Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Back with the Rocket Man

Jerry and I with the great view from Erika's house.
Photo by Erika, my lousy phone camera.
As many of you know, I met up with Jerry Irvine a year ago in February on my return to Alaska from Antarctica.  We brainstormed on some ideas and generally had a good time talking rockets and other hair brained ideas.  So much the same the last two days but a bit more focused on what we can actually pick up and do either with moving the OpenLuna program forward or some other collaboration.

I still had a bit to do preparing for the Space Expo and there was time for that, seeing Jerry's new shop in Running Springs, socializing in the area (including Jerry's girlfriend), catching up on things but mostly looking for the angle to get started.

We found the germ of an scheme or two that could result in any of the following outcomes: Some significant contributions to OpenLuna, the reality TV production, and/or rocket motor firing demonstration and live event.  I will be following up on it after the Space Expo and will probably not go to the ISDC (International Space Development Conference) right after the Expo and instead come back up here to make progress before returning to Idaho.  But we'll see how the Expo goes, if it goes well enough, then I won't have to choose.


Off to be the Wizard

So Saturday I drove from LV to LA......not much time for blogging as you will see.

A day in TV Land

This covers Thursday and Friday in Las Vegas.  The pictures taken with my phone are fairly poor so they need some work.... get back to you on this.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Graduation Ceremony

Wendy, her beau, 3 kids and her mother, my sister after the
pinning ceremony. 
The timing of my visit was twofold beginning with my niece Wendy graduation from CSN Nursing program.  Click here for the photo Album.  It was Monday night, right after Mother's day.  So we had a gathering at my parents house (where I am staying for the week) Sunday.

Monday night at the Cashmen Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.  She graduated with 100 or so other classmates in a nice ceremony where each one walked to the center of the stage, a special person in their life pinned the blue ribbon on them and then posed for a professional picture.  (I got down and took my own so I could make the post.)

I have been having a good time this week with visiting family, light gambling, a bit of time in the sun... etc.

I would be doing more but the other side of the trip is to attend the Space Expo and maybe the International Space Development Conference in California next week.  It is just a few hours drive to the other side of the mountains.  I will also be re-connecting with Jerry and learning more about making actual rockets (instead of just designs and equations).  The conference mean that I have some prep work to do to represent the OpenLuna Foundation.  I prepped a lot the last couple weeks but have a bit more to do.


Sunday, May 12, 2013

Feels Like Home

I seem to have trouble blogging about the more casual aspects of the journey, hence the lag in the posts.  The last month has been very busy with converting a conversation on OpenLuna into a video, preparing for a conference, attempting to learn to program Android smart phones and work searches.  Naturally the first had the preference of my attention and like most projects, seemed like it wouldn't take very long but did.  My runs into town to learn my way around and to pick up little things to replace things not worthy of dragging 3000 miles waned.  One day driving home from poking around town I referred to my sister's house as "getting back home" and it felt very solid and true to think of it as that.
My Jeep in front of my Sister's house.

Being busy at the computer for several hours at a time, walks in the subdivision and neighboring ones became frequent and also the last month I started dancing several times a week and getting to know that crowd.  The combination has made a noticeable change in my tone and posture, so again, things are good.

The general tone and attitude of people here is not too different from Alaska.  Despite having considerably many more stores and shops, the area, other than Boise itself, is still more rural than urban with a few factories in between farms, in between subdivision, in the middle of a high (2400ft) desert.  The climate up until now has been like a cool summer in Fairbanks.  Even while the rest of the states were being hit my snow storm after snow storm, the highs here would be 60's to 70's and even when it didn't make 60, it felt pretty good midday with the sun up and moderate winds.  Nights were freezing but no more and last weekend, leaving the dance hall I heard crickets off in the fields.

Even as I write this, after a 14 hour drive to Las Vegas for my Niece's graduation from Nursing School (I had too much caffeine on the road), I am awake early, realizing that it is an hour earlier than "back home" - yes it feels like home.   Click here for the Album