the sleppys

Dad: [Coming in from running errands on a hot, humid, late spring morning.] Have they been outside yet?

Mom: [What an odd question. He's never asked that before.] Yea, they went out about an hour ago.

Dad: [Walks into the home office. Comes back to the living room.] It doesn’t look like they’ve been outside.

Mom: They were. I washed their feet when they came back because they got dirty from running through the soil where the weeds have been plucked out.

Dad: Not them. The astronauts! Have they been for a space walk yet?

Mom: How the heck should I know? I’ve been reading “Frog and Toad are Friends” with the five year old.

NASA plans to launch Shuttle Atlantis on June 8. We are so looking forward to a new Shuttle mission, or at least Dad is. He loves the way those NASA engineers think. Like Disney creates magic, so do these guys. Anyway, it looks to be evening/dusk launch ocurring at 7:38 p.m. EDT. You can read the press release here.

Hopefully, the skies are clear. It is always amazing to see the shuttle launch. We’ll be watching it on NASA-TV.

Note from Author: This post was lost in the shuffle of drafts and whatnot. I’m glad that I found it because I thought that it was deleted forever. Here it is…

Since around Christmastime, we have been looking at the night sky through binoculars. It is quite a sight for me as I’ve never – or can’t remember ever having – seen a magnified night sky. Because it is not the sight of a strong telescope, id est, at the astronomy tower or the planetarium, one can understand what one is seeing through the 15x strength of the binoculars. That said, the entirety of the full moon is in the field of view.

The full moon was beautiful, crystal-like. Last week’s lunar eclipse was something I will not forget for a long, long time. We went outside, I’m not sure at what time, but it was almost time for the kids to go to bed. There was some cloud cover, so it was sad to think that we were going to miss the lunar eclipse. But then Dad went outside again, and it was nice and clear. The moon was blood red, like a setting of the stories of Merlin. It could only have been more magical if we were standing inside Stonehenge.

We saw the last half. Our planet’s shadow creeped away slowly; I really couldn’t see it moving,, but after a few minutes, one really noticed the difference. And through the binoculars, it was even… well, like Ty said, “Hey, it’s closer!” The kids went to sleep, and the lunar eclipse ended.

An hour later, Dad and I sat in the backyard, on a towel, under the mackerel sky, which diffused the moonshine… or made it brighter, depending on the blood-alcohol level. And we talked about, well, I forget. But the cool, moist air and the misty grey color that shone on the shrubs and his face… it was so peaceful.

We went outside on Monday, to watch the ISS fly overhead. A group of kids were hanging out in the dark of their front porch. They were being kind of loud (about 9pm) and pretty much ignored us when the five of us (Isis stayed inside) when we went outside. We looked up, strained our necks to be the first to catch it. The cloudy sky made us a little nervous, but there was one patch of sky, where it was supposed to fly by, that was clear. Kyle said hello to the moon. Ty sang, “Twinkle Little Star.” The neighboring kids kept talking and whatever. I saw a little star that wasn’t there before, brighter than the other “stars,” which are actually planets. This star looked like it was moving steadily across the sky. Could it be? Is it my imagination, an illusion made by the moving clouds? No, it really IS the ISS!! And we told Ty annd Kyle to look up at the sky. Taylor was in my arms again, but she didn’t seem to interested.

All of a sudden it was us who were making all the noise:
“Look, those are the astronauts!”
“Hi, astronauts!”
“That’s the space shuttle!”

The kids who were hanging out on the front porch stopped talking. And I even saw one of them stand up and walk a few feet – his curiosity got the best of him – to look at it.

The ISS moved across the sky and disappeared as it got closer to the moon. I’m sure that must be some sight, to view the moon from such a close distance. But the astronauts were asleep while they passed overhead.

As we walked back inside the house, I was glad to have seen the ISS/Discovery, I was also glad to piqued the interest of one of those kids… who most likely didn’t have the faintest idea that the astronauts were in space.

Dad and I went outside (I was carrying Taylor) before 10pm to watch the ISS and Discovery Shuttle pass overhead, well, by the horizon. As we waited, some people at the end of the cul-de-sac were leaving the house… it was 10pm, so it was pretty dark – and late, for a Sunday. They looked like they were leaving a party, with little kids in tow. They piled into their SUV and started driving into the street. Dad and I were standing in the middle of it, so we stepped aside, keeping a close eye on the sky because we didn’t want to miss the ISS. We must’ve looked odd standing by the side if the road, staring up at the night sky, like we were waiting for the aliens.

But we didn’t see the aliens – Oops! Ah, I mean the ISS. Though it was 10pm, the road lights on the turnpike flooded the night sky. Perhaps we’ll see it tonight, as it passes overhead this time. Let’s hope for clear skies!

And the boys didn’t fall asleep until well after 11pm. I don’t know how they manage to be up and running with only 6 hours’ sleep. They should be sleeping until 10 or something.