I spent most of my life in Florida. During my three years of high school in Vero Beach I watched, live, the launches of several Apollo missions, including 8, 11 and 13. Other lesser launches sometimes surprised us, such as unpublicized military launches, sometimes at night.
Shuttle launches were very visible. Whole neighborhoods would stream out of their houses a minute or so after liftoff to watch the column of flame topped by the tiny white sliver. The 1986 Challenger explosion happened during the work day. We stepped outside the offices of Emerson Art Service to watch it go up, and watched it blow up.
From Orlando, where we lived from 1987 - 2005, launches were farther away, but still visible if the atmosphere was clear enough.
To top it off, my brother used to work for Bendix Corporation at Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland, and he programmed several functions of the robot arm in the cargo bay of the shuttles.
This last shuttle mission has awakened all these memories of the space program. I figured we'd have colonies on the moon and missions to Mars by now.
Oh well.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
In Demand
I took inventory the other day. I still have visible marks from injuries received at the Community Theatre, the UU church, the Community Garden and Tamarack Wildlife Rescue.
The theatre has steps up from the back hallway to the stage. The bottom two are standard eight inch rises. The top is about twelve inches. At least six times that top step has caught me as I've run up to the stage. Twice I've actually gone down. One of those falls resulted in a major boo boo on my left shin. It was funny one Sunday morning at church when little Audrey came running up to me, pulled up her pants leg and showed me a bruise on her shin. "Oh yeah?" I countered. I pulled my pants leg up to show an inch diameter scab on my shin. I won that round!
After the church sanctuary was painted in March - April, we were letting it air out some while we replaced stuff taken out for the paint job (pew cushions, hymnals etc.) When we were closing the windows, one of the big heavy storm windows came down too fast and guillotined the very tip of my right middle finger. Still hurts.
Out at the Community Garden a few weeks back I was building an outhouse for the gardeners and got a half inch long splinter in my left index finger beside the knuckle.
I had no more than gotten home from the Garden and showered when Tamarack Wildlife Rescue called wanting me to rehab a relocatable bird enclosure. It was in Sue's garage, and I whacked my head on an overhead light fixture!
It's nice to be in demand!
The theatre has steps up from the back hallway to the stage. The bottom two are standard eight inch rises. The top is about twelve inches. At least six times that top step has caught me as I've run up to the stage. Twice I've actually gone down. One of those falls resulted in a major boo boo on my left shin. It was funny one Sunday morning at church when little Audrey came running up to me, pulled up her pants leg and showed me a bruise on her shin. "Oh yeah?" I countered. I pulled my pants leg up to show an inch diameter scab on my shin. I won that round!
After the church sanctuary was painted in March - April, we were letting it air out some while we replaced stuff taken out for the paint job (pew cushions, hymnals etc.) When we were closing the windows, one of the big heavy storm windows came down too fast and guillotined the very tip of my right middle finger. Still hurts.
Out at the Community Garden a few weeks back I was building an outhouse for the gardeners and got a half inch long splinter in my left index finger beside the knuckle.
I had no more than gotten home from the Garden and showered when Tamarack Wildlife Rescue called wanting me to rehab a relocatable bird enclosure. It was in Sue's garage, and I whacked my head on an overhead light fixture!
It's nice to be in demand!
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