BTW, we've really got to stop meeting like this. :)
Coffee's already prepared and ready for the East Coast early arrivals. Just flip the switch...
Thanks for the links to the FReeper profiles, and WTG, Mr. M.!
Nan ~~I missed you last night. How are you, your husband, and friend, K.??
Wishing everyone a Friday of joy and courage.
A friend who used to work with me at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, MD, but has since moved on to Mission Control in Houston, sent me the following "speech" I'd like to share with everybody. I didn't want to create a new thread so I hope you don't mind my posting it here.
We Came Here, You and I
We came here, you and I, to this place and this profession, to be great, to do great things, and give form to great dreams - and we have. Greatness is what we are about. It's who we are, and how we want to be, and how we want our world to be. We knew that there had been set-backs before us, long ago it seems now.
We knew that something called Apollo 1 happened before many of our team mates were born. That demon of fate stole three people one day in a launch pad test. Some wanted to cancel the lunar program. But they didn't, and Borman, Lovell, and Anders read from Genesis orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve two years later. Those people back then, who's legacy we continue, worked through it, fixed their problems, and chased the demon away for a time.
He almost got three more on Apollo 13 but they caught him by the ears and wrestled their friends away from him. He beat us on Challenger. He beat us bad there, real bad. They could have cancelled the program, they didn't have to keep going, that generation could have just stopped flying. But they didn't. They walked in the footsteps of those who had gone before, fixed things and moved on.
We built a space station confounding the critics who said it was too complicated, too hard and would never work. We had amazing success for 17 years. And then he got us again. Up there in the cold thin-air, in a part of the flight envelope you don't want to be in, he cornered our friends and took them. And we who are walking in the footsteps of those who lost and won in years past have the task of fixing it, just like they did.
Ten or 15 years from now when some of the folks working on our teams are walking on Mars, or the moon, or flying in the cold dark between the planets, that demon will find us again. He will, because he's always with us. And when our children are having babies and showing them the red landscape of Mars out the window he'll be there in their nursery, and he'll take some. And when their children's children are growing up under alien suns and their ships are plowing the void between the stars, he'll be there too. And he'll win from time to time. He's a persistent bastard.
But that demon of fate is a loser. He's the biggest loser in the universe because he never stops us. And the next time he comes he has to work still harder because we keep going and we keep getting better. When he does win, out there between the stars, and takes our great grandchildren, their families and friends will comfort themselves with stories of those who lost long ago, and picked themselves up and continued on. They'll talk about the people who persevered when they lost their friends on that re-entry over Texas. And we will give them that story to tell, you and I, because that is what they deserve, and that is who we are, and that is why we chose to be here.
This is an Amber Alert
Please forward this to everybody in your address book...thank you ..
Amber Alert!!
Issued Wednesday Feb. 4.
She was last seen wearing blue overalls, a red shirt and white tennis shoes. She is missing four of her top front teeth.
Abduction is suspected although there is no suspect information at this time. The information published earlier today is incorrect according to the county Emergency Services office as of 6 PM PST.
Police are looking for Sofia's biological father, Andres Garcia, and his brother Fabian Garcia. Both are considered "persons of interest."
Anyone with information is asked to call the Richland PD at (509) 628-0303
Click on the pic
Wrong! Just for the record, the picture on my homepage is NOT me. It is P. G. Wodehouse, my favorite author.
Trust me, I'm younger and have more hair than this genius.
Phelix, I bookmarked your webpage - thank you, habs, for the additional heads up on her page....those flowers and photos are absoultely breathtaking...your own garden, Phelix? I especially loved the garden views, but there are many of the photos I haven't yet had a chance to see. Thank you! And thank you, Daisy! (You have regular email, Miss Daisy!)
Nice to meet you and thanks for gracing our Finest' Profile Pages thread - even though you didn't know it. :)
I've just had every post I've made on FR in the last few months deleted without explanation.
Goodbye, FR. I'm tired of the hate.
