Banff Nat’l Park
Banff National Park
Can there be a place more beautiful than this? I don’t know. All I do know is around every bend of the trail there was a “wow” . This park is nestled among the peaks of the Canadian Rockies. It is the first national park established in Canada and is a coveted UNESCO World Heritage Site. This place is a combination of vast unspoiled wilderness, mountain lakes like Lake Louise, and the gateway to it all: the Town of Banff. Closest airport is in Calgary, Alberta, about a 90-min drive along the TransCanada highway. No matter the time of year, Banff is a must-see. For more info check out http://www.banfflakelouise.com/About-the-Area/Banff-National-Park And for a special treat, be sure to go to Lake Louise and hike up to the tea house. The Lake Agnes Tea House is one of the most famous trails in Lake Louise and the Canadian Rockies. You’ll hike up to an altitude of 2,135 m/ 7,005 ft. When you arrive at the Lake Agnes Tea House http://www.lakeagnesteahouse.com/ you’ll be rewarded with stunning views and the opportunity to rest on the porch, order up a pot of freshly steeped tea and a bowl of homemade soup, or a delicious sandwich or dessert.
Lyrically Living and Without Control
I am a control freak. Yet you can’t control everything. So how do you resolve that!? The Air France flight lost during its Atlantic acrossing from Rio to Paris is as unbelievable to me as it must be for the loved ones wishing the passengers and crew safely away or for those awaiting its arrival. Flying is the activity that for me screams “you are absolutely not in control here“. Once onboard I relinquish everything to someone or something else – the pilots, flight crew, control tower, weather … the folks who built the plane; however long ago that was. So there I sit – the control freak relinquishing hard won control while hoping for the best outcome possible — a safe landing at the other end.
Whew… made it! Now, I am consumed by the return. I hope the day I picked proves to be a good-weather day. I hope the pilots got enough rest. I hope its a newer plane. I hope the folks on the ground and in Air Traffic Control see what they need to see and give the crew good information and great support. I hope the men and women who built the plane did a good job. That’s a lot of stuff to hope for and to get in synch.
I love to go. I’ve been to China, Japan, Europe, South America, Africa, all over the U.S. It’s the flying I could do without. Did I mention I worked for an airline for more tha n 20 years? I probably left that out. Anyway, I worked on the Admin side of the business not the flight crew side. Lucky me and lucky passengers. And I worked for a great and still-great airline. I enjoy them today. Just could enjoy them more if they were an especially fast bus.
Control. Giving it up is hard for me. Once that flight attendant announces the forward door has been closed and we’re ready for immediate departure, all bets are off. I am a captive.
So what happened to the Air France flight? I have to know. It doesn’t make any sense. Reports indicate the plane encountered strong turbulance, lightening, and thunderstorms over the Atlantic at 3 a.m. Automated messages received at 3:14 a.m. indicated a failure of the electrical system. Several of the plane’s mechanisms malfunctioned preventing any attempt to contact the ATC. All souls were lost in the Atlantic on a dark and stormy night. How could this have happened to a paragon of engineering? Aircraft having a significantly lesser pedigree encounter rough air and rougher weather everyday. The vast majority make it through safely albeit a bit shaken up. This airplane, an Airbus A330, has an excellent record as does Air France. The crew was seasoned with the captain having more than 11-thousand hours of flight time and 1,700 of them at the controls of an Airbus 330. There were two co-pilots; one had 3,000 hours of flight time and the other 6,600 hours. The plane itself had 18,870 flight hours since April 2005 when it first entered service. Its last overhaul or heavy maintenence visit was just completed in April 2009 – a scant two months before. An Air France official said it’s probably a combination of circumstances that could have led to the crash. The very combos I so fervently hope against.
We never have any real control anyway. Before you think I’m perfectly crazy bordering on psychotic let me admit that I know this. I feign a sense of control because it makes me feel better. Any overt indications to the contrary make me crazy. Hence, the closing of the boarding door symbolizes for me that loss of control. I cope through prayer. I pray fervently and often. I am in a constant state of prayer on an airplane, even while enjoying my third ( or is it fourth) Tangeray and tonic – two limes. Thank God for God. He sticks by me and is the only one who can stand to be with me during these states of high and unreasonable anxiety. Thank you God. Even my husband, when he was alive would bark, “Let go my hand, that’s too tight; what’s wrong with you? Don’t wake me up again!”
I thank God but I’m still hoping for answers. I will follow with fervent interest the outcome of the investigation. Meanwhile, I will keep the families of those lost in my prayers and ask that God help them to find peace. I’ve agreed to go to Puerto Rico with friends and have to work through that. I’ll see how I feel. Peace be with you.
Lyrically Challenged
I think people really want to live lyrically. Like the way great lyrics enrich a musical score, life’s lyric can bring you in harmony with family, friends, God, worklife and pretty much everyone else. Even those not making the top of your importance list. Lyric living makes life so much easier don’t you think?
I’m lyrically challenged. It started when my husband got sick and peaked when he died. I’ve been fighting to become lyric again ever since. John passed November 9, 2006, and it still feels like sometime yesterday.
Typically, the lyric of my life revolves around family, friends, hobbies and activities. Pulling up the rear are job and finances. Lately, my lyric has been blue with an occassional pop/rock note.
I’m kinda ready for something less blue, more pop, more rock, maybe something alternative. I’ll be sharing some of what I do and learn. Some will be fun — I’m going to Big Sur and staying in a yurt; some may be intersting — journeys on my custom-built 9-speed roadbike by Blue; some will be mundane but necesssary – financial protectionism in today’s economy and managing the lyrical balance on the job.
Perhaps through sharing we can help each other to be more lyrical.
Lyric Living 
