Rocket Launch, T + _

The echo of the blast rolled around the hills that surrounded the campus. Both youngsters were stunned. Miraculously, neither suffered physical injury beyond the ringing in their ears.

Just as the smoke started to drift away, the grounds keeper came pushing a wheelbarrow up the hill. He had witnessed the spectacle from a mere thirty yards from ground zero. As his path crossed the boys' trek toward the scene of the blast, he said, in a very calm and controlled voice, "I wouldn't do that again if I were you." You think?

At about that moment, the window of the president's office flew up and the glass flew out and fell crashing to the ground. The Man himself poked his head out the window. Ho, boy.

The upshot (so to speak).
It is not known to either of the lads, nor was it ever discussed, how much the fact that the father of one of the boys had been the predecessor to the now sitting president who was prepping for his first academic year in the post had to do with the conclusion to this story. It is not known what discussion took place between the two gentlemen. It is known that the boys were held responsible for replacing the window, notwithstanding that they both ever after believed that they did not cause the breakage, but rather that Tubby the president caused the glass to fall from its frame when he threw the window open with excessive force.

The younger boy's father took the lad and the window frame to Madsen's Paints and Wallpaper on North Tejon Street where the window was repaired at a cost of $5.25, which to the boys was a veritable fortune. And they did have to pay it.

Epilogue
The day following the explosion, the two genii (geniuses?) returned to the scene of the "crime." Isn't that always the case? They observed that in the center of the parking lot there was not a pebble of gravel to be found in a circle approximately sixteen feet in diameter. They searched for some time for fragments of the "rocket" and ultimately found it south of the road and about twenty feet up the side of the hill. The can appeared to be intact! That is, it seemed to be of a piece, but it was completely flattened.

The Lord was watching over those idiots.
[The End]
© 2011 David W. Lacy

Pearl Harbor Day + 70 Years

Today' assignment: In memory of those who died December 7, 1941, select at least one item from this page and explore it.

Cookson the Third

Over the past few weeks we have watched him go down the hill into the valley of the shadow of death. Today he crossed the stream and is no longer with us. But he will never be forgotten; he will always be an important part of who we are.

Cookie was born in Clinton County, Indiana January 2, 1993. He departed his life December 6, 2011, aged 18 years, 11 months.

Following a stint in his early life as the long-legged rat terrier stud, he exchanged his role as sire for the comforts of a leisure life as JoAnn's companion. He later accepted David as part of his pack. He has been faithful and true to his people, in a word, Good Dog.

This beautiful seventeen-pound package of fun, enthusiasm and love will be sorely missed

Rocket Science, Launch!

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Rocket Science, Stage 3

This is the day! It is another hot and lazy summer day. The boys walked up the road to the parking lot, kicking the gravel as they went. Beautiful! There were no cars in the lot this afternoon. They quickly moved to the very center of the lot, about forty feet south of the storage shed. The boys ever so carefully set the rocket at just exactly the right attitude to achieve maximum flight. The fuse was carefully installed in the engine port and cut to a two-foot length, which they calculated to be just right to allow them to move to the shelter of the shed before launch.

They lit the fuse. It burned an inch, sputtered and went out. They lit it again and headed for the shelter. As they turned to watch, they noted that the sparkling had stopped and the smoke was no longer rising from the string. The younger of the boys (younger by six weeks) cautiously approached the vehicle. It was clear that the fuse was not going to achieve its end, so the lad tilted the rocket carefully and spilled a string of fuel about three feet in length. The rocket was restored to its proper attitude and a match touched to the extreme end of the make-shift fuse. Man! Did that ever burn quickly! As the fire began to puddle around the nozzle of the fuel tank, the perpetrators scientists noted that it began to glow a cherry red. The lad more distant from the contraption yelled, "Run! she's gonna blow!"
[to be continued] © 2011 David W. Lacy

The Great Commission

Pastor Mark's message is based on the words of the Master found in Matthew 28:16-19

Four truths from Christ's last words.

1. There is power in Jesus' command. "All power is given to me," but power is given to His followers: the Holy Spirit baptism with power from on high. The problem with many Christians today is that they are satisfied to live powerless.

2. We see people in His command. "Go ye..." He is addressing us, His followers.

3. We see a plan in His command. a) "Go" b) "Win" converts c) Baptize d) Teach, that is make disciples of them. We cannot improve the plan. We need to follow the plan. Don't try to reinvent the wheel; get the wheel moving!

4. We see a promise within the command. "I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Go, implement the plan. You do not go alone!

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. --Jesus Christ

An Ethicist on Deception

Sissela Bok was born in Sweden, December 2, 1934. Both her mother, Alva Myrdal, and her father, Gunnar Myrdal, were Nobel Prize winners in two different disciplines and a decade apart. Her brother, Jon Myrdal, is a well-known writer and journalist. Sissela Bok is married to Derek Bok who was a long-time president of Harvard University. She herself was professor of philosophy at Brandeis. Her daughter, Hilary Bok is a philosopher as well.
(Sissela Bok image: Harvardsquarelibrary)
I include this snippet about Ms. Bok as a reminder both to myself and to you that while we share space on the same planet we are definitely from different worlds!

A few lines from Ms. Bok:
Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived.

We are all, in a sense, experts on secrecy. From earliest childhood we feel its mystery and attraction. We know both the power it confers and the burden it imposes. We learn how it can delight, give breathing space and protect.
While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive.

Happy Birthday, Ms. Bok. 1934 was a very good year!

Rocket Science, Stage 2

The boys ambled home. It was late in the afternoon; they were tired. They got the comics book stash from beneath the bed and selected a few titles. As they lay under the cottonwood tree thumbing through the pages of "Buck Rogers in the Twenty-fifth Century" and "Mickey Mouse" and "Plastic Man" they gave very little further thought to the scientific endeavor they had launched this day. Perhaps how little thought will become evident with the dawning of a new day.




Wednesday morning broke, bright and fair. Another lazy summer day. The boys departed their respective homes to meet by the lilac hedge* with the ingredients gathered the previous day, along with a mortar and pestle from the chemistry set and the two near-empty adolescent heads they carried with them everywhere.

The first order of business was to build the rocket. A scavenger hunt was the order of the day. Passing up and down the neighborhood alleys the boys scrounged for necessary parts. They did not know what they were looking for, but they would recognize it when they saw it. Eureka!

Just there, in Mrs. Nordyke's ash pit, was a cylindrical object about nine inches in length and two and one-half inches in diameter! Verily, a rocket! and with so little need of modification, for it was made of steel, completely sealed except for a quarter-inch orifice on one end.

Ailerons and stabilizers? Pffft! it is to scoff, for the launch platform will so perfectly aim it that it cannot fail to go airborne. All that remained was to grind and mix the fuel, and fill the fuel chamber, which, as it turned out, was pretty much the entire interior of the spent bug-bomb, for that was what the can was, an early 1940s aerosol can, one of the very first.

The preparation was much more tedious than this account, if you can imagine that. For they also had to devise an ignition device. This was accomplished by mixing a "secret" ingredient in water, soaking a length of kite string in the solution and allowing it to dry. Overnight. So it is back to the library for more adventures with Mickey, Goofy, Pluto, and perhaps Captain Marvel.
[to be continued, with apologies to Chuck] © 2011 David W. Lacy
*The lilac hedge and Nordyke's are on the map.