lifted off into a perfectly clear evening sky and so did Mama's spirits. I have always been fascinated by all things astronomy. It’s a total bummer that I can’t add two plus two or maybe I could be sitting pretty, in a five point harness, with three engines burning behind me, each packed with one third of a million pounds of thrust, five of my egghead bros and Commander Chris at my side, shooting through the night sky at 10 times the speed of sound. Boy, oh, boy. Is that exciting or what? But it’s all good. I had my robe and toasties on, sipping a glass of vino, sitting on my rear watching all the glory. That’s tres easier and doesn’t require beyond upper level classes of linear algebra or multi-variable calculus. Oy. The mere thought of that just brings the cold sweat out of me. I mean, I had to cover my eyes when I saw A Beautiful Mind, for goodness sake. I hope for the next 15 days our boys and girls aboard stay safe and accomplish their mission of expanding and repairing our Space Station. As far as the irradiated turkey and dressing goes..too bad they can't fix that problem, but that's what you get when you go on a heroic adventure during a holiday, I suppose. They may miss out on the family din-din but I bet they come home with thanks beyond imagination. That view will do it to ya every time. Sort of puts it all into perspective, huh?
Yes, my two little comets were round-eyed with excitement as they watched the perfectly orchestrated movement of mechanical arms, a smiling crew and the cool as a cucumber flight director doing his thing. Heck, she hadn’t even left the ground yet and there I was...blown away, with a tear in my eye. It just fills me that little ole us can soar through outer space in a 1.7 billion dollar fancy dancy tin can. Money well spent, I say. I’d rather fund that instead of Wall Street and Detroit’s Big Three any day.
Our quest for knowledge and all things great and mystical can not be better defined than our journeys through space. When Armstrong made that small step for us, it was only the beginning of some giant leaps that I believe we’ll achieve as a nation in the many, many years to come..as an important part of a vast global space snooping community. Yeah, yeah, we have a whole lot of stuff down here on solid ground to work on but there is so much majesty out there in that vast black wonder..that we just gotta go for it and I’m willing to chip in a few of my tax bucks to make that happen. With the recent discovery of four more planets outside of our solar system, it continues to hook me, for sure. This new system, HR8799, is 130 light years away from us. Its host star, Fomalhaut- just happens to be 16 times brighter than our sun, thank you very much, and it gets better- one of the planets orbiting it happens to be seven times bigger than our Jupiter!! For those of you who may not remember from science class, it would take 1,317 earths to size up to one Jupiter and now this guy is 7 times bigger than that?? Well, that would mean..uh-oh, there goes that math thing again. Needless to say, it's humongous with a capitol H.! Okay, I’ll simma down now in my Trekie nerdiness, but I can’t help it. It’s exciting as hell. None of these planets are habitable, but still..it's looking to me like another one of those steps making its way to a another leap toward another Earth. Maybe we’re not so alone after all, underneath our cuddly stellar blanket. Who knows, my friends? I just hope for two things if or when we find them- they tell us their secret to living in unified peace and how to make a cheesecake that doesn’t crack on top.
"Preparing our home in space for a larger international family."
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