Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

Went to the Utah County Republican Convention today.  It was a fun time.  We unseated a couple of incumbents, and I got so excited I told Bonnie today that maybe I will run for city council.  The convention chair said that anyone who ran for office should be applauded, because to do so you couldn’t be “faint of heart”, nor thin of skinned.  That was so true.  There were some dirty campaigns but some of the points they were trying to make needed to be made.  This was another foray into politics that I enjoyed.

I discovered something about myself last night.  I can’t pull those all-nighters like I used to.  When I was a college student, and down to the wire on a paper or something else that I needed to write, I could stay up all night and write the paper, and still perform the next day.

Well, I can’t do that no more.  Julie needed some help last night and I told her, with all honest intentions, that I would stay up with her and help her for as long as it took.  We started late and for a little while, say, maybe 20 minutes, I was OK.  However, by the time we reached 1am I was toast.  I was falling asleep in the chair and was not going to make it for the rest of the night.  For sure, I wasn’t going to make it to 2am like I had planned.

Instead, I was not any good and finally had to give up and go to bed.  I woke up this morning and was even worse off.  I have been in lala land for the whole day.  I was not impressed with my performance on this one.  My age continues to show itself.

Ah, the weather this time of year is wonderful.  We live near many orchards, of which several are my customers.  When we get a cold snap, as the young trees are just getting ready to bloom, then we have the chance for an agricultural disaster.  Last night, and tonight, are such a time.  A cold snap has come through and if it gets down to 28 degrees, the chances of a hard freeze are great.  That means no crop in 3 months.  I spent a lot of last night listening for wind machines and will do so again tonight.  My life has been made very complicated by Utah’s fickle weather.

Yesterday was the first real day in a long time that we have had weather good enough to get out and work in the yard.  Spring has come.  The grass was getting long, the earth reviving, and the yard needed some attention.  It was nice to get outside and feel like you were accomplishing something.  The dead brush was being cleaned up and moved out of the way, and the yard is beginning to look alive again.  Ah spring, and now easter.  A time of things coming back to life.  I love it.

Went last night to a “Taiwanese Restaurant” in Provo called Munchies.  We were forced, under penalty of death, by Julie, to go and “enjoy” this neat little place.  Ah, the food.  The food was great.  It reminded me so much of food we could get in Taiwan.  I am so looking forward to going there this summer.

Anyone who knows me well also knows that I have long followed the progress and development of the US Manned Space Program. I was watching when the launched Alan Shepard into space to be the first American to fly in space. I was watching a year later when John Glenn was launched aboard an Atlas rocket to become the first American to orbit the earth. I was watching in July 1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. I was watching when the Soviet Union and the United States linked together in orbit during the Skylab project.

It would not be suspicious behavior on my part, to know then that 25 years ago today, I was watching when John Young and Robert Crippen were launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on what later became known as STS-1 to become the first two Americans to go into space in a spacecraft that could glide back to earth. I will never forget the tenseness that surrounded that launch and the relief to see them safely in orbit, and then later safely back on earth again.

Finally, I sadly was watching when Challenger was launched on that cold January morning, sadly to disintegrate 73 seconds later in front of our eyes. I too was watching when Columbia became overdue, and never returned from space on that cold wintery morning in February. Still, after these two accidents, I would ride in a second. I sometimes wish I had taken a different road.

Went outside this morning at 5:30am and looked at the sky. It was totally clear and the sky was the deep dark black of the countryside with no light pollution. The stars were brillaint and I could clearly see the Milky Way. What a sight. With all of the rain and snow we have recently had, this was unusual. It was a majestic sight.