Uncle John’s Log & Co.

The time was almost 9 pm when we got to visit Mombo on Saturday. It was so satisfying to see her in her own private room, with a minimum of medical apparatus. She was quite talkative and tried to sort out all the occurrences in what had been an incredibly long day that began when she woke up in the Care Unit. When she asked, “Was that today?” I had to say, “Must have been, since yesterday was your surgery, and you were knocked out until this morning.” Her look of astonishment told me that she was living in the middle of a whirlwind recovery, and I knew it was time for us to leave and for her to get some needed rest. Jeanne took a dinner break while we were there and was preparing to spend the night. As we were leaving, Mombo was having the nurse explain each of the medications she was being asked to swallow—precisely the kind of perpetual skepticism so essential in the hospital environment. I thought I might be able to rest easier. I figured she was in the clear.

On the way home we saw the awesome proximity of Venus with a crescent moon. This had to be the celestial image that inspired the Turkish national flag. What’s the story behind that? Dana saw her first “shooting star” as we crossed the Kentucky River. For some reason it made me think of when they were taking Mombo into pre-op. She had said, “I’m in good hands,” and I asked, “Do you mean with Truly?” She didn’t understand my question, so I whispered the answer in her ear. ”Your guardian angel.” She laughed, but I wasn’t sure if she remembered the name of her life-long protector.

Perhaps that meteor was in actuality a heavenly body. Truly was telling us my mother was “in the clear.”

Issues having to do with an outrageous astronaut meltdown, in addition to George Will’s recent article about Chicago, are stimulating my libertarian streak today. Is it possible that NASA officials are using scarce resources for a public relations effort to portray Captain Lisa Nowak as a sympathetic figure, in order to safeguard its own institutional image? If a Mayor Daley can begin turning over government assets to the free market, maybe it’s time we privatize the whole bloody space program and finally get on with it.

Consider this— If LBJ had farmed it all out to Walt Disney back when I was in junior high, do you think we’d still be fiddling around with obsolete launch vehicles and half-built orbital tin cans almost 40 years after we landed on the moon?

I spent a good portion of today and yesterday cleaning out and organizing our stash of project files and “job jackets,” and I think I’ve hit on a key reason I’m so averse to throwing out personal papers and old records of past work. It must have something to do with a resistance to stirring up dormant feelings. To toss is to toss, but to conscientiously purge files while retaining only that which is valuable means reliving the emotional experiences, to some degree, both pleasant and unpleasant. For me, accepting this sheds light on another aspect of throwing things away—overcoming the apprehension of making a mistake or misjudgment, and inviting future emotions of loss or regret.

Some of this is downright crazy—rekindled emotions tied up with worries about emotions yet to come—and I can see why others just turn off the scrutiny and pitch away. There has to be a balance between the two forms of mild madness. One must not dread feelings from the past nor carry a fear of feelings yet to come, for both impinge on the equilibrium of the present. The past doesn’t exist, and the future is forever unreal. All we ever possess is the present. The continuous now is our only laboratory for the mastering of time and space.

Time… I’m spending it with my rubbish!

Space… I need more of it! Now!

Walie wanted to play with toys all day. APS replaced our crashed hard drive with an even bigger one. I had a 150-yard PR time in the pool during my midday workout. The American economy continues to grow. I solved the cascading style sheets problem in the preliminary Website for Kentucky Trust Company. Dana had an informative talk with a local man who recovered from a case of pancreatitis worse than what Bruce has. Seth helped me put the finishing touches on “Pirate Revenge,” the final segment of my goofy “Houseboat Trilogy” (originated as a teen not much older than he). Discovery landed safely and the astronauts held a press conference. Josh had another night’s sleep at the Blue Bank Farm.

Live helmet-cam coverage on C-SPAN 2 of a complex, unrehearsed spacewalk by two astronauts, requiring the coordinated efforts of the Shuttle Discovery crew, the International Space Station crew, and Johnson Space Center controllers—with one spacewalker pausing at the end to visually scan the surface of California until he was able to detect his hometown. (”My Goodness, what a long road from there to here…”) For a lifetime space-program geek, it just doesn’t get much better than that!

Down Under—

AUSTRALIA will more than double its military commitment in Iraq, deploying a further 450 troops to protect Japanese engineers, as the country’s interim Government struggles to contain a widespread insurgency… Warning that Iraq was at a “tilting point”, Prime Minister John Howard revealed cabinet had approved the plan for more troops only after personal requests from Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi and Britain’s Tony Blair… A grim-faced Mr. Howard admitted the decision would be unpopular and could lead to the first Australian fatalities in Iraq.

Courageous and strong, these are men of vision. History will judge them as significant and large.

Up Over—

Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Thursday that CANADA will opt out of the contentious U.S. missile defense scheme… Polls indicate that most Canadians are opposed to the scheme. Many believe that the umbrella, when fully implemented, could lead to an international arms race. Prime Minister Paul Martin, who leads a tenuous minority government, has said that Ottawa would not support what he called the “weaponization of space.”

Foolish and weak, these are men in denial. History will note them as peripheral and small.

“We have never before seen a star moving fast enough to completely escape the confines of our galaxy,” said Warren Brown of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “Only the powerful gravity of a very massive black hole could propel a star with enough force to exit our galaxy.”

Yeah… We know ya said, “I’ll leave this galaxy if Bush gets a second term.” Gowahn… See if ya like it out there!

— Over nine thousand objects large enough to be tracked and catalogued? To a galactic neighbor, our planet must look like one of those Kentucky back-road junk heaps.

— Many, many years ago, when we were first allowed to operate the Sony reel-to-reel recorder, we taped numerous television theme songs and incidental music from our favorite shows. We became so familiar with the tape that each musical introduction seemed a natural part of the one to follow. We committed to memory lyrics and melodies, including those from obscure, ill-fated shows that we never even watched. Years later, Mombo surprised me by transferring that strange collection to audio cassette. To this day I occasionally pop in a tape when driving alone and I must admit that very few things in my life, including pop music contemporary to the time, will provide me such a visceral connection to my quirky adolescence. Love on a Rooftop, Mr. Terrific, The Shady Rest, Jean Gaston-Andre, Judd for the Defense, T.H.E. Cat, David Vincent, Rango, The New Number Two… I guess you had to be there. (”Ask the butler to lend you a buck, my dear!“)

— Before Mack went back into the hospital he was kind enough to look at my old Conn C-Melody saxophone (the one that used to belong to Uncle Luke), and became excited about taking it with him to Lexington for a discussion with his sax repairman. Turns out it needs very little attention to be perfectly playable, even after 25 years of storage. He had a setback in his healing not too long after that, but not before I had the opportunity to shoot his combo when they played at the open house for the new Community Arts Center in downtown Danville. I made a montage for myself and all of his friends as a focus for our positive thoughts and prayers for recovery.