Well, at least we know the guestbook's not broken. Was beginning to wonder.

Lots of nice ego boosts there, thanks.

Also checked my stats this am, and saw something new...

nasa.gov

I've been googled by NASA!

'Course, they were looking for "domes and quonsets," so I suspect they did not stay long. I knew they were fighting budget cuts, but do they really think that artificial habitats bought off the internet will hold up on Mars?

Have a special feeling for NASA. Besides my just being an avid supporter of space exploration and the space program, that agency represents one of the great regrets in my life.

For not trying to become a mission specialist.

Not just as a pipe dream, or one of those unattainable aspirations of life. NASA actually tried to recruit me. I had a real shot.

The shuttle program was just starting when I was finishing graduate school. And contrary to my profession, that education was in high tech fields of radiation ecology, physics, and of most interest to NASA, health physics and dosimetry. The science of measuring, evaluating and protecting against radiation hazards to living tissue.

Something their press releases don't mention about flying in space. It's hot up there. And not just the gamma radiation that flight attendants and pilots have to worry about by spending so much time at 30,000'. Astronauts have to worry about doses from stripped down, high energy particles as large as iron atom nucleii.

Packs a wollop.

Don't have any inside information, but I suspect that is one major reason why the shuttles are designed for nothing longer than two-week missions. The fleet doesn't have the heavy shielding you find on space stations like Mir and Alpha.

But anyway, near graduation time, this was all new stuff to the world. And those of us with the training were rare. So NASA actually sent a recruiter, just like the Army and Navy, to speak to our specific health physics class and ask us to apply as mission specialists.

Wow. That was a thrill.

Had also completed one of the few post-graduate classes available on the use of computerized satellite imagery in remote sensing. (Also new at that time, although anybody who has spent an hour with ArcInfo now knows more than we did.) Another big plus with NASA.

What a career choice. Space exploration or digging into deer guts and coyote shit.

One classmate made the application, and went to the interviews. They rejected her, supposedly because she needed corrective lenses. So apparently they didn't need us that bad. And I never sent the application in, certain that my vision was worse than hers.

But I still wonder, just about every time a shuttle goes up, whether I should have tried.

If it wouldn't have meant moving to Texas, I suspect I might have.

Well, the boss excused me from today's interagency meeting in Confederate County, but it didn't matter much. Yesterday's snowstorm turned into last night's blizzard. 20-25 cm and still falling. Highways are closed, so I couldn't have attended.

Nice to miss a meeting, but would have liked to have gotten to that one. The federal agencies would be there, and one of them just got their ass roasted by the County Commissioners. Who essentially declared independance from the Union and this state, ordering the Sheriff to remove all grizzly bears, wolves and other "undesirable species" from the county.

Really.

Suspect they'll be ordering the grey uniforms soon.

Wife kept the tv on the local information channel all morning, hoping they'd announce closure of schools and her building.

No such luck. Small town tv is fun, as the announcer made repeated comments that he had received no word on school closures, despite repeated phone calls to the authorities.

Authorities got the message, and called in to let him know. School is on.

Last major storm, they waited until 0805, until after everyone had made the struggle through the streets and highways to get to work, to close the wife's building and send them all home. By that point, it was safer to stay.

And, according to wife's godson when I drove him home last night after Buffy, the teachers would rebel if the schools were closed, since the make-up day would cut into their summer plans. They instead have contingency plans for shutting down after a few hours, so that they (the teachers) do not have to make up the day.

Announcer on tv (who is actually the local radio dj, they just rebroadcast the radio over the public service bulletin boards) mentioned all the local highway closures. Then went on to all the closures in the rest of the state.

"But it doesn't matter. You can't leave here, anyway."

He also stated, "Driving conditions are bad, and no unnecessary travel is recommended. Of course, the schools are open."

That's an exact quote.