Capeshots From the Morning After Irene

Well, our household escaped the ravages of Irene relatively unscathed. Many small limbs are down in our yard, and of course the power is out. I think the whole Cape went down at the same time based on the Facebook updates I saw.

We all hunkered down in the basement for the night with the pets and slept fitfully while the winds blew likewise. Daybreak revealed that Irene was still not quite done with us but perhaps had already done her worst.

After a quick survey of the property, my husband and I went about the work of snaking extension cords from the generator to all the necessities, first and foremost the well and coffee pot followed by the refrigerator, toaster oven and miscellaneous chargers. We bought our generator in anticipation of Isabel, and it has proved a worthy investment. We are seriously considering going with a whole house propane generator in the near future. For now, the old Briggs and Stratton is doing a fine job for us.

Once electricity was flowing, hubby, Laika, and I hopped in the truck and took a slow ride around the Cape. We didn't stay out long so as not to be in the way, and I would recommend the same to all.

While we didn't see any terrible devastation, we did find plenty of damage in the form of downed trees. A few were blocking roads or down over power lines, and some were on top of cars and houses. We also saw a good Anne Arundel County and BGE work crew presence setting about the work of clearing roads and piecing our power grid back together. Again, I would stay off the roads as much as possible to give them time and room to work.

I'm no expert, but I'm guessing days rather than hours of outage for many in the Cape. The BGE website is currently reporting 108K Anne Arundel customers without power. We will need to be patient.

Here are some of the pictures I took this AM. Everyone be careful out there and help each other out. Keep those generators away from your houses in well ventilated areas, and be smart with the extension cords. As we approach nightfall, assuming the power is still out, be careful with candles. Irene was destructive enough without adding to it with carbon monoxide poisoning, electrocutions, or fires. Stay safe Capers.

PS. I'm publishing this from my only source of Internet at the moment, my Droid. Apologies for any formatting issues. Couldn't figure out how to add captions. Those porta johns at Lake Claire may already have been bashed prior to Irene.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

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Go Time

Every three hours for the past two or three days, I've eagerly pulled up the latest predicted track of hurricane Irene from the National Hurricane Center website. I keep expecting the next update to be the one to verify that we are or are not going to be in the path of the worst of the storm. Each time, it creeps a hair to the east or west, and two consecutive creeps in one direction or the other have me convinced that it's a meaningful trend. I study the slightest tip or wobble of the eye to divine whether we are in for just another rainy day or the apocalypse.

The reality is that the update that tells the real story will be the one that's too late to do anything about. It will be another 12-24 hours at least before we know with certainty if and where Irene will make landfall and how that will impact her path. By that time, it's game over in terms of proper preparation.

So far, we have stocked up on groceries, flashlights, batteries and fuel. The rest of today will be spent stowing loose items in the yard (once I quit blogging...).

Provisions

Flashlights and Batteries

The boat ramp at Deep Creek had a backup yesterday afternoon, and this morning when we pulled our boat, a steady stream of trailers waited their turn. Local hardware stores are bringing in extra generators. Water bottles are starting to sell out here and there, and I've even heard of a gas station out of gas. A storm shelter has been designated at Annapolis High School. The city is handing out sand bags, and downtown parking garages are offering free parking to residents at risk from rising water. The list of preparations continues to grow.

Much of this may very well not be necessary, but we won't know until it is in fact necessary. Don't let your fear of looking overcautious keep you from taking the basic and easy precautions. The city and state are making every possible resource available, and local businesses are calling in reinforcements with respect to supplies. Better to look a little foolish now than a lot foolish later.

As for the boat we trailered this AM, it's entirely possible that it is more at risk from a falling limb in our driveway than from an unlikely worst-case tidal surge on the lift. We seriously considered leaving it down at the dock. During hurricane Isabel, though, I watched with alarm as my husband lassoed our free floating boat from an invisible pier three feet under water in the pitch power-out-darkness of night to keep it from floating away. It's not something I want to watch again.

So we've placed our bet on the wheel of falling tree and branch roulette with fingers crossed that we chose just the right spot in the driveway for the boat and cars. There is an element of guesstimation at work here, but at this point, we all still have some time to stack the odds in our favor. That time is running out, though, and today is our last best chance to tie up the loose strings.

Everyone be careful and considerate of one another as Irene approaches and in the aftermath. I honestly don't have a clue what is in store for us. If all the preparation turns out to have been unnecessary, we can be nothing but thankful. It's not like all the food I bought will go uneaten. Heck, half of it is eaten already...

PS - You know where I've always really wanted to ride out a wicked storm? Baltimore Light! How cool would it be to view it from right out in the Bay safely enclosed in a solid brick structure that's stood since 1908? I might not have as much faith in the precariously leaning Sharps Island Lighthouse or chicken-legged, wooden Thomas Point, but Baltimore Light - I would buy a ticket for that show. Although I'm not sure I'd utilize that outhouse in a hurricane or otherwise...

Baltimore Light (Daredevil Potty on the Left)

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Earthquake in the Cape!

Sooooo, how was THAT for a first day of the 2011 - 2012 school year? I thought the main drama of the day would be choosing my daughter's outfit for her first day of high school or maybe a fight in front of Cape Elementary over the new dropoff rules, but noooo, Mother Nature had to one up every bit of it with, of all things, an EARTHQUAKE.

And not an altogether insignificant earthquake, even by West Coast standards. This rumbly tumbler was a solid 5.8 on the Richter scale centered in Virginia, and it was felt all along the I-95 corridor from Georgia to New England and then some. Now that's something you don't experience every day, even this girl who grew up an hour from San Francisco. Here's the "shake map" of the event showing who felt what in our area:



I actually didn't feel the earthquake because I was on the road coming into the Cape, but my husband sent me a text from Angler's where he was picking up some fishing supplies. My son (who had not started school yet) served as textographer and read, "Did you just feel that earthquake?" to which my son transcribed, "No, but there are lots of Capers standing out in front of their houses with cell phones in hand looking really confused." Maybe that's not so out of the ordinary, but in large numbers, it was notable.

When I arrived home, my neighbor gave me the play by play of the quake. A quick tour of my house revealed evidence that we had, in fact, experienced an earthquake. These pictures of the "destruction" in my house tell the tale (with captions in case you can't make out the full scope of the devastation):

Crooked Picture

Crooked Picture

Tipsy Barbie

Toppled Book

Deodorant Strewn Off the Shelf

Unhung Mirror Knocked Over

Crooked Map of Annapolis - Kind of Apropos

OK, it wasn't the great quake of 1906, but it truly did shake things up on our typically steady peninsula. My husband's good friend who stopped by Graul's on his way to our place to buy chicken for their fishing outing arrived at the grocery store to find it closed with aisles full of boxes. In an attempt to buy another fishing prerequisite, beer, he learned from the folks at Bella's that they had miraculously only lost four bottles of bourbon (ouch) and a half dozen or so other miscellaneous bottles of booze. ("100 bottles of beer on the wall, 100 bottles of beer, earthquake them around, shake them down, 99 bottles of beer on the wall...").

In the end, it was a lot of excitement with only a very little damage for us in the Cape - a little more so for our fragile historic downtown Annapolis. Even so, it was disconcerting that cell phone communication was immediately compromised due to the high level of airwave traffic, and the roads were jammed with an equally high level of roadway traffic. Parents delayed in that traffic could neither get home to their kids nor make calls to check on them. The Anne Arundel Public School website was not up to the barrage of visits, either. Thankfully, our good Cape neighbors did their part to round up the stray kiddies until their parents could get home safely.

Here's a funny picture from a blog called Boring Pittsburgh:

WTF? Pretty Much Sums It Up

Still, all of this strikes a little fear in my heart for a truly catastrophic disaster. This serves as a good wakeup call for us to spend a little more time on those emergency cards that the schools send home. It's worth seriously thinking through how our kids should get home when we can't get to them and talking to them about what to do until we arrive. As for my household, one small measure we have taken is to install a cipher lock on one of our doors. It's provided some peace of mind knowing the kids don't rely on an easily misplaced key to get in the house.

Where cell phones were unreliable yesterday either for calls or texts, I have to say, Twitter and Facebook never lost a step. Information was flying over social media at the speed of disaster. I knew instantly via Facebook that the quake had been felt by friends and family as far south as South Carolina and as far north as Connecticut. I also learned pretty quickly that my kids were safe at school and that area schools had been evacuated but would dismiss at the usual time. This information has to be taken with a grain of salt and filtered sometimes to get to the facts, but it's an invaluable tool in fast moving situations, especially when mobile phones and websites aren't up to such heavy use.

Following the earthquake, a couple of friends on Facebook posted this article from Gawker.com about the West Coast's reaction to our "quaint" earthquake. It's very funny and makes two good points. First, while the earthquake was not catastrophic by any stretch, neither was it trivial in a location that is not conditioned to this sort of threat. I think all things considered, our levels of alert and concern were warranted.

The day-after assessment is revealing that our area did not escape unscathed. The Washington Monument sustained a crack (I will NOT be superstitious and view that as an omen...), and the Washington Cathedral lost some finials from its spires. Downtown Annapolis also saw some damage to older structures. It remains to seen what other underlying harm might have been done.

Second, I think West Coasters can't fully appreciate the immediate and intense fear that accompanies every boom, bang, and bump that those of us on the East Coast feel or hear following 9-11, particularly in the DC to NY corridor. To a person, it's the first thought that leaps to mind when things shake, rattle or rumble. While the whole country was wounded that day in 2001, I think those of us closest to it geographically experienced a particular level of trauma that is still all too fresh.

DC does not have skyscrapers, but there are plenty of buildings tall enough to have given people a real fright from the swaying and shaking triggered by the quake. Then we had the sight of people running out of federal buildings in fear that brought back vivid and fraught memories of a day that fundamentally changed those of us who watched the horror of 9-11 unfold from just down the road. I think with that as a backdrop, our reactions were justified.

So, that should be enough natural disaster excitement for one week, right? Who gets nailed with an earthquake and say, a hurricane, that close together? Well, hopefully Irene will keep turning to the right like she has with each new update of her track and leave this already shaken part of the country alone. The trend for her eventual path so far has been slowly but steadily eastward. Let's hope that continues.

Still, the track is much too close for comfort, and everyone should be thinking ahead to the possibility of very heavy rain and tropical storm force winds later in the weekend. The winds in particular can mean very high water (or very low water) depending on what part of the storm impacts the Bay. Be prepared to secure your boats or take them out of the water if necessary, and stow away any loose articles in your yards. Have your generators tuned up and get some gas to power them. Heavy rain and wind could mean power outages in the Cape and surrounding area. While we can be forgiven for our lack of earthquake preparedness, there is no excuse for not being ready to deal with a hurricane given the lead time and our wealth of experience here on the East Coast. The devil we know...

Wishing everyone a calmer day and week ahead. Thanks to everyone who did their part to keep our kids and neighbors safe yesterday. When the ground shakes, Capers rock more than ever!

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Claire With an e, Please...

'But if you call me Anne, please call me Anne spelled with an e.'
'What difference does it make how it's spelled?' asked Marilla with another rusty smile as she picked up the teapot.
'Oh, it makes such a difference. It looks so much nicer. When you hear a name pronounced can't you always see it in your mind, just as if it was printed out? I can; and A-N-N looks dreadful, but A-N-N-E looks so much more distinguished.'

Many of you Capers had opportunity to drive past the new sign this side of the Route 50 overpass directing travelers into our fine community. I'm sure whoever decided it was needed had the best of intentions, but something went a little wrong between intent and execution (isn't that often the case?). Even though we are the largest community on the Broadneck Peninsula - one of the largest in Annapolis - the powers that be still managed to get our name wrong. Instead of being directed into Cape St. Claire, the new sign was spelled Cape St. Clair - simply "dreadful".

Capers very quickly noted the problem and posted some wry comments on the I Live in Cape St. Claire Facebook page. The names and faces have been deleted to protect the innocent (or smartassy :)...

•  I can't believe those darned teenagers stole it already! :-)
  

  Yesterday at 8:18am · 
• Damn budget cuts!!!
  

  Yesterday at 9:07am ·
• Its the economy, you're right. Good thing they got the debt ceiling raised!
  

  Yesterday at 9:32am · 
• i just noticed that too, maybe one of our residents can help with a can of paint? LOL
  

  Yesterday at 10:15am · 
• Maybe someone can track down FTH for us since they have no problem writing on all of our other signs.
  

  Yesterday at 10:59am · 
• ‎...but he doesn't have an "e" either :)
  

  Yesterday at 11:13am · 
• What is the location of the sign? I will conact the SHA.
  

  22 hours ago ·
• We don't need no stinkin' "e".
  

  22 hours ago ·
•  is that a new sign???
  

  21 hours ago ·
•  It's new, its right after you cross over 50 on the overpass. When you're heading towards Cape (from WaWa) it's on the right.
  

  18 hours ago · 
•  It's not like we spell Claire in some funky unusual local way!! I guess the sign company doesn't use spell check before they paint those puppies.
  

  18 hours ago ·
• I think it's due to the economy ...... they had to make budget cuts and the E drew the short straw ;-)
  

  17 hours ago ·
• I just saw it. I think there is a new one up over head too. Near old mill bottom.
  

  17 hours ago ·
• What, exactly, was wrong with the old signs that they had to replace them?
  

  17 hours ago · 
• 
  

The misspelling of a name can trigger something visceral in us. As my all-time favorite heroine Anne Shirley of Green Gables fame so aptly explains in the above excerpt, our names are more than just the way they sound. We also identify strongly with the way they are spelled. When we think of a person's name, the spelling is integral to our association with that person, and when someone gets the spelling of our names wrong, we are quick to correct them and rarely let it lie.

My daughter Kathryn is burdened with a name that has myriad traditional spelling possibilities, not to mention the dozens of nickname variations. My son Henry is in safer territory unless he travels to France where they spell it with a silly i and say it like a donkey's bray, or Germany where Heinrich sounds like a throat being cleared during a bad cold. My husband Mark largely avoids spelling concerns with his simple four-letter name. The alternative Marc is pretty uncommon, although he was plagued for years with credit card statements that came addressed to him as Martha - an old mixup stemming from the switching of his name with his mother's.

As for me, I have seen my name spelled all manner of ways over the years, all of which I have found unsettling. The spellings are fine in and of themselves. They simply are not me. I am Christy, short for Christina (and only my Dad calls me THAT) - not Kristy, Kristie, Cristy, Cristi, Christie, Christi or Krysti. I was particularly flipped out to receive a certificate at work one time with the name Tina printed on it. Tina? I just don't identify as a Tina in any way. I used a Sharpie to add the Chris on the front end.

Anyway, Cape residents were justifiably taken aback to see the all important e in Claire dropped from the name of our beloved community. While I'm sure no harm was meant by it, the impression is that we were somehow not significant enough for the typo to have caught ANYONE'S attention before being mounted on the side of the highway for everyone to see. It doesn't even look right, does it? Anne Shirley would deem it "the most tragical thing that has ever happened...".

Well, I'm happy to report that the error has been remedied before it could result in a full blown identity crisis for our neighborhood or general confusion for outsiders. Kudos to the State Highway Administration for hustling to correct their mistake. The new e is slightly lower than the rest of the lettering, and it is a little squished, but the casual observer would not notice anything amiss. It's certainly better than Sharpie. I don't know if this is the permanent fix, but it will suffice to quell our initial indignation.

By the way, does anyone know if this is a new sign? Is it a replacement for an old one? I can't recall seeing one before, but my powers of observation are not the sharpest. I do kind of like it now that the e is in its rightful place. As I said, I'm sure the intent was sincere despite the glaring error. While I somehow doubt the Highway Administration lost any sleep over all this (other than the poor schmucks who had to slap up the missing e in the wee hours of the night), they can take solace in Anne's redeeming words that I always keep close to my heart, "Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it."

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Paddle Board Fever

I've been watching with interest the past summer or two as stand up paddle boards have become increasingly popular in our area. They appear to be a case of kayak meets surfboard. If you read the Broadneck Patch article about the race on the Magothy and Deep Creek this past weekend, you can see what they look like in action - at least in cruising action. Some models can also double as surfboards, which is a different activity, altogether - extreme paddle boarding.

The first ones I noticed caught my eye as a novelty when I saw the odd one or two glide past on Deep Creek. I judged the people on them to be a little showy or exhibitionist. It's all out on display standing atop a board in a creek or harbor instead of tucked away inside a kayak or offshore in a wetsuit on a surfboard. I wasn't all that intrigued or impressed initially.

Well, this past weekend, as paddle boarder after paddle boarder pushed up and back down Deep Creek as part of an organized race, I took a bit more notice. This was clearly more than a mere novelty to these folks, and I began to see the appeal of paddling across the top of the water on foot in terms of perspective and comfort level. I have always felt a little low and constricted in kayaks, but these enthusiasts atop the paddle boards were making use of every part of their bodies to stay balanced and move forward. It was like surfing without the threat of being crushed beneath crashing waves or eaten by sharks.

I wasn't the only one who was intrigued. On Sunday evening, my husband asked if I would like to go take a look at paddle boards with him. He also was curious and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I'm not sure if marketing was one of the goals of the race organizers, but it clearly was effective either way.

So we drove over to East of Maui to do some research and try to learn a little bit about the sport of paddle boarding. After a twenty minute in-store tutorial by one of the owners, we determined that our best bet was to rent a board and see how we liked it before making an investment in one of our own. There are myriad board options available, and we were not even certain if we had the balance to stand upright on one.

We strapped an 11-foot beginner model to the roof of our Explorer (feeling very cool to have something even close to surfboard looking on top of our vehicle), drove home, and deposited it in Deep Creek for a trial run. I was not at all sure how easy or difficult this was going to be. The guy at the shop had given us a slew of pointers. They even offer classes, but I felt pretty sure this was something we could figure out on our own.

Well, we spent the better part of the afternoon taking turns paddling out in gradually longer distances. The "idiot proof" beginner model was surprisingly easy to balance as long as you kept moving - kind of like riding a bike. Like I suspected, I enjoyed being upright and having a better view than down low in a kayak.

Overall, we agreed that we really liked paddle boarding. The boards are lighter and more manageable than kayaks in terms of getting them in and out, and it really is fun being upright - standing on water. I found that my feet would tend to go a little numb after a while on the board - I think because I was trying so hard to balance properly. A little repositioning seemed to take care of it as I became more acclimated.

We managed to make our way up and down the length of Deep Creek between the two of us without falling in. I had a couple of dodgy moments up at the top of the creek trying to turn around in a narrow, shallow channel, but I even figured out how to reverse on a paddle board to get me out of a tight spot. It wasn't pretty, but nobody could see me up there but the birds and the frogs. My husband, who ventured out into the Magothy, said it was pretty challenging to stay upright in even a little bit of chop, and a boat wake almost dumped him.

While I was at the head of Deep Creek, I came across some really lovely flowers that I hadn't seen before - looked like white and pink hibiscus. I don't know if they are desirable or not in that habitat, but they were really eye catching. I found myself wishing I had my camera with me.

Later in the day just past sunset, I made a second paddle board trip up the creek (with a paddle, mind you), but this time, I threw caution to the wind and took a camera with me. The water was significantly higher by this hour, so the channels were a bit more navigable.

I was disappointed to find that the flowers had closed up for the night, but I still got some pretty shots of the head of the creek. I also took some video of the birds fluttering in the reeds. The sound was amazing, but the video doesn't quite capture the full effect. I felt a little guilty for disrupting their settled evening reverie. I fear Deep Creek will be even more disrupted by the ominous sounds of bulldozers that I could hear and just see through the thinned out trees on the south bank of the creek.

As I turned back down the creek and headed for home, I could see lightning strikes from a thunderstorm in the distance to the northeast. This is where I almost went in the drink in my enthusiasm to capture the lightning on camera while not dropping my paddle (in which case I WOULD have been up the creek without a paddle).

If I waited to take the shot when the lightning struck, I would miss it. So I just started randomly taking pictures (thank goodness for digital photography), and managed to catch a strike on one of them. Then I used the part of my brain God gave me (as opposed to the worthless Homer Simpson part that would have just kept clicking randomly to catch one lightning strike in twenty shots) and switched to video mode to capture some more of the show.

Here are the shots and video I came home with:

Front of my board

Closed white flowers at head of Deep Creek

Flowers in the grasses

Closed pink flower

These were even lovelier earlier when they were open

Pretty side channel where I got stuck

Looking East

View back up the creek

View down the creek

Sunset through the trees in Arnold

Pretty clouds at sunset

Reflection of the sunset in the water (not algae!)

Even Homer Simpson gets the shot sometimes

It's nothing short of miraculous that my camera did not end up at the bottom of Deep Creek. Heck, it's miraculous that I didn't end up at the bottom of Deep Creek. While I DO recommend paddle boarding, I do NOT recommend paddle board photography unless you have a waterproof case for your camera. I was truly tempting fate, and it was only a matter of time before I and the camera took a swim (deadly for the camera and potentially hazardous to my health with the bacteria levels recently measured in the Magothy).

We're still debating whether to go all in and purchase a board. We agreed we need to do more homework and get a better feel for how much we would use one. I certainly don't anticipate competing in a race anytime soon. I'm thinking it would be more fun to sit on shore with a water balloon canon and try to knock the paddlers off as they pass by. Now THAT'S some serious sport! (do I have to actually say that I'm just kidding and that I don't condone that behavior?)...

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Tipping the Scales of Progress and Produce

I was in Graul's earlier this week for one of my daily visits. You could say that I'm a poor menu planner and kitchen provisioner, but I prefer to view my frequent trips to Graul's as the European approach to grocery shopping. Not buying it? Neither does my family, but that's just how I roll.

At any rate, as I made my first daily pass through the produce area, my pal, Ron, greeted me as he weighed my bag of shallots (ooh - sounds really haute cuisine-ish, huh? - just an ingredient from the latest quick recipe ripped from the pages of Real Simple magazine - recipes that always leave my family starving). He informed me that in a few weeks, Graul's will finally install produce scales at the checkout, and we will no longer have to have our produce weighed by the guys and Donna in the produce area.

I was surprised to find myself taken aback by this news. When I first started shopping at Graul's over eighteen years ago, I made the standard newbie error of not getting my produce weighed before checkout, not just once but over and over. Even after I got the hang of it, there were many times when the kids were little that I missed weighing something in the mad rush to get in and out before one of the little angels destroyed a shopping aisle or threw a world class tantrum. The folks at checkout would always patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) take the unweighed item over to produce to remedy my blunder.

Over the years, I have fallen into a comfortable routine of starting my shopping in produce, having a chat with Ron or Pat or Donna as they weigh my apples or broccoli, and discussing the current evening's dinner experiment with them. At checkout, I occasionally find myself behind someone new to the Cape or a visitor who does not know the drill, and I always feel just slightly superior to be an established "local" with my produce already weighed and labelled. The process that vexed me so in my early Cape days has become one of those unique Cape experiences to which I've adapted and even come to embrace.

Well, there's no stopping progress, even at Graul's. Ready or not, they are busting into the... late... 20th... century...? with produce scales at the checkout counter. Who'd have thunk! No more can we munch on our grapes as we shop, safe in the knowledge that they've already been weighed and priced so it's not really stealing. What will be next? Self checkout? Dear God, please no...

I guess progress is a good thing, but it makes me a little sad. I will miss Donna and her crew manning their posts at the scales as I pass through (sometimes two and three times a day...). I hope they will still find tasks to do out in the open so I can continue to bat around my dinner plans, but it won't be the same. I may have to pay them a visit in the back room, although I'm not entirely sure I want to know what goes on back there...

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A Fond Farewell

I guess somewhere, the fat lady has sung. Other than a hundred and fifty or so more revolutions around the Earth and one more gliding brick landing, the space shuttle program is at an end. The final liftoff of Atlantis this past Friday is the last time we will see a space shuttle blast into orbit.

My husband and I couldn't resist the offer to go watch the finale, so we hauled the kids down to the space coast in hopes of a timely liftoff. The weather was terrible when we arrived in Florida on Thursday evening - pouring rain and thunderstorms. By sunup Friday though, Mother Nature had dried her tears for the demise of the shuttle program and granted us a grudgingly pretty space coast morning on this most final of launch days.

My previous blog post about attending the launch somehow caught the attention of a BBC News producer (the blogosphere is a bizarrely random realm). They wanted to carry live updates from the shuttle launch on their website and feature the impressions of miscellaneous bloggers about the launch and the end of the shuttle era. I was asked via email by a nice woman named Jamillah (straight out of a Beatrix Potter tale) if I would send email updates and pictures from our viewing area at Jetty Park. She also requested an introductory writeup about me and my interest in the space program for their site and then a follow up once everything was said and done.

Anglophile and wannabe journalist that I am, I jumped at the chance, not really having any idea how to accomplish this. My cell phone has been dying a slow death, and I knew my iPad would be impossible to view in the bright Cape Canaveral sunlight. I emailed Jamillah Puddleduck the requested bio and slapped together thoughts on the shuttle program before heading out the door to Florida. Here is the BBC link to my initial writeup.

Following the launch on Friday, I had ample time in the airport thanks to an extended weather delay to pen(?) a wordy follow up on my iPad. Mother Nature was in a much more disagreeable state by that time - spent her good humor on the shuttle. The requested three to four hundred words became many more, blatherer that I am. I don't think I can sign a greeting card in three to four hundred words...

My new BBC friends took my meandering email submission and edited it down to an even more incoherent blurb which you can find here. This is what my original writeup said in is entirety:

Wow! I had a gut feeling that this launch was going to happen today, but I have a lot of gut feelings that don't pan out. When we arrived last night, it was pouring rain, but the forecast called for a clearing on launch morning that appeared to be perfectly timed. I was optimistic. I heard my husband up during the middle of the night checking to see if the fueling of the external tank had gone as scheduled. It had, and we were one step closer to launch.

We awoke to a few glimpses of sunshine peeking through a thin layer of overcast skies. Radar showed a line of thunderstorms well west of Orlando and no threat to our morning. Still optimistic, we threw on our beach gear and hopped on our bikes. 

Our first stop was Grills Tiki Bar for breakfast. It has been a gathering place for locals and NASA folk for years. The flat screen was tuned to NASA TV, and everyone was talking launch.

Next we headed over to Jetty Park where the masses were gathering. It was a festival atmosphere with tripods set up all over and spectators vying for the prime spots on the pier and jetty rocks. We couldn't hear the broadcast of the NASA launch director from where we were, but I checked in with the NASA website and Facebook page for updates. From our own observations, the weather was getting better by the minute - confirmed by NASA.

The only issue we were aware of was a concern with the Return to Launch Site criteria. Weather has to be clear enough for the shuttle to return to the space center for landing in the event of a failure of the main engines. I confess, while I would never wish for a shuttle engine failure, I have always secretly wanted to view a successful RTLS. Launch and landing all in one viewing. It's doubtful that circumstances of a failure would ever allow such a maneuver to work, but in theory, it would be pretty cool. The criteria were ultimately partially waved, and the count continued.

As launch time approached, we all turned our eyes to the northern horizon. As the seconds past the designated launch time ticked away, nothing happened. The crowd waited in relative silence with the same question in all our minds - where's the shuttle? We've seen a lot of things go wrong in the final seconds before liftoff over the years, and it's almost always a show stopper with a short launch window.

Just as we started to despair of a scrubbed launch, we heard shouts from the folks tuned into the launch count.  5-4-3-2-1!!!

Sure enough, there she came like the grandest bottle rocket you ever saw glowing brighter than the sun in the distance. The crowd erupted in cheers as Atlantis shot toward the heavens. The booming, crackling sound followed shortly after - just as impressive as the view. Against all weather odds, the skies had cooperated for this final launch of the pride of the American space program.

As we hopped back on our bikes and pedaled away, the elation of the launch suddenly gave way to a crushing sadness. It was just for a moment, but the finality of it hit me full in the gut as we left the final launch behind. I'm utterly uncertain about what and when the next big thing will be. NASA still has plenty of good work to do for the time being, but nothing will capture our hearts and imaginations like the space shuttle until the US once again sends astronauts into space.

Safe travels, Atlantis. Thanks for the memories.

The slight delay was due to a sensor reading from the launch platform that turned out upon further inspection not to be an issue. I had quit videoing when the shuttle didn't appear and then had to scramble to get my iPad back into video mode. I just caught the shuttle as it came over the horizon, and recorded most of the ascent until we lost it in the clouds.



I quit recording when it went out of sight to save on file size, but the accompanying sound reached us shortly thereafter, prolonging the experience. At fourteen miles from Jetty Park to launch pad 39A and a speed of sound of roughly five seconds/mile, it was over a minute before the sound caught up with the sight. The visual was fleeting, but the rumble and crackle stayed with us as we made our way back to our bikes.

While we were waiting for launch at Jetty Park, I emailed several photos of the scene with some comments to the BBC crew. Shortly before launch, they emailed to ask if I could do some live, on location interviews with spectators via cell phone for their show. My fantasy role-playing game suddenly took a quantum leap from print journalist to girl-on-the-scene field reporter for the BBC! I had no freaking clue what I was doing, but I was game to have a go.

On our way to Jetty Park

People on the jetty rocks and pier

Jetty Park Beach

People lining the Jetty Park Pier in the distance

Alas, my technology failed me and others in attendance as cell phone signals began to drop out from pure system overload. No calls or texts were getting in or out readily in those last frantic minutes before launch. Texts that we sent to our friends viewing from the space center and vice versa did not arrive until ten or fifteen minutes later.

I did manage to send the BBC folks part of the launch video I took with my iPad. It somehow made it across the Atlantic via email almost as fast as Atlantis did by rocket fuel despite the severe broadband congestion. My dream of signing out from an interview with a jaunty "Christy Roberts, Cape Blogger, reporting live from Cape Canaveral for the BBC... " was not to be realized, though...

Heady stuff, but all pure flight of fancy. I am back to the terra firma of reality this week with kids to send off to theater and sailing camps and a house to ready for an in-law visit. In nine days, Atlantis will also be back to Earth, and she too will be left with only dreams of the stratosphere from her Earthbound home on display at Kennedy Space Center. It was fun while it lasted... for both of us...

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The Biggest Firework of Them All

Happy Fourth of July, Capers! I've been out of pocket on a family Grand Canyon adventure that I will blog about in upcoming posts. At the moment, I'm trying to get to the bottom of four huge suitcases full of dirt, grime, and sweat courtesy of the great American West.

It was a spectacular trip, but when temperatures hit 120 degrees in Phoenix the last day, we decided to cut it a day short and head back to the heat and humidity that we know best - just in time for the July 4th festivities. We don't have anything planned since we didn't expect to be home, but it's nice to have a day or two to decompress before the work week begins. Vacation is great, but coming home is even greater.

We do have firework plans at the end of this week, however. We couldn't resist the temptation to get one more look at a shuttle launch, and this time, it will truly be one more look. Atlantis lifts off this Friday, July 8th at 11:26 AM, and it is not only her final launch, but the final launch of any space shuttle. We had not planned to try and attend, but a friend who has never seen a launch twisted our arm and asked us to join him. It didn't take much of a twist.

Atlantis Ready for Final Launch

Those of you who have read my past blog posts know that I am a NASA junkie. It's hard to imagine who would not be, but I realize NASA has its detractors. For all those who claim supporting a space program is a waste of resources, I would challenge them to find a government R&D program that has produced such a return on investment for the public. I'm talking a powerful combination of national pride and technological advances that have had a direct impact on the way Americans live and breathe. For me and my family, NASA has been our livelihood for over 20 years and our passion for as long as we can remember, so yeah, perhaps I'm a little biased.

Anyway, to get a look at the grandest firework America has ever produced, you will have to wait four more days past Independence Day. Cape Canaveral and the greater Space Coast are going to be a complete and utter zoo come Friday, but we are gluttons for punishment and are going down just for the one day before heading back.

If anyone else expects to be in the area, we will be at Jetty Park this time, along with a gazillion other space buffs. We won't have the view that we did for the Discovery launch back in February from the Space Center viewing area. My husband was able to pull one more center pass out of his hat for this one which we have offered to our friend who has never seen/felt a launch up close.

Instead, we will take it in like the locals have time and again over the past 30 years - from a beach chair on the space coast - assuming, of course, that all goes according to schedule. Worst case, we sit in a beach chair on the space coast with nothing but blue sky, sand, and surf (and a few thousand other sentimental space fanatics). Still not a bad deal.

For those of you who are going to make the roadtrip down, I found some great information on a Patch site in Bloomingdale, FL (Tampa area) that you will find useful. Here's the link:

Bloomingdale Patch: If You Go: Final Shuttle Launch.

And here are the links to my prior posts about Discovery and Endeavor's final flights:

Countdown to Discovery's Last Mission
As Promised, STS-133 Launch Video...
Endeavour's Final Mission.

And last but not least, I've uploaded the slideshow/video I put together from our viewing of the final Discovery launch as a thank you to our hosts. A Fourth of July tribute to the ultimate American Firework.



Postscript:

Atlantis will remain in Florida at the end of this final mission. She will be on permanent display at the Kennedy Space Center for the public to visit. A tour of the Space Center is always a worthwhile activity and will be even more so once Atlantis takes up permanent residence there.

You know, early last year when the President announced the cancellation of NASA's next generation manned space flight program, Constellation, it was initially interpreted by many as the end of manned flight for NASA. The death knells were sounded by news anchors and analysts for American manned spaceflight. Since then, the news coming out of NASA has mentioned development of manned flight vehicles for missions to asteroids and Mars and refitting of the Constellation Orion capsule for 21-day manned missions. All of this was proposed in the President's speech at the Space Center in April, 2010, but all we heard was no Constellation or shuttle follow on.

This does not sound like the end of America's manned space flight program to me - just a gap like we saw between Apollo and the Space Shuttle. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but I don't believe the launch of Atlantis on Friday will be the last time we and our children and our grandchildren will see American heroes liftoff into space flying the NASA meatball. The destination has been changed, but the dream of manned exploration of the solar system is alive and well. Stay tuned, space fans...

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Change in Father's Day Plans

I am usually terrible about planning in advance for Father's Day. The days before are typically spent scrambling around trying to come up with a good gift idea for my husband or grabbing a last minute card for my Dad. Every few years, I come up with something good and get it together on time, but mostly it's a pretty slapped together occasion.

This year, I thought I had it covered way ahead of schedule with respect to my husband. About this time last year, I learned that tickets were going on sale for the 2011 US Open to be held at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda. The final day of the US Open is always on Father's Day, and I thought it would make a fine gift for the family to take Dad to the tournament. We have all been trying to get good enough at golf to play a round with him, but our games are not improving very quickly. I figured our best shot (no pun intended) at enjoying 18 holes of golf as a family on Father's Day would be as spectators as opposed to searching for errant balls in the woods.

I was feeling pretty pleased with my plan until a few months ago when I learned that my son's week of Navy soccer camp would run from Sunday through Thursday as opposed to Monday through Friday.  Not just ANY Sunday but Father's Day Sunday.  Ah well, I thought, we will just drop Henry off at camp early and head over to Congressional as a threesome instead of a foursome.

Well, as the day approached, and I received the registration instructions for soccer camp, it began to occur to me that it might not be that simple. It seemed important to get Henry settled in being his first ever "sleep-away" camp, but registration didn't even begin until 10 AM, and we were expected to provide our boys with lunch the first day before handing them over to the Naval Academy camp staff. This midday checkin would effectively cut our day at Congressional for the US Open in half.

So last week, I brought it up to my husband so we could discuss the game plan. It became clear pretty quickly that trying to do both was not a good option. The logistics were just too complicated. Without hesitation, my husband, good father that he is, said not to worry about the tournament. We would just find someone else to enjoy them and enjoy our own leisurely day getting Henry checked in and then watching the US Open from the best seats in the house - the big screen, high-definition TV in our air-conditioned family room.

And that is where we sit after a morning in downtown Annapolis. We are now about to watch Rory McIlroy tee off at Hole 1 and have a go at making history. They say he could be the next Tiger Woods. At 22 years old and 14 under par going into the final round of the US Open, he may well be, though Tiger's 14 majors will be tough to match. Let's just hope he doesn't wind up careening down his driveway in his boxers with his wife in pursuit wielding a golf club...

Meanwhile, my brother-in-law and nephew are enjoying our Congressional Trophy Club tickets to possibly see history made by McIlroy in person. Our loss is their gain. I told my nephew I was delighted that they could use them, but please don't embarrass us by doing an eyebrow dance in the background of a camera interview with McIlroy. Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out the smart-a$$ kid in this video - too funny:

As for our Father's Day morning in Annapolis, the whole family helped Henry move into his USNA digs. He was happy to have his sister there to organize his closet, his Mom there to make his bunk bed, and his Dad there to give him some last minute tips from his own Navy camp experience. Another year, I would be OK with sending him on with a friend, but this first year, I'm glad we were all there to see him off properly, even if it meant sacrificing the US Open. Henry didn't get to see the best golfer in the world, but he was reminded that he does in fact have the best family and Dad in the world.

Of course, that's how many of us feel who have been lucky enough to be raised by good fathers - fathers who are always there for us when we need them, always setting a good example and giving us useful advice. Here's to all the Dads dropping their kids at camp, teaching their kids to play golf, or thumping their kids on the head for doing or saying something stupid - that was MY Dad's specialty.

Speaking of my Dad, I posted this picture of me and him on Facebook this AM in a lame attempt at some kind of Father's Day gesture in the absence of a gift. I thanked him for always making me feel safe and loved. His example made it possible for me to recognize the qualities in my own husband that would one day make our children feel safe and loved. For me, that's really the bottom line with respect to good fathering - that and a few well placed thumps on the head.

Me and Dad

Happy Father's Day to all you Cape dads. Hope you're enjoying the golf or the Gold Cup soccer or whatever your favorite pastimes might be. As I've been writing, Rory has birdied Hole 1, shot par on the 2nd and 3rd, and birdied the 4th. At a record breaking 16 under par, he's well on his way to providing his father with one heck of a Father's Day gift.

I'd love to hear about your great Dads in the comments. Feel free to share!

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