tried to pull it off, but it was wrapped around its neck pretty good. I thought about trying to reach over and pull it off but the bird was glaring at me and squacking at me and I didn't want it to bite me. So I backed away and contemplated what to do.
So then Connie told me she wanted to try. So she handed me Jonah and waded out into the water. She
slowly approached the bird, looked into it eyes, and it said to her "please help me!" Then Connie picked it up, gently unwrapped the bag from its neck and then threw it into the air and it flew away. It was amazing, Connie is the bird whisperer!
A passerby caught the rescue on video with her iphone. You can see in the video Connie, me holding Jonah, and a surfer (guy in the wet suit) who was trying to lend a hand. The lady gives some play by play commentary.
Oh nos! We had to do something or else the gull would be battered by the waves until it drowned.
I walked out into the water and tried to approach the bird. But the bird was scared of me and flapped farther into the water, where the waves were bigger. So then I decided to circle around it and try to get to go back towards the shore. Using this approach, I was able to get close enough to see that there was a black plastic bag around its neck. I tried to pull it off, but it was wrapped around its neck pretty good. I thought about trying to reach over and pull it off but the bird was glaring at me and squacking at me and I didn't want it to bite me. So I backed away and contemplated what to do.
So then Connie told me she wanted to try. So she handed me Jonah and waded out into the water. She
slowly approached the bird, looked into it eyes, and it said to her "please help me!" Then Connie picked it up, gently unwrapped the bag from its neck and then threw it into the air and it flew away. It was amazing, Connie is the bird whisperer!
A passerby caught the rescue on video with her iphone. You can see in the video Connie, me holding Jonah, and a surfer (guy in the wet suit) who was trying to lend a hand. The lady gives some play by play commentary.
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