It's been a good few weeks all told, full of adventure and some trials as well. Altogether it has been a good introduction to the summer and to the future that we have planned.
Along about the 3rd of July we started looking around for a place to go see fireworks. There are so many cities lined up along the 'Gold Coast', 'Treasure Coast' and 'Space Coast' that we didn't really get a handle on what or who would be putting on a big show. We managed to get a three-day weekend out of it since the 'official' holiday was on Friday and we planned on spending some down time puttering about on small projects and relaxing. Since it had been raining pretty much every day for the past 3 weeks we surmised that there might be some washed out shows but dawned clear and stayed clear most of the day on the 4th.
As it turned out we just put the top down on the convertible and drove around for a couple of hours watching pieces of several different fireworks shows and skirting around traffic jams of people trying to get to or from the beaches. Maybe next year we'll watch a couple of shows from a mile or two offshore. The weekend was a rousing succes as far as the relaxation goal was concerned and we even took in a movie at the IMAX theatre located conveniently close to the slip where S/V Robin is docked. For the record, sequels seldom whip the originals as badly as the "Night in the Museum; The Battle for the Smithsonian" did. In our humble opinion (IMHO) it was a far better movie than the first one and we enjoyed it thoroughly.
The work week ensued complete with training, meetings, and coomutes and we made up some plans for the next weekend which included a certain blog author's birthday. :)
On Friday we made an early day of it and headed up to Jupiter, FL to visit with our friends Sue and Chip. What started out as a civil evening of steaks on the grill and a game of cards quickly 'advanced' into what could be construed to be a full-fledged pary when someone (no names here) slipped a litre of dark rum onto the table along with some shot glasses.
Now ... I've been around long enough to lnow better, you'd think ... we did have fun; so I'm told at least ... and I think we quit the card game before it was supposed to be over. I know there was a swimming pool involved and I know I got to sleep before daylight.
Actually: we did enjoy the evening immensely and it was great fun and fellowship. What a nice way to usher in my first year of senior discounts.
Saturday morning we said our farewells and travelled further north because we wanted to watch the Space Shuttle depart. It ws scheduled for a 7:50 P.M. launch and we'd booked a hotel about 30 miles south of the Cape because everything north of that was booked solid. It's great to realize that a Shuttle launch is still popular and exciting enough to draw a crushing crowd to watch it. The media gives it precious little coverage these days unless there is a mishap.
As soon as we arrived at the hotel and checked in we learned that the mission had been scrubbed due to lightning strikes around the launch complex the night before so we suddenly had no pressure to be anywhere and took the time to tour around Palm Bay, Cocoa Beach and Port Canaveral. We were already booked at the hotel for the evening and decided that since the launch was rescheduled for Sunday evening that we'd stay another night and hope to see it go.
Our hotel was conveniently located next to a Texas Roadhouse and the steaks were as good as we remembered :)
We did some more 'touristy' activities on Sunday morning and gradually worked our way up highway A1A to a spot recommended to us by a co-worker. The place is along the south jetty wall of the Port Canaveral inlet and there are several restaurants along the road with good, unobstructed viewsto the north. Although we were about 11 miles south of the launch pad itself we were only a couple hundred yards away from Cape property and we had an (almost) unobstructed view to the launch site. Cars and people started filling in a couple of hours prior to launch, but we had an hour head start on them and were graced by an air conditioned table with a good view and a great waiter with a pretty good menu. All told, it was a pretty good spot to watch a launch.
While it's been a while since we've spent more than three hours at a restaurant, the staff made it fun and about 15 minutes prior to launch we stepped outside to wait and see. At about T-11 they scrubbed it due to encroaching thunderstorms and while we were disappointed it was still an enjoyable afternoon.
Monday morning we packed up and made the 190 mile commute to report to work. NASA tried again and scrubbed due to weather and then finally made it on Wednesday.
There are only 7 Shuttle launches left. This number actually includes a launch that was not originally going to go up because the first time it was to launch it was destroyed in the Challenger. The entire project has been rebuilt and will finally get to go into space after all.We hope to find a way to be present for at least some of these launches as they are spectacular.
The schedule for NASA'a launches are here.
You can also get NASA TV broadcasts piped directly to your computer by going to their NASA TV page and choosing which kind of media player to view. They also have a huge selection of videos and images to browse through.
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Last week we drove north again; this time to Stuart, FL to meet up with and visit with Jerome from the previous entry's "Contour" story. When last we saw him we were concerned about his taking off across the ocean single-handed this time of year and after we managed to make e-mail contact we found that he'd elected to hang around locally for at least a while until a crew could be found. He'd met up with an experienced and willing sailor named Dave and they will likely be on their way in a few days. It looks like Jerome is going to get a crack at his dream real soon and we wish him (them) the very best of times as they cruise around. We haven't had a hint of hurricane threat yet although the thunderstorms have been persistent and often severe (driving home from Stuart that evening we punched through a very heavy storm with hail and nearly constant lightning. It rained very, very hard and we were thankful to get out of it. I would not've liked it in a boat.)
It's been quite a month for celebrity passings as well. Of all, I will probably feel Walter Cronkite's the most. In conjunction with this week's 40th anniversary of the landing on the moon, his pictures and videos have gotten a fair amount of airplay and it causes me to remember how much of a 'staple' he was during my growing up years. His legacy is a good one.
Robin and I have been actively engaged in training to revive our controller skills. Robin has certified on three "D" positions and I have certified on 1 but then moved to a RADAR position right away (different plans for the different areas of training). I will likely certify on my radar position in a few days.
It has been a challenge and some fun, actually, to try to get up to speed on fast moving sectors and I think I'll survive it after all. Once we are done with this level of training we'll start working on the Supervisory aspects of managing the areas, which is why we were hired. The process has been long and not necessarily logical, but we've persevered this far and will see it through to completion.On the right is a snapshot of the sector I'm leaning. We sequence 4 streams to three airports (PBI, FLL, MIA (and their satellites) and handle departures from PBI (Palm Beach) and crossing over-flights to and from the Bahamas. Yep, it can get busy ->
The rest of the week(s)s have been filled with mostly mundane chores surrounding everyday life. We watched some "Heroes", worked on the little boat, put new tires on the car and bought tennis rackets (although at 94 degrees and 95% humidity we may wait a bit on that activity :) )
This weekend we will likely spend Saturday aboard S/V Robin and on Sunday Robin departs for a training class in Palm Coast, FL (about 4 hours north of here). We've tried this sort of 'trial separation' thing before and I can tell you it doesn't work so we are already looking forward to our reunion :)
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