“This is not an uncommon event; space debris is re-entering out atmosphere all the time," said William Ailor, director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at The Aerospace Corporation in California.”
The satellite did not strike Washington or any of my Canadian friends, as far as I can tell. But as it turns out (sic. They don’t type any better than I do), Chicken Little was right — the sky is falling. With all the stuff somewhere up above, and NASA reporting that junk is falling all the time, Someone better come up with a light weight steel umbrella. The NW rain doesn’t bother me, but when it rains satellite parts I think I have reason to want a steel umbrella.
Remember the song What Goes Up Must Come Down.
Do you know everything you do
Has a reaction in kind
What you give is what you get
Since the beginning of time
If you hurt someone it's fair to say
Sooner or later it's comin back your way
You can't play games without any risk
Better beware and remember this
What goes up must come down
The things you do come back around
I know cause I found
What goes up must come down
I guess we have always known about reactions, but we did it anyway. My friend Anna sent this little story my way. Not everything about modern society is better. We may like the ease and for some we sould not want to go back, but we may be paying for the kind of progress.
"In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
"The woman apologized to her and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
"The clerk responded, " That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
"She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
"Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
"But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
"We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
"But she was right; we didn't have the green thing in our day.
"Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right: we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
"Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
"In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.
"When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
"Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
"But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
"We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.
"We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
"But we didn't have the green thing back then.
"Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service..
"We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
"But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?"
I'll write again late Sunday. And no, I don't know why the font and size kept changing.
3 comments:
This is me, still loving Blood, Sweat and Tears. I enjoy your almost daily doses of CW weirdness. Makes me wish I had paid more attention in class! T
Maybe it was God's blessing on your life that you didn't pay too much attention (if that was true). It may have helped you remain normal
Normal?! Me? haHA!
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