OK, so we are home, away from home. A butt kicking flight, as usual, nearly 30 hours door to door including time zone changes. 1 week to wake up and recover. It's a real bear. But, all in all the place was in great shape. The start of the maintenance and landscaping tune up was not bad but always some to be done. Clean and fire up the spa and fire pit, trim the hedge and little odds and ends. No sooner did we arrive that a friend from our old stomping grounds in Brittany (Where we had our previous home in the Northwest corner of France) arrived for a visit. Let the games begin.
Incoming....
Christine, visiting from Brittany on a windy and chilly day.
Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo.
I finished my Masters from the place. Little did I know that some pretty hoity toity people did too. Turns out that some big dogs in the Space program are alumni also. The most recent is Victor Glover, scheduled to pilot NASA's Artemis II mission back to the moon. Previously, Dick Rutan flew the first non-stop, non refueled flight around the world. He flew it with Jeanna Yeager who I later cajoled to come motivate and speak to a boy scout group I ran and awarded a week at 'space camp' to two boys, including my son Wesley. Then there was Robert Gibson, first astronaut abord the Space shuttle 'Challenger'. Others include astronauts that flew on Discovery, Virgin Galactic's Spaceship II and others that helped launch The James Web space telescope. Whew! If I had rubbed elbows with them, I might have learned something and could have become smart.
Meanwhile, we have watched many space flights take off from Vandenburg Space base from our deck (we watch from our deck, they don't actually take off from our deck!!!). I recently learned that they occasionally allow some civilians to see the rockets between flights. A kind of 'take your kid to work' event. When we get back, I will contact them and demand they let me see as I am a taxpayer and I have rights! Failing that, I will beg and grovel and ask If I can be part of the 'take you grandfather to work' program. I have no shame.
PRICES
Yeah, I get it. They have gone through the roof. Like you, we too are looking forward to the end of the war so things can go back to normal. Before leaving California, we saw how prices were skyrocketing (The war broke out as we were flying across the Atlantic), but our arrival in Europe was a real price shock. 20% + increases in just about everything are the norm. I get that the price of gas is sky high at home; here it is now a mere $10 a gallon US ($14 Canadian). Do keep an eye out for my 'Go fund me' page.
