The first successful Space Shuttle landing in more than 2 and a half years was completed early this morning. Weather diverted the Shuttle to Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert of Southern California, but the crew landed without further incident at 5:11 this morning.When the Shuttle lands in southern California, it flies pretty much right over my house. It always makes a tremendous double sonic boom, and that was my wakeup call this morning. Darlene, who had been tracking the Shuttle on NASA TV, knew the likelihood of a California landing, so she was in the backyard with a pair of binoculars in time to see the shuttle fly overhead.
The sonic booms startled Wrigley. It was his first Shuttle landing, and it made him wake up angry—for about thirty seconds. He barked furiously at the ceiling for fifteen seconds, listened quietly for fifteen seconds, then went back to sleep.I did exactly the same thing, minus the barking.
7 comments:
". . . minus the barking."
Yeah, right, like we're gonna believe that!
If that had been my beagle, she would have been on tranquillizers for a few weeks, and then had to undergo doggie therapy. She gets psyched out at the sound of the lawnmower.
Wrigley's beagle cousin handles sonic booms like a champ, but let a cat sneak by the window in the middle of the night and the whole neighborhood will know it.
Living in the wonderful SCV myself, my wife and I awoke to the wonderful sonic booms and rattling of all the windows in the house. I praise God that they landed safely, but man 5 a.m.
Hey Phil--
Just about the same for me. Words here:
http://impactedwisdomtruth.blogspot.com/2005/08/discovery-knocks-on-my-door.html
Whew. You San Diegoians sure have it rough. That weather, all those shuttles landing. It's a wonder that any of you can stand to live in paradis...er, that area at all.
Brad
Watched delayed coverage of All Black rugby till 1am, slept 1/2 hour, drove to Edwards, heard the bangs, saw the bright runway lights from 10 miles away - but along with the rest of the 100's of people out there, I basically saw nothing. The shuttle itself was shrouded in complete darkness (has few or any lights). TV photos are with infrared.
It was still worth the trip. The corner of Avenue E and 140th ave is a fairly good spot (better in daylight).
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