Slight Detour: Wednesday Miscellany

Bill was out there snow blowing when I went to the barn to do my first chores this morning.

He announced that he had hit the extension cord to the water trough with the snow blower.

I apologized for not draping the cord over the gate, like usual, because I thought---silly me---that it was going to rain all night.

Nope, we've got snow for this morning's main offering on the "crazy winter weather forever" menu.

And, so the flakes and drip-drops keep coming, taking turns on new, improved methods of making our lives miserable.

I told Bill while we were out there this morning that only one third of my body hurts right now, and I'm wondering if I'll get to 100 percent when this winter finally ends.

I also asked him if he could open the barn door cuz yesterday a new muscle in my right arm started screeching after apparently incurring too much pushing and pulling of the barn door.

Bill plans to go to town to get a new cord and, of course, some more gas for the snow blower.

He also added that the shop door will be converted to one that opens electronically by next winter.

Sounds like a plan.

Yesterday I got some soggy tractor time while heading back to the house after my second installment of barn chores. It's always such a feeling of relief to have that job completed.

So, I was enjoying that particular sense of relief when I looked to the end of the driveway and spied a two-foot snow berm blocking the entire entrance and apparently left for our personal plowing pleasure by the county plow.

So, I turned around, walked to the shop and urged its door open, pushing upward with all my might and with that sore muscle.

Once inside, I started the tractor and backed it out of the shop, putting the blade down to clear some snow. I soon realized that this day's rain-soaked snow was definitely not snow for sissies.

The plow pushed the snow back but also left a sizeable new berm off to the left.

So, as the rain poured, I cleaned up that mess and headed for the end of the driveway, with the knowledge that the rear blade was not gonna work well for this job.

The tractor loader would get the nod for picking up huge globs of wet snow and dumping them off to the side.

It took a while because, of course, that's when it seemed like "go-to-the-dump" day with all kinds of traffic coming to and fro.

Eventually, the driveway entrance was cleared as was access to our mailbox, and I was a frightful-looking sight with water dripping from my hat and hair, jeans soaked to the skin and sopping wet gloves.

Still, it felt good to know that I had put out one fire in the many that seem to occur while trying to keep up with the outdoor elements.

Bill, who had left a series of winding tracks through deep wet snow while backing out of the driveway before the snow plow came by, would now be able to enter the driveway with ease.

He would be coming home to pick up Annie and take her to the airport.

I put the tractor away, went to the house and exchanged all those wet clothes for dry ones. Then, I put my hair dryer to work and later stoked up the fire to thaw out.

After Bill and Annie headed off for Spokane, I did some serious binge TV watching---guilt free---knowing that the worst of yesterday was over.

I don't know what the worst of today brings, but I do the best of today.

The ZAGS are playing at 2 p.m., and Mother Nature can have at it during that time---as long as she doesn't destroy our satellite signal!

Another day of North Idaho winter down, how many more to go? Please don't tell me.

~~~~

On another note, my friend and former student Barry Goddard is doing his own countdown.

Soon his book will be available, and he's inviting readers to make some pre-orders.

You can do so by clicking on either of the links below. If you haven't yet read about his book, he has also provided some summarizing material below.

Pass the word and the links.

Let's make Dr. Stoddard a best-selling author.

http://www.baikonurman.com

https://www.koehlerbooks.com/book/baikonur-man-space-science-american-ambition-and-russian-chaos-at-the-cold-wars-end/.

As either of those two links explains, the book is about a long-forgotten milestone in space flight and research, and in the history of US-Russian relations and activities over the final five years of the Cold War, which I witnessed and participated in as a young graduate student and postdoc. As described in the online book synopsis:

"In the late 1980s, at the height of the Cold War and the Reagan administration's corresponding hardline stance toward “The Evil Empire,” it was unimaginable that American scientists might quietly partner with the Soviet Union and its space program, particularly as the Soviet Bloc was breaking apart and communism throughout Europe was crumbling.

Against that backdrop, a tiny start-up company named Payload Systems, housed in a rented room above a hardware store in suburban Massachusetts, forged a secret deal to place American scientific payloads aboard the Soviet Space Station MIR.

The agreement was born out of sheer desperation after the Challenger explosion and grounding of the US space shuttle program.

It was negotiated and approved, behind the backs of NASA and Congress, with the help of separate groups of US government officials inside the Commerce and Defense departments, all while maintaining complete secrecy about the company's plans within the talkative circles of Washington, D.C.

On a cold grey morning in February 1988, the company founder met with three graduate students and their professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the intention of putting his plans into action with the unpaid assistance of those young men. "Baikanur Man," written by one of those students, recounts the subsequent five-year saga that played out across the USA, Russia, and Khazakstan, all while the Soviet Union collapsed in front of their eyes.

Within its pages, a forgotten yet true story is recounted of how science, comradery, hardship, drama, and occasional lunacy led to the first American experiments and payloads to fly on Russian rockets during the final days of the Cold War.”

More below, directly from Barry:

The story that’s summarized above is one that I’ve been telling folks for the past thirty years, and finally turned into a book over the past two and a half years.

Anyone from ages 10 to 100+ with an interest in science, space, and/or recent history will have a great time reading it. I certainly hope that you might each be interested in getting yourself a copy!

Even more importantly, if you could share this with friends, family, your colleagues in your departments and institutions, graduate students and postdocs, I would be hugely grateful!