Greetings from the past!
In this case, the date is July 19, 2011, and I’ve just returned from the first of a two-day assessment of a radiological laboratory outside of Charleston, South Carolina. While I’m supposed to be knee-deep in schoolwork, I’ve found a little extra time to continue this a-chronistic endeavor.
When shall I send this? When, oh when indeed? I’ve written enough of these trans-temporal notes that picking an appropriate delivery time is starting to seem a little… difficult. (-Is is chronistically gouche to deliver messages from two separate points in time to the same or similar destination dates? Is that the time-equivalent of double-booking an evening date? Hmm…)
I think I’ll send this a cool two years forward. There are a number of things in play that I believe should be resolved – or at the very least resolved – by that point. With a limping truck, a start-up company in play and my (somewhat obscured) face in Newsweek, a kid in the works, a potential brewing TV show, and a looming foreclosure of my ill-timed and financially ruinous townhouse… I truly have no idea what the future holds.
So, future, how about it?
Let’s go down the list.
Do I have a new vehicle in the future, or have I continued to resurrect my trusty 2000 Ford Ranger, “Wolfsburg?” I must admit that I am quite taken with my rental car this trip, a fortuitously neglected Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport, which I received instead of a compact car from the rental agency. It handles as well as a sturdy truck, has decent visibility, and one can even remove the top!
I’m smitten. Does the burgeoning romance lead anywhere?
(After all, there’s not much room for a car seat in the truck…)
Second, what’s happening or has happened with Astrowright? (Will that link even still work?)
Right now, I’m desperately trying to find time to iron out remaining services and organizational literature, promotional material, and I’m working to scrape up initial clients. Truthfully, I’m having a hard time before having a child in my midst…
Is it folly to think I can do it all – work, school, side business, be a father – and be successful while maintaining my sanity?
What does 2013 have to say?
Though, I should also admit that the current spaceflight developments aren’t all stressful. I was pleasantly surprised on my way out to South Carolina a couple of days ago to find myself in Newsweek Magazine article entitled “The Next Space Race!”
As it would turn out, the Newsweek writer embedded with us while in scientist-astronaut training at the NASTAR Center had his story picked up to coincide with the final Space Shuttle launch – and so there it was, on page 59 of the July 18th issue, staring at me as I wandered through the airport!
So, yes, my face is covered by a respirator mask, but there I am, flightsuit sleeves rolled up and ready to go.
Also, by this time in the year 2013, we should be approaching the second birthday of my first kid! I’m banking on it being Grayson James McGee that we’ll be meeting here in a bit, and he’ll likely be clipping through the milestones on his way to the “terrible twos.” =)
Will he want to be an astronaut like his dad? (If so, will that freak his dad out?)
Also, while not spaceflight per se, I’ve got a meeting tomorrow afternoon with representatives from Ping Pong Productions – a television production house that filmed a demo for a UFO-crash-site archaeology TV show they’re interested in doing with me, if a network picks it up. Apparently, they have news.
Honestly, I’m a little terrified. I’m not a TV personality, and getting involved with a popular “UFO-hunter”-styled show will likely stretch my scientific credibility. -But, it will likely be an adventure, to be sure. It borders on too bizarre to feel real, but in just a day I’m going to be on the phone to find out…
What they heck are they going to tell me? TV show? If so, do I take the gig? If so, was it a good idea?
Rounding out the things on my mind is, unsurprisingly, my townhouse. As it stands, my cousin and her boyfriend are renting it from me, though prices have dropped so dramatically that I’m taking an incredible loss every month.
What am I doing? It’s sufficiently destroyed my savings, and I feel like the last one to not ditch the now incomprehensibly underwater investment.
I ask again – what am I doing? I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford it at all after having another mouth to feed in a few months.
Does 2013 show that I’ve hit the lottery and was able to hang onto the thing?
Like the Man says – there are no problems, only solution. All times are good ones if we but know what to do with them, right?
Here’s to pretending I know what to do with this one. =)
Cheers,
Ben
July 19, 2011.
Chronicles of an Atomic Astrowright 