Bob Space

Shuttle Discovery‘s final mission is now aiming for November 2010. Endeavour‘s final scheduled mission is now aiming for February 2011. Both dates were pushed out due to difficulties with the paylods. For Discovery, it was refitting a portable cargo module into a permanent addition to the Station. For Endeavour, it’s the ever-popular Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which needed rejiggering to suit the new plans to extend ISS operations out past 2015.
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The girls and I had a nice day out visiting yesterday. Today, a frantic attempt to get caught up on chores and to make some progress on special projects. I’m not optimsitic.

I’ve always been fascinated by handheld radios. Wanted them when I was a kid (would have probably gotten), was insanely jealous of one neighbor’s “Space: 1999″ walkie-talkie commlocks. When I was a young adult, I bought a pair of 3-channel transceivers from Radio Shack. I only got to take them camping once, but they worked.

When I restarted the rocketry hobby and was trying to build a club, I had visions of the club operating a range, so I accumulated several of the best Family Radio Service (FRS) handhelds I could find. Now that I’m rescaling my activities, I have no need for so many radios.

All that as prelude to pointing out that my radio auction on eBay will close down soon. If you’re interested, bid.

… to see if Facebook will pick up my blog postings correctly.

I’m getting closer to understanding the motivation problem. Consider how I think: Mostly analytical and orderly. I like to study things to pieces, and then make a plan and execute. Shoot, the only part I’m missing is the execute. If I can tie that back to my other strengths … maybe with the scorekeeping, maybe with a good firm schedule …

It’s not impossible. Nothing’s impossible. Hard to see, sometimes. But not impossible.

So, what’s going to be filling my time (besides work, housework, yardwork, and sleep)?
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Work with the life you have, not with the life you wish you had.
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One of the few up-sides to letting my stuff get all cluttered up is that, when I do resolve how and what to clean, I make such interesting discoveries.

For example, today while I was preparing for [REDACTED], I found the misplaced materials for my “ASL University” self-study course. I really need to start making serious time for this, so that I can develop some level of competency at ASL before The Lady of the Manor loses her hearing completely.

I also found the original binder I put together when I started investigating “simple English” last year. I merged this with the new binder I put together this spring, keeping the best and dumping the dross.

I feel pretty good about where I’m going with my leisure time. I’ll have more to say on that over the next week or so.

A very nice flight for the first SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this morning. Pretty much a flight right on plan, but with just enough “funnies” (yes, that’s a technical term) to make the upcoming post-flight data mining a decent exercise. The esteemed Senator from Texas tried to throw cold water on the success. Wake up, Senator. This is the reality we have, not the one we wish we had. And frankly, this reality, with SpaceX getting such a good flight on first attempt, is worth keeping.

I’m still trying to figure out what motivates me. I need to find something I can use to keep myself in gear. I’d much rather have all this internally driven than externally, even though I do well on deadlines and such.