Thursday, September 8, 2011

Space, the Final Frontier

Forty-five years ago today, I was 10 years old and waiting for the premiere of a daring new TV show on NBC.  'Space, the final frontier.  These are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise, it's five year mission: To explore strange, new worlds; To seek out new life and new civilizations; To boldly go where no man has gone before.'  I honestly don't remember what any of the ads and teasers were about; but I do know that I anxiously awaited the first aired episode of Star Trek. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in "The Man Trap" - the first episode the network decided should be aired - but it got better, much better - and then it became worse. (What goes up, must come down.) It was neat - a broadly-played "international" cast, the logical alien, and a female (and black!) head of communications.  This program was out to prove that if we had trust in one another, and could compromise, our future was limitless.  It was ...  fascinating.
Gee, we have all these fires in Texas, and all the flooding in the Northeast - wouldn't it be great if we could twitch our noses and cause the water in the Northeast to dump onto the fires in Texas?  Sigh.  I know, it's a silly thought... but I still wish I could do it.  -  Snow is falling in the mountains!
The kits were excited that I stayed home all day yesterday (except for a quick run out to give Boo her 2:00 meds).  They stayed curled up on top of me or next to me almost every minute I was at home.  Of course, the fact that the low was 55 and the high was 60, and that it rained all day also helped.  Nedi, however, could not stay inside - he ran in and out, and was constantly jumping up onto me with wet paws and beads of rain all over his fur.  Thankfully, he isn't sneezing this morning.  Had a great walk with Rosie and Remy this morning - we actually passed within 3 feet of a bedded-down doe without her moving, and without the dogs sensing that she was there.  The same can't  be said about the squirrels - I think the kids would have pulled my arms out of their sockets running after squirrels today. 
A freight train whistle is blowing right now.  It reminds me that a 17-year-old girl, a freshman at CSU, was trying to "hop a freight" for a free ride down to Colorado Springs.  She was with three men, aged 17, 21 and 25.  Two of the men got onto the moving train.  The girl tried to jump on, but fell onto the train tracks.  The train was moving at about 10 miles per hour, in a business area of Longmont.  Luckily, the crossing was just a few blocks away from the Longmont hospital.  A 30-ton freight car severed both of the girl's legs; one above, and one below, the knee.  There was an EMT in the second car stopped at the crossing, and an RN in the fourth car that was stopped.  Both of these women raced to the victim, applied tourniquets and pressure bandages.  The girl was wide awake, but in shock.  She is in stable condition at the moment.  -  Maybe I'm being cynical but I'm expecting her family to sue the railroad and/or the train engineer....  She's lucky her stupidity didn't get her head cut off!

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