when my mother went for her daily walk in the afternoon, i decided to join her (my father was just coming back from dropping off my sister's godmother at south station after picking up her apartment key). this time i brought the drone and was hoping to launch from payson park playground. unfortunately there were some children playing there with their parents and i figured it was too risky to fly there. my mother suggested i fly from the hill of the belmont reservoir as it was empty with an open space exposed to the sky. so while she walked a loop around the reservoir, i launched my DJI mini 2.
it's been almost 2 weeks since i last flew. the reservoir is a great spot because it's already one of the highest points in the neighbor, so i had a clear vantage point all around. not sure if this is related, but i never once had a connection issue. even my RC signal strength was at maximum the whole time. this could be a great place to launch for future flights. the only thing i'm concerned about is because i'm already up so high, when i sent the drone to the legal maximum height of 400ft, i'm actually up even higher when i fly over some low lying areas.
i first flew the drone to inspect a house with several antennas on the roof. what i thought were more ham radio antennas was just an old tv array. from there i did distance test, flew over the oakley country club. from the house it was always straining the limit of how far i could fly, and i've never attempted it, 
but from the reservoir it was a breeze. after that i did a flyby over cushing square, checked out the new condos. i wasn't in the air for less than 10 minutes before my mother completed her loop. i brought the drone back to the launch site, my mother waving from the ground hoping to get captured on video. the drone originally had an issue taking off because the gimbal was getting stuck on the grass. i ended up doing a hand catch but i was still gun shy from the last time i hand caught and sliced my fingers with the propellers. this time around it landed in my hand without incident.
when we got back home i updated the DJI fly app, there was a new version available (1.3.0). the update is mainly for connectivity with the new DJI FPV drone, but it also said it fixed certain issues and improved overall app stability, without going into details. DJI says the same thing every time, and my google pixel 3XL still keeps on crashing. fingers crossed that this latest iteration finally fixes the issue.
my sister stopped by unexpectedly. her covid test results came back this morning, negative, so now she can go out again. in the backyard hailey chased a rabbit and my sister discovered a rabbit hole behind the pile of logs along the southern fence. it'd be too difficult to unstack the logs just to access the rabbit hole, so i slid down a piece of wire fencing and wedges a long log to keep it in place. that should keep the rabbits away for the time being. my sister left soon afterwards.
after dinner i returned home. i put the fuji back in the basement, i still prefer my trek utility, even if it doesn't have rear brakes, just because of its cargo carrying ability. after a shower, i watched some NBA all stars game and an episode of dream on (S03E01) featuring teri garr. that brought my down a rabbit hole where i watched old interviews between garr and letterman. they had such chemistry, but i heard when dave got his new show, there was beef between the two and we never saw her again.
i casted the 3D version of doctor strange onto my tv tonight. that movie was designed to be watched in 3D. the escheresque action sequence in new york city is less confusing in 3D and easier to watch. the final battle in hong kong is also a lot more spectacular in 3D. i'm going to see what other 3D movies i can find, i'm getting back into 3D again!