Crafty Business

We have been trying to "lay low" this spring as I heal from a concussion and Rick battles with sciatica and Achilles tendon problems.  To that end, we have chosen to finally relax in our home and to get back to some of the crafts that we enjoy.

Each day we try to take at least two walks, we complete some cleaning or maintenance on the house, and then we relax in the afternoon by partaking in things that we actually choose to do rather than have to do.

We both love to read, so our Kindles or other books are always by our sides.  Reading in the hammock is so relaxing... if we can stay awake!

I am working on some Christmas ornaments that I cross-stitch and then frame.  I have made an ornament for Owen for every Christmas of his life.  I have a special series that I do with the year on the ornament to mark when he received each one.  I am working on one for the year 2024 right now which will probably be here before we know it!

I have woven a few things on the loom including some outdoor placemats made from heavy-duty poly cord, and I have used some "loom waste" and scrap yarn to weave some simple bookmarks that I have been giving away to family, friends, and neighbors. Rick is planning a set of placemats also, so that will be the next warp to go on the loom.

Rick has continued with his craft of weaving magnificent Nantucket baskets.  He has finished weaving the largest of a nesting set of baskets, but he still has to finish the handle and rim.  Since that is NOT his favorite part of the construction, he has moved on, for now, by starting to make the staves for a second basket.

The largest Nantucket basket needs to have the rim
and handle attached.  Then the whole thing will get a
couple of coats of varnish to keep it clean and strong.

The staves are all hand-shaped with a small, very sharp plane.  Since the task is messy, he uses his workbench in the garage; however, standing for hours at the workbench does not work well when one has a sore back and a sore heel.

"Why don't we buy a shop stool for you to use at the workbench?" I asked.  Rick immediately did what he does best: he logged on to the Internet to search which stools got the best reviews, which stools were available, and which stools were within our price range.  He settled on a stool that we could purchase at Lowe's, so a couple of hours later, the box containing the stool was in our garage.

The stool was one of those "easy assembly" types as long as you were related to an octopus and actually had eight hands to hold all of the pieces at once.  In the end, we made just our combined  four hands work, and Rick now has a pneumatically adjustable stool that he can sit on while he works at his workbench.

A simple Kobalt stool will make working at the workbench
less of a back-breaking chore.

We are happy that we are able to enjoy our more simplified life.  Our time is mostly our own, and we can work at our own pace on most tasks.  We both worked hard all of our lives, and being able to slow down now has been our goal of retirement for many years.  With all of the remodeling that we have done on both houses, getting to the relaxing phase just took us a little longer than we originally anticipated.

Early Space Exploration

This has been a very interesting week.  We started with a tense few days trying to see how Stephanie could get from Rochester to the Cities to catch her flight here when the skies were dumping tons of ice and snow on Minnesota.  After rescheduling her flight, she found that the roads still were impassible, so she cancelled her visit.  We all were extremely disappointed.

Blue skies greeted us at Kennedy Space Center.

Since we had purchased tickets for a special tour at Kennedy Space Center, we decided to take our planned trip without Stephanie. This tour was special because it actually went on the military side of the Space Center, going to Cape Canaveral rather than the commercial Kennedy side.

We left on Tuesday, driving as far as Orlando.  In addition to the amusement parks, Orlando is ground zero for outlet malls.  We visited a couple but left with only two pair of jeans for Owen after hours of shopping.  Traffic in Orlando is a nightmare.  We were happy to get back to the hotel at the end of the day.

Rain was predicted for Wednesday when we actually went to the Space Center; however, we were greeted by sunshine when we arose in Orlando that morning.  We packed our raincoats in the car just in case the rains arrived, but we went through the entire day without rain.  Just as we were leaving the Center, a few sprinkles started, but that was the total of rain that we had to deal with that day.

We arrived early which afforded us excellent parking.  That was a good thing because we immediately went into the gift shop to do a little shopping.  Rick took our purchases out to the car, and not carrying them with us all day was great.

After that, we did a little tour of the Mars exhibits.  NASA is very focused on getting to Mars within the next decade or two.  The exhibits showed models both of the robots that we have sent to Mars and the vehicles that NASA is developing for human exploration of Mars.

The early and small original Mars Rover.

The most interesting vehicle was the Mars Rover that will carry astronauts around the red planet. It is HUGE as the following pictures show:

The two men in front of the Rover show the enormous side of the vehicle.

The tire design on the Rover allows it to be sturdy,
lightweight, and impossible to deflate!

I felt dwarfed standing in front of the Mars Rover.

Posters inside the exhibit showed the variety of
occupations necessary on Mars.  This one is for you,
Christopher!

This poster was near the display showing the habitat
that astronauts will have to build once they reach Mars.

We did something new on this trip.  We attended an "Astronaut Encounter," and it was both interesting and informative.  The guest speaker that day was Space Shuttle astronaut Bob Springer.  He talked about the two missions he was on and gave some insight into his background, training, and life as an astronaut.  His personal stories illustrated the bad, the good, and the funny things about being in space.

Bob Springer was an excellent speaker with an educational
and interesting presentation.

After a quick, expensive lunch at one of the Center's cafes, we were off to our bus trip that was centered around exploration of the early days of the space program, including the early missiles, and the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

Our tour included seeing full-size models of the early missiles and satellites that the US sent into space.  Our tour guide had worked at NASA and kept our interest though the entire three-hour tour.  I was surprised at how small the early missiles and satellites were that we first launched.

The people show how small the early rockets and
satellites that we sent to space really were.

As we were traveling on to our next stop, our bus had to pull off the road into a parking lot. Coming straight at us, with a four-squad-car escort, was the first stage recovered booster rocket from the Falcon Nine Spacex flight that was launched last week.  The rocket was burned from re-entry to the atmosphere and enormous.  This was an unexpected treat for our tour.

Look over the shoulder of our tour guide to see
the first stage booster rocket as it came down the street.

The Spacex rocket is charred from its journey.

The bottom of the rocket shows why this vehicle
was called the Falcon Nine.  Note the nine rockets
used to get the vehicle into space.

As the tour continued, we were taken to a bunker that was used to launch Alan Shepherd into space.  The bunker is now a museum, preserving the ancient computers, wiring, and structures that were used that day in 1961.  A sign on the wall said that the rooms full of computers had less computing power than a $30 watch has today.  Our tour guide said the sign was outdated: today a $10 watch has more computing power than those old computers and that today's iPhone has 1000 times more computer power.  Looking at those ancient computers and primitive methods made me wonder how we ever were successful in getting Shepherd and then John Glenn and others into space and back safely.  They were taking great risks and really had no assurances that they would survive either the blast off or the return to earth.

The command center that sent Shepherd into space
had minimal power and was all hand-wired.

Rick looks in disbelief at the tape reels that were used in the
early part of space exploration to send men into space.

A replica of the small rocket used for the first
manned space flight.  Shepherd was in the
black capsule on top.  Above him was the
red "escape rocket" that could pull the capsule off
the rocket in case of an emergency.

A discussion of safety took us to the launch pad where Astronauts White, Grissom, and Chaffey lost their lives in a space capsule fire.  They were testing systems when a spark from one of their chairs ignited the oxygen-rich atmosphere inside the space capsule.  Their tragic deaths resulted in a redesign of the capsule so astronauts quickly could escape the capsule if necessary.

The skeleton of the launch pad where the Apollo  1
astronauts perished remains as a memorial to them.

As our tour concluded, we drove past the construction site of the new NASA headquarters.  The new building is modern and bright.  We also saw the old headquarters, positioned next door to the new building, that ultimately will be torn down.  The old headquarters had no windows on the first floor to protect the work inside from being spied on by unauthorized eyes.

The new NASA headquarters is under construction.

The old headquarters was only three stories high and very reflective of the era in which it was built.

The old headquarters with no first-floor windows.

We really enjoyed our tour, having remembered events that we witnessed as children and learning about what went on behind the scenes to make our space program a success.  The entire complex is designed to show that while the Shuttle missions are complete, space exploration continues through cooperation with private space companies.  NASA will continue long into the future.