Fourteen Hours

HERE COMES THE SUN: I wanted to start off with something pretty, and I'd say this photo taken by an Expedition 35 crew member on board the International Space Station in May of last year certainly works.

When it was taken, the ISS was 27.4 degrees south latitude and 110.1 degrees west longitude, a few hundred miles east of Easter Island.  When you're on board the ISS, you get to see 16 sunrises in 24 hours! 
HIGH FIBER DIET: Nothing to see here, move along, move along ... That's what happens to a blog when you spend 13 hours working on wood floors in a day.

As I was on my hands and knees in hour 12, inhaling the off gasses from oil based stain with the scent of polyurethane wafting in from the other room, I contemplated how many brain cells I'd killed today. Probably too many to count.

I told Rick that I was liable to be weaving on the way home. Fortunately, I did make it home without incident.

Tomorrow should be easier, because WE ARE DONE SANDING. As I sit here, I can feel wood chips in my mouth, I kid you not. And was WITH being fastidious about wearing a mask. But as of tonight, the master bedroom is sanded, stained and polyurethaned, the living room is sanded and stained, and the kitchen is sanded. By tomorrow night, the living room will be poly coated and the kitchen will be stained and sanded. Hoo-RAY. And then, I will have more compelling things to share. Hopefully.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A friend shared with me this photo today ...

The gentleman looked vaguely familiar ... but I couldn't put a name to the face. Can you? 

It's Stephen Hawking. I love seeing this photo of him. Until now, I've never pictured him in any other way than as a brilliant but withered man in a wheelchair.  His life story is so amazing. Some doctors told him to drop out of college, because it would be a waste of his time to finish, because he'd never live to earn his degree or work in any meaningful way. Here he is, decades later, considered one of the world's preeminent theoretical physicists of all time. 

AABA:  We took our first quiz tonight for out Beatles class.  A few of the questions had to do with the AABA song format, not to be confused with ABBA, the '70s sensational band from Sweden who churned out hits like "Dancing Queen" and "Fernando." ;)

AABA is verse, verse chorus. Most all of The Beatles' early songs followed the formula, like 1963's "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which we watched tonight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MHkgwA8t-g

We have "Abbey Road" in heavy rotation in the car right now. Their last recorded album, from 1969, it is definitely a lot more adventurous.