Yesterday was a great day, once I got home, and chilled a little bit, I decided to go and see the new Lord of the Rings movie. It was pretty good, a bit long, but fairly true to the book. I haven’t actually read the books in over a year, however it all started to come back to me and they certainly strayed from the story for a couple things, overall though it was very close.

After the movie I was going to go home, but at the last minute decided to go to the beach, it was warm yesterday, so I figured the water wouldn’t be too cold. Seriously though I only went to enjoy the peacefulness of the beach in winter(well almost winter, it starts Saturday @ 8:15 AM). As expected it was quiet and I walked along the river and stopped at the toothpick (a navigational day marker in the Merrimack River) and watched the sunset. The sky was cloudless, and as always seems true with a clear cold sky, it was extrememly colorful. After the sunset I headed back towards the car and realized just how much heat we get from the sun, because I was freezing. Just before I returned to my car, a guy yelled down to me from the seawall and asked if I knew what was going on across the river. I glanced across the icy cold river and noticed a police SUV driving across the sand and told the man I did not know what was going on over there. I then quickly ran back to my car to grab my binoculars. I broke out in a brisk walk towards the jetty with my field glasses in hand, to get a closer view of the commotion on the opposite side of the river. I stopped about a quarter of the way along the jetty and peered towards the southern jetty and saw a mass of people huddled around something. I immediately called my mother to see if there was any radio traffic on the scanner at home and she told me somebody was trapped out on the rocks and a helicopter was sent to rescue them. I thanked her for the information and quickly hung up the phone to continue with my observation of the situation. No sooner had I put my phone away and a Coast Guard cutter appeared on the horizon, it made its way towards the mouth of the river and once inside approached the jetty with the rescue workers. The crew aboard the boat threw a backboard to the people on the rocks and then backed away. At this point I was very confused, because it seemed the workers could very easily have carried the man back to shore, so I didn’t really see much need for a helicopter. It was starting to get very cold from where I stood, but I just couldn’t pull myself away and felt like I had to see this escapade through until the end. The firefighters placed the person on to the backboard and carried him to the waiting police vehicle. Apparently the backboard could float and this is why they waited for the Coast Guard to show up. The emergency vehicle quickly made its way around the sandy peninsula and towards the hospital. I was relieved to see the person was safe, but at the same time disappointed that I wasn’t able to see a helicopter rescue. The cold suddenly overcame me and I realized it probably was time to head back to the car. Upon reaching the car I heard the faint sound of helicopter blades and glanced southward to see a helicopter approaching the river. It seemed very odd since they had just removed the stranded person, so I stopped and looked up at the chopper trying to figure out where it was going. The pilot circled the scene a few times and I figured out what was going on, it was the Channel 7 News helicopter, trying to get a story. Unfortunately, they just missed it by only a matter of minutes and you had to hear about this story from me. The Newburyport News covers it as a Page One Story

After the beach I headed home and decided I should eat something. So I hopped in the car and headed towards Pizza Factory, but before I got there I realized I wasn’t that hungry and decided to go to the gym instead, so I would become hungry. After the gym I talked on the phone and went home. Brittany and my aunt came over and hung out for a little while, at about 9:30 I took Britt and Nissa to Becky’s. I was in bed by 10:00, overall it was a great day.

So far today, I have been in a meeting and that is about it. Oh yeah I have to give a shout out to Ry, welcome to the world of the LJ. Check out his journal here.

Dave Matthews Band Lyrics of the Day
Song title: Typical Situation
Ten fingers counting we have each
Nine planets around the sun repeat
Eight ball the last if you triumphant be
Seven oceans pummel the shores of the sea
Six senses keeping

…

Five around the sense of self
Four seasons turn on and turn off
I can see three corners from this corner
Two is a perfect number
But one