Well, as Terra has already reported, Spring has come to Arkansas. Along with it is the blooming of the local plants. As this picture evidences, the pine trees are no exception. As you can see by the yellow pods on the pines, they have a yellowish pollen. In fact there was a period of about a week and a half, where you had to use the windshield wipers every time you got in the car just to clear the windshield from the fallen pollen so that you could see out of the windows. If a gust of wind would come by you could literally watch yellow clouds emerge from the trees surrounding our house. It was neat to see, but I am very glad that I am not allergic to that stuff like I was with the Juniper trees in Snowflake.

As also was reported earlier, Ethen has taken a liking to the sport of Baseball, or rather T-Ball. This is the first year that he has ever played on an organized team (something that he wanted to do) and he seems to like it. According to his coach his swing is very natural for him (I don't know how he can tell that - especially since he is left handed and swings left handed) but he enjoys it. Here is a picture of him coming home after hitting a home run. The ball was a line drive, it just cleared the infield, and everyone chased it to the fence and then tossed around before getting it back to the pitcher. T-Ball is fun to watch, and they only play 3 innings. Either 3 outs or 6 runs ends an inning which ever comes first.

Well I don't know how much you keep up to date on the latest shuttle missions, but since moving here I am rather keen to keep an eye out for them. Actually I would like to attend a shuttle launch, but have yet to make the trip. It is about a 16 hour drive from my house to the launch site in Cape Canaveral, FL. This last mission had the shuttle landing back in Florida and taking a path that would cross the US diagonally from northwest to southeast, and I thought that I might get to glimpse it on its return trip home. However, due to local rain (in Florida) this landing attempt was cancelled on the 19th, to be reattempted on the 20th. When you are sitting in a supersonic glider it is nice not to have local weather problems, especially since you can't give it a little throttle and take it around for a second landing attempt. You only get one shot at it. The shuttle uses up 99% of its fuel for take off, and then orbits due to its momentum. The remaining 1% of its fuel is used for minor course corrections and to direct its landing. [In this photo, the numbers by March indicate minutes prior to landing in Florida - wouldn't it be nice to travel that fast]

The second attempt on the morning of the 20th brought it closer to where we live in southeast Arkansas. This landing path looked like one where we would have ample opportunities to view it, but not so. For everyone west of Wyoming it was still dark and as such you could see the plasma trail it made through the atmosphere. When Discovery hit British Columbia it was at an altitude of 243,000 feet (46 miles) (The space station orbit is around 210 miles) and moving around 18,000 miles per hour. Less then thirty minutes later it was on the ground in Florida. It passed over Arkansas at a distance of 160 ish miles north of my location and at a elevation of 36 miles (190,000 feet) and traveling close to 11,000 miles per hour.

I was at work when it flew over, and went outside to try to catch a glimpse of it (along with the entire engineering department). Due to the position of the sun, its speed, and altitude, we didn't see it (nor did Terra who was at the house looking for it as well), but we all heard the sonic boom it made as it passed by. According to NASA you should hear a double sonic boom approximately 1 to 1.5 minutes after it flew by. Also according to NASA it was traveling at 390 mph when it touched down in Cape Canaveral, FL. We only heard one, but it was in the middle of an outage and the steam was venting off the boiler at a considerable decibel level, but nonetheless, a real treat to hear.

It would have been nice to see it, but I will take what I can get. NASA is retiring the shuttles at the end of this year, and there are only three flights left - anyone want to join me for a shuttle launch viewing trip? Other than that, the only real news that I have is that we are still planning on heading to AZ for the last week of May. And so that this letter wont be a total waste to Mia, I have included this picture of Terra, she of course is always pleased to show off her best side...