Here it is Thursday and I haven't posted anything for quite a while. Yesterday I was in a meeting with a true American hero - fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut, U.S. Senator, and presidential candidate - John Glenn. It was pretty cool to see him and listen to him talk. At the end of the meeting we were all just standing around and he was talking about how everyone who goes into space is amazed at seeing how the atmosphere is just this thin blue line on the horizon. He then held is hand up and said that from his hand to the floor was about 80 inches. Then imagine that this 80 inches is the diameter of the earth. Most of us have been in an airplane at 40,000 feet. At this altitude approximately 80% of the total atmosphere is below you. On our 80 inch diameter earth, this 80% of the atmosphere is only about 1/10th of an inch high! He concluded by saying that people often say we are swimming in an ocean of air, when in fact it's more like a membrane of air, so we ought to be about taking care of it. Something to thnk about.

Today's Thought: kind of sobering, but still appropriate for the pet theme that I seem to be hung up on.

Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949)

Just came in from our 4th of July family thingy. Nan's Mom, sister and her family were over for the day. Had a good time. Lou, you'll be jealous in that we had two, count 'em!, two fires today!! I cooked chicken over the fire this afternoon, then this evening we had hot dogs & s'mores over another fire. What is it about staring at a fire that is so mesmerizing? Must be some ancient tribal memory or something, cause almost everyone actually enjoys sitting around a fire.

Nan and her sister are going to Fort Wayne next weekend for Leah's wedding shower. I think I may go down to Loudonville to the annual Mohican Native American Pow-Wow, just to check it out. If the weather is decent I'll think I'll plan on doing that - gives you something to look forward to during the week.

Of course, Maggie is totally freaking out with all of the fireworks going off all around us. Shadow was here today and he's probably more neurotic than Wags!

Thought for today: One of the greatest quotes I ever heard was from one of my college roommates. It was about 10 years after college and Neal was a zillionaire already (now's he's a VP at Seagate Software). Anyway, with all of the blog-girls getting going on careers, marriage, home ownership etc I was reminded of Neal's comment (remember that when I was in college it was anti-war protests, Kent State killings, a very tumultuous time in our history). Neal's quote: "I became a Republican the day I bought my first lawn mower!"

Just got home from 2 days at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The meeting was so-so, but it was really nice to see some old friends and colleagues from around NASA. Some really nice folks! It was interesting that today the Flight Readiness Review  for the launch of the Shuttle Discovery was going on in the conference room right next to the room we were in. Sounds like they may go forward with the launch on July 13. If so, everyone in NASA (and a good part of the rest of the country) will be holding our breaths, hoping for a smooth launch. KSC is really a fascinating place - it is huge! If anyone ever goes to Orlando, it is worth your while to drive over to KSC and go to their Visitor Center/tour (I don't know how much of a tour the public actually gets post 9/11, but it is probably still pretty cool.). I've actually had a couple of 'VIP Tours' as a NASA employee that were totally awesome! (I actually walked underneath the Orbiter Atlantis, was inside the Vertical Assembly building, inside/on the floor of the Space Station processing facility where all of the hardware is readied for launch, and drove right up to the launch pad. Totally awesome!

Back to the drudgery of work tomorrow. Looking forward to the long 4thof July weekend. We have wedding #3of 2005 (Kristen Machovina) teed up for this Saturday.

Today's thought:  uh... I got nuthin'!

We just got back from Nicole McIntyre's wedding, the first of 7 weddings between now and November! It was at the same place as Lou & Vic's reception. It was nice, but somewhat lame, primarily because it lacked that nut-ball group of girls in black dresses!!!

Jim and Linda are here - actually right now they're at a wedding in Lakewood. Tomorrow Nan and Linda will be going to Leipsic for Linda's shower and Jim will be heading back to Colorado (Linda to follow on Monday).

Thought for the day (again from my vast storehouse of wisdom): This is a little phrase I often use when people get carried away with trying to be too precise when doing estimates, etc (after all I am a budget guy!), often at the expense of being timely. Anyway, here it is: "It is better to be ABOUT RIGHT than to be PRECISELY WRONG." In other words, get on with it, and quit kidding yourself!

Very long day today! Must ..get..sleep...

One brief thought for the masses This is really primarily for Mary, who seems to be somewhat obsessive about her car (not trying to start a flame war here mare!). It too is from Stephen Wright, but something to consider:

"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."