Here's to today's heroes!

We have several heroes to thank today.

First, the pilot and copilot of the airliner in New York. You've no doubt seen the reports--Airbus took off, encountered a double bird strike and lost power in both engines, pilots landed the thing on the river in a manner that allowed all souls aboard to exit the plane in a semi-orderly fashion with no loss of life (save for the birds that had the horrible luck to fly into the path of the jet).

Second (through, I don't know--a bunch), the firefighters who are busy as I type this clearing up not one but two very bad fires on opposite sides of town this morning. Pictures on the Courier-Journal's site show them with visors coated with ice to the point that vision is not possible without risk of eye damage. The fires were both so severe that by the time crews arrived, they had to fight both from outside the buildings rather than stay inside. From what I've read so far, most of the damage is limited to the involved building on each site--the crews were able to protect surrounding buildings from severe damage.

Oh, and did I mention that the ambient temperature was about 0? Fahrenheit, that is. Darned cold to be throwing water at a fire.

...and too darned cold for me to ride a bike today.