Every parent should follow this blog. Jade writes it from her heart.
Category Archives: Other Strangeness
White on White
Ice fog on Pond courtesy of Free Wallpapers.com
Temperatures at the cabin last week ranged from -28 degrees F to +36 degrees F causing some very interesting weather changes. With 26 inches of snow on the ground, the wide swing in temperature created a heavy fog which is unusual for this time of year. It was strange to witness and I scribbled my feelings down which turned into the following little ditty:
White cold from the North numbs and steals ones feeling.
White ice covers the water and gives the lake a hard ceiling.
White snow covers the landscape, the ground and the trees.
White fog from the South hides from sight, all of these.
Walking out on the ice in the fog would have been a little scary as you could easily have been disoriented in the fog as everything was white and no points of reference where visible. Kind of cool. Pardon the pun. 🙂
Happy New Year!
Winding Down and Gearing Up
The year is winding down and I find myself contemplating the upcoming year. I think 2014 is looking like a ‘rebuilding year’ as the sports teams like to call it. Getting back to basics fits a little better. By back to basics i mean things like: Proper nutrition, write more, remove stress wherever possible, and spend more quality time with the domestic CEO. I don’t call these resolutions.. They are instead, fundamental changes that will be made to my lifestyle.
Unless we are truly diligent, we tend to drift as life bumps us around with trials and obstacles. Like a ship in a storm we move a little off course without realizing it. The next thing we know we are miles off course. So, it’s time for a course correction. Nothing drastic is needed. just a few tweaks to get back on track.
So, the next couple weeks will be spent assessing where I am at, resetting goals, and gearing up to achieve as many of them as I can. I already know of a challenge or two looming for 2014 on the personal front. I’m hoping that forewarned is forearmed. At the very least I shouldn’t get blind-sided. I can only prepare as best I can and hope for the best.
Some areas I intend to post on in 2014 are tough questions and moral dilemmas, whether posting excerpts of WIP’s is a good idea, a few gardening topics, and maybe an archery post or two.
My Great Nephew’s Perfect Meal
I finally got around to looking at my Thanksgiving day pictures and one really stuck out. there is a story behind it so I will make you wait for the picture.
My great-nephew started college this year and is doing well. He is full of fun and life. When he was young, he looked like a refugee from Ethiopia. Nothing but skin and bones. Somewhere along the way he grew up. Maybe it’s because he started to eat. He now could be an offensive lineman for his college football team.
As Thanksgiving is celebrated with a large meal which takes some planning to create. He and I started talking about how we would eat the delicious meal that his grandmother prepared. His perfect meal is what follows.
Start with two rolls split in half and place face up on a plate.
Cover the rolls with slabs of turkey breast.
Add enough mashed potatoes to cover the turkey.
Smother the mashed potatoes with stuffing.
And, drown the entire plate with gravy.
The Perfect Thanksgiving Day Meal on a 12 inch dinner plate!
Now that’s several thousand calories you’re looking at. And, not a vegetable in sight. However, he was not finished.
What would Thanksgiving dinner be without dessert?
So, he added a slice of homemade apple pie, ice cream, and a healthy serving of Butterfinger Bar Bread Pudding.
Whew! My arteries are hardening just writing this!
Finally, he sat back on the sofa with a contented look on his face having created and eaten the perfect meal.
But, the story does not end there. Unbeknownst to him, a colony of microscopic organisms were at work in his body getting ready to pounce on this unsuspecting young man. Twelve hours after the meal, the flu hit him like a freight train. He spent the entire night and the next day in utter misery. Unfortunately, his perfect meal made a return visit if you get my meaning…
He recovered in a few days as most young men do. He even joked about it on Twitter. But…I could hear the pain in his tweet at having wasted the perfect meal.
There’s always next year.
NOTE: If he gives me any static about this post, I will follow-up with a picture of him eating his perfect meal. 🙂
Tribute to a dear friend
Good-bye, Dave.
On Saturday, a star fell from the sky. My friend David Holland passed away after a twenty-year long fight with cancer. The depth of this man and the impact he made on those around him cannot be measured with words.
We met while volunteering for the Boy Scouts of America. Correction, I was volunteering. Dave lived it and breathed it. For years, he was the Scoutmaster to a troop of 100 boys! Only Dave could pull that off. After he ‘retired’ from being a Scoutmaster, he continued to support the Scouting movement by working at the district level. He always put the boys first, no matter what.
At the time we met, I was thirty, married with no kids. As an Eagle Scout, I wanted to give back to the program that had done so much for me in my youth. Dave got a call from the district office that I was looking to get involved. Dave met with me and we hit it off. I found out later that he not only did a background check on me, but he stood up for me when several of the parents questioned him about my interest in the troop, since I had no son of my own.
Outside of my own family, I can think of no one that respect more than Dave. We spent several lifetimes sharing stories and adventures around campfires. He was a story teller and one of the first persons to encourage me to write. He was truly a good man and a good friend.
I will miss him.
May the great Scoutmaster of all great Scouts, be with us until we meet again. – Boy Scout Prayer
Mitakuye Oyasin!
The U.S. Space Program
Is this the future of the Space Program?
Artist’s concept drawing. Courtesy of NASA
Fifty-plus years ago, a young man stood up in front of the American people and declared that we would put men on the moon. We did! Four years after the moon landing, the Space Shuttle program was approved.
The two men responsible for these huge steps could not have been more different if I’d created them for a piece of fiction. Former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Even though President Eisenhower originally approved funding for the Apollo program, history sees Kennedy as the driver behind putting men on the moon. Kennedy and Nixon did have at least one similarity. They both believed in the Space Program. It is sad that the leaders since then have not had the same vision or courage shown by leaders of the fifties, sixties, and seventies. Funding has been cut to the point where, even if funding came through today, it would take nearly a decade for the U.S. to put a manned vehicle back into space. We have chosen to rely on Russia to ensure the safe travel of our brave astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The cost of which jumped 300% the day we announced the retirement of the space shuttles. In addition, 7,000 jobs were lost to the small towns that surround Cape Canaveral when the Shuttle program was cancelled. Thirst for human exploration and knowledge has driven us to this point. What will it take to move us to the next step? Substantial fiscal payback will most likely be needed to push Congress and the President off of top-dead-center and move them to act in support of NASA. Okay, enough politics, I’m trying to keep from entering into a rant.
When I was ten years old a man stepped onto the surface of the moon. To say I was excited would be an understatement. At eighteen, I visited the Kennedy Space Center for the first time and got to look inside rockets for the first time. I was impressed but, I still didn’t understand. Thirty-four years later, I went back. I watched first hand, as a rocket launched into space. I felt the rush of excitement and patriotism. I walked in the steps of the bravest men, in my opinion, who have ever walked the earth. My imagination was electrified by the sights and sounds of exploration. With the help of the Hubble Telescope, I saw images of the possibilities and the probabilities of other “earths’ being out there. Mathematically, it is almost certain!
If only we had a way to get there!
The past few months have renewed my belief in the U.S. Space Program. The men and women who work on these projects are the finest in the world. They are driven by an insatiable need to learn, to explore, to try, and to succeed. The benefits the program has provided humanity are irrefutable. The need for the people of Earth to find and learn about other planets could very well save us from ourselves.Will we find a way to safely travel into deep space? I have no doubt that it can and will be done.
I hope I get to see it happen in my lifetime.
What about you? If you had the opportunity to go into space, would you?
Building a Spaceship to Mars
MAVEN within the launch shroud on its way to the assembly building at Complex 41
MAVEN – One who understands.
If you have been following this blog you know that I have a connection to the MAVEN mission to Mars. I have been trying to provide background and updates on the project in preparation for the launch window which opens next Monday, Nov. 18. Shortly after my last post, I received and e-mail from the project team with photos from the Complex 41 Vertical Integration Building. Don’t you just love these scientific terms? What in means is they were putting a spacecraft together. So here are some pics showing MAVEN being lifted to the top of the Atlas V 304 launch vehicle. All pictures are used with permission and are courtesy of NASA and the Lockheed Martin, MAVEN project team.
MAVEN arrives at the assembly building at Complex 41
That’s the Atlas V launch vehicle already in the building. Note the people standing next to the truck. This is not a small vehicle.
- Lowering the sling to take MAVEN for a ride to the top
MAVEN On its way up
Here’s a better view of the Atlas V launch vehicle in the background.
MAVEN almost to the top
MAVEN Settling in place
Now that is a
Looooooong way down!
The doors are closing.
This is where MAVEN will stay until it’s time to move to the launch pad.
Launch time is scheduled for 11/18/13 1:28 EST.
T minus 91 hours!
Tales From The Hare 