Throwback Thursday

In the photograph above, baby Yam and I are sandwiched between two of my best friends from high school, Kim (in the brown sweater) and Polly. Last month marked 40 years since our graduation. This photograph was taken in December of 1991 or January of 1992 at the home of my parents in Indiana.

The reason I cannot pinpoint the exact month this photograph was taken is because Yam and I were traveling between many states during December 1991 and January 1992.

The Colonel was in Korea when this photograph was taken. He was on a one-year remote tour. He left for Korea in February of 1991 and missed Yam's birth that July. He was able to come home to Washington State for three weeks for his mid-tour break in August of 1991. Yam was three weeks old when he first saw her. He was able to stay for three weeks and then had to go back to Korea again. When his remote tour ended, he returned state-side again in February of 1992 when Yam was 7 months old.

So, during December 1991 and January 1992, Yam and I logged many airline miles under our belts.

We first made a trip to Indiana to my parent's house for Christmas. From there, we flew to Florida to The Colonel's parent's house for another Christmas celebration/visit. Then we flew out to Texas to visit The Colonel's sister and her husband for one more Christmas celebration. Finally, we flew back to Indiana to my parent's house again because my younger sister was getting married in late January.

Whew! Yam and I had one more plane ride to go...we had to make our way back home to Washington State. The Colonel was due to return from his long tour in Korea and we wanted to be home to prepare for his arrival and be well-rested from our travels. But...as luck would have it...

Travel anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon Line during winter is a crap shoot. I don't gamble because I am not lucky that way. I am lucky in love, not cards and the like and I prefer it that way.

My flight with Yam, back to the Great Northwest, was cancelled due to the weather. Remember, these were the days of no Internet or cell phones. I had no way to let The Colonel know that we were not going to be home to greet him when he stepped off the airplane. I did call my friend Tammy back in Tacoma to let her know (she and her husband were watching my cats for me) that I would not be coming back home when scheduled. 

While Yam and I were stranded in snow-bound Indiana, The Colonel was flying back to Tacoma from Korea. He arrived a day and a half before Yam and I did. Since we were not able to meet him at Sea-Tac Airport, he had to take a taxi to our home on base. That was a 1-1/4 hour drive. Thankfully he had enough money for the ride (plus tip). The taxi driver was unable to get onto base, so The Colonel called Tammy's husband at work and he picked him up and took him the rest of the way home (we lived just down the street from Tammy and Sport). The Colonel got the house key back from Tammy and was finally in our house. The cats, Tegan and Avon were shocked and surprised to see The Colonel but got reacquainted with him quickly.

The Colonel had to make the long drive back to Sea-Tac Airport (at least he was in our car) to pick Yam and I up. He said it was a bit odd to drive again. He had not driven at all that year he spent in Korea.

It was so good to see The Colonel again. I had Yam dressed in a pretty little outfit that she spit-up all down the front of before her daddy could see her for the second time in her young life. Welcome home Daddy and welcome to one of the messier parts of fatherhood!

Red (Planet) Rover, Red (Planet) Rover, Send (Enter Your Name Here) On Over!

It will be several years before the first humans set foot on Mars. NASA is giving the public the opportunity to send their names to the Red Planet with NASA's Mars 2020 rover. The names will be etched on microchips. The rover's launch window is July 17 - August 5, 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The spacecraft is expected to land on Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. Its mission duration is at least one Mars year (687 Earth days).

Here is the NASA link: https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/

The rover is a robotic machine that weighs more than 2,300 pounds. Its mission is to search for signs of past microbial life, characterize Mars' climate and geology and collect samples to bring back to Earth.

Image from Internet

The opportunity to send your name to Mars comes with a souvenir boarding pass and "frequent flyer" points.

Image from Internet

The Colonel and I (and Yam too) have already submitted our names and printed out our boarding passes. I currently have 313,586,649 Frequent Flyer Club points.

From now until September 30, 2019, you too can add your name to the list.

The Microdevices Lab at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, will use an electron beam to etch the submitted names (like mine) onto a silicon chip with lines of text smaller than one-thousandth the width of a human hair. At that size, more than a million names can be inscribed on a single dime-size microchip. The chip or chips will ride on the rover under a glass cover. As of the "penning" of this post, 6,635,201 names have been submitted.

My name on Mars! How cool is that?