Tuesday, July 31, 2007

177/365 Rocket Man

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Til touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home

At 7 a.m. on Sunday morning, the phone did not ring. Tim said George would call if the rocket launch was on; if there was no call, there was no launch.

I looked outside. Perfectly sunny.

Is it windy? asked Tim.

I saw some ripples in the plastic-covered construction site across the way. But then I looked at an American flag, and it hung straight down, lifeless.

No.

Around 7:30, Tim called George. His wife, Michelle, answered. George and daughter Emma had already head out to the launch site.

George was sure we’d gone to Rocky Horror and was afraid to wake us up. Plus, he thought he and Tim had left it that Tim would call him.

Luckily, we’d called in time.

It was a perfect day for a launch. So perfect that the first time the rocket landed extremely close to the liftoff point. I worried it would actually hit our cars in the lot.

Nothing had broken, so George got to launch again. This time in landed in the next field.

We’ll have to wait for the camera results. George mounts a camera inside the rocket, and when all goes well, the resulting footage is amazing.

5 comments:

Helen said...

Was that American flag symbolic?

Indigo Bunting said...

Well, it is now.

Deloney said...

I've done the same thing on a trampoline. My friends turn out herky-jerky but my friends really are herky-jerky anyway.

Indigo Bunting said...

Del: Speaking of trampolines, someone just sent me this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdPI50E0Zdo

Deloney said...

Thanks for such a sweet vid on a VERY hot day (tomorrow promises to be worse, yikes.)