Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

Today is my one and only brother’s (from my family) birthday.

It was so fun to have them here in Utah not too long ago.  I have lots of memories that we share in common.  We both shared the same bedroom.  One night, we were downstairs reading when we heard my mother yell at us.  You must understand that we would read until all hours of the night, which at times irriated my mom.  Anyway, she yelled down the stairs, that we shouldn’t plan on going to sleep without reading.  She got it all screwed up, when she wanted to yell that we should get right to sleep.  Ah , mothers!!  They are so wonderful.

Well, today entered in the Year of the Dog. Yes, its that time of the year, Chinese New Year. I kind of wish I were in Taiwan right now, celebrating the entrance of a new year. It is a wonderful time of year to be there.

Today marks the 20^th anniversary of what has become to be known as the Challenger Disaster. I remember that day well. I had gone to work at Manufacturers National Bank of Detroits office building in Southfield, Michigan. I worked from there and it was about 4 miles from home. I decided that day to come home and watch the launch of the shuttle as this flight was including the first flight of a non-astronaut, Christa McAuliffe, the teacher in space.

I wanted so bad to be in that shuttle. It has been my dream since I was a youngster, watching the astronauts launched into space aboard rockets, to be an astronaut. As President Reagan later said in their eulogy, I wanted to slip the surly bonds of earth and fly amidst the stars. I still do. I have wanted to face that danger and do something new, different, and exciting.

I sat in front of my TV set that day, watching as the shuttle lifted off into a clear Florida sky. I watched as it accelerated to maximum dynamic stress and pressure, and then shortly, I watched as the vehicle, the space shuttle, was consumed in a ball of fire. I watched the two solid rocket boosters accelerate away from the vehicle. I had used the new technology of VCR’s to record this event, and I kept playing it over and over again. I was stunned, not knowing what to believe or do. I listened as the voice of mission control hoped to announce that they had sighted the astronauts, and that they were somehow safe. That was not to be.

I finally returned to work, with the tape I had made and showed my co-workers what had happened. I remember being dazed and stunned. I sat thinking most of the day that I had just watched, on live national TV, 7 people die in front of my eyes. I was devastated. The nation mourned and I particularly mourned, because I had wanted to be with them. I went to bed that night thinking, dreaming, and reliving this experience again, and again, and again.

Yet, the next day, I decided if they wanted volunteers to go on the shuttle next week, I would be in line, ready and willing to go. You see, man must explore. Man must overcome setbacks. We must pick ourselves up when we fall down. That is what is so sad about this nation now, and what has subsequently happened with the Columbia. We have allowed ourselves to let the risk overshadow the benefits. Yes, we will have more space disasters, that is the nature of the beast. But we must press forward, exploring. I am an explorer, and I want to be there. Even now, as I grow older, I have that fire in the pit of my stomach. I would go if they let me.

The bank branch where I work has an “unofficial” policy.  Since we go in early to open the bank, work longer hours on each and every Friday, and since we are so wonderful, we sometimes can take what we euphamistically call, an early out.  Well, this is nice particularly if it has been a long and grueling week.  Yesterday was my early out.  The problem is, what for and when do you “spend” this early out privilege.  I hadn’t had one for a while, and last night was to be my “early out”.
What should happen yesterday than as the day progressed, the clouds moved in, and soon the snowflakes were falling.  They were getting big and wet.  However, things looked better at lunch time when in fact the show had stopped.  I thought, home at 2pm.  Shortly after coming back from lunch, what do I find than an almost blizzard (by Wyoming standards, where true blizzards do occur) is going on outside.  It is really putting it down and even blowing a little.  No piles of snow, but yes, blowing almost sideways, like is always happening in Cheyenne.  Well, the snow, along with the amount of work I needed to get done, kept me at the office until after 5pm, when I realized I had experienced enough for the day and I went home, tromping through the snow on the ground.  Finally, my early out, even though it was only 40 minutes early rather than the 4 hours I had imagined.

Well, you wouldn’t think that Global warming existed if you base it on how cold it is outside.  My daughter bought me a LCD clock for Christmas that tells also how cold it is outside.  According to that clock, it is 18 degrees outside right now.  It may be reading high as well.  I don’t like the cold, though it does seem to be accompanied by beautiful clear days, so far.  I can’t wait for spring and summer, and then fall.

Well, wouldn’t you know it. We got a call the other night from my sister. They are moving back to Utah after about 28 years away. Ted has a job in Salt Lake City and they will make three of us that are back in Zion. It will be nice having most of our family so close. Now, I just got to stay here. To my kids I have kept saying, come back to momma and pappa. Live close by. Come back to your mother hen, your mother, who wants all of her chicks close by so she can count them every night and make sure that they are warm and safe.

I knew I should have never gone and left the house and went on a mission for my church when I was 19. While I was gone, my mother found my baseball card collection, and not knowing their value to me or anyone else, tossed them. I just saw an article on cnn.com which caught my eye. An 83 year old man died recently back east. He was never married and when people entered his home, they found box after box of baseball cards. Some were so rare that overall the value of the collection is probably worth $2 million. He has no heirs that they can find. I volunteer!!!

Last night was my wedding annniversary.  Part of the festivities, as it turned out, was sitting down and watching a DVD the women wanted me to see, called “Shall We Danc”.  The flick was tolerable, but the point they (the women of the household) wanted me to see was whether I was bored.  I am bored.  I am not bored with my relationship.  I am bored with everything else in life.  I am bored with the same old routine.  I am bored with the weather (it was snowing in these here parts).  I am bored mostly with my workday world.  I desperately need a change, which is not likely to be coming.  I am at the age, as Richard Gere was in the movie, where you see the same old thing everyday, do the same old thing at work, and you are tired of it.  I want to retire from this job and I can’t.  I often feel like I am in a corner, forced to get so sit there and I won’t ever get it out of it.

As today was Martin Luther King day, Bonnie and I didn’t have to go to work.  While we had all kinds of plans laid out, what did happen was we went shopping for most of the afternoon.  Bonnie was in her element, and did a fantastic job of finding the bargins, of which there were quite a few.  It was fun being with her and the girl.  Wish I didn’t have to go back to work, but that is the way life is.

Well, it had to happen.  I am addicted.  Last night the new season of 24 started on Fox.  Those of us who are Jack Bauer fans can now get our weekly fix.  How could they? They killed off President Palmer and Michelle Dessler (she was pretty hot).  Oh my heavens, where is this season going.  I love this show.  Great drama, fast paced, and always a new and different plot twist.  While this show is violent, it is riveting.  If you want to watch a great show, get on for a fantastic, weekly ride.