“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.”
Charles de Gaulle
I’ve been noticing lately on my daily walks that dog owners seem to spend more time on their dogs grooming than themselves.
I saw several well-groomed dogs today and thought their grooming must have cost more than what I spend yearly on haircuts.
Especially when I run across such elaborate primping of perfect peacock pooches like this doggy do.
Shine On
“I’m such a long-term investor,
I’ve never really let go and celebrated
what I did with the Hubble telescope.”
Story Musgrave
Hubble image of the Pillars of Creation.
The Hubble Space Telescope turns 25 today. When it was launched in 1990, the department I worked with at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was responsible for the designing and overseeing the building of the camera for Hubble: The camera was the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC).
Unfortunately, within weeks after the launch of the telescope, the returned images indicated a serious problem with the optical system. The cause of the problem was that the primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape. Although my department was not responsible for this miscalculation, we were all devastated by this error.
My boss was chosen to be part of the task force, The Allen Commission, to locate and correct the problem with Hubble. After several meetings, my boss and I had been discussing over lunch some of the details from the commission meetings. He often would run things by me, because I’m the “think outside the box” type of person. I kiddingly suggested that Hubble needed contact lenses to correct the problem. When I mentioned this to him, his eyes lit up and I could literally see the lightbulb go off above his head. He told me I was a genius, but I didn’t quite understand what I had said.
A few years later, after sharp beautiful images of the solar system were published, my boss sent me some of the images to thank me for helping him solve the Hubble problem.
The Hubble Telescope and its images have helped change our understanding of the age of the universe, the evolution of galaxies and the expansion of space itself. I’m pretty sure, if I had never mentioned to my boss about how to fix Hubble, that someone else would have eventually come up with the same idea. However, I like to think that because of my, Forrest Gump moment, I may have played a small part in the repair of the Hubble telescope.
Shine On
“In every walk with nature one receives
far more than he seeks.”
John Muir
To get the maximum health benefits out of life, you have to enjoy time in the great outdoors. Nothing beats a relaxing walk if you are stressed, anxiety ridden or even tired. You can’t forget how important a fresh breath of air is to your mind and body.
Most think you have to go to the gym to work-out. You can go to a near-by park or even an outdoor mall and walk for minutes while you are getting fresh air and exercising. I prefer to be outdoors walking than be on a tread-mill in a gym any day of the week.
The list of important health benefits of fresh air includes:
If you dread your workouts, rethink about what your exercise routine could be. Go to a park, go for a walk, just get out and get moving. While you’re walking, think about all that fresh air improving your mind, body and soul.
Shine On
“My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.”
Erma Bombeck
Today I took advantage of the gloomy weather and decided to do some cleaning out of the closets. I found lots of clothes and items to take to Goodwill to be repurposed.
I don’t have a lot of items that I hang on to, because about every six months, I go through and clean out my closets. But, I did have a lot of old paper work that needed to be trashed and also shredded.
It’s such a great feeling to get rid of all this excess baggage that I’ve been hanging on to. However, my back and sides are suffering a bit from all this spring cleaning.
Shine On
“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish
on its ability to climb a tree,
it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid.”
Albert Einstein
The movie A Christmas Story, classic stupid moment.
We all experience at some time in our lives that moment when that voice in our head says, “W-T-F was I thinking!” Hopefully, these moments are few and far between.
I like to think of them as mental farts, similar to a brain fart, but more humiliating. But let’s face it, they are what they are. Stupid moments.
Shine On
Chronicles of a Blogaholic 