I had to have a bit of surgery on my forehead ... turned out, it was skin cancer. It was squamous, so it shouldn't be a serious issue, as long as I look after it.
I managed to take 11 stitches, and I developed a nice shiner on my left eye.
"... but you should see the other guy!"
- Bob
Here's a nice, semi-blurry picture of me from my blackberry.
It's been too long since I've posted.
Stay tuned ... more posts are coming!!!
It's the wrong time of day to be doing this - it's been scientifically proven.
I'll try again in about 6 hours.
But I won't blog from my shower or bathroom.
Really.
I'm the biggest advocate of de-regulation, and yes, energy prices have gone up (although not extremely lately), but even I can't understand why the prices are so high.
This article from the Houston Business Journal in August tells us that we had the highest home utility bills in the nation. It compares Houston to Portland, which isn't a fair comparison at all in July. What it doesn't say is what the average price per kilowatt-hour is ... which is the real valid comparison.
What is true is that customer service can really suffer, as one of my co-workers now knows.
Even more amazing is that Texas electric provider deregulation doesn't seem to be uniform across the state. My in-laws in Austin and Huntsville didn't realize that they have to choose their electric providers ... do they not have a choice?
If you live in the Houston area, or in Texas (or for that matter, anywhere), what's been your experience? Let us know in the comments.
It's been about a month since Hurricane Ike hit us. And while everyone in the Houston area certainly has not gotten completely back into their pre-Ike routine, there's still some funny memories from the MSM buildup for Ike.
In closing, I'm left (and am leaving you) with three images for Ike. Then, I won't blog about Ike anymore. Really.
1. Some dude in a bear outfit playing on the Galveston Seawall while the storm surge was coming in ... (Hat tip: Mike McGuff)
2. A streaker over in Beaumont (Hat tip: Lou Minatti)
3. Last, but not least ... Geraldo Rivera biting it on the Seawall.
Work was great yesterday. I got to see the 17 Soyuz crew dock to the International Space Station, which they managed to do about 5 minutes ahead of schedule (and since I happen to manage and monitor that schedule, I should know ...).
The 17 Soyuz crew consists of the new Expedition 18 Commander, Michael Fincke, as well as the Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov (who is also a veteran on the ISS, albeit with a visiting Shuttle). It also includes the 17 Soyuz Visiting Crewmember Richard Garriott (who is the son of the Apollo and Skylab Astronaut Owen Garriott).
Soon after the docking and ingress, the crew had a public relations event with visitors at Mission Control in Moscow (where, naturally, the docking was also being closely monitored). There, Mike's wife Renita and his children (Chandra, Tarali - who was born on Mike's first tour to the ISS, and Surya) were able to speak and see Mike again on orbit.
After my last experiences with Mike on orbit, the whole thing brought me a sense of deja vu. I'm definitely looking forward to his latest upcoming expedition.
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Related links:
Space.com, New Crew, Space Tourist Arrive at Space Station
It was a day my parents probably thought never would happen. And it was a day we were looking forward to with a little bit of fear, due to my Dad’s Alzheimers. But … we had it! And it was fun - even my Dad agreed.
We had a mass for my parents. (Well, OK, I’m stretching the truth a little bit. It was the standard 5:00 Saturday mass.) But it was also the exact date of my parents anniversary … who could have planned it better?!? We were concerned that the priest would ask Mom & Dad to renew their vows - which in Dad’s condition would have been awkward. But instead, the priest and deacon gave them a blessing.
After the mass, we headed over to the Villa Capri restaurant. The food was delicious. My only regret there was that I was busy helping with the entertainment. I was in charge of the music, which I was able to pull off with a laptop and an i-pod (maybe I have a second career as a DJ?).
We played a lot of Sinatra music for my parents - which was OK since there wasn’t a lot of dancing. However, I did manage to play my Mom & Dad’s song, “All the Way”, by old blue eyes, and everyone joined in the dancing.
It was great seeing friends and relatives (even ones from Chicago who had NEVER been to Texas!). And we all braved the Gustav predictions.
Mom had suggested we make some toasts, so I came up with an impromptu toast, reminding everyone of what had happened in history in 1958 via “that font of knowledge, wikipedia”. NASA had graciously provided 50th anniversary banners all up and down NASA Road 1 … although I’m told that had something to do with the fact that it’s NASA’s 50th anniversary this year. ;*)
My only regret was that I was not able to make it to the UH football game … but they spanked Southern 55-3, so I think everything worked out fine anyway.
This past year, I was fortunate enough to go on two ACTS retreats - one as a retreatant, and one as a “retreatee”. My wife was also fortunate enough to do the same thing (men and women go on separate retreats).
“ACTS” is an acronym which stands for Adoration, Community, Theology, and Service. An ACTS activity typically consists of a weekend retreat where retreatants engage in discussions, activities, and prayerful reflections centered about the Sacraments and Roman Catholic liturgy/catechism. It is a powerful event for both the retreatants and the “retreatees” (former retreatants who assist in all preparation and execution of the retreat).
Most ACTS retreats are for adults. However, in July, both my wife and I were fortunate enough to assist in our parish’s first ever Teen ACTS retreat, with our oldest son being one of the retreatants. It was a beautiful experience that I highly recommend any adult or teen take the opportunity to do if they get the chance.
Sorry about not posting more frequently. The next few blog entries will be about some things that have happened in my life over the last several months. Don’t worry - it is mostly good news. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to blog about it.
So, with those “teaser” statements, get ready for some good stuff!
We are more-or-less settled back into our house since Ike. We lost all of our refrigerated food (and probably our freezer in the garage … it still reeks after being treated), as well as quite a few tree limbs.
The tree limbs and rotten food have been removed, and we have power restored to our house. However, I finally got the chance to drive down parts of Todville road in Seabrook - very close to Galveston Bay. Almost every single house had a 4 foot pile of furniture, carpeting, and other debris which will take a long time to be hauled away. I also saw about 100 refrigerators off of Red Bluff Drive in Seabrook, just sitting out in an open field.
In short, our neighbors to our immediate east and south (not to mention down on Galveston Island and on the Bolivar Peninsula) will take quite a while to recover from all this. Now is the time for us to roll up our sleeves and help our near neighbors out. I was on graveyard shift on console this week, so I couldn’t do that … but the rest of my family did. And we’ll need to keep it up for the next several months.
Well,
We hung out in Austin for several days, waiting for the chaos in Houston to subside a bit. In addition, my brother in law drove by our house & told us we had no power, so there was no sense in heading back to Houston just to forage for gasoline, ice, and food. We came back on Thursday (18 Sept), to find that some of our old fences had fallen, and our front and back yards had tons of tree debris in it ... but nothing through the roof!
My brother in law had an air-conditioned apartment above his garage in League City, so without a generator for power, we decided to stay there while we'd clean up our house and wait for the power to come back. After cleaning out our refrigerator and our yards, we came back when power was reestablished to our house yesterday afternoon.
It will still be a while before things return to normal here. Our neighborhood came out OK (relatively speaking): we are close to the water and storm surge did affect parts of our little city and definitely parts of Clear Lake as a whole, and other people still do not have power to their homes. But all in all, we will recover and be the better for the experience.
I'd been keeping my eye on Hurricane Ike when it was in the Atlantic Ocean. As everyone knows, it took an unfortunate turn into the Gulf of Mexico, and ultimately, right on top of where I live!
I also had the "opportunity" to be on console during the runup to Ike's landing. Per NASA rules, we started making preparations for shutting down JSC (and Mission Control), and relinquish ISS control to a control center close to Austin, as well as to Huntsville, Alabama. During my shift, the predictions were such that the eye of the storm would pass over the far eastern corner of Matagorda Bay, which, given the predicted storm intensity, was just on the edge of my decision to evacuate. I figured if the track went any further east, Seabrook would not be safe.
In Mission Control, we wound up handing over ISS control at 4 AM on Thursday, but my last shift ended at midnight Wednesday. During my last shift, my wife called to tell me that there was a local run on gas, as everyone was topping off their cars, per local government direction. As a result, I made sure to do the same thing before I got home. But I was kind of wound up with the day's events ... I checked too many things out on the Internet. As a result, I didn't get to sleep until about 3 AM.
At about 7:30 in the morning, my supervisor called up to let me know that JSC was taking administrative leave to shut down the center, and that if I left, I should call him so that he could keep track of who evacuated or not. Just after I hung up the phone, the local news reported that our zip code was in a mandatory evacuation area, and that the predicted track was going to go over Galveston. My wife and I had seen enough, so we started to make plans to head to
New Waverly where my Mother and Father in law live, just as we had for Hurricane Rita, and I called my supervisor back to let him know. However, we also realized that the track was probably going to take the storm in that direction. In the process of letting everyone know where we were going, my wife called up her sister in Austin, who offered to take us in. We took her up on her offer, as we realized it would be safer than New Waverly (and definitely safer than Seabrook), and I called my supervisor back again. My wife and I decided not to pack as much as we had for the Hurricane Rita evacuation, but still would up taking 6 hours to pack. So, we took off for Austin at 2:30. We knew from our past evacuation that we wanted to avoid crowds, but we headed up Interstate 45, then turned west down Beltway 8 - and that's where the traffic started.
However, both us had our cell phones and Key Maps, and were able to stay on side streets parallel with Beltway 8 until we got to the southwest side of Houston. From there, we saw that Beltway 8 traffic was light, so we got back on Beltway 8. We thought we would do well to get on the Westpark tollway, but it was backed down right at the Beltway 8 intersection. So we came up with an alternate plan - go up to Hwy 290, then proceed west on FM 529 all the way to Bellville.
Things seemed to take forever to get through Houston, but once we got past the Cypress-Fairbanks area and were in the country, there was no problem. Of course, this was at 6:30 - we had already been on the road for 4 hours. We pulled into Bellville and had dinner at a Dairy Queen with a number of other people who also seemed to be evacuating the Clear Lake area.
After dinner at the DQ, we decided we'd drive up Texas 35 to Milano, and then come down US79 to get to Austin. This route would take us into Austin from the north - we figured the southern approaches to Austin from Houston would be crowded with Houston traffic. And indeed, it did - we are now staying to the west of Austin, in the Lake Travis area.
Before we had left home, we had registered our cell phones and e-mail addresses with the El Lago City Website. Now, we're getting e-mails and phone calls from the city of El Lago and from the Johnson Space Center which tell us when and where things are gonna opening. It doesn't look like JSC is going to open till Thursday. Furthermore, the reports indicate that there's no power into El Lago, and news reports indicate that gas, ice, and food are in short supply. Since I don't need to get back to town until Thursday at the earliest, I'm in no rush to get home, just to sweat it out with now power/Air Conditioning.
While all these was happening. my mom and dad evacuated to where my brother lives in the woodlands. Apparently they lost power, and things got a little rough for them. But my brother brought them to where he works at Fox Sports, and they stayed there overnight.
'cuz I definitely don't like Ike.
Dude - you invaded NORMANDY. Stick with that plan!
A big congratulations to our Japanese partners now, for both a successful 1J/A and 1J mission!
I worked a lot on 1JA but not much on 1J ... and this was a good thing, since I was a "Team 4" (reserve) member for the 1J mission.
Everything was successfully installed over both of these flights, including (among other things)...
1JA:
- the new Robotic equipment
- A successful tile repair test onorbit
1J:
- Installation, activation, and ingress of Kibo (the Japanese Lab), and the Japanese Robotic Arm
- Fixed the Toilet
I didn't work much on the mission, but I went on console after the Shuttle undock. One interesting thing that happened was the Japanese Earthquake. The epicenter wasn't really close to Japan's Mission Control, but they called us & told us about it during the earthquake. They felt its affects, but nothing was damaged at Mission Control.
As for the follow-on flights - first, NASA will have to fix the launch pad. Discovery's latest launch revealed quite a bit of damage post-flight (I've seen the pictures - bricks were blown throughout the "outfield" of the pad, into the fence (knocking it over somewhat), and into the lagoon beyond it! There was about 10-15 feet of bricks missing from the flame trench as a result.
And as another side note: My own toilet needed repairs over the weekend. You can see my handiwork below. Am I now qualified to go to ISS!?! ;*)
Here's hoping that next Saturday's launch of STS-124 is a successful one. STS-124 will mark the launching of the Japanese "Kibo" laboratory module - which the Houston Chronicle appropriately names the "Lexus" of labs.
My fear is that the newsies will drown this fact out with an overreporting of the toilet problems onboard ISS. I was aware of problems last week, but the troubleshooting was over the weekend & there was no point in mentioning it. But of course, MSNBC got it and CNN has covered it at least twice, the morning yakkers have mentioned it, others have mentioned it as well, and now everyone seems to be aware of it.
Watch for the inevitable overcoverage of that story, and undercoverage of Kibo installation and activation. (sigh)
And while we're on it, congratulations to the Phoenix Lander Team! A successful landing, followed by successful command/telemetry troubleshooting gives them an A+ in my book.
The only downside I have with the Phoenix Lander is that, since I also work for NASA, there are many times when folks outside NASA confuse the JPL unmanned work (like the Phoenix Lander) with the JSC manned work (like Shuttle & ISS) - and I get innocent questions about what is up with the Phoenix Lander. (sigh)
On a day like today, it's time to give thanks for those who have saved us from war's devastation.
I see from the multitudes now flocking to this site :*/ that folks want to know ... "Hey, what is this blog all about? He teases us with the NASA space stuff, but then doesn't say anything about that".
Well, I have heard your lamentations long enough, so I will come down from by blogging perch atop Mount Olympus and give you a smattering of an idea as to where I think this blog thing will go.
FIRST, I've decided to live up to the title of this blog. It says "A Blog A Day", so dagburnit, that's what I should deliver, as a minimum frequency.
NEXT, let's talk about some of the "themes" in this blog, which should give you, the almighty reader, an idea of what will be coming.
Currently, I have 11 different topics I like to blather about. Some of my entries will be about more than one of these topics. Here's the blog entry categories:
alt.space - insights into and thoughts about the plans and progress of the non-NASA/gov't, non-AirForce, non-"Big boy" (Boeing, Lockheed Martin) aerospace companies that are trying to get humans back in space. I'm avoiding reporting on "the usual suspects" with this category.
nasa_plans - In January 2004, George Bush, as a result of the studies done after the Coumbia accident, announced the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). I'll have several entries that talk about what folks think about NASA's progress implementing it.
past_future - As the modern philosopher Yogi Berra said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." It's amazing to see how people in the past thought the future would unfold. These entries illustrate how far off they got.
nostalgia - just nostalgic wistful memories of things I lived through. Again, from Yogi Berra, "Nostalgia isn't what it used to be."
msm - my thoughts on the mainstream media, and why people will depend on blogs & the internet much more heavily than in the past.
interesting - things that seem, well, interesting to me. Your mileage may vary.
inspirational - things that move me in some manner. Again, your mileage may vary.
Humor - funny observations by myself & others.
Houston - It's my hometown & where I basically grew up. It's been through ups & downs & I wish it the best. I care, so you should care - and if you don't, then blog about your own locality, OK?
Boys - I've got a teenage son & 1 who's about to be a teen. Before long, college & the "Real world" will await them. These blog entries are a preparation for that.
alt.energy - In the 70's, it was observed that coal, oil, gas, & uranium were finite resources. Prices on those commodities have gone down & up, but the fundamental fact that they are finite has not changed. These entries identify what f0lks are doing to contend with that fundamental fact.
Anything else you'd like me to blog about? Let me know in the comments.
In any event, I hope you like the blog & visit often.
- Bob
From Houston Business News 4/23/08 ... High gas prices equal good Houston economy, says economist
I think this would have been true if it was 1988 - not so much now. The Houston economy is more diversified, and therefore more reflective of the national economy as a whole. High gas prices (and associated profits)won't necessarily flow to Houstonians, regardless of how many corporate headquarters we have (even if Texas now has more Fortune 500 headquarters than New York!).
How many of y'all agree with me? Let me know in the comments.
Boing Boing (4/23) came across what looked like a luxury hotel shell in the Sinai peninsula. Now, tell me that it doesn't sorta look like a Gobbler shell ...
Instapundit (4/15) points to the modern philosopher Scott Adams who tells the real story. Boys, take note.
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