MY STORY

On January 20th 2010 I departed for my Colorado adventure. Final destination is Telluride, CO. My previous employer closed our Boston office on October 31, 2009 and this seemed to be the most opportune time to do something different. My inspirations are two things really. They are both movies. First is "Into the Wild", a movie about a person who leaves his life behind to pursue a life in the Alaskan wilderness and along the way he meets people that shape his life. The second movie is "The Bucket List", a movie about two terminally ill men who escape a cancer ward with a wish list of to-do's before they die. The #1 item on the wish list is "Witness something truly majestic". My adventures are not exactly similar to these movies, but underlying themes and life changing perspectives are. As far as the location, I thank my sister for that. She lived in the beautiful & remote town of Telluride for five years and met Paul there. Their 1997 wedding was in Telluride (Trout Lake). Telluride is nestled in the dramatic Rocky Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

BLOG 101

If you are new to blogs so am I. Here is an intro. The home page http://mycoloradoadventure.blogspot.com/ has all the posts (the write ups) in order and they work so that most recent is at top of the order. i.e. Day 1, my first post/write-up, is on the bottom page of all the posts/write-ups. On the left side of the blog site there is a "Blog Archive" section where you can navigate to pick and choose year, month and then specific daily posts/write-ups. I wanted to share this in the event you are new to blogs.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Day 45 - 3/5/10 - The Moon


"I told them how excited I would be to go into space and how thrilled I was when Alan Shepard made his historic flight, and when John Kennedy announced on the news that the men had landed safely on the moon, and how jealous I was of those men."

Today is Friday March 5th 2010. By now, if you have been reading enough of my blog, you know that I appreciate Wikpedia. It's an online encyclopedia and one of the only web sites that I have donated money to. The documentation they have and the manner in which they present it is exceptional. Here is the Wikpedia link to the person representing my quote of the day:

I am sure everyone remembers who she was and this tragedy that ended her and six other crew members lives:

I clearly remember my entire middle school (I was in the 5th grade) sitting down to watch this historic event. As part of Ronald Reagan's Teacher In Space Project Christa McAuliffe was one of 11,000 applicants who was selected by NASA to be the first teacher in space. Now, there are hundreds of manned space missions (275 globally as of May 2009) that are highly publicized. This one, because of the nature of the project, would have a lasting impact. The Teacher In Space Project was to be a tribute to teachers and an inspiration for students. I am not sure if Reagan encouraged schools nationwide to broadcast the event, but our school certainly did and I'm sure that hundreds, if not thousands, of other schools did as well. I can only remember silence, shock and confusion. We were certainly old enough to understand, but I guarantee I did not realize the impact of this at the time. Again, because of the nature of the Teacher In Space Project, this was to be one of the most horrific and widely viewed tragedies in the history of television. I remember replay after replay of the lift off and subsequent disintegration of the Challenger. If you read enough about it, you will find that there were several known flaws relating to the disaster. Namely the known flaw in the O-ring seal, the seal that ultimately caused the in-flight break up of the shuttle. And get this. These known flaws related to the manufacturers design and had been documented as early as 1977. That is 9 years prior! Wow. The other factor were reports of low temperatures being disregarded the morning of take off. Now I am really confused. With a space shuttle carrying a plus billion dollar price tag and weighing in at over 2 million pounds you would think that they would have the temperature measured down to the hundredths of a degree for takeoff vs. grounding. By the way each take off costs approximately $450 million!

My picture of the day made me think to write about this event. Truth be known I am always thinking about what to write about for this blog. If you were to see me in Telluride, every day I walk with my camera and my laptop strapped over my shoulders. Headphones are in my ears as I use music for inspiration. This blog has become a passion and with that I always want to be honest with what is on my mind. Often, my pictures, videos and quotes dictate what I write about. Some days the pictures dictate what I write on and other days it is the videos or quotes. In this situation I snapped a picture of the moon. At the time I thought of how bright and full it looked. Like a shooting star or anything space related (comets, aurora borealis, etc), your mind tends to wonder. After I took the picture I got into my car and for some reason the Challenger disaster popped into my head. I knew it always had a profound impact on me because of the memory I carried from the 5th grade.

Christa McAuliffe's journey to get to space was tragically cut short. She had a passion and excitement for space. I can appreciate that after seeing the moon so big and bright tonight. Being in the mountains makes you feel closer to the moon and the stars. So does a telescope, but that is less interesting to me. I don't know what people think of when they look at the moon. There are so many things to think about....the universe, heaven, aliens, moon landings, dust and more. Even though it changed after I got in the car, my initial thoughts when I took the picture were how full it was and how it dominantly stood in the night sky. Next time you do see it though, think about the Challenger disaster. Think about Christa McAuliffe and the six others who lost their lives on January 28th 1986.

Good night from Telluride.

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