Here's Hoping

 

Well, it's been a long, endless, dumb month for me so far. I've been very ill with what is very likely the parasite Cyclospora that's the subject of a lot of news these days. More testing will determine that, but thankfully my doctor listened to my begging and treated me "as if" I had it and the new antibiotics worked almost right away. Here's hoping!

I've been so ill that I literally haven't even sat in my chair in my workroom since 7/4 until today. That's a whole lot of ICAD days that I've missed. I found out quickly that I still can't sit up for very long at a time. I got surprisingly weak surprisingly fast and am trying my best to take it easy to regain my energy as soon as I can.

I finally felt like doing something creative today, but I wasn't up to sitting at the machine and sewing. Instead, I dragged my ICAD box of tools onto the bed and tried to use my lap desk to get some of the cards done. It felt good to use another muscle that has been weak. Here's hoping I can sew tomorrow maybe.

Think it might be time to go back to growing my own lettuce from here on out.

Earthset via Artemis II

An Earthset, captured by the Artemis II crew from the Orion Integrity spacecraft during Monday’s flyby. Photo credit-NASA

Credit...I am deeply, powerfully moved by this image, shared from the crew of Artemis II just before they lost  communications while passing around the Moon's dark side. Earth Day came a little early this year.

The crew members observed a solar eclipse as they emerged from the other side of the moon.Credit...NASA

This solar eclipse picture is almost too much to comprehend really. That's the Moon blocking out the Sun in a way that we never get to experience on Earth. And yes, they still had to wear their cardboard eclipse glasses!

But to me, even more important, is what one of the astronauts said in their first words sent back to Houston Control when they regained communications with Houston Control:

 "We will always choose Earth," Christina Koch, a mission specialist on Artemis II, said once the crew members regained communications. "We will always choose each other."

Could there be a greater, more cosmically measured distance between those beautiful, inspiring words of humanity than those offered up almost simultaneously by our deranged madman president threatening that "a whole civilization will die tonight"? Here's hoping...and all prayers and good thoughts offered up that the Earth that the Artemis II crew eventually returns to does not include the aftermath of such a catastrophic event.