I have so enjoyed all of the recent hoopla about
Pluto, because it has brought back so many wonderful memories of my Dad.
My Dad was a Navy pilot - a graduate of the Naval Academy who had dreamed since his childhood in the 1930s of becoming an astronaut. A bout with pneumonia before penicillin was available left a scar on his lung, which made that dream impossible, but he never lost his fascination with the solar system. He would have been in his element with the Pluto debate - and so excited that so many people are talking about space. This was a man, after all, who ordered bumper stickers that read: "I am pro-Space and I vote."
[more over the horizon]
After their retirement, my parents built a house on a barrier island in South Texas. My Dad was then suffering from a progressive neurological disorder that was eroding his balance and his ability to walk. His only requests for the house were that it have a rooftop observation post for his telescope and an elevator to get him up there. My optimistic Mom - picturing an uncomplicated portable telescope (and nothing more) -- readily agreed.
But Dad was never one for half-measures: his glass was either full or empty. Soon after the house got built, packages full of astronomy equipment started to arrive. Mom grew to dread the sight of the UPS truck. First the telescope -- which was so large and complicated that no one save Dad dared touch it. Then all the accessories: lenses, equipment tables, charts, graphs, maps, gadgets, each with a carrying case and manual -- and on and on. But Dad was so happy. Every night, he'd have Mom roll the telescope into the elevator and take it to his observation deck, and then have her send him up there with it. And when I visited, a nightly trip to the deck - regardless of weather or mosquitoes - was required. I sometimes prayed for clouds.
In December 1999, my parents moved to a ranch house in a small village in San Diego County, to be near my brother and sister-in-law and their granddaughters. Dad loved the village because it had a "dark sky" requirement - no lights that might interfere with the celestial beauty of the night sky were permitted. I flew out to visit for the holidays, and between family celebrations, got to spend a great deal of time with Dad on the back patio, looking through the telescope, observing stars and planets. On the night of the millennial eve, it was cloudy, and I curled up on a sofa to watch the festivities unfold around the world on television. My Dad - usually a sucker for ceremony - looked up occasionally, but spent most of the evening using his charts to plan for the next night's potential views.
We had a family celebration on New Year's Day, which was my last night in California. Dad said that Saturn was supposed to be spectacular that night, so the two of us stayed up, and Dad plotted the coordinates and adjusted the telescope, and, very late, we wheeled it out onto the patio. I remember looking through the lens and seeing Saturn so large and close; its rings were bright and dazzling. My Dad spoke about how much he enjoyed Saturn because of its differences, and told me some of the basic science about the rings.
Three weeks later, on an emergency cross-country flight back to California to deliver the eulogy at my Dad's funeral, I looked out the window of the plane and saw a bright shining object - I thought it was Saturn (the location was right), but I wasn't sure. And I didn't have my Dad to ask any more. But I know he would have been so pleased that I had paused to look.
Give the heavens a look tonight, all. And Dad: that one's for you.
And now on to the Top Comments Galaxy:
Here are mine (the planets made me do it):
melvin had this to say about a picture of George Felix Allen, Jr. riding a horse.
MO Blue on renaming the opposition
Blue in Va on cartoonist Tom Toles
hmbnancy on the hurricane season and New Orleans
OPOL on the haunting parallels between Iraq and Vietnam.
Beaukitty on leaving Iraq now
jted with some great advice from a preacher.
bumblebums on the things that make George Felix Allen, Jr. go bump in the night (and during the day, too!)
semiot on running scalawag/carpetbagger George Felix Allen, Jr. right out of Old Dominion with a GREAT recipe!
Sagittarius provides a lovely hymn
From A Siegel this hilarious (and spookily on topic) comment from Plan9.
[Thanks, A Siegel!] [Also recommended by besieged by bush]
From besieged by bush another terrific comment from Plan9
Billions and billions from cronesense:
From the diary titled: Understanding by Steven D ~
A comment from tjb regarding critical thinking skills and analogies expressed
in the diary,
and anotherCtDem on the drawbacks of compromised self-esteem.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From the diary titled: Our Leaders are All Idiots - Democrats too!
by OPOL ~
Catrina opines about
what we don't know about the information the Republicans hold over the Democrats and how it might explain the lack of traction on various Republican scandals.
noweasels describes the quality of life in Iraq.
and robla suggests some concrete steps for leaving Iraq.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From the diary titled EVERYTHING is wrong
by enthusiast
gmb on not wasting any more time on fear
.
Remember, TC fans: if you spot a star comment, send it to topcomments at gmail.com!