Left as an Exercise

I had an extended post written and ready to go on Monday, but it appears to have been eaten by a Grue. Very well - this’ll just be more condensed. I’m writing this one from the Tampa airport, en route to Edmonton via O’Hare (Chicago) .

A few of the things I’d like to make a note of while they’re still somewhat fresh on the mind.

1. I’m almost, but not quite, done the first phil of science posting. I spent most of the time I had allocated to do it involved in an argument with libertarians. One of these fronts involved more progress than the other.
2. Pinellas County in Florida converted its old railways into bike trails, essentially. This amounted to a 40-mile trail in beautiful biking weather, which of course meant I had to try it out. Ended up going only 30 miles, but my dad was with me and it’s never good form to split up on rides like this. There were numerous interesting bikes in the shop and on the trail; I got photographs of most of them and they’ll show up in an image dump post (or a Picasa album; I’ve been trying out the rest of a Google account functionality). Our own rides, EZ-1 recumbents, were a dream — no soreness at all except for a touch of sunburn, excellent speed, and better handling than I thought, though I definitely see where the reputation for poor hill performance comes from (I could manage, Dad couldn’t).
3. Kennedy Space Center has improved a lot since the last time I went there. It’s still got the Rocket Garden (a garden path punctuated with actual rocket engines and reconstructions of many major launch vehicles, the largest of which is the Saturn-IB) and the reconstruction of Discovery, but they’ve also retooled large parts of it to showcase Constellation. They also added a hall showcasing all the non-manned missions throughout the solar system, which was quite interesting (though it was missing recent info from Cassini, which (prior to Kepler) was my favorite probe mission (caveat: As a roboticist, I’m forced to acknowledge Spirit and Opportunity here. Those are my favorite probes, but not the favorite mission). Something about hearing a sound recording from Titan really struck me, and I don’t know why, although I still have an MP3 of that first recording).  They also extended the bus tour - we got much closer to the launch pad than I’ve ever been (Atlantis was on the pad for a scheduled May 12 launch, but the orbiter was covered by a gantry), for a start, and the ISS component assembly bay now has a public viewing deck (which means I have photos of the next piece to go up, right after the Hubble mission — it’s a Japanese science module). The real WOW moments on that stop, however, would be the Apollo bay and the Hall of Fame. In the first, they finally restored one of only three remaining Saturn V rockets, and built a building around it. That’s one holy hell of a sight to see when you come through the door. (The last time I was there, it was outside and mostly rusting.) The Hall of Fame also had several artifacts in it, including the actual Apollo 14 command module and the Mercury 3 pod, along with (as you’d expect) everything relating to the human history of the space program. I do have a few small gifts, but due to space constraints I wasn’t able to pick up the shirts some folk asked for. I do, however, have their ordering info, direct from the center itself, so at least the ones ordered will fit the recipients.
4. SCUBA diving, FINALLY. We had to go all the way to West Palm Beach to get a good charter. (~300 miles from Largo, including the stop at Kennedy. Fortunatly, we’d rented a Prius: That took all of $16 in gas, roughly half a tank, and the ride was extremely comfy, quiet, and smooth.) Once there, though, it was definitely worth it. It was my first drift dive, which basically means diving deep early on and letting the current carry you over miles of reefs. The wildlife, however, was the ultimate high point: a 3′ barracuda, several giant pacific lobster, a massive goliath grouper, about eight small squid (species unknown, I mistook them for cuttlefish at first), and a full-grown Moray eel come to mind. I really need to invest in an underwater camera.
5. There is no point 5. Budget cuts and all that.

I’ll be back on campus Tuesday. Thank you, Steve, for reminding me what normal humans do on Good Friday and Easter Monday, i.e. not show up for work and wonder why the doors are locked.

Onward and upward!