Vanity and Buzz Aldrin

Vanity

I was a little surprised at the attention garnered from an older picture that I made my profile on Facebook.   I knew it was a nice picture of myself and Lisa, alright maybe close to ten years ago, but I was still flattered by the attention it received, and humbled.  I will reveal however the somewhat rakish expression I had for that photo was probably attributed to gas.  Who knew.  Anyway my daughter deflated my head and snapped me back to reality in that special way children do.

It's early morning here on County road 417 located roughly 75 miles South of San Antonio and somewhere East of Whitsett, Texas. It's my favorite time of day. I'll try to describe it. The mist has been rolling in subduing the bugs.  It is a downright pleasant morning with a light breeze and the chirping of god knows how many birds.  The sunrise, if not as beautiful as some was downright perfect. Lisa my love, will be up in a bit and we will have quiet Coffee and watch GMA or whatever tv station we can get in.  We will discuss events, gossip and the News overnight.  Occasionally a cow will wander by scant feet away.  And if we are lucky we'll be treated to what we watched yesterday.    A Crane of some sort following a cow as if it were it's mother. Scuttering around it's feet trying to keep up.  Tried to get a picture but they disappeared into the brush.  Texas certainly isn't perfect but it really does have it's own form of beauty.    The actual requirements of this job are amazingly easy for the money they pay.  I am familiar with most of the workers and parlay jokes back and forth as they come in.  Me and my clip board. I'll go to bed soon, Lisa will take over for the day.  I'll wake up and we will do it again. We've been at it a year now and luck holding, we will be at it a couple more.

  Made me think of what I was doing about ten years ago after more than twenty years in a job that had long since become enjoyable. So gripped by it, I rarely had time to appreciate a sunset, sunrise, birds chirping, trees rustling or any of the other things going on around me.  My mind was continually working, strategizing the challenges each and every day held. Life back then was more like a soul sucking, stressful daily grind of having to be somewhere every moment of the day.  Accountable to too many and working with so many folks that have such low expectations of themselves. Back then though, the kids were young and well, life does have it's trials.  So today seems kind of a Karmaic reward after all those years.  

We moved last week.  After staying up all night I had to drive roughly 150 miles in the heat, and then set up, in the heat, when we got here.  Afterward's I sat directly under the AC completely exhausted and dehydrated sucking cold water and gatorade.  Our little oasis.  I suspect I could easily stroke out and perish in such conditions.  As have the thirty something souls in Brooks County, located about a hundred miles from here.  One thing about the crises on the Border other than the politics that nobody seems to mention.  Yes, Honduras is traditionally violent as Labrador said last Sunday.  What he didn't say is that Honduras is the most violent country on the planet.  Statistically twice as violent as the next runner up country.  The flood of illegal immigrants hitting the border are in fact refugees.  Especially the children.  Maybe instead of killing so many people we could get over ourselves just a little bit and put a little effort into saving some.  Just sayin.
10 most violent Countries


I worked for Skywest Airlines for thirteen years (my escape job) and in that simple little part time job I interacted with, seen or met many many famous and distinguished people.  The king of Jordan, Dali Llama, high ranking, I think Prime Minister of Turkey.  ( I had to inform several I'm sure heavily armed men they couldn't smoke in our garage).  Sports heroes: Rulon Gardner, Joe Namath, A baseball player that I'd never heard of but a co worker insisted was famous.  Picabo Street.  Musicians Peter Noone, Carol King, Don Henley, (The Eagles) Peter Cetera (Chicago)  Christiane Amanpour.  And a slew of folks who just happened to get lucky and be in the movies.  Most of those encounters were forgettable with the exception of one.  I was lucky enough to meet the one man who accomplished probably the greatest achievement by the human race to date, Buzz Aldrin,  the second man to walk on the Moon.    Having been accidentally diverted to Twin Falls from Sun Valley, I hit him up for an autograph. Kind of rude on my part.  He was with his wife.  He took off his glasses while he was talking with me and didn't hesitate.  Nice guy were my thoughts.   Asked me who it was for, I think I said my children.  He scratched it out.  I thanked him and left.  One of thousands I'm sure.  But for a moment I breathed the same air as the man who stood on the moon nearly fifty years ago, some two hundred and fifty thousand miles from earth.  Next to a tiny capsule containing a finite amount of air that was supposed to get you back with untested technology, dressed in mechanics overalls gussied up by the technology of the day as displayed at the Bob Bullock Museum in Austin Texas. Compared to the achievement of this man, all the rest are, well anyway. From his Reddit AMA on July 8th, Buzz Aldrin

"My first words of my impression of being on the surface of the moon that just came to my mind was magnificent desolation.  The magnificence of human beings, of humanity, Planet Earth, the maturing of technology, imagination and courage to expand our capabilities beyond the next Ocean, to dream about being on the Moon, and then taking advantage of increases in technology and carrying out that dream - achieving that is magnificent testimony to humanity.  But it is desolate as what I was viewing in those first moments on the lunar surface.

Because I realized what I was looking at towards the horizon and in every direction had not changed in hundreds of thousands of years.  Beyond me I could see the Moon Curving away, no atmosphere, Black sky, Cold, Colder than anyone could ever experience on Earth when the sun is up.  But when the sun is up for fourteen days, it gets very very hot.  No sign of life whatsoever."

"A great man is always willing to be little"

                                                                       Ralph Waldo Emerson



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