Today I was driving home from work and saw what was left over from a bad car accident. It was a black Subaru Forrester that had hit a guard rail. It must have been going really fast because it was in really bad shape. It was missing all of the doors, so I have to assume that the rescue squad had to use the Jaws of Life to remove the passengers! I hope the passengers are all right! I’ve never seen the Jaws of Life, but I understand that it opens up a car almost like a can opener, and it is a very important piece of equipment for any rescue squad to have. I’m glad ours has one, that is for sure!
Yesterday I read some exciting news about the discovery of a planet in the Milky Way galaxy that actually orbits two suns. Just like the planets described in science fiction books and movies, such as “Star Trek,” this planet has two suns that are visible from the planet’s surface every day. However, they believe this planet is so cold and hostile that it cannot support life as we know it.
The scientists who made this discovery gave the planet the name, Tatooine after the fictional planet in the “Star Wars” films that boasts a double sunset. I hope to read more about this exciting discovery – I can only imagine what it would be like to have two suns.
My wife always says that the only difference between the men and the boys is the price of their toys. I admit it, I am just a big kid at heart. I have a collection of Classic kids toys like Lincoln Logs a growing collection of remote control toys like the helicopters and automated dogs. I keep telling my wife that they are an investment, but I don’t think she’s fooled even for a minute. She tells me that if they were an investment then they would have never been removed from their boxes! Yeah, but they are an investment in my happiness!
Whenever we go shopping together, she complains that I always wander away so she can’t find me. And then her twenty minute trip to the store turns into an hour or more! I keep telling her that all she has to do is come to the toy aisle, and she will find me checking out the latest in electronic toys! She just needs to build more time into her shopping time budget if I’m going along! And never mind how much money I’m spending on toys; after all, we ARE saving money by car-pooling in to the store!
Every now and then I will take a drive out to the country and enjoy the sights and sounds of farm life. When I was very young my grandparents had a farm, and my happiest childhood memories are from visiting them on their farm. Last weekend I decided to take such a drive and found myself driving very slowly behind a caravan of farm equipment. As you can imagine, in the country roads there are not very many opportunities to pass slow moving farm vehicles, so I just settled in for a slow ride; I was in no particular hurry.
Eventually all of the trucks pulled into a long dirt driveway and as I passed I took a look at some of the equipment that was being hauled. One of the things was a huge conveyor belt device that I could only imagine would be used for silo unloading. I don’t know what all of the other machines were, or how they are used. Sometimes I fantasize about living on a farm and driving big farm equipment. But then I think about the old sit-com “Green Acres” and start to chuckle – I don’t think my wife would take kindly to living the farm life at all!
As a kid, we had a lot of U.S. and Russian space program events. There were launches of satellites, rockets, shuttles and the space station. There were kids in my classes who had a parent that worked for NASA. They would bring things into “Show and Tell” like space food, photographs of them at the Kennedy Space Center or standing by an astronaut. And I was fascinated by all of it.
My parents supported my interest in the space program by taking me to museums, a tour of the Kennedy Space Center one spring when we were in Florida for spring Break, and they sent me to Space Camp in Huntsville when I was 12 years old. They bought a microscope for me when I was 15 and several of my friends had microscopes, too. We were a band of geeks, in a way.
So now that we are all adults, we still stay in touch and talk about the space program. We are devastated that the space program has been shut down. Not that we want to be astronauts, but because we believe in space exploration. Some of us still have our childhood microscopes and keep them repaired with microscope parts that we order over the internet. In fact, I hope to pass along my microscope to my son some day.
Gadgets and Technology, General life, Travel | Dean | 
November 25, 2011 7:40 pm | 
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