Rocket Launch

In keeping with the space theme from my last post, this one will also be space related. I have several bucket list items that I would like to get to in the next year or so. One of those items is to see a rocket launch in person. I imagine the sight of a launch is impressive when seen live. I have seen several web sites that list launch schedules around the world and around the U.S.   

I would like to see a large rocket such as a Falcon 9 or Starship being launched in the U.S. I plan on flying to Florida or other launch location to see the launch and plan on having a flexible schedule to account for any delays. 

Have any of you seen a rocket launch in person? If so, any advice on the best location to see a launch? Is a rocket launch as great as I envision it? I have seen that NASA has an area to view a launch where you have to purchase tickets. Is that the best way to see a launch? Any advice and tips would be appreciated as I plan to cross this one off the list!   

How Small Am I?

I was floating in my pool a couple of weeks ago and noticed the moon way up in the bright blue sky. I began to ponder how far away the moon was and amazed at how humans made the trip up to the moon in 1969. I am amazed that we could do that with the technology that was available at that time. A little research shows that the moon is, on average, about 238,555 miles from Earth. That is quite the trip! My mind began to ask other questions and further internet research revealed that the Sun is about 93 millions miles from Earth. When I start looking above and thinking about the vastness of space, I realize just how small I am here on Earth in the big scheme of things. 

Once you get past the distance from Earth to the Sun, distances begin to get measured in light years, a year of traveling at the speed of light (189,282 mile per second!). Our solar system including our sun and orbiting planets is estimated at .5 to 1 light year in diameter. Go further out and our Milky Way Galaxy is a much as 100 thousand light years across. It is estimated that there are over 100 billion galaxies in the universe. That is simply unbelievable and hard to wrap your mind around. I have seen some of the Hubble telescope images of distance galaxies and the images are simply amazing and show different shaped galaxies dotting space. Our own Milky Way Galaxy can only be depicted as an artist rendition because we haven't sent a camera out far enough to get an outside view. Our furthest spacecraft, Voyage 1, has been heading out to space for 46 years and is just now getting to the edge of our solar system. It would take another 40,000 years for it to exit our galaxy!

I read a description of a scale comparison of our solar system to the Milky Way and it said if you placed a quarter on the ground in the U.S. the quarter would represent our solar system and the U.S. would represent the size of the Milky Way. That is incredible! And it said that earth would be a microscopic piece of dust on that quarter. Then, if you think smaller, how big would a person be on that speck of dust, on that quarter in the middle of the U.S. We are but a tiny thing in this universe. 

Yet, the majority of us think we are pretty big stuff! I tend to view the universe as rotating around me and my family. I picture my family sitting at a dining room table or at a gathering at my home and can visualize a giant rotating hurricane circling around us while we sit in the eye of the storm. My world is my small little circle while the rest of the universe rotates around us. Boy, do I have it all wrong! When I think of how vast the universe is, and how short a human life really is, I think of the Bible verse "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." James 4:14. Our time on earth is so small compared to the time that has passed and the time to come. 

I see nothing wrong with my visualization of my family being the center of my universe. But, I should expand it a little and include other friends and acquaintances that I regularly interact with. I should expand it a little more and include those I can impact in some way through my living or giving. 

Maybe, after reading this post, the next time you look up at the night sky, you will think about the vastness that surrounds us and realize we may not be as big a deal as we think we are!

Have you ever done some deep thinking about the vastness of space? Have you been impressed with some of the Hubble photos of space? Does the world rotate around you and your space? Have you expanded your space to include connections in your city, state or across the globe?

Grandparent's Legacy

After taking off most of July and August from blogging, it is time to get back at it. I'll start back up with this post and will make it a fairly short one. As a fairly new grandparent (3 grand daughters age 4 and twin 20 month old), I want to leave some great memories with them and stories they can share with their kids and grandkids about Nana and Pawpaw. I cherish our current relationships with them that makes them light up and get excited when they see us. I cherish them running into our arms for hugs and to sitting in our laps. This makes me think about my own memories of my grandparents.

I never knew my mother's dad. He was killed by his own daughter, my aunt, before I knew him. I did know my mother's mother fairly well. For those who remember from a previous post, this is Little Grandma to me. I remember her as a petite and spunky grandma. She lived with one of my aunts and in an apartment the entire time I knew her. She had enough money to get by, but not a lot of money for extras. Yet, one of my memories of her is that she always sent a birthday card with a $5 bill inside. We lived about 3 hours from her and saw her a few times a year, but you could always count on getting a birthday card with that $5 bill in it. 

On my dad's side, I remember my grandma, Big Grandma, for her cooking and quilting. She made some of the most beautiful quilts, a couple of them I have today. I wrote about her quilts in one post on this blog a while back. She was always happy and generous and always pleased to see us come through the door. She also lived about 3 hours away, but moved next door in my teen years when my granddad had a heart attack. My granddad was a small, thinner man who seemed to be more grumpy and stern than anything else. He had a small piece of land and grew many different types of things including blackberries and potatoes. Some of my memories include helping pick a few berries and digging a few potatoes. I also remember working for him for a few days, for a few dollars, when he moved next door and got to feeling better after his heart issues. He paid me to help take nails out of old boards and then he built a picket fence out of them. I helped paint that fence and felt a little like Tom Sawyer at the time while painting this white picket fence. It was a time that I felt about as close as I ever was to him. He was not the type of granddad that you ran to and gave a hug, at least in my dealing with him.

I don't have a ton of memories from my grandparents and they have long passed away. If they were around now, I think I would inquire more into their history and the history of their parents and grandparents. My wife does family history research and it seems you can find a lot of info on births, deaths, marriages and info from and old census documents. But, you would be hard pressed to find actual details and facts about those same people. 

I hope my grand children remember me as a fun and happy Pawpaw and not as a grumpy and stern man as I remember my granddad. I hope they will have fond memories of visits to our house for celebrations and parties with the whole family. We can only strive to create such memories during our short time on earth. Our family has a cruise scheduled in October of this year and it will be our second "family" cruise. Hopefully, these family times will create some great memories for everyone and someday the grand kids will say "Remember how much fun we had on the family cruises?".

If you are a grandparent, do you have similar thoughts about leaving your family with great memories? What memories stick out in your mind of your own grandparents? Were your grandparents active in your life, or were they distant? Does your family have a regular get together such as Sunday dinners, yearly reunions or yearly trips that are a tradition in your family? If you are a grandparent, how are you different that your grandparents?

Families are so important to our well being, so make that extra effort to keep them connected as much as possible. 

Fly The Flag

 

On Fourth of July, I put out my flag as I do on most holidays and holiday weekends. I noticed about 6 out of 10 houses on our street were flying the U.S. Flag. It was a nice sight to see all the flags fluttering in the breeze. We live in a great country despite it's many flaws and issues. I would think that flying our great flag would be one of those things that not too many people would disagree with. It is something that all Americans can be proud of and display it with no fights over politics, religion or the latest social media posts. 

I recently read a book about Daniel Boone and early American history. I was astounded at the violence that was present in that day. You had to constantly be on alert of being attacked by the local tribes on whose land you were treading on. The early settlers were as brutal as their enemies and I was amazed to read some of the brutal fighting and tactics used by all of those involved. We now live in a much more civilized and safe country. This country has suffered through many major issues and wars over the years to be were it is today. I am optimistic that this country will continue to be a great place to live for the remainder of my years and for future generations. 

Fly the flag with pride!

Nicknames

I have always been one of those people who have a horrible time remembering names of people I meet. I really have to concentrate on retaining a name to make it stick. Often, as soon as a new person shakes my hand and tells me their name, it goes right in my brain and right out. Unless I focus on remembering the name, it takes me several times of hearing the name to remember it correctly.

Shortly after retirement we moved to a new location about 30 minutes away to be closer to our grown kids and closer to the things we enjoyed doing on a daily basis. With this move came the opportunity to meet new neighbors. Knowing that my name recollection was not very good, I employed a strategy that I had read about one time. The strategy is to concentrate on the name the person gives and associate it somehow with that person. I began to use nicknames that would help me remember. Now, unlike nicknames you give to close friends or family, I don't call these people by their nicknames that I have assigned them in my head. I just use that nickname to remember their name. I have found that this trick is extremely useful and try to use it when I meet a new person.

In sticking with this strategy, this is how it went with a few of my new neighbors. When I met the neighbor across the street and he introduced himself as Steve, I noticed he had an Oklahoma State University ballcap on. OSU is in Stillwater, OK. So Steve became Stillwater Steve. I have never forgotten his name. I met the neighbor behind me. His name is Doyle. The day I met him, his tiny little dog was at the fence barking. I nicknamed Doyle as Big Dog Doyle. I have never forgotten his name. Recently, I met the neighbor on the other end of the block, Gus. The day I met Gus he had on a big white bucket hat. You know, like the one Gilligan wore in Gilligan's Island. Care to guess what his nickname is?.........Gilligan Gus! I have never forgotten his name. A neighbor one street over became Larry Law because Larry had told me he was a retired Deputy. I have never forgotten his name.

As I get older, I think this strategy will serve me well as my name recollection probably will get worse. We are visiting new churches in our area and I will need to employ this strategy every time my wife and I meet someone new. When using this strategy, just make sure you don't blurt out any unflattering nickname to your new friends. The nicknames above wouldn't be offensive to anyone but you may have a nickname in your head that may not be that nice to say out loud. You wouldn't want to voice a name like Dirty Doug to a new friend because he was dirty from working in the yard when you first met him. It might help you remember his name but he probably wouldn't like it if you called him Dirty Doug the next time you saw him at the grocery store. 

There are nicknames we give our spouses, family and friends. These are usually terms of endearment and are meant to be used all the time. My grand daughters have several to include Pumpkin, Cutie Pututie and Princess. I've been called a few names in the past such as StudMuffin, Champ, Mr. Universe, etc. I'll be honest and tell you those nicknames were ones I gave myself. I probably don't want to know what nicknames others have for me in their heads!

Have you employed the above strategy when meeting new people? Do you have trouble remembering names like I do, or do you lock down the new names with no problems? Do you have any interesting nicknames for your neighbors or people you see out and about? Do you have any other strategies for remembering names of people you meet?

Mighty Mitch signing out.

Summer Projects

Summer is a great time to tackle a few projects. Over the years, I have planted trees, completed landscape projects, painted the exterior of a house, roofed a house and many, many more projects. Most of those Summer projects were done after work hours and on weekends. In retirement, projects can be done any time and any day and I love it. Retirement also affords the opportunity to work on projects at a slower pace because I no longer have to complete the project in a certain time period so I can get back to my job.

This Summer I have completed a few small projects and just last night completed painting my garage doors. The paint on the doors had faded with the constant exposure to the sun. I caulked across the top where it needed new caulking. I washed the doors down with a good soapy mixture to prepare it for a new coat of paint. I have a three car garage with a single door and a double door. On Monday I painted the single door and last night finished the double door. I enjoy painting once I get started. Painting gives a lot of satisfaction to see the difference a coat of fresh paint can make.

My dad like painting. Sometimes he loved painting. If he found a half of a can of purple spray paint at a garage sale or in the back of his shop, you can be sure that something was getting painted purple by the end of the day. 

My next big project also involves painting. Our pool filters are located in a large fiberglass tank. The sun has done it's job on the tank and the tank is chalky looking and I get tiny fiberglass fibers on me when I open it up to clean the filters. My hands and arms get very itchy if I touch the tank at all. My plan is to lightly sand the tank and paint it with marine paint that is designed for fiberglass boats. That should solve my itchy problem and make the tank look much better. It will be an all day project by the time I unhook the tank from the pool pump system and then prep and paint it.

Do you use your Summer for projects? What have you tackled so far this year? What are you future projects that you have planned? 

Get out there and enjoy the Summer in whatever you do and stay cool out there!

Homemade Ice Cream!

Last week, my wife and I had ice cream at a new shop around the corner from the house. It is a new location of an ice cream shop we visited recently on the north side of Oklahoma City. The place is called Boom Town Ice Cream and is a small batch creamery with a lot of excellent ice cream flavors. My favorite is their chocolate chip cookie dough on a waffle cone. It is a special treat to grab an afternoon ice cream snack at this place. There are several other small ice cream shops in the city that are awesome also. We have one local shop, Capital Ice Cream, where you choose a variety of cereals and ingredients to be folded into ice cream to create your own special flavor. Boom Town has a sign that says "Ice Cream Is Always The Answer.". I agree! Retirement is the perfect time to try new ice cream shops. You can have a tasty ice cream cone any afternoon with no need for it to be a special occasion. We will get ice cream on a Tuesday afternoon just because it it Tuesday afternoon!

On a recent thrift store outing with my wife, I noticed a couple of homemade ice cream makers for sale. This made me think that we are overdue to make some homemade ice cream. We have an ice cream maker and don't use it that often. There is no better ice cream than homemade ice cream! We normally make a plain vanilla but have added some chocolate chips in the past and may have tried another flavor or two. I remember, as a kid, making homemade ice cream in a wooden ice cream maker at my grandparents house. It was an old wood maker with a hand crank. My dad would crank it while my two sisters and I would take turn sitting on a towel on top of the maker to hold it down while dad cranked away. Once our bottoms began to get too cold we would hop off and the next one would hop on. It seemed to take forever for that ice cream to get frozen enough to eat! I imagine it was even longer for my poor dad as he cranked it by hand. But, oh how good that ice cream tasted after waiting patiently for it to be ready.

Mom and Dad eventually got an electric ice cream maker that we used many times. As I got a little older I was able to put the ice and salt in the sides of the maker to help out. I would sneak a piece or two of the rock salt and let them slowly melt in my mouth as I monitored the ice and salt in the machine. I will admit, even today, I will do the same thing with rock salt when I am in charge of making ice cream. Maybe I am salting my taste buds for that sweet taste of the ice cream. 

It does take some effort to make ice cream at home. You have to gather the ingredients and put the mixture together. You have to make sure you have enough ice and ice cream salt to freeze it in the ice cream maker. And, you have to have patience to listen to the grinding of the machine for some time to freeze the mixture into that awesome ice cream. We use an electric maker and it seems like it takes longer than it actually does. We wait patiently for the motor to finally quit and indicate that the ice cream is ready. The motor seems to slow to almost a stop and then gets a second wind and grinds away for another 10 minutes before we think it's going to stop again. sometimes the cycle continues several times. With each slowing, our anticipation grows for dipping into our finished ice cream!

Do you have any great ice cream shops in your area? Do you visit them regularly? What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Do you have any great memories of making homemade ice cream in the past? Any rock salt eaters out there?  When was the last time you made some ice cream at home?

It's Summer and prime ice cream time! Get out there and enjoy a great ice cream cone somewhere or make your own special treat at home. Happy Summer!