My Days in Texas | January 2003

We are watching coverage of the demise of space shuttle Columbia. I remember watching Columbia take off for the first time in high school. They're calling this a space shuttle "contingency" and warning people not to touch any debris associated with the space shuttle "contingency". I assume this will delay the International Space Station considerably. Hopefully not forever.

Here is a radar image of the breakup (animated version).

Another good batterman.org search phrase (although not as good as the last one): "base or scenery or parrish or dehumidify or drapery". Could this be the same person?

We're having miserable weather. I went to the feed store today to get food for Dewey, and they had space heaters and woodstoves chugging away to keep all the birds and animals warm. I really had to watch where I walked since some of the cats were sacked out right in the aisles if there was a space heater nearby.

I will be debuting my new format for this site at the beginning of February, and another sub-site will come along with it.

In a weekend targeted only for goofing off, we actually accomplished a lot. Most importantly, we cleaned for the first time in almost a month. Ed and I sure can change our house from a showcase home into a pigsty in no time flat! I also put away all the Christmas stuff, primed some metal on the peak of the house that had peeling paint, rode my bike down to watch the marathon this morning, planted some primroses, and helped Ed mount his anemometer on the roof (technically less than a year after I gave Ed the weather station for his birthday). I love to climb up on the roof. In the winter, I can see downtown Houston as well as my office building from there.

Search phrase of the month over at batterman.org: "miohippus or batterman or undemonstrable or skylook or beermake". Hope they found what they're looking for.

Pretty much nothing interesting going on here, hence the lack of posts. We're supposed to have a hard freeze tonight. We're about to begin a new major project (about 15 months) at work, so it will get very busy soon. Ed has a cracked tooth that needs to be extracted. That's about all I can think of.

A guy I work with is on the jury for this trial (note, the guy I work with is not the mayor of Houston). Also at work, the "Honey Bun Bandit" has been found, we all wrote Honey Bun Haiku, and then, well, nevermind. This episode in my life will require a lengthy explanation and some supporting documentation, so I'll wait until the story gets a little more interesting.

This is a temporary (I hope) format while I figure out a new idea for this site....

Our next door neighbor, Kay, died this morning. We didn't even know she was sick, since we were away when she went into the hospital. She was a very nice 72-year-old lady who had lived in that house for about 30 years. Although she seemed to be fairly poor, she was friendly to us, and invited Nico and Aidan to play in her backyard when they were here last spring. She loved computers and the Internet, and her daughter told me that every time Ed flew a new flag, Kay went in and searched for it on the Internet if it was one she didn't recognize it. I don't know what will happen to her house; her daughter and 10-year-old grandson live there, but she has 8 other children.