Photo courtesy of & © Red Bull Media House
O-FER-TWO: Let's just say last night was not the most restful night's sleep I've ever had.
My 'problem' started when I read a Tweet from the closest-to-my-house (Klondike Gold Rush) National Park saying this: "Robert Service wrote of them, but you don't have to go to the Klondike to see them tonight. Look NE around midnight to view Northern Lights."
OMG!!! OMG!!!! The Northern Lights are so totally on my bucket list, and when I read that I flipped out. For you see, for whatever reason, for most of my life I thought the only way I could see the Northern Lights was to travel to the Arctic Circle or Norway or some other point far, far north. And then not too long ago I saw a photo of Northern Lights over Mt. Rainier. And then a photo over Mt. Hood. And then one, just a couple of months ago, of the Northern Lights OVER MY NEIGHBORHOOD in Seattle. Srsly?!?!. It was both reassuring and infuriating, knowing that the Northern Lights were visible OVER MY HOUSE while I sat blogging one night. Grrr.
From monitoring NASA solar flare news (we all follow those, right?), I knew that there was some activity and so my Northern Lights radar was in High Alert. That Tweet by the NPS sent me over the edge.
I went to bed at 11 last night, setting the alarm for 11:45. And 11:55. And 12. And I was up through all of those. Nothing to see except light pollution over Crown Hill to our northeast. And then I reset the alarm for 12:30, and 12:45 and 1. And so my night went. I kept (without alarm assistance) getting up every 15 minutes until 2 a.m., when our skies suddenly clouded over. DRAT. That wasn't even in the forecast. Back to bed. But not for long. ...
For, you see, I had alarms also set for just three hours later, at 5, 5:15 and 5:30 a.m. Why? Well that would be the skydive-from the stratosphere - Felix Bumgarteners's dive from 120,000 feet above Earth - a/k/a Red Bull Stratos. We were so SO geeked about this event. A man in a spacesuit freefalling at the speed of sound, hurtling toward Earth with live coverage? Yes, please!
So, I got up at 5 and saw there was a weather (wind) delay. Held true at 5:15, and 5:30 and so on. Aargh. So the doggies were happy we were up and partying at that time, and I was glad that I didn't have to wake the kids until I KNEW it was on. Which happened, well, never. :( The kids woke up on their own 'round 7:30 and there was still no launch time.
However, soon after they were up, it was announced the launch/weather was GREEN for around 10:30 our time. We were SO excited.
While we were waiting, on Wired.com we read a story about the physics of the flight, and how Felix is expected to exceed the sound barrier. We also read a story in the Seattle Times about what to watch for and expect during the expedition.
At 10:30 the live broadcast came on and we watched the 55-story balloon that would carry Felix to the stratosphere be inflated. And then we watched the poor, poor souls who were hanging on for dear life to the balloon's tethers try to manage their jobs. And shortly thereafter, 1t 10:42 our time, the launch was scrubbed for the day.
As of my writing, no new launch day/time has been named. Per Red Bull Stratos "At this stage the mission team is closely monitoring possible new launch days before a green light is given for another countdown. Progress will be communicated as it happens."
So there you have it. Certainly we'll be monitoring the situation.
WRITE STUFF: Today via a Facebook post by someone else, I learned about The WriteAtHome.com Blog and Web site. Some interesting resources there, including a graphic with 200 ways to say went and 100 ways to say 'said.' What great resources for teachers and students - and writers of all ages, really!.Check out the links!
BOARD GAME: We've kept our noses to the grindstone since Friday AM and at 3 this afternoon I declared it time for us to leave the house. Our first stop was Goodwill, to find a mug for CJ to use for his rootbeer blog. Fortunately, we were successful. On our way home we stopped at one of our favorite places, Chuck's on 85th, which is a convenience store turned ice cream and microbrews hotspot.
You have six (really pretty kinda abstract art) cards in your hands and if it's your turn you say a phrase and throw a card down and others throw a card down that could also match that phrase.
We played a full game and this evening Annabelle was the champ. Go Bee!
NO REST FOR THE WEARY: Guess what's going down overnight? SpaceX's Dragon's capsule is supposed to do the grapple-and-berthing dance with the ISS. Time? 7-7:30 a.m. Eastern, so 4-ish by my clock. I'm toying with watching, we'll see. It will be streamed on spacex.com/webcast starting at 6:30AM ET, as well as at NASA.TV.
It's hell being a spaceflight fan. ;)
perhaps your life would be simpler if you moved to the Eastern TZ.
ReplyDeleteIce Cream and microbrew - interesting.