Happy Halloween!!

I decided - if you can't pick one character to go as.... Go as them all.

I give you:

The Avengers

I may have laughed extremely hard for a very long time when I thought of this idea..........

Yeah, It'll Tow Your Boat...

Back on the 12th we got to get out of the house for a much-needed distraction. We got to go up to LA to watch the Toyota Tundra tow the Endeavour shuttle. From the moment that I had heard that this was happening, I knew that I ABSOLUTELY wanted to be there to see it.

Originally the Tundra was going to tow it the last 1/4 mile to the California Science Center, but they ended up moving it up a day to have it tow it across the 405 freeway on Manchester because the usual transporters were too heavy and too big for the bridge.

We got there around 6:30 pm and it was already parked there so that they could switch it from the transporters to the towing rig. We saw it when we drove under the overpass and were severely geeking out about getting to see it up close! I believe I said the words "This is SO cool!" about eleventy-billion times while we were there...

 Ignore my stupid bangs - they were not cooperating.

We got to watch them move the transporters out from underneath - it was so cool how it's all remote controlled. In one of the videos I was talking all about how I wanted a giant remote control space shuttle (transporter).

Those big blue things are the transporters... There was a guy with a big remote control that had to move them all out from underneath it so that it would be on the rig for the Tundra...

It was a whole lot of hurry up and wait, but we were able to get some awesome pictures! We even got to go inside the barriers and walk around it so that we could see the back and get pictures back there.

We had just walked directly beneath that wing... It was so cool to be so close to the shuttle!!

 

 It was really surreal... It was so huge! (that's what she said... ha!)

LOVE this sign.

Finally at 11:30 pm they shut down the freeway in both directions (just in case something went horribly wrong and also to stop people from crashing into each other while watching a shuttle drive across the overpass) and it was showtime.

 The truck looks SOOO tiny hooked up to the shuttle. And I know that's a big truck - I drive one 

(not a Crew Max, but still...)

This is my video that I took just using my cell phone... It's not great, but you can see how the truck had absolutely no problem tugging the shuttle. It was seriously like it was nothing! There was no high revving of the engine... No slipping tires... It looked like he took his foot off the brake and just started going. It was amazing! The video's not great - like I said it was on my cell phone... and J stepped down in front of me so that he could keep recording with the video camera.

 Feel free to ignore my awed mumbling... haha 

And the awed mumbling of the woman standing in front of me...

You can see one of the professional videos here.

It was a long night, but so very worth it... Even if it did mean that we only got about 4 hours of sleep before we had to get up for our early eye doctor appointment Saturday morning... I think one of the cops on site for security detail summed it all up when J made a comment while they were taking pictures of the shuttle about how it must be a pretty good night to be working - he said, "I've drawn shorter straws..." haha

Now the shuttle is up at the Science Center. We plan on going up once the display is open and the craziness has died down. It was a seriously awesome night and one of the coolest things I have ever gotten to see.

Fred

 
We pretty much had the worst night ever last night.

It started with Fred having what we thought was another seizure. He seemed to recover from it faster than the last one at first, but then he started getting worse. It got to where we knew we had to take him in to an emergency vet - he just was not ok.

The emergency vet told us that she assumed it was a blood clot which meant that he had a heart condition. I don't understand how his usual vet could have possibly missed that when he was there SO many times lately.

His heart stopped while we were discussing our options. And ours have been breaking ever since.

My big man. He was the one we called the puppy-cat because he was always there to greet us when we got home and came when he was called. He loved getting all the affection we could give him - we could have kissed the fur off of his little face and he would have been happy. He loved to sleep on my pillow, tangled in my hair - something I always called Freddy-hat. He loved sitting in any cardboard box we brought into the house - even if it was too small for him. He was always happy and loved when we would carry him around the house with us. He would tell us when the food or water bowls were low. His favorite things to beg for were wheat thins, ice cream, and cereal milk - and he would make sure you didn't forget that he was waiting for some. He was sweet and funny and SOOO so loved by everyone that met him.

There is a big hole in my heart. He will be missed more than I could ever possibly put into words.