Piper at the gates of eve

Quickly now! Riding the bicycle, returning from the Osceola Forest, I was heading home, traveling on the perimeter road leading around the Airport, heading towards the college. Moments earlier I had stopped and photographed a gopher turtle in the middle of the road, then carried it into the bushes off the road. The camera was on the top tube of the bike in the Bento bag, a little bag triathletes use for carrying energy bars. I use it to carry the camera with its rapid access.
Looking to my right toward the airport, I was admiring the cloud formation, when all of a sudden, over my left shoulder, I heard an airplane coming in for a landing. I immediately saw the potential in the photograph, quickly stopped, got the camera out of the bag and turned it on. Wouldn't you know it, the little retractable iris that protects the lens would not open all the way. I had to nudge it open with my finger. All the while the Piper plane got further away. I had just enough time to get this one photograph before the plane disappeared onto the ground.
That I even got this was an accomplishment, considering all the steps I went through in about five seconds. Usually I carry the camera on my right wrist with the short strap, and should have this day. Today, when I rode past this same location, camera out and turned on, no plane came or no sun rays burst from the clouds. It was a fleeting moment captured. Perhaps it turned out better that the plane came out so small in the scene, pointing to the awesome wonder of the heavens above observed by the tiny men below.