Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Hanging in there

Well, summer is gorgeous so far here in Kansas.  Things are still green, but the wheat has gone golden in the last week, so harvest is shortly going to get underway.  Lightning bugs, bats, skinks, all manner of birds, snakes, mosquitoes, and the other cast of billions have made their appearance.  That includes the usual arrival of the armada of buzzards that roost on one of the water towers in town, which does not bother me as much as it does some people.

I’m still searching for some clarity regarding what comes next for yours truly, but have a bunch of proverbial irons in the proverbial fire.  Sometimes it seems like reporting on what I’m doing would sound like the guy’s paper on what he did during his summer vacation in Cheech and Chong’s Sister Mary Elephant sketch.  Something will coalesce here pretty soon, I’m sure, even if it ends up just being for a few months.  Regardless, it will be nice to have a purpose once again.  One evening this week I took a several-hour basic first aid refresher class down in Wichita, which made me feel pretty decent about my knowledge on the subjects covered and then some.  Next week I have an appointment for a little work to be done on my car to make sure I have a steed ready to ride off into the sunset upon whenever the time comes.  With luck by the time I’m all said and done I’ll have put together a biography as varied and interesting as Louis L’Amour’s.  One step at a time…

Eight folks got a nice, big step this week with NASA’s new astronaut candidates being selected.  One is an “ice person”, so it is nice to know the door is open, though it looks like military backgrounds are a lot more desirable.  I certainly will apply whenever the next selection begins again.
‘Despair, or folly?’ said Gandalf. ‘It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.  We do not.  It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.’
~Gandalf (Council of Elrond), LOTR by J.R.R. Tolkien