well that was scary!

Just returned from the city, er village's annual Hurricane info meeting. Every hand was raised when the mayor asked if we had a personal evacuation plan. Yip, it's the reality of coastal living. If you live here and own property you pretty much have to be willing to take "what's important" and leave all your household belongings to the fate of Mother Nature in a really bad mood.

Strangely enough, there is something of zen-like calming effect, when you are faced with that possibility. You quickly realize what is important are the folks around you and everything else is just material stuff that can be replaced in time. Not that I look forward to evacuating but everyone there was also positive that if the worst did happen here, they would rebuild. There was a time when I could pack all my belongings into my mustang convertible and move cross-country (been there, done that). But now I have stuff, but I also have a healthy detachment to said stuff.

At least we get some warning from storms, can't imagine an earthquake or tornado, where one minute all is fine, the next disaster. Hurricane season officially starts tomorrow.

ps: Go Rice!

move along, nothing to see here. . .

Successful launch today and I missed it. It's okay, they always make me nervous knowing how much can go wrong and all too often does. I was hoping to get out to the Cape soon to see a launch as they'll be ending soon enough - maybe next time.

This mission is delivering Kibo, the Japanese lab, that is the billion dollar plus Japanese lab. Might I just say that those Japanese do great design; it has a porch and everything. And if you've ever met any Taikonauts, aka Japanese Astronauts, they are teh awesome. Extremely gracious and uber duber smart too, but then what else do you expect.

Be proud Japan, your moment in space has arrived.