Armchair Astronaut

I am glad to see the TV coverage of the shuttle visit to the space station on the TV.

It allows my mind to travel at 17,000 MPH, high above the earthly activities like war, terrorism, my simple country life and all those other things we humans do to eachother and end up part of the news...each day.

I can now focus on activities on the International Space Station, where men sleep velcro-ed to the wall.

I can view it's crew of astronauts/cosmonauts and their techno-guests from Florida parked nearby. They have brought water, food, care packages and spare parts . They are monitored by us from our armchairs with our TV remotes in hand.

I have always had an interest in space travel, starting with Mr. Robert Heinlien's books that
put me in orbit from grade school, to listening to the NASA on my own short wave radio, with access to government radio back feeds from Mercury Astronauts, Gemini, Appollo, Skylab, and early Shuttle... but then they went to satellite communications almost exclusively, and the short waves went silent...but I found some back-up radio links to listen in now and again. I was
able to actually touch a Gemini capsule that had returned to Earth, on display at the San Francisco Museum as I waited in line as a young man long ago.

The same hand has touched a locally restored 1850s stagecoach, a Norse Ship that traveled the Baltic, Roman Marble Sculpture in Italy, WW2 Warbirds , Radios that "Glow in the Dark" and has tapped out morse code messages around the world for 45yrs.

I have been fortunate enough to talk with my Ham Radio Station to MIR and ISS space stations
and some of the brave folks that inhabit it. For about 6 minutes during a good pass, I bring the
earth and "home" a little closer to them, and they bring my armchair a bit closer to orbit.

Godspeed Discovery...
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Earthly Events...

Somehow... "The Hot Dog Lady" crisis at the Historic Bandstand in Weaverville does not seem earth-shaking anymore... the county supervisors have placed it on the back burner for now...

-Oldtimer