Pack 867 Picnic Pictures
The pictures from yesterday's picnic and amazing race are over here.
Home and In the Sun Archive May 2009
Houston, Atlantis. Wheels Stop, Edwards 22.
Logbook entry:
5 Millions Miles in space. 184 Sunrises and Sunsets over 13 days. 1 Deadstick Landing on Edwards Runway 22.
Nice.
Mulligan -- 6 Chances to Land Today
Three chances to land at Kennedy, three to land in California.
Here is my deal. This is part of the reason that I like this stuff so much -- Going into space is the combination of art, engineering, beauty, courage, and knowledge that are -- have to be -- brought together. I can't think of where else one might get such an amazing, over the top combination -- if there is another, I'd love to know about it.
It is a combination of left brain and right brain in a gathering of knowledge that may well assist all of us (and our following generations) in ways that we have not yet considered.
It is taking the step out of the muck . . . because it seems like the right thing to do -- even if we don't fully know why.
It is my cotton candy for the soul.
(ok, that was a relatively gratuitous statement so that I could use this picture).
Oh, and you get to float around.
Coming Home
They're coming home at 11.39am today.
There is something in my inner-core that feels that humans going to outerspace should always be on the front page news and should never not be televised.
Oh, and it is beautiful too.
Red&Gray - The Flavor of Simmered Words
1138: Had
this thought while either cleaning up from breakfast or making breakfast . . . at a
minimum, I was in the kitchen. . .
While speaking, while interacting, and/or while trying to influence others via speech, I had a mini-ephinpy regarding words. At times, one can lash out words of love (intimate moments) or words of angst (Please stop yelling! (ironic, isn't it?)). And those words usually do indeed communicate one's feelings and usually also do indeed communicate them efficiently.
But, I'd imagine that although one's lover might quite like to hear "instant feedback", I'm guessing that words before the candlelight, before the glass of wine, before the silk, before the sheets might - just might - stick a little better. Might enhance the memory. Might make the day or the date or the evening.
In an earlier tweet, I characterized the words said in an intense moment as words from a microwave - ultra fast with little more thought than "how many seconds do I type in the key pad."
But those thoughts that simmer - those thoughts that are with you throughout the day, that cause one to lose a step while pacing along, that cause one to forget to breathe, that cause one's heart to race. Those are the thoughts that not only simmer and steam. They stick. Those are the thoughts that are made over and over in one's mind while the day progresses. They start at 5:30am - they begin to thaw. By 9am, they are unfrozen and malleable. Soon enough it is 11am and they enter the crock pot of one's mind.
Now, just like the chili powder, oregeno, and [what are those other amazing, stomach-acid creating smells?] the room of our minds are being driven a little crazy by the smells, the stewing and intermingling of thoughts, heat applied to and permeated through fibers of our mind and of our being.
3 and 4 pm roll around and thankfully there is some distraction of kids returning from school. Distrcation from the aromas, the pondering of the dinner, the processing of the thoughts, the creation of words.
Dinner time - 6pm. But still it is time for feeding only the body. Those thoughts that have been simmering all day are still there. They know that they are not just the dessert, but the coup de grâce of the meal and the crème de la crème.
After the kids are in bed, after the dog is outside. The words begin - initially softly spoken in short sentences. The words that began the pondered journey at 5:30am. The words that have emotions stewed throughout each vowel and constant. The words that are connected by (well) literally spaces, but also connected by perfectly timed pauses, by glorious sideways non-verbal glances, by eyes with pupils that are jet-black and open, by the warmth of a hand that one can feel prior to skin-to-skin contact.
And then as the evening progresses, as the night progresses more words are said. More words that have been inside all day, more words that have been stirred, sampled, and re-coverd until they can be passed through the air to the perfect audience - to the perfectly choosen ears to say nourishing things that most definitely can and will be repeated, but never, never will have the same meaning as they do the first time that they are uttered.
Ultimately,
these wonderful to say and wonderful to hear words simmering all day, uttered
with so much preparation, so much care may well lead to some
utterances - the exact same previously mentioned microwaved words.
But now, alas, those microwaved words are lathered in, absorbed by and flavored with the simmered words so that they now too, will stick, and cause smiles, and knowing glances, and inside jokes that a microwave by itself Just Cannot Do.
Seattle-Like Morning
Probably just a few minutes to write here as it is already 622am and I've showered before I've started writing.
This morning the wind is blowing, the leaves are rustling, thunder is in the distance and rain is on its way. I love this. It would be better if I could share it with someone that also loved it. This reminds me of vacation - not the cookie cutter, in a condo vacation, but the on-the-porch sitting as a family vacation where you are doing nothing (but recharging one's own batteries) and thinking about getting up to get the deck of cards, but are enjoying your self and time and family and "this" that you just don't want to ruin it because you know it is a fleeting moment kind of thing. . . So. You. Just. Sit.
And the rain comes. And the drop in temperature comes. And the five of you are sitting there, saying nothing, looking out through the screen, feeling the breeze, jumping when the stick falls, and Enjoying. The. Moment.
Oh to be
able to translate that to everyday life.
To be in a meeting, to realize that people are making progress. Or that people are trying to make progress. And to listen to the sounds, to watch the pencils and pens, and to be able to appreciate it all. Not to try to make it happen. Just to enjoy the moment.
Oh, there is something there. People want to; No, People need to Enjoy the Moment. But something happened on the way from one week out of 52, on the way from the morning bed to the make-money-routine that derailed the glorious almost-childlike Enjoy the Moment.
Was it responsibility? Was it duty? Was it Hiding? Was it The Jones's?
Was it the cookie cutter mentality? Everyone does it this way, so I have to as well. Everyone goes on vacations to the beach - to be entertained, so I have to as well. Everyone has to be entertained - as do I.
But I forgot. I have this entertainment thing inside of me. I have my own mind, my own wants, my own desires. I know - somewhere in my self - I know what those are.
Instead of doing what people and society and money is saying to do, why not just stand up and say, "I'm tired as Hell. And I"'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!"
Because we're scared? Because we're lazy? Because what if it doesn't work out?
Damn-it.
For this logical, male brain there has to be some kind of exercise that can be done frequently that says, "Hey, remember that non-verbal voice that keeps motioning and gyrating trying to get your attention - listen to him. He's brilliant."
And maybe, just maybe writing this stuff everyday is part of that task . . . Or at least a first step out of the muck.
0635 EOT
Cincinnati Zoo Manatee Sleepover
Many of the local school's cub scout pack spent the night with the manatees at the Cincinnati Zoo. Pictures are posted over here.
Guest Blog at My Parenting Source
I wrote a Guest Blog over at Beech Acres website. Even though I can write whatever I want on this site, it is a bit humbling (and honoring) to be asked to expand on some thoughts that I've had on an official, for-purpose site
.
And now my ego steps back in with the link to the blog Beech Acres' "My Parenting Source".
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