.plan

Whoa – slow down there honey. It’s on its way.
I know more than you about it (which is essentially nothing).
It’s true. But settle down and just enjoy the ride (while
I enjoy the secret). The shower will be here before you
know it. Now “it” is.

The truth was that there wasn’t a shower – there were three. One was
filled by my family and folks from church, one was attended by
the wife’s family, and yet another was bursting with friends.
One took place last Sunday. The last two concluded this weekend.
It’s been a worldwind tour. It seems that every time we open
a door, we are greeting by shouts of surprise.

Presents are piled high in the baby’s room, while the wife
works furiously hard to clean and fold all the cute little
outfits, towels, and blankets. Toys are collected on the
dresser, whose once bare drawers are now nearly full.
The wife organizes, coos, and organizes some more.
Look at these cute little diapers.
I do the heavy lifting and building. Boy do I do the
building; doesn’t anything come preassembled?

I don’t know how I could possibly thank everyone enough.
The wife is very loved. We have so many people
that care for us, and by extension our coming child. All
the faces we’ve seen lately attest to that.

Just scant weeks ago, the baby’s room was empty and I could
count all the baby stuff we had purchased on two hands.
Now, the baby’s room is painted, the dresser is built,
and the crib is not only up, but stuffed with Noah’s
Ark sheets, comforters, and more. After a trip to
BabiesRUs
for some returns and necessity purchases,
we are nearly ready. It’s amazing how fast the
transition was. Someone pressed the
fast forward button.

Now we need to finish tending to our mountain of gifts.
It’s a great problem to have.

I don’t remember the last time I had
tang. I have faint memories
of it as a child. There was something about NASA and something
about a little kid at breakfast; that’s about it.

But at 9000 feet I await my meal and what just happens
to be one of my beverage choices: the good old orange liquid
of the astronauts, sweet vitamin C tang. It was actually
pretty good. It’s like orange juice without the juice and
without the fruit. Yum. Someone needs to investigate
this NASA-tang relationship and explain it to me.
We are not exactly in space here. In the
meantime, my work on the telescope and it seem to fit just time.

(Would someone please shut up the person behind me in the airport
who has decided that everyone waiting for my flight wants
to hear how bad his business is going? He apparently wants
to fix the problem. I think we disagree about what the problem
really is.)

Another thing about Meana Kea is just how dry it is. Each
little room comes with its very own humidifier and boy does
it need it. On my first night on the mountain, I didn’t bother
to run it all night. That was a big mistake. I awoke in the
middle of the night with a piece of cardboard in my mouth.
I could have sworn I had a tongue. What is this nasty thing?
It will be nice to get back to where the air has some moisture
and my nose can grab some oxygen now and then.

Speaking of oxygen, it’s amazing how
winded I can get at high altitude without the stuff. Simple
tasks like walking up steps all of a sudden take effort.
My last trip to the mountain featured a room on the bottom
of a four story climb. Lugging the 1000 lb laptop to
the top each day required a gargantuan effort.
At more than 13000 feet these effects are more pronounced.
I’ll have to save my hopping around the telescope for a later
date. All it does it give me a preview of legs and heart at
60.

Now that I’m finally off the mountain, I have to say one of the
things I’ll miss the most is the easy access to their bubbling
tub of tang. Maybe I’ll hit the grocery store and bring
back the eighties in style. Does anyone know if Mikey still
likes it? Does anyone remember what “it” was?

I’ve got a problem I just can’t seem to fix. I’ve been remiss
in my duties. I just can’t seem to stay in touch with those
who live outside the 15 mile radius surronding my home.

This problem has been exacerbated by the fact that I’ve
got such
good news to share. I have some very
good friends who don’t even know that I have a pregnant wife –
much less a wife who has only 3 months until she pops.
I desperately want to make sure that my father, who lives about
an hour away, is a large part of my child’s life but I have
trouble finding the time to pick up the phone and tell him
what’s going on inside my wife’s little belly. And I have
a sister, that I so dearly miss, who hasn’t heard from me
since Christmas. I should be ashamed.

And I am – a little bit. I’m also lazy – a lot lazy. I don’t
think that I can pretend to have a better excuse than,
“Well, they haven’t called me.” That’s no excuse. It’s no
excuse at all.

The fact that I’ve basically ignored my sister probably bothers
me the worst. Before she moved, I didn’t have a closer relative.
When I was a child, she was my protector (just ask the mean
kids in my old neighborhood). When I was young, she was my
second mother. When I grew up, she was a close friend – a
good friend to both me and my wife.

You could find the wife and I over at my sister’s house nearly every
weekend. Movies, board games, and card games usually filled the
docket. Crabs usually filled my stomach.
And let’s not forget the crab dip. Let’s certainly not forget the
crab dip.

But then she moved. The phone lines have been pretty silent ever
since.

I have to admit the first thing I noticed is that my hair grew
without abandon. I had lost my barber. No one else had cut the
mop on top of my head since I was a very young child. What do you
mean I have to go to a hair salon? The wife and I noticed the
big gap in our entertainment schedule. I missed my sister.

That’s why it was great to hear from her, even if it was only
in

comment form a couple of days ago. I hope she
can use this blog to keep in touch. Maybe it will encourage
me to pick up the phone a little bit more often. Maybe it
will encourage her to do the same. I miss you Deb. Let’s
stay in touch.

Taylor, I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday.

You asked for a little happy birthday and here it is. Through the miracles of the technology (I’m going to back date this one), I’ve even been able to wish you happy birthday on time.

I hope you had a good one. You’re a good kid and deserve it. I’ll even avoid telling you to study hard for one day (oops, I just did). Remind me next time you are up and you might even get a present.

One of the highlights of my trip is having the ability to leave
the confines of the observatory and drink in the night sky.
The transition from the florescent lights of the observatory
to deep dark of night can make this a rather surreal experience.

The lack of light outside the observatory is quite a shock
to your eyes. The darkness is consuming. The effect is blinding.
It helps to bring a flashlight with you. Those four steps
back to the observatory can be wild when you can’t spot your
own hands.

From what little I understand of the science, this has to do
with more than just an adjustment of the pupils. The diodes
in your eyes are just gleaming from the effects of the indoor light
and need some time to adjust. This period of adjustment
leaves you witness to extremely cool effect.

As your eyes slowly adjust, stars begin to pop into view, almost
one by one. All of a sudden you can make the dark profile
of the CSO. Other nearby telescopes spring to silent life,
focused on what you can just make out. More stars appear.
The Milky Way struggles its way out of the black. The
sky slowly fills in.

It’s almost if you get to watch God himself paint the heavens with
starlight. Let’s put one here and another here. This would be a good
place for a galaxy. This guy here surely wants a close neighbor.

It’s truly a cool effect. Tomorrow I’m going to add some oxygen for
an even greater show.

One of the strangest things about traveling on business is going out for
a meal and eating alone. On my first business meal, I quickly realized
that I never eat alone in a public place. My pizza is delivered,
my fast food is taken to go, and my Chinese is carried out. I never
go to a restaurant, greet a waitress, and make an order for one.
But that’s exactly what I did on Thursday. Only one
menu please. Thank
you.

When that business trip takes you to a tropical paradise, you
miss more than just a little chat over a side salad.
You miss the ability to share the experience.

On my first to Hawaii, I had a single day to myself for sightseeing.
I had a car, a map, and a list of destinations. I traveled to several
stunning waterfalls and visited one of the more unique places
on earth:
Volcano National Park.
I was able to witness water plunging
into the volcanic rock. I was able hike through a real life rain forest.
I scampered through a lava tube and peered into the deep caldera of
a live volcano. However, I did it all completely alone.

I resorted to telephone calls to get some company.

Now I don’t want to sound that I pined by the phone pleading for
attention. There were certainly some advantages to my plight.
I could move at my own pace. I could see exactly what I wanted to see
for exactly as long as I wanted to see it. It was a day like no other.
But it just helps to have some company. It helps to have my wife along
for the ride.

Tomorrow, I’ll likely wake to a glorious sunrise, where streaks of light paint the
bay outside my
hotel
window and glisten along the rocky coast. All my
wife will see of this is a simple photo. A photo could never do this
scene justice. A thousand photos couldn’t communicate just how bad I
want her see it for herself.

That’s just what the ground did just a few short hours ago: it fell away.
Actually, it fell away for the first time of three, as I’m on leg one of a rather
long three leg trip to Hawaii.

This trip, like my last to the little tropical paradise in the middle of
the Pacific, is all business. There won’t be be any fun in the sun for me.
No beaches, no babes in bikinis, and no daquiris on the water will be in
my future.

That doesn’t mean there are clouds on the horizon. In fact, the only clouds
I’m likely to see will exist 1000 feet or more below me. I’ll be sleeping
at an elevation of about 9000 feet and working at the top of Mauna Kea,
which stands over 14000 feet above sea level. Things will be looking
up, literally.

For those that don’t know, my programming work with NASA has led me to
visit one of the best three places on earth to take astronomy. That
should be helpful, as that’s exactly what the scientists I’ll be helping
will be doing. The little piece of
software that myself and several
team members have been toiling over for the
past several years will be helping some scientists take some infared peeks
at the sky from the
CSO (Caltech Submillimeter Observatory).

The work itself isn’t exactly fun and games. It involves some rather long hours
fighting the effects of high altitude on the brain. I’ll help them use our
software and likely write some new software in the process. However,
the opportunity to see your hard work in action is very rewarding.
The opportunity to witness this in a pretty incredible environment can be even
better.

One regret I have about this trip is that I didn’t take this chance to take
better advantage of the surroundings. I’ve never — never — seen a night
sky like the display put on every night by Mauna Kea. My first trip was
nearly worth the first glance. Once darkness falls, you can easily make out
our neighbor planets with the naked eye. The spectacular light display
overhead never fails to impress. No wonder
our ancient ancestors once worshiped the sky as a god. It’s an incredible
sight to behold.

But it would have been nice to get out and grab some more information on astronomy.
Maybe I should have grabbed myself a book or two. It would
be a sad waste of an incredible view to ignore the twinkling above.
I suppose the internet and the words of several NASA astronomers will be my
replacement.
The one thing I did do was bring my 35 mm camera. Add in some 1600 film and
I’m hoping the little photographer in me will
allow me to share this experience with others.

Thinking about the rest of this trip has at least gotten me a bit excited,
maybe excited enough to ignore the mountains of work ahead. It’s also gotten
me a bit homesick. I already miss my wife and unborn child. I sincerely
hope I can enjoy the experience of the next week but – make no mistake
– I just can’t wait to be heading home.

For the first time ever, I’ve decided to open my votes for November 5th election
for public perusal. I’ve included some comments and a bit of my individual
research along with each choice.

I have to say that I enjoyed making the list. It forced me to take a better
look at some candidates and justify each selection in some way. It will also
give me a neat checklist when the election results roll in. As a republican
voting in a largely
democratic
state, I’m bound to
lose more than I win but that matters little. I can’t complain if I don’t
bother to cast a ballot and – let’s face facts – what republican doesn’t
have a lot to complain about in Maryland?

If anyone has the itch to share, please do, even if you read this long
after the fact. For anyone still undecided, I found the
voter’s guide
provided by the
Washington Post
to be a very handy guide. Check it out.
One more thing: don’t forget to vote, unless of course
you disagree with me.

Governor:
Robert L. Ehrlich. Jr./Michael S. Steele

This is the easiest vote on the ballot for several reasons. It’s certainly
the one with the highest profile and the one I’ve spent the most time thinking
about. However, it wasn’t a hard decision. A republican with a chance to
take the governor’s post is a no brainer, even if I wasn’t a bit disgruntled
about the last eight years of Mrs. Townsend.

Comptroller: Gene Zarwell

I like Mr. Schaefer – he’s certainly a familiar face – but the state
is currently facing a deficit of over $1 billion. Is it his fault?
Nah. Should he take some of the blame? Just a little. Besides,
the man has an AOL email address.
It doesn’t really matter anyway. This is just a throwaway vote
in the face of what I’m sure to be an impressive victory for Donnie.

Attorney General: J. Joseph Curran Jr.

Mr. MacVaugh says some of the right things, like mentioning he would
be “… Bob Ehrlich’s attorney general …”, but sometimes there is just no substitute for experience.
As the incumbent, Mr. Curran has this qualification down. Note that I
got over the fact that he too has an AOL email address (you’d think
that the people at joecurran.org
would be nice enough to give him one, sheesh).

Representative in Congress (D 2): Helen Delich Bentley
Chalk this vote up to the balance in the House, where the republicans
have a decent chance of controlling both House and the Senate along
with the presidency. My biggest problem with Bentley is the fact that she
looks feeble; she’s not a spring chicken by any means.

State Senator (D 31): Philip C. Jimeno

Ugh, this one hurts. On one hand, Mr. Jimeno is proud of a report card that
in my opinion should send him to detention. One the other, David Kile
doesn’t even sport a college degree or a couple of issues I’m particularly
passionate about. If I was in Florida, I’d punch both holes or neither and
let the voting machine figure it out.

House of Delegates (D 31):
John R. Leopold, Don Dwyer, Thomas R. Gardner

This one is more of a crap shoot because I get to pick three of six.
Mr. Leopold came by and visited us during dinner one night, much to the
chagrin of the wife. Despite this, he still gets my vote. Dwyer
gets a vote for sheer effort. He waves to my wife every day on the
way to work – rain, sleet, snow, or shine. She doesn’t wave back but
she’ll make the wave that counts. Mr. Gardner gets my last vote
because he actually mentioned the deficit. Imagine that. It’s
a republican sweep for me.

County Executive: Phillip D. Bisset
Without revealing the innocent parties, let’s just say that
this one is personal. It’s a simple vote against a
disliked incumbent.

County Council (D 3): Ron Dillon, Jr.
The retired catering manager of La Fountaine Bleu vs. the manager
of Dillon’s Bus Service. It’s a toss up and I’m full.

Judge of the Circuit Court:
Nancy Davis-Loomis, Paul A. Hackner
The only two candidates present me with two choices. I don’t
even understand why they bother with the ink, given that I’d
guess they only need one vote each secure the office
(it probably has something to do with that pesky election law). Let’s
pretend I’m the only one. Everyone, leave this one to me.

Court of Appeals/Special Appeals
Here’s some more wasted ink that presents three candidates for
continuance of office. How many people lose these things
(hey mom, I lost to Daffy Duck, the famous write-in candidate)?
I’ll save the internet some bytes and skip listing their names.

State’s Attorney: Michael W. Burns
Let’s go for the newbie with an eye on Ehrlich’s Project Exile
program. Punish gun crimes like you mean it.

Clerk of the Circuit Court: Robert P. Duckworth
I can’t help but chuckle when I hear his name. He should
be a shrink (2 points if you get the joke). What is it
with Serabian talking about men being problem employees?
Let me write that down and figure out what that has to
do with anything.

Register of Wills: George N. Nutwell
The only candidate gets my vote. Someone wake me before I
get to the questions.

Judge of the Orphan’s Court:
Paul R. Shelby, Gordon H. Witherspoon, Jacqueline Boone Allsup
This is another pick of three out of six. Paul Shelby and
Gordon Witherspoon seem to be the best qualified. Nancy
Phelps went to Lansdowne (my alma mater), so she’s
out. Jackie Allsup gets my toss up vote.

Sheriff: John Edward Moran IV
What is with the IV’s at the end of these guy’s names?
Both of these candidates seem to be pretty good. This is
actually a close one. When in doubt, vote along party lines.

Question 1 – Interim Peace and Protective Orders: Against
This just doesn’t sound necessary to me. I’d need to know more and
I just don’t have the time to research it.

Question 2 – Legislation Authority of the General Assembly: Against
You have to be kidding me. This sounds so far reaching and so encompassing
that liberals and dictators everywhere must have rejoiced when it was first
applied to paper.

Question 3 – Certified Real Estate Appraiser: Against
Let’s get this straight: the government wants your property and gets
someone on their payroll to determine its worth. Somehow I think
Dutch Ruppersberger is involved in this one.

Question A – Ammended Ordinances: Against
Here’s a lazy vote. I don’t know why so I’ll just say no.

Question B – Fire Adminstrator: Against
I leave this vote with mixed feelings. It almost got me.

Question C – County Executive Vacancy: Against
I’m running short on juice and so is my ability to reason.

Question D – Arbitration for Law Enforcement Employees: Against
This sounds like a cost cutting measure but it also sounds like
the dirty parts of my employment agreement.

Question E – Arbitration for Uniformed Firefighters: Against
See question D.

Question F – Cooperative Purchases: Against
I’m a reasonable person and I have to vote yes to something. Don’t I?

Question G – Purchasing Contract Limits: Against
Competition slows things down. It also ensures fair prices and
guards against those nasty political favors you hear so much about.

Question H – Uniform Bidding: Against
Here are some words to guard against when taking true/false tests:
always, never, and ONLY. Let’s keep everyone honest. Shall we?