Challenger and Connections
So it's been 20 years since the Challenger tradgedy. Wow, time does fly. I was going to graduate school and living in St. Petersburg Florida. I had the day off from classes and was shopping for a new bathing suit. I had just picked out a flourescent pink tank suit and paid for it, when the casshier guy said "The Challenger went up." I kind of nodded and said something like, "It's about time." As they had tried to launch the mission numerous times that week. Then he said, "No, it exploded"
I remember standing in Montgomery Wards (a cross between sears and k-mart) and watching the replay on about 100 TV sets at the same time. When I was finally able to tear myself away and make it to the car, I looked up in the sky and could still see the vapor trail.
Having gone to undergraduate in Melbourne, FL (about 40 miles south of Cape Canaveral) and being a space shutle junkie, I'd seen a launch before, and it wasn't suppoed to look like that. I remember staring at it and crying. My DH was working for Honeywell at the time for their Space Systems. There were people in his group that had components on board. They all watched it.
I came home and fixed lunch and watched the coverage all day. It was one of *those* moments in your life that cionnects you with everyone, because everyone has it as a reference point. I was only 1.5 years old when JFK was shot, so I don't remember that, but this I remember. I feel very old reading about everyone on my flist who was in elementary school at the time. But it really is a common and very sad point. I watched some of the CNN story on it today, will have to try to catch the whole thing later.
In other news I spent the day rewiring all my AV components. TV, Bose audio, DVDR, VCR/DVD, cable box. I thought I had it figured out when I got a little connetion box from Radio Shack yesterday, but it turned everything black and white ... not a good thing. 6 hours later and some tears, we do have everything connected and working (except the Bose system, but that's a Bose problem) so I guess the day was successful.
Tomorrow we tackle the kids rooms and try to retrieve my 7 laundry baskets full of not-put-away toys and junk. ACK...Time for Mission organization.
I remember standing in Montgomery Wards (a cross between sears and k-mart) and watching the replay on about 100 TV sets at the same time. When I was finally able to tear myself away and make it to the car, I looked up in the sky and could still see the vapor trail.
Having gone to undergraduate in Melbourne, FL (about 40 miles south of Cape Canaveral) and being a space shutle junkie, I'd seen a launch before, and it wasn't suppoed to look like that. I remember staring at it and crying. My DH was working for Honeywell at the time for their Space Systems. There were people in his group that had components on board. They all watched it.
I came home and fixed lunch and watched the coverage all day. It was one of *those* moments in your life that cionnects you with everyone, because everyone has it as a reference point. I was only 1.5 years old when JFK was shot, so I don't remember that, but this I remember. I feel very old reading about everyone on my flist who was in elementary school at the time. But it really is a common and very sad point. I watched some of the CNN story on it today, will have to try to catch the whole thing later.
In other news I spent the day rewiring all my AV components. TV, Bose audio, DVDR, VCR/DVD, cable box. I thought I had it figured out when I got a little connetion box from Radio Shack yesterday, but it turned everything black and white ... not a good thing. 6 hours later and some tears, we do have everything connected and working (except the Bose system, but that's a Bose problem) so I guess the day was successful.
Tomorrow we tackle the kids rooms and try to retrieve my 7 laundry baskets full of not-put-away toys and junk. ACK...Time for Mission organization.