Well, hello there! I ended up taking a rather longer than expected break from versifying. Contributing factors included:
a brief vacation
ongoing home renovation distractions
too damn hot to think
couldn’t come up with a rhyme for “conservatorship”
In any event — vacation is over (see pic below), the construction crew is essentially done (still awaiting plumber and electrician, but they’ll be on-site for only a few days), and if I ever write about the Free Britney movement, I’ll work “curve of her hip” into the flow somewhere.
The weather, however, continues to be hot and sticky. Out of my immediate control. So, let’s move on with two recent posts to get back into the groove and I’ll do my best to keep up the momentum going forward:
Astro-Not So Much (August 9, 2021)
I’m sure you recognize the image above, commonly marketed as “Astronaut Ice Cream” — no elementary school field trip to the planetarium was complete without purchasing a vacuum-sealed package of Neapolitan in this peculiar state of food-based suspended animation. It was pretty awful, wasn’t it?
The last few years have seen a renewed interest in space exploration: private-industry spacecraft and space tourism are now part of the mix, and there are plans to return to the Moon and establish a presence on Mars. NASA’s plans to send (exile?) humans to the Red Planet are ramping up, with this recent solicitation hitting the news:
Mars is calling! NASA is seeking applicants for participation as a crew member during the first one-year analog mission in a habitat to simulate life on a distant world, set to begin in Fall 2022.
As NASA ventures farther into the cosmos, the astronaut experience will change. In preparation for the real-life challenges of future missions to Mars, NASA will study how highly motivated individuals respond under the rigor of a long-duration, ground-based simulation…
Each mission will consist of four crew members living and working in a 1,700-square-foot module 3D-printed by ICON, called Mars Dune Alpha. The habitat will simulate the challenges of a mission on Mars, including resource limitations, equipment failure, communication delays, and other environmental stressors. Crew tasks may include simulated spacewalks, scientific research, use of virtual reality and robotic controls, and exchanging communications. The results will provide important scientific data to validate systems and develop solutions.
[Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-is-recruiting-for-yearlong-simulated-mars-mission]
They don’t paint a very pretty picture, do they? “… resource limitations, equipment failure, communication delays, and other environmental stressors.” You and I both know “other environmental stressors” means backed-up toilets. Probably caused by overindulging in Astronaut Ice Cream.
Fowl Play (August 20, 2021)
I live in Maine and have seen many varieties of ducks — but not one like this:
A 25-feet high rubber duck with the word "JOY" printed on its chest has been floating in Belfast (Maine) Harbor since Saturday — and no one knows why.
Even harbormaster Katherine Given is puzzled by its sudden appearance.
"Everybody loves it," Given told the Bangor Daily News. "I have no idea who owns it, but it kind of fits Belfast..."
Elizabeth Dircks, who spends her summers living in Camden, said she would "make a detour and see if I could find it."
See if she could find a 25-foot high inflatable rubber duck with the word “JOY” on its chest, floating in the middle of the harbor, surrounded by watercraft, with dozens if not hundreds of people standing on the shore and pointing at at? I hope she remembers to bring her binoculars.
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As I mentioned up top, we took a brief vacation a few weeks ago with good friends. This was a trip originally planned for 2020, but postponed by the pandemic — we spent one night in Camden, Maine (home of the apparently astigmatic Elizabeth Dircks), and then two nights in Lubec, Maine (the easternmost town in the contiguous United States) in order to go on a boat trip to see puffins and other seabirds and land species (seals and some pesky flies). Although our trip was toward the end of the migratory season, we still managed to see a good number of the puffins and ID’d a few other birds.
The weather was perfect, the waters were calm while out on the boat, the birds and setting were spectacular, and we were overjoyed to see our friends after taking the extended pandemic break from socialization.
Our timing was pretty close to perfect as well since various precautions were reimplemented shortly after our return, in light of the increasing community spread of the Delta variant.
I’m looking forward to a return to the time when a “postponement” was measured in days or weeks — not months or years.
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Hope this edition finds you and yours doing well! Back at you next week — at least, that’s my plan at the moment.
JB
Puffins with muffins, if you saw them at breakfast. How cool! As for the duck, is this like a Where's Waldo thing or find the 803 in all the 805s? Give me a clue.
Puffins! So cute. Sounds like a fab trip. Welcome back!