Knock, Knock

Photo: SpaceX & NASA

SAVE THE DATE: If you haven't already, you should circle May 27 on your calendar. 

It's the (tentative) day the United States gets back in the manned spaceflight business. And that's kind of a big deal. It has been nine loooong years since we've launched astronauts from American soil.

If all goes as planned, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. They're set to lift off in a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 1:32 p.m. Pacific time from Launch Complex 39A in Florida.

I can't help but wonder what this event will look like in a pandemic world. Normally, a launch of this import would draw hundreds of thousands of people to Cape Canaveral to watch it live. I know Florida has been (scarily) permissive about crowds in these COVID-clouded days, but I shudder to think they'd let that many people descend on a relatively small area. Time will tell. 

HIVE MINDED: This weekend, while running an essential errand, I glanced out the car window and, for the first time, spotted a beehive in a neighbor's yard, just 5 houses away. I'd never noticed it there before, so now I'm wondering if it's new, or it just didn't jump out at me before, since it's a ways back from the road. 

Anyway, I started to wonder about of their bees and ours visit the same blossoms, and that got me to thinking about a shrubby-growth in our yard that's covered in yellow blossoms. 

Christian told me this weekend that it was Scotch Broom, and I honestly didn't believe him, because I thought that was a smaller plant, not something shrub or tree like, as is the one on our yard. 

King County's website will tell you that the plant (also knows as Scot's Broom), is "a non-regulated Class B noxious weed." After its yellow petals disappear (around June), black, hard seedpods will emerge. You have to be impressed by the fact that the plant reproduces "via seeds that can persist in soil up to 60 years." Wowza!

Coincidentally, this afternoon a friend of mine posted a video featuring bees on Scotch Broom. 

If you want to relax and be mildly entertained for seven minutes, give it a watch.

My friend also posted a video about some bees coming to the 'rescue' of a fellow bee, whose wings were covered in honey to the point it was immobilized. Words overlaid on the video suggested the bees sucking the honey off the bee was a noble effort with the health and safety of the honey-covered bee in mind. 

The video was interesting to watch, but I didn't agree with the gist of the message attached to it. The video suggested that bees consciously came to the rescue of a struggling fellow bee. I just couldn't agree with that assessment and commented, " Not to "bee" a buzz kill (sorry, couldn't pass that pun up), but as I beekeeper, I would guess the bees' honey-gathering activity isn't about 'saving a fellow bee's life' or 'helping,' I think it's because they want the honey off its body, dead or alive. The beekeeper who thought to take the honey-sodden bee and put it at the entrance to the hive (knowing the other bees would go for the honey) is the one who consciously 'saved' it."

PEACE SIGN: This afternoon, we had a couple of things to drop off to family in Mukilteo. In addition to general store merchandise, we had a special family memento on board - a vintage door knocker that's been around about as long as I can remember.

When my parents moved to an apartment in Mukilteo, they gave it to us, to put on our house in Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood. It hung there for several years, but when we moved to our current neighborhood a couple of years ago, the door knocker didn't work on our new place - the front is covered in irregular stones, and it just wasn't a good fit.

I thought I'd put it by our back door instead, but I took it out there and thought, "This looks stupid. No one has a door knocker on their back door, where no one comes." 

And so, it languished on our back stoop for longer than I care to think about. FINALLY, when I was at a store a few days back, I spied some outdoor, heavy duty, Command strips (those sticky tabs that let you hang items without damaging the wall or other surface), and thought they could work to hang the item anywhere without damage. So, when Annabelle and I were up in Mukilteo today, she applied the strips and got the knocker good and stuck. It looks right at home in its new place of honor.

I let my sister know that the knocker was back in business and she wrote back that it's a "Hebrew mezuzah." I had never heard that term before, so I Googled it. According to ReformJudiasm.org, the Hebrew word mezuzah means “doorpost."

I then Googled "Hebrew mezuzah" and the phrase "Peace to all who enter here: and found out that you can buy something that looks remarkably similar today, including a little sign from an outfit called Catholic Company. 

When we were hanging it today, I noticed that it had some raised lettering on the back. 

I could make out 1969 and "Sancta." From this, I was able to use the power of the Internet to learn that it was manufactured by Terra Sancta Guild (Patent No 223993), and that it's solid brass and was manufactured in Israel. The groovy letters are painted in enamel.

By going to Terra Sancta's website, I found you can buy a brand-spanking new one that looks very similar to the original. Cool that they're still being manufactured! (I do like the patina of the antique knocker better, I must admit.)