
If you looked up perfection in the dictionary there would be a picture of yesterday. Not that there really is any such thing as perfection but yesterday wasn’t half bad. We went ashore briefly at Swan‚Äôs I to see my dear friend Earl‚Ķ the Earl of Swans. Many of you have been up to see Earl and know what a treat it is. Summer is winding down for Earl as Labor Day looms too close for comfort and his summer friends begin to head home leaving Earl to survive the winter on ‚ÄúAlcatraz‚Äù as he calls it. Compared to his very busy social summer schedule life does slow a bit for Earl during the winter. I am not sure when I will get back to see Earl myself so I felt a special bit of sadness myself.

I was up very early this morning to watch the space station pass over. One of our guests, Doug, works on guidance systems that control the space station and he is also a heck of a photographer. He has actually read the manual for the camera! Thankfully we have the same cameras and he and I created the image of the rig against the starry sky. This is a copy of an image Neal Parent created aboard a few years ago with the use of a flash light to paint the rig which normally wouldn’t come out this clear even in a twenty second exposure. So thanks to Neal and Jim and Dudley and Doug for the inspiration to get up early and create a cool image. I know I am slow on the uptake guys so thanks for your patience.
Have a great day. Be well. Do good.