JOURNAL ARCHIVE: August 11, 2006
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That memory I wrote about earlier of helping George Campbell fix the search radar on the Wainwright must represent to some extent my experience with getting the landing gear fixed on the Columbia. While the component we were working on was leaking water, in reality, it probably had something to do with heat or fire, as is the case with the heat tiles. And the memory of the claustrophobic conditions probably represent crawling around the tires to try to break loose some component that had melted, or was welded together, by the heat and fire of reentry. And then the next day, I asked to leave early because I had worked all night and George said something, as repeated to me, that he didn't think I was going to work all night with him. That probably represents the shuttle commander not knowing that I was trying to get the landing gear down resulting in me falling out and, I guess, having to take some time off because I was injured.
I haven't had any more thoughts about Sarajevo, which seems unusual I thought today. Some possible explanations are that I wasn't in Sarajevo, I am not supposed to remember anything about Sarajevo, or I'm not ready to remember Sarajevo.
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I'm not sure now about what he knew I was doing. The shuttle commander knew I was doing something, but I'm sure he didn't know I was doing something that would cause me to fall out under the tires. There must be something else about George Campbell that would connect these dots, but I can't see it right now. I forget which state he was from, but I remember he had a free college education in that state because his father had been killed while fighting in WW2. He completed an MBA degree when he got out of the Navy. Jim Shea was telling him that MBAs were a dime-a-dozen and that he should do something else. He was dating a girl named Mary whom he later married and they had some kids. He started a business in a little town not far from Greenville, SC. I was trying to remember the name of the town and the first town that came to mind was Traveler's Rest. But then I decided that wasn't it. It was some town to the south and maybe west of Greenville. Looking at the map, Fountain Inn looks familar or maybe Simpsonville. Traveler's Rest is definitely not it because it is to the north. I can't think of anything else. That time he was going on about that old tv series "My Three Sons" comes to mind again. He was also in that photo with Mogge and me when we jumped off the deck of the Wainwright into the Caribbean.
Looking at the map of Greenville, the town of Traveler's Rest is near Paris Mountain State Park. I remember driving through there. I must have real memories of that place, or they showed me video of someone moving through all those places. I was also trying to remember which branch Melody Barber worked at and it was one on Wade Hampton Blvd outside Greenville. When I picked Melody up at her parents house one time, I remember they had a boat in the driveway with "Barbers of Seville" painted on the stern.
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The caption on this photo reminds me of what I wrote a couple years ago about how I felt after returning home on the Wainwright from the gulf in 1988.
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/STS-1/HTML/EC81-15104.html
TOUCHDOWN! -- The Space Shuttle Columbia touches down on lakebed runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to conclude the first orbital shuttle mission, April 14, 1981.
I remember complaining one time, probably 1999, about parachutes. I said I wonder how many people died in accidents before someone thought to put that hole in the top of them. I supposed that the hole at the top allowed air to flow through it and stabilize the parachute so that it wouldn't rock over so far that it collapsed.
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August 12, 2006
This is a good, clear message.
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=25094
SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Commander, Navy Region Southwest established new guidelines this summer to enhance the “Right Spirit” campaign promoting responsible drinking.
Rear Adm. Len R. Hering established "0-0-0-1-3" policy within the region after seeing too many Sailors getting into trouble due to excessive alcohol consumption.
“Nothing will ruin your career faster than an arrest for an alcohol related offense,” said Hering.
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Clark explained the new guidelines are not about prohibiting alcohol, they focus on responsible use.
“If you and your shipmates follow these guidelines, you are far less likely to get into trouble as a result of alcohol,” said Hering.
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Two scenes in a dream I just had that I feel compelled to record before they escape me. In the first scene, I am in a room. I think it is during open warfare in Iraq long ago. A soldier is carrying something special on a tray that he carefully sits down. I guess I am hiding somewhere watching him. Then I am pouring some of liquid, gasoline I guess onto something that I am going to blow up. But then I am tangled in cords that will be used to detonate a bomb. They are tightenting around my arms and get tighter the more I try to get them off. There are people outside the door, I can see them through the windows. All they have to do is turn and they will see me. I have an automatic rifle hanging on a strap around my neck. At the first sign they see me, I am going to spray the windows and maybe cut the wires around me but I'm not sure what I am going to do about it because it is delicate and I want to ensure I get it right. Then I am outside and running up a hill of side. The force of an explosion throws me into the sand and that's all I remember. The next scene has been sitting on something like maybe a specially designed perch to guard a room. It is some kind of office, but there are also people living on the floor I am sitting on. They don't seem happy I am there but go about their business. I am overlooking some people working at desks. I think I am in an Asian country, Vietnam perhaps. Someone walks into the the door with a gun and I have an automatic weapon and I drop him with one round before he can shoot and the people at the desks. I think I was calling someone on a phone or a radio earlier to let me in somewhere but they wouldn't let me. I think one person will see me on Monday and it is Friday.
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The symbol on this F-14's fin reminds me of the Tom Hanks movie "Joe Vs. The Volcano." That symbol was present in several places in the movie.
http://www.tomcatalley.com/images/f14a/nawc/f14asdf.htm
http://www.tomcatalley.com/images/f14a/nawc/f14asdf.jpg
U.S. Navy Photo, Courtesy of Mike Burgoyne
NAWC F-14A lets loose a 2000lb GBU-24 hard target penetrator bomb.
The F-14 is the only platform in the Navy that can recover on the carrier with this weapon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Vs._The_Volcano
Joe Versus the Volcano was a 1990 comedy film starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan
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A recurring image of a jagged thunderbolt plays a part in the movie. It is part of the company logo, it is the shape of the pathway leading up to Joe's workplace, it is seen in the plaster damage in Joe's apartment, in the lightning bolt that destroys Patricia's boat, and in the path to the volcano.
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August 13, 2006
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They used a video game on the Commodore computer to replace my memories of this F-16 simulator. I can't remember the name of the game but this image reminds me a lot of it. It was some kind of game where you had to fly around and fixes clues to a puzzle. It used some kind of foreign language that you had to decipher in order to progress further into the game.
http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/1982/Air_Force/DF-ST-82-05593.JPG
A close-up view of an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft simulator video screen depicting a design.
Location: WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO (OH) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)
Date Shot: 1 May 1980
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I didn't have any more special dreams last night. Woke up at one point and said something about how if they are going to steal every second of my privacy, they could at least park Lily onsite. Make her the on-site reporter or something. I've got more press coverage than George W. Bush as it is. Was I elected president or something in my real reality?
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August 14, 2006
I am wondering if there is some reason this shuttle touched down first on the right gear. It is STS-67 and I am wondering if I was flying that shuttle.
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/STS/HTML/EC95-43011-1.html
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/STS/Large/EC95-43011-1.jpg
The space shuttle Endeavour slips to a smooth landing on runway 22 at Edwards, California, to complete the highly successful record-setting STS-67 mission. The landing was at 1:46 p.m. (PST) 18 March 1995, after waiving off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, earlier that morning due to adverse weather. Launched into space at 10:38 a.m. (PST) 1 March 1995, the Endeavour crew conducted NASA's longest shuttle flight to date
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August 15, 2006
Reichert is probably shaking in his shoes like the frightened little girl he is.
Reichert is a notable graduate of The George W. Bush School Of Cowardice.
"The George W. Bush School Of Cowardice: Proudly Choking American Politics With Cowards Since 1946."
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I had the strongest notion come over me early this morning that I have actually walked on the moon. At first, I was thinking it was in 1995. Then I started thinking it was actually in 1994, possibly July. I started thinking of memories that could represent such a trip. I remember that in the summer of 1994, I traveled back to Arkansas for my high school reunion. I rented a white car, can't remember model, from Enterprise rental cars in Charlotte. It had Georgia license plates. During the reunion, I was sitting in the backseat of Chad's SUV. He was driving and Jimmi Anne Armstrong was in the passenger seat. Then I remembered: 1994 was the 25th anniversary of Armstrong and Aldrin landing on the moon. I wasn't at a high school reunion in Ashdown, AR, I was at a 25-year reunion on the moon. That is still my feeling as sleeping a few hours. I started remembering that movie "Space Cowboys" and that part about Tommy Lee Jones sitting on the moon. I just looked it up and the movie was released 8/4/2000. Earlier today, on my way to or from the VA, I realized that it was actually in August when I was back there for the reunion. Caitlin's birthday was right around that same time. Seems as though her birthday was on a Saturday. We had a party for her in the city park next to where Lesa Jewell had organized a class reunion get-together. Then we had the class reunion at the Junior High School that night. The night before, Lesa organized a meeting at a restraunt down by the lake called the Fish Bowl. They have the best fish there. On Saturday night, after the meeting at the Jr. High, a bunch of us went over to a country music night club in Texarkana that I can't remember the name. I drove back to Charlotte by myself in that white car from Enterprise a few days later, driving non-stop as usual. I remembered something else that seems important because why would I remember this? Just as I was crossing the state line into South Carolina, I noticed a fellow UFP employee, Betty Griffin (or Griffith) driving along the interstate also on her way to Charlotte. She worked out of Atlanta and often traveled to Charlotte in her sales job. We traveled along together the whole way back to Charlotte without stopping. I knew from my previous job when we both worked for Ketterman's in Greenville.
Later I started thinking that the lunar space craft consisted of two modules and that there might have been two of us. This would explain my thoughts a while back of a woman stepping out onto the moon or Mars. I started thinking there was the Command Module named "Enterprise" and a Lunar Module named "Galileo." There may have been two or three of us on the trip, but I'm not really sure. I've been thinking for that most part that I was the only one who went down to the surface and that I may have been the only one who even made the whole trip.
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I'm not sure how long this has been rattling around in my brain, but I just now realized an old memory has been trying to surface, but not sure for how. When it first became a clear thought again, I remembered a time when I commented to someone about the moon landing. I've never been a moon-landing-conspiracist, so it seems like a stupid memory, in that I felt stupid for thinking that the moon landing was a hoax. Then I just remembered telling Theda why I thought the moon-landing-conspiracies were stupid. But anyway, I have the memory of disputing the moon landing because I asked someone about how they could have photographed Armstrong taking that first step, because who set up the camera to capture it? In my memory, I would think that was a stupid question because it was most likely remotely deployed. Now, today, I am thinking that is not so much a memory, as it is an important. It is a question to make me think. It could mean that I was the one to set up that camera and record Armstrong take the first step of a man on the moon, recorded after a boy stepped onto the moon and set up the camera....For some reason, this immediately reminded me of a broken circuit breaker in my Charlotte apartment on Dresden. I remember talking to Ray Cross about it as I was very annoyed that my washing machine quit working.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
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While moving in the cabin Aldrin accidentally broke the circuit breaker that armed the main engine for lift off from the moon. There was initial concern this would prevent firing the engine, which would strand them on the moon.
August 13th again:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
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The three Apollo 11 astronauts would later be welcomed by the American public on August 13, 1969
This would explain other things I heard at Microsoft about the moon. Ken Fagan Cavallon related to me some tip he had for people that needed to be more humble. He said that he told people that were full of themselves, as I inferred from his story, that they should always remember that they hadn't been to the moon yet. There was also some marketing campaign about customer support that involved traveling to the moon.
Maybe this is why I always wondered why Neil Armstrong was avoiding the spotlight about being the first to walk on the moon.
That memory was one of those memory tests I wrote of earlier. I remember someone testing my memory to see how much I remembered. The question was something I should never forget. Maybe the three of us were the only people that knew I went out first and set up the camera. If that even happened, that is.
And if they could have put me on the moon as a ten-year-old, who's to say they didn't put me on Mars when I was 15?
As soon as I thought that, I started thinking about watching the Viking images from Mars in 1976. I also remember ,for some reason, talking with Jon Langdon about it when I was at Microsoft.
I remember Mom telling us to watch the color images on tv of Mars. We lived in that trailer park outside De Queen that had the corn field between the trailer and the drive-in movie theatre.
Who knows. Maybe Viking was the cover story for a manned-mission to Mars and I was on it.
Viking One Landed 7 years to the day that Apollo 11 put Eagle onto the Moon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_program
I'm not sure how long this has been going on, because I don't think I've written about it for various reasons, but I have been having a lot of thoughts about me on the surface of Mars. But my thoughts have been always about the future, as though it was something I could expect to do in the future.
