Solar Wing

I caught some of the spacewalk this morning. I missed most of it, actually, because I was sleeping. They started early and, with my sleep flipped, I was heading to bed when the morning doves were rising.

It's a curious thing that, while I was getting ready to doze, I set NASA TV to play. I have the link to it saved in RealPlayer. It was an aimless action, at least consciously. I sort of feel like I was led to it by the subconscious. Whatever the case, when it started to play, I heard the announcement that the spacewalk was about to occur. There was a tear in a solar panel of the International Space Station and the crew of the shuttle was going to mend it.

I was very impressed with how methodical the procedure was. You have people in Houston, and I suppose Cape Canaveral, communicating with people zooming around the earth in space. They said they were 250+ miles from the earth's surface. It's amazing to consider it all. And they were able to methodically work together to complete a tricky task.

Wow. Just found out that Cape Canaveral was named by the Spanish and it's name is really Cape Cañaveral. I also found out that 'cañaveral' means canebrake, and that 'canebrake' is a dense thicket of cane, and that 'brake' is another word for thicket or brier: an area overgrown with dense brushwood, briers, and undergrowth.

Translate. Most times I hear this word when speaking of language. A spokesperson for NASA gave a quick summary of the mission with video clips. While speaking of the astronauts maneuvering to the other side of the robotic arm (made by Canada), she referred to him as translating to the end of it. (He was harnessed by his feet to the end of it and the arm was extended to get him out to the solar panel that needed fixing.)

Sure enough, the fourth meaning of the word 'translate', as a transitive verb, is "To transfer from one place or condition to another." I've had other instances of the word being used this way, but this time I really took notice of this usage and looked it up, thanks to the handy on-line word reference source, Answers.com.

This was a fun time in solitude. I enjoyed learning and growing while getting things done. It was inspirational to do my daily stuff while listening and peaking at the spacewalk repair mission. I just wanted to mark this moment so that I can look back on it fondly.