Loathe to leave Florida - Mim memory

Little could I have guessed 46 years ago that in 2015 I'd deeply regret all over again leaving Florida after Apollo 13 launched.

Writing about our first trip to see a launch was something I delayed as long as possible.  Our greatest adventure, Mim driving as I rode shotgun.  At our best.  It was a magic time.  I felt so close to my sister & it sure seemed she felt the same.  I wasn't just a travel accessory, but an actual amigo. 

Precious memories, how they truly do linger...

"Bring back the sun!" - Mim memory

Oh, to have Mim's photos right now!  I'd love to share the snap of me atop the van, a profile shot with me looking looking over through Dad's binoculars to the rocket, my lower leg clearly in a cast.  What I'd give to have the twin photos of me posing before the I-95 road sign - all smiles for I-95S, all sorrow for I-95N.  

All the way home, we'd call out, "Bring back the sun!"  

BOOMerang!

The insanity that is the GOP-led House is a telling sign of the cost our country is paying for minimalizing, silencing the wisdom of our elders.

In today's GOP, "party elder" is reviled.  The youngsters - look how many junior senators are running for president - push older statesmen into the shadows.  Like so many kids of any generation, they chase immediate gratification at the cost of long-term blowback. 

Having taken out John Boehner, the "young guns" are now training their sights on the Senate.  

It's hard to credit report that Mitch McConnell has appointed a special task force to explore changes to the filibuster rule & other procedural gambits that have kept hot hot hot issues - like nixing the Iran deal & defunding Planned Parenthood - from coming to a vote.  McConnell, as canny as they come,  knows shelving the fillibuster would devastate the GOP if Dems get back into power. It would boomerang into disaster.

 
How is it possible top Republican leaders - old enough to know better - could consider ditching the filibuster simply to bring to vote bills that are doomed to come to a dead halt on the president's desk, with no hope of enough votes to overcome his veto?  Give it up for something that's all show, no substance?  

Mitch McConnell is a Senate traditionalist.  That puts a target on his back.  The young guns don't want pragmatism, they want passion! drama! do or die!  Seriously.  They apparently lust over the possibility of another government shutdown - to them, the problem with the last one was it was merely partial, not complete.  So what if just the partial shutdown cost the economy $24 BILLION.  Surely a complete shutdown would have brought America to its senses, would have paved the way to shrinking government to such a teeny size it could be easily drowned in a bathtub!  If only those traitorous congressional leaders hadn't held us back from charging into the fiscal Valley of Death from which we would have emerged purged of the stain of compromise!

Fact is, the heart-fueled loathing of the current president, Planned Parenthood & anything short of unleashing (again) the dogs of war that swells the hearts of the young uns in the House is creeping into the Senate.  The only use the young guns in either body see for old bulls is to hunt for their hides.   

Lightening DID strike twice! - Mim memory

This was what we saw (from a lot farther away)...

Although we didn't realize it until Jim Harkins told us, a couple hours after Apollo 12's cloud-muffled launch, the rocket was hit twice by lightening!  

 

...this was what happened!

Here's what we learned, long after the event:  Weather is always a nail-bitter for Mission Control.  On Launch Day, although it was cool, with a light rain & winds almost topping 16 mph, the weather was considerably better than the day before, when thunderstorms & lightning blustered over the Cape.  Cloudy skies, even showers & wind, didn't pose a problem for launch.  Lightening did & would immediately force NASA to cancel the launch. But on the morning Apollo 12 was scheduled to lift off, there were no report of lightening. 
 
After a practically text book launch, Commander Pete Conrad crowed, “That’s a lovely lift-off! That’s not bad at all!”

Not so fast, Commander...

Just then, Conrad saw a flash of light, the Saturn V shuddered, the crew's headsets were filled with static & the CM (Configuration Management) master alarm sounded.. 

Conrad informed Houston, "Okay. We just lost the platform, gang. I don’t know what happened here; we had everything int he world drop out.” 

All Mission Control could give was the standard “Roger.”


Bad news. Conrad reported, “I got three fuel cell lights, an AC bus light, a fuel cell disconnect, AC bus overload 1 and 2, main bus A and B out.”  The spacecraft’s power system looked to be deeply damaged. 

The wild display of lights illuminating inside capsule indicated the craft had lost all power, using its reentry batteries. Not good.  If it couldn't be fixed, the crew would go into orbit in a dead spacecraft.  Not good at all.  

There was still time to abort the mission, a possibility that ran through Conrad’s mind - better to lose the mission than their lives.


Over in the right hand seat, Lunar Module Pilot Al Bean was baffled. He knew that if the spacecraft was working on batteries, then that would mean the abort system had fired & separated the CM from the rest of the rocket stack - but there hadn't been any sense of the acceleration associated with a launch abort. He noticed that the power was diminished - but not gone. Even though everything said, "Do something!", his instinct told him, "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it."  He took the chance that there was still power.

I can't imagine how this all felt to Gerry Griffin.  His first mission as Flight Director & they were looking at a possible abort less than a minute after take off.  Luckily, he knew where to turn - when things seemed to be falling apart, he knew his environmental control engineer (EECOM) was the go-to guy for a fix.  EECOM John Aaron’s console wasn't reassuring - the lights on his panel were lighting up, data was replaced with gibberish numbers. But they weren't all zeroes, which gave him hope.  
 
Long story short, what happened during launch was that the Saturn V rocket’s metal body, its trail of exhaust, turned it into a lightening rod!  A bolt struck the rocket, traveling down all the way to the launch pad where it struck the tower.

The crew gradually brought all their systems back up and confirmed their navigational system that had been knocked out by a second lightening strike.

Between the crew & Mission Control, they managed to correct the problem & continue with the mission.  Leave it to Pete Conrad to joke about it, telling Houston, “Hey, that’s one of the better SIMs, believe me. Phew! Man alive!” 

Gerry Carr wasn't kidding when he replied, “We had a couple of cardiac arrests down here too, Pete.” 

Gordon chimed in, "hat was something else… There were so many lights up there I couldn’t even read them all. I was looking at this; Al was looking over there –” 


As I said, Mim & I didn't have a clue about any of this until Jim Harkins joined us at the early supper bbq he & his wife threw before we headed homeward.  Pretty amazing, getting the story from someone fresh from the Kennedy Space Center.  

In addition to his inside scoop, Jim brought us Apollo 12 patches, pictures of the astronauts, other momentos of our adventure.  

 

Everyone knew that we'd be back - as Jim kept telling us, we HAD to see a typical lift off - but we didn't think it would be over a year later.  1969-70 had seen five Apollo launches in 12 months!  But Apollo 13 slowed things down a bit.  The next launch Mim & I would see was Jan. 31, 1971 - Apollo 14.  

A quick note about Apollo 14.  It grabbed the attention of millions because it was the first to launch after Apollo 13.  It grabbed our hearts because - along with Lunar Module Pilot Edgar D. Mitchell & Command Module Pilot Stuart A. Roosa - the crew included Commander Alan Shepard.  The first American in space was about to finally go into orbit around not just the earth, but the moon!

 

1961

 

 

 1971!

"Lord, grant me..."

This is getting spooky familiar - Erik Buss keeps giving sermons which feel tailored for that particular moment in my life.

Yesterday, it was on how making even a simple change can clear out a path for the Divine's ever-present help in making the deeper changes that are beyond earthly powers.  Right where I am, looking at my beyond-the-beyond cluttered house, a problem that seems to have escalated as I've made once unimaginable strides in other areas of my life.

His talk was a boot to my butt, spurring me to start clearing out.  In just working on one small area, came across drawings of Mim's to incorporate into her online memorial tribute & other well-timed treasures.  And a photocopy of a favorite saying of Mom's, in her writing.

Looking at it, years dropped away.  Was swept with memories of an unforgettable moment, a much-needed lesson learned.   

About fifteen years ago, Mom & I were talking about a challenging situation.  She mentioned it made her think of something that got her through tough times & started quoting, "Lord, grant me..."

I cut her off - yeah, yeah, yeah.  The Serenity Prayer.  Yada yada yada.  

Even as I let loose with my dripping condescension, realized it was plenty high & mighty of me to get snarky about something that meant a lot to Mom.  My sense of personal shabbiness was compounded on learning that was NOT what she was quoting.  

The actual quote captures the woman who started doing an in-depth self-examination at 89 years old; who went from bonding with each of us to being able to step back, to open up a space that allowed her to gain perspective & insight before responding.

Lord, grant me the perception to see the problem,

wisdom to find a solution,

courage to carry it out, 

I pray Thee.

Where Mom found it, I never knew.  But its wisdom & the memory of reacting rather than listening with an attentive heart lights my path.