An "oh my goodness" moment!!!

At one point this late morning, I went into the kitchen to get a soda from the fridge, and noticed the painters on my porch. They are such nice, friendly guys so I popped my inside door open to greet them. One man asked me where I had been because he said he "had not seen my smiling face" lately. I explained that when the sun isn't shining, I will not come out to sit by the pool, so that is why they did not see me much last week. Plus, as I noted, they did not work when it was raining!

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As I was chatting with them, the one man asked me where I was from. I asked him, "What makes you think I am not from here?" and chuckled. He said I didn't sound like it so I confessed to being from WI. Remembering I still had two bottles of water for them, I offered my "guests" a drink, which they accepted. Since they had gloves on, I loosened the caps before handing them over.

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Stepping back inside, I started a conversation with them through the screen door, regarding the news of the day. I asked, "Did you know that today is the 40th anniversary of the first moon walk?" The one man jumped into that right away with, "I know. I wish that Michael Jackson wouldn't have gone that way....." WHAT? Michael Jackson? What does he have to do with the moon------oh, wait, not 'that' moon walk, the REAL moon, Neil Armstrong on the face of the moon, kicking up dust....It never occurred to me that these men would think I was talking about dancing!!! The one guy said, "Oh, you're talking about the real moon, not the dance floor." Yes, the real moon, reflecting the sun's light to use at night, making living where I do so much more enjoyable! Oh, my goodness, no, not Michael Jackson, no....................

A day which shall live in infamy

No, not the fact that today would have been my 35th wedding anniversary, in a different life, but rather, the first time man walked on the moon! Unless you have missed it, this is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo mission that made it to the moon in 1969. A truly momentous, historic event, I would declare unparalleled in history. It usurps D-Day, the Kennedy assassination and, even the death of Michael Jackson, simply by the impossibleness of the whole idea. I do not know if that is a real word, but it seemed to express it best for me, so totally "out of this world" as far as accomplishments go. Breaking the sound barrier, momentous. Getting into orbit, momentous. Circling the earth in a space ship, momentous. Actually walking on the moon, historic!

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There is a memorable scene in the movie "Apollo 13" which was about the failed mission to the moon where the astronauts nearly died. The mission was successful, however, as the people in Houston and on the space ship worked together to save the men. The expression, "Houston, we have a problem" is from this movie. The head astronaut, played by Tom Hanks, is sort of looking in the "rear view mirror", as they had to abort and head back toward Earth, and his face said it all. So near, and yet so far. Imagine if the moon landing was taking place in 2009 instead of 1969---Geraldo Rivera would be reporting live from the face of the moon, drawing a map in the dust with his flag staff!

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I am having company for dinner tonight, as my sis-in-law, Nancy, and her four teenagers are coming over to swim and see my home. She invited me to come along to St. Augustine with them today and while that would have been nice, I fear I would have been a hindrance instead of a joy for them. My brain is rolling, trying to think of what to serve to a large group like this---teens, two of whom are boys---who eat like thrashers, I am sure! My thoughts are to buy the family-sized lasagna from the grocery store and something interesting for dessert. I heard that one of the girls can't have blueberries but I am not much of a blueberry girl anyway.

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On the northern front, today is the day that my nephew, JR, is leaving "home" after two months on leave, and going to his training center in OK. He is amazed at how quickly two months can pass when on leave and I pray that his training time passes just as quickly. Justin and I were torn about what to get him for his graduation other than money because after being in barracks or dorms in OK, he will be based out of Germany. There will be limits as to what he can take along with him, so we opted for a cash gift. Normally I like to be a bit more imaginative, personal, and original in my gift-giving but hope he had a good time spending it while he was on leave!

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Neal Boortz was going on and on about the spending bill monies that went out, after visiting the website run by the government, which supposedly tracks where the money went. We have a controversial "turtle tunnel" being funded by our tax dollars in South Florida. Are you serious? A turtle tunnel? And then he went off on a rant about other areas getting federal money which is supposed to make jobs, including monies going to "Manitowoc, MN, for canned pork"! This got my attention....there cannot be two Manitowoc's so he must have meant WI. Sure enough, he came back to it, Lakeside, but I was so excited sending a text message to Justin to see if he was listening that I missed what he was saying about it! While I was texting, Justin called me! He was wondering if I was listening to Neal. I do not think the Manitowoc area stations carry Neal's show on the radio but folks can listen on the Internet like I do. Justin gets it on his iPhone via a podcast. Would the men have been able to land on the moon without the development of these technologies? I doubt it seriously---think I will have some Tang!