Those of you that are Tolkien fans know where I got that title. There is a scene in The Two Towers, in the chapter titled-Of herbs, and stewed rabbits, where Frodo, and Sam see men riding elephants. An unheard of thing for a hobbit to see. A creature of tales, and legends, of far away places.
And it was much the same in the time before the camera, and convieniant travel. It was normal for a person to be born, live, and die, within a hundred mile radius. A commen man would have to take it on faith that such things as elephants walked the earth, in strange, far away places.
It was much the same for me, and the international space station. Oh I knew it was there. I'd seen pictures, and video of it. I've even been to the Johnson Spaceflight Center in Alabama, where several components, and modules were built. The other night though I saw it with my own eyes, and it was beautifull!
I have a tracking gadget on my igoogle page that tracks the station in real time, 24-7. Very cool. I was looking at it the other night, anmd noticed it's orbit was bringing it down from Canada, across Minnasota,Iowa, and into Kentucky..IT WAS GOING TO CROSS TENNESSEE!! The tracking module is attached to google map, so I focused in to see just how close it was going to pass..It was going to be close..I zoomed in closer..#%&#@%!!
I grabbed my binoculars, and ran out into the front yard! LESSEE..IT should be coming out of the northweast..And there it was, the biggest, fastest moving "star" I had ever seen. IT PASSED RIGHT OVER MY HOUSE!! I was as excited as a child! Another silent zzzzooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom across the night sky, and it was gone. But I saw it! I had actually seen the space station with my own eyes. It will never be merely a picture, or video clip to me again. It is very real.
No comments:
Post a Comment