Sunday, July 02, 2006

July? ..... Already?

I guess that says it all, right? Time just keeps on chugging along, and we get carted right along with it.

You will all have already heard that the launch was scrubbed yesterday and again today. We sure weren't surprised about it being scrubbed today--I woke up to the sound of thunder, and we had a good downpour. Then later, more thunder and rain. We are surely catching up a little bit on monthly/annual rainfall? We did hope that it would all clear out in time for the launch, but it was not to be.

I did finally get smart yesterday and really checked out the NASA channel that we get with our cable. I had looked at it before, just to see what there might be to see, but I seemed to catch it at the wrong times, and found nothing much of interest. That is not the case before a launch!

Yesterday I got to see the crew "who does such things" getting the last astronaut settled into her seat and buckled in. They do an amazing amount of wiggling, jerking, etc, of the astronauts, to get them firmly and solidly settled into their seats, then put the astronaut's helmet on. They were just finishing up when one of the above mentioned crew members turned off the camera inside the shuttle. Party pooper! All this action was interspersed with shots of the outside of the shuttle, the view from a park across the way from the launchpad, etc. Sometimes there was no sound, other times there were interviews, the radio checks to listen to, etc.

Today I switched it on in time to see Astronauts #5 and #6 get in, get settled in and then finally #7 crawled in through the hatch and into her seat. The above mentioned crew, or some other crew, after setting all the switches on all the walls and panels, puts covers over them all, so that the above mentioned crew and the astronauts can get in and climb around as needed, without messing things up. Some of the seats have straps that are hooked into the wall (which appears as ceiling for the astronauts while still on the ground) to help them get into their seats. Anyway, it was really interesting. They get the astronauts put into the shuttle quite early---when I put on the NASA station today at 12.30 or so, most of them were already in and settled. That was for a launch time of 3.25, I think it was? Makes for a long day, I would think. No knitting or reading to kill the time--haha.

So, we have had two batches or waves of thunderstorm and rain, and it looks like we could still get more. I haven't checked the rain gauge yet, but I imagine we have accumulated a good bit of rain?

Mike is off work tomorrow, and Tuesday too. Anne has requested Chinese for dinner on her birthday. I think she wants a trip to Ron Jon's too, which works out well as it is just on up the street from the Chinese restaurant.

Not much else going on. We have had a typical quiet weekend, except for the rain, which hasn't been typical at all this year! Take care all, and Mom and Dad Walters--have a safe trip home to Texas!

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