Swans on the Bay

Took the day off today, and after dropping Kyle off at his girlfriend’s house, Sue, Luke and I made our way to Brooklyn to visit Peggy.

Sue went with her mom to the Dr. office while Luke and I went for a walk around Sheepshead bay.
Emmons Ave. was just not the same on a Monday afternoon, and most shops seemed to be waiting for summer to arrive.    It was very windy, and the outdoor diners, where nowhere to be found.

Grabbed a cup of coffee, and let Luke get a sweet chocolate mousse, whipped cream dessert at a Turkish coffee place.

This day in history “
On April 9, 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduces America's first astronauts to the press: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr., and Donald Slayton. The seven men, all military test pilots, were carefully selected from a group of 32 candidates to take part in Project Mercury, America's first manned space program. NASA planned to begin manned orbital flights in 1961.
On October 4, 1957, the USSR scored the first victory of the "space race" when it successfully launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into Earth's orbit. In response, the United States consolidated its various military and civilian space efforts into NASA, which dedicated itself to beating the Soviets to manned space flight. In January 1959, NASA began the astronaut selection procedure, screening the records of 508 military test pilots and choosing 110 candidates. This number was arbitrarily divided into three groups, and the first two groups reported to Washington. Because of the high rate of volunteering, the third group was eliminated. Of the 62 pilots who volunteered, six were found to have grown too tall since their last medical examination. An initial battery of written tests, interviews, and medical history reviews further reduced the number of candidates to 36. After learning of the extreme physical and mental tests planned for them, four of these men dropped out.”

When Sue and Peggy return we decide to just pick up a pizza instead of going out to eat at Roll n Roaster or Randazzos.   We get home early enough to catch a couple of TV shows.  The past few days have had a lot of driving, so it was good to lounge on the couch.

I pick Kyle up at 930, and stop at CVS to pick up a 2 litre bottle of Coca Cola.  Sue will appreciate that as she gave up soda for Lent.  With Lent over, she is happy to have her sugar and caffeine fix again.

There is a raging fire out east around the Pine Barrens area near Brookhaven national labs.  Over 100 fire companies are fighting the brush fire, and hopefully the winds will subside.

All in all, a relaxing day and we go to see the largest flock of Swans swimming in Sheepshead Bay.

Photo of the day “Swans on the bay”