All a Buzz

With the forty-year anniversary of Apollo 11, Lucy and I were pretty excited about visiting the Air and Space Museum on Friday with Sarah, Don and Dylan. It’s hard to believe that Dylan was twenty-three months old before we got to meet him. Unlike Lucy, who slept in her carrier during the whole visit, Dylan was excited to fly a plane, explore air and look at the overhead spaceships.

The world’s most visited museum was especially busy on Friday, and all of the tourists and camera crews were all abuzz with the upcoming anniversary. We all stood there and marveled at why anyone would dare risk their lives in such a tiny capsule, which looks like it’s padded with painted styrofoam and paper you might wrap around an Easter Lily. These people are true cowboys. Before going to the museum, I listened to an interview with the original Apollo 11 astronauts on NPR’s Science Friday. I was amused that one (Michael Collins, who is often forgotten since he had to stay aboard the capsule while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin roamed the moon’s surface) is now an artist. He didn’t have an opportunity to reflect while exploring the moon. Instead he reflects now through his artwork.

I also must mention the death of Walter Cronkite, who was known, among many other things, for reporting the first moonwalk live forty years ago. I’m sure that Shannon thought of me when she heard of his passing. As my college roommate for all four years, she learned quite a few details about me that would probably only be revealed later, well, in a personal blog. I told Shannon that I had a crush on Walter Cronkite as a little girl. Based on yesterday’s episode-long special on CBS Sunday Morning, it seems that quite a few other people also had the same admiration. After all, he was "the most trusted man in America." And, according to Sunday Morning’s trivia, in Sweden, anchormen are called “Kronkiters,” which makes Walter Kronkite the Kleenex of journalists. Wow! Makes me proud to be a journalist, who is married to a journalist, who helps journalists do their jobs almost everyday.

Keeping it light, as we tend to do, all of that space talk kept Henry
singing about his favorite astronaut… Astronaut Jones.