My grandson, Jacob, decided to dip into a wild honey pot and get some honey, just like Winnie the Pooh. Unfortunately, it wasn’t honey, but very bitter tree sap. I told him he was probably lucky. If it was honey, the bees wouldn’t want him stealing their honey and might have stung him.
On the brighter side of things, it is good to see Jacob exploring nature.
Last night, I got a first-time view of the Space Station and the Space Shuttle flying over close together. The view at home was pretty good, but the view our family and friends got in Utah was much better. While we saw the fly-by only 20 degrees above the northern horizon, they flew almost directly overhead in Utah. Tonight, we get the overhead show.
If you want to check out views of the Space Station, or any other visible satellite, check out Heavens Above.com. You can register or view the site anonymously. Then pick your country and then your community. You will then be able to pick which satellite you want to view, or get a list of all visible satellites, listed by magnitude (brightness).
You can also get a star chart showing the path of the satellite and a map of the satellite’s path as it passes your viewing location.
The Space Shuttle is supposed to land today, but the weather in Florida is too severe right now to allow a landing. Hopefully, the landing will be postponed until tomorrow. That way, we will be able to see another dual fly-by tonight.
We really enjoy visiting farmers’ markets. On Wednesday, there is a nice one next to the Central Library in Los Angeles, only a couple blocks from my office. It’s on the sidewalk and it gets very crowded. A few photos.
Today is Flag Day.
I’m not sure how the Flag became so important to me. Maybe it was watching my parents fly the Flag on all the holidays. Perhaps it was my training as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout. But somewhere along the way, the Flag became very special to me. Flag etiquette was important and seeing the Flag displayed improperly was a “fingernails on the chalkboard” experience.
I remember the first time I was surprised to see the Flag. While serving as a missionary in France and Belgium, I was away from the Flag. After living in northern France for about 5 months, I was transfered to Brussels, Belgium. My area included the American Consulate offices. One day shortly after my transfer, we were in the area of the Consulate. We turned the corner and there it was—the first American Flag I had seen in nearly 6 months. I was surprised at my reaction. I felt like I was home again for a few minutes just by seeing the Flag.
Our Flag is an important symbol. In these times of multiculturalism, national symbols have been diluted. We need strong national symbols, like our Flag, to remind us how special the freedoms, the liberties, and the rights our country stands for really are.
So honor our Flag today. It is a symbol we should all be proud of.
USFlag.org has some good information on the history of our flag.
Moved from Blogger to WordPress at the suggestion of my daughter.
Josh isn’t a newborn baby anymore; he is 16 months old. And walking. And talking, kind of.
Julie wants me to start posting again. So maybe I will be a little more regular than every 16 months or so.
So, Josh, enjoy being 478 days old.
Random Thought 
