More Sad News

Bill's post below was followed by an e-mail from Buster. Here's the text:

Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but unfortunately we have reached the age were life throws us curves as health problems. While I know some of you have probably not seen or heard from some of these individuals for over 40 years [neither have I in a couple of cases] I thought the clustering was unusual and you may know someone who was friends with one of these classmates and you may want to say a prayer.
Dr. Larry Owens has a brain tumor. The tumor is inoperable and they are starting treatments this week.
I was told that Elizabeth Goodale Long has suffered a stroke and that they are assessing the situation.
I ran in to Ray Robinson this a.m. and he told me that Barry Hendrix has terminal cancer and has about 3 weeks to live.
He also said that he ran into Joe Myers and that Joe is waiting on a liver transplant.

Buster

I'll have more to say later. I almost never blog from work, but I made an exception for this news.

Larry Owens Illness

Just passing along some sad news which Garrett Miller shared with me via email.

Larry Owens has a brain tumor that is inoperable and is
not expected to live.  He's at MUSC.

I do not have any other info.  Does anyone know more
about Larry's condition and maybe an address to which
a card or note can be sent to him?

Bill

And Keith Adams Checks In As Well

The Adams Family can report in that all is ok. We were some distance away from the Colonial Heights damage. Our country place had some limbs down from wind, not tornado stuff. The severe damage was in the southeastern portion of the state in the Norfolk portion. Suffolk is basically the rural portion of this area.
Thanks for thinking of us and hope all is well.
Keith

I am very glad that all is well, but there must be a Gomez joke flitting around here somewhere!

Jim Ring Checks In

We're AOK. Lots of damage in Colonial Heights (about 30 miles south of us), and along the bottom of the state between I-95 and VA Beach. Colonial Heights was hit at essentially the same place a tornado hit 15 years ago. That time I was eating lunch about two miles from where the tornado hit. Whew.

Good news!

Tornado In Virginia

I've been following the news of the tornado damage in Virginia. I know that Keith Adams and Jim Ring live in Virginia, but, to the best of my knowledge, they live East of the tornado path. I sent each an e-mail asking if they're ok and I'll pass on any news I get. I don't know if any other classmates live in that area or not. If anyone knows of anyone let me know.

I moved to Huntsville in February of 1989 and in November of that year a tornado roared through at around 4:30 pm just about 3 or 4 miles from where I was working killing 22 people and doing a horrendous amount of damage so I have witnessed the outcome of a strong tornado first hand. We become very familiar with the sound of tornado warning sirens around here!

Lost In Cyberspace ::

I got an e-mail from Keith Adams yesterday wondering about my lack of posting. I depend on all of you to feed me information related to our classmates and I need help from everyone who reads this blog and I would encourage anyone who wants to become an author to let me know. Everyone listed over to the right can post originally to the blog and if anyone wants administrative rights then just let me know and I will grant them. With admin rights you can change the look of the blog via the stylesheets to however you wish. I have no problem with that-if you may be worried about breaking something then don't worry! We can fix any problems.

I would truly welcome some other authors here. I edit 3 personal web sites in addition to this one as well as 2 NASA web sites and I'm working with archive.org on another NASA related project which is tentatively scheduled to go live sometime in June. I'll pass on the URL when this project is complete. My energy level seems to ebb and flow and is definitely on an ebbing downturn right now.

I have taken a couple of days off work with the hopes that the spring season will renew my energy. I am working in my yard and planting things (which will be the subject of another post).

Take care and write me! The e-mail address is over there on the right.

Upcoming Posts ::

I've been out of pocket lately with some interesting projects at work. We're beginning to partner with archive.org to centralize NASA historical photographs which are deemed to be of interest to students, writers, and publishers. One site that I edit will be incorporated into the archive.org database and will, most probably be going away in a couple of months as we're looking at the new site going live sometime around the end of June. All of this came together this week at a time when we were preparing for The Great Moonbuggy races which are an annual event at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. The races bring national and international high school and university teams with their unique designs of what they conceive a moonbuggy to represent. Here is a photograph of one of the high school teams from the Friday competition:



I seem to have lost track of what I had originally posted about. The article about the Michael Christmas memorial has been published in the Camden newspaper. the Chronicle-Independent web site should be updated tomorrow (Monday), but I doubt if I will be able to get the entire article. Buster has indicated that he will send it out and I will post the article in its entirety when it is available.

I read what information is available on-line each week and I have been following the downtown revitalization project news with some interest. I will have some thoughts on this based on what I saw on neighborhood revitalization in Atlanta when I lived there.

A couple of years ago Gene Kranz spoke here at the Marshall Space Flight Center primarily about his experience as mission director of Apollo 13. Kranz is a wonderful motivational speaker and I have a DVD I can send anyone if they are interested. If you would like one send me and e-mail to the address over to the right and I'll get a copy out to you. Getting the direct recollections of the person who successfully headed the effort to bring home the crippled Apollo 13 was, to me, fascinating.

I apologize if this post seems to be a bit disjointed. I have been working on a headache for the past couple of hours which is very unusual. I can't remember when I last suffered from a headache.

Hoping a great week for everyone!

The Wall

Bill Marshall passed on a link to the interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Typing in the name of the soldier will take you to that name on the wall and you can see a short biography. You can also upload photographs and personal comments.

Camden Visit ::

I'm afraid that when I got to Camden last Friday morning I found that my mother was back in the hospital suffering from pneumonia in addition to continuing to have some fluid around her heart. She just turned 89 earlier this month and, in addition to the physical problems, suffers from some degree of dementia. We're analyzing our options for long-term care right now so some amount of time was spent on that and I'm afraid that the options are, to some extent, limited. I'll probably be back over relatively soon.

I didn't have the time to do a lot of the things I had hoped to do, but I was able to carve out a short period of time to visit the Michael Christmas memorial site. I'm still sorry I was not able to get to the dedication, but I want to offer a salute to Buster and everyone who worked to make this memorial a reality!

I have never been to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, but back sometime in the 1970's the traveling wall came to downtown Atlanta and I spent some time visiting it and found Michael's name. I can tell you that it was a moving experience!

I had hoped to take quite a few photographs but I only managed a couple of panorama photos of the Revolutionary War site and a photograph of an old Oak tree. Maybe next time!

ISS And Space Shuttle Endeavour Sighting Opportunity Tonight ::

Endeavour has undocked and begun her journey back to Earth. The International Space Station, Endeavour, and the Jules Verne cargo ship should be visible tonight over Camden on this schedule:

ISS:

Visible for 4 minutes beginning at 8:02pm approaching from 10 degrees above the southern horizon reaching a maximum elevation of 16 degrees as it departs to 10 degrees to the East.

Endeavour:

The information for the Endeavour orbiter is the same as the Space Station other than the maximum elevation will be 17 degrees above the horizon.

Jules Verne ATV:

Visible for 2 minutes at 9:32pm approaching from 10 degrees above the western horizon reaching a maximum elevation of 23 degrees and departing to 23 degrees above the West-Northwest horizon.

Look for a bright light, actually 2 bright lights, at 8:02pm as Endeavour should be trailing the International Space Station. They will be traveling 17,500 mph so there is no chance of mistaking them for stars.

The skies here in Huntsville are very clear so visibility should be really good.

[update] The ISS flew over right on time with the Endeavour orbiter following behind and they were very visible until they got overhead and turned off to the Northwest. I check the overflight schedule for my area often and here is the link to tracking it in your area:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html

Over on the left choose your state and then the closest city. These sighting times are very accurate.

Visit Seems To Be On!

We should be getting into Columbia sometime late Thursday evening. The oldest daughter and her family live in Forest Acres and that is where we usually stay.

I never know what the schedule will be and this trip may be even more hectic. My mother has been having some serious medical problems which is not unusual given that she just turned 89 y/o. She has been an inmate of the Camden hospital several times in the past few months and has been admitted with conjestive heart failure once more just in the past few days.

My brother, Bill, and I have some family matters to discuss but I hope that we'll be able to take care of that business while I'm doing my part to spoil his grandchildren including his 2 month old granddaughter. (interestingly he has 3 grandsons and 1 new granddaughter. I have 4 granddaughters and 1 grandson although I do have an unknown sexed grandbaby on the way!)

I do plan to spend some time visiting the Michael Christmas memorial and taking some photographs in and around Camden. If anyone would like to down a coffee or two I can be reached at the cell phone number listed on this image:



You shouldn't have to use the area code, but I included it just in case. I will also have the laptop with me and I normally have some net access so I can be e-mailed at:
fred.deaton(at)gmail.com

Visiting Camden ::

Right now the plan is to leave here sometime Thursday so I should be hanging around Camden sometime Friday and Saturday although I may make a short run up to Gastonia. I normally stay in Columbia and travel back and forth. I'll post my cell phone number in a day or so when I'm certain of the plans. My brother, Bill, has a new granddaughter (his first although he has 3 grandsons)and I plan to spend an inordinate amount of time cooing to her!

This photograph was taken in early May, 2006 on Highway 521 at the site of the old Haigler market. It's funny that I have little sense of North, South, East, and West when I visit Camden. Here in Huntsville everyone is very aware of their compass directions and when I lived in and around Atlanta I always knew my orientation. I'll try to watch the sun more when I'm there this coming weekend!