Spontaneous Human Combustion

While sitting around the fire last night we got to wondering ... can the radiated heat from the logs cause you to catch on fire ???? Maybe but most likely it would be your clothes. That brought up the great debate surrounding spontaneous human combustion. Can a human suddenly just go up in flames without the use of an external ignition source?? Hmmmm. We called our resident go-to subject matter expert, Maryanne Flynn, and she gave us the detailed 411. Check out http://www.howstuffworks.com/shc.htm for more information. Sounds like an unexpected way to get to heaven and avoid the high cost of cremation !!!!

Discovery

Beyond the barb wire under a strong winter sun awaits shuttle Discovery. The orbiter and it's crew will liftoff for the international space station in the near future once a popoff valve problem is solved. This view is from the south end of PlayaLinda beach at the periphery of NASA's Cape Kennedy complex. While all is quiet now when the orbiter roars to life it will take only 8 minutes to achieve earth orbit and a speed of 4.8 miles per second !!!

PlayaLinda Beach

Today Elly and I visited PlayaLinda Beach and were joined by our friend Diana. The weather was beautiful ... mid 70's and sunny. The water, the wind, blue skies, the surfer dude and the turkey buzzard that paid us a visit made the day worthwhile. PlayaLinda is next door to America's gateway to space, Cape Canaveral.

Heading Home

It was quite a weekend. We arrived in Indy on Friday to celebrate mom's (Ed) 90th birthday while the motorhome remained at RV World for repairs and maintenance. Now it's Tuesday and we are on the way home to Tampa via Indianapolis airport (pictured above as we checked in). Home ..... hmmmmm ..... yes the big 40' motorhome is home to us for the year 2009. We made it back in the late afternoon and drove to Lakeland for the evening. All repairs are complete, oil and filters changed; our bus is ready for thousands of fun miles. Tomorrow we head to Titusville, FL for a week on the space coast.

ER

Michael Crichton created the ER series for NBC in 1994; it ran a total of 15 seasons this being the last. He populated it with many memorable characters including Dr. Greene who was the chief resident for eight seasons. Ellen worked with a real life Dr. Greene (surgeon) for eight years in Bloomington, IN. She had the opportunity to visit and catch up on old times with him last Saturday as pictured above.

For more info on the fictional Dr. Greene go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Greene

For more info on the real Dr. Greene just ask Ellen.

Mom's 90th

Today is mom's (Ed's) 90th birthday !!!! We celebrated yesterday with a big luncheon (about 40 people) at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, IN. Pictured above are some of the festivities at Kathleen's house. Mom surrounded by helpful family members is skyping her grandson Andrew in Colorado and getting a nice video view of her newest great grandchild, Lucille. Happy 90th, mom !!!

Lucille Corrine Flynn

While we've been travelling in Florida Andrew and Erica have been busy having a baby. Welcome to Colorado little Lucie. Parents and baby are all doing fine and are at home. Lucille was born on the 15th. Congratulations !!!!