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kc-135 While the media is busy fawning over Tom Hanks in the film Castaway, I finally got around to seeing the movie Apollo 13 for the very first time today. I loved it and I'm not sure why I waited as long as I did to see it. A few years ago when HBO aired the Tom Hanks produced series From the Earth to the Moon, I was addicted. Something about what they achieved still amazes me. The film focused on a part of the space program that I hadn't experienced yet. In the past I've read books by both Buzz Aldrin and Alan Shepard, but the near disaster of Apollo 13 was new to me. Ron Howard managed to make something that I haven't seen in a long time. He showed how people can actually accomplish something under the worst circumstances. Another part that I liked about the film was the fact that James Lovell comes from Wisconsin. Sometimes the midwest gets looked down upon by the more hip parts of the country, but it still manages to produce some great people. Then to make an even closer connection, my father actually met Lovell, when my dad was in high school. It seems that while my dad was a student, Lovell came back for some kind of special lecture after this flight happened. My dad got to shake his hand and get his signature. Maybe it sounds silly, but I'm envious that my dad got to meet Lovell. I wouldn't mind meeting any of the astronauts. These are people that do things that no one else does. ... I think that astronaut would be another one of those dreams jobs that I would like to have if anything were possible. To experience zero gravity just once would leave me speechless. Being able to see the Earth from orbit would be even better. Then if I ever walked on the moon, I wouldn't have to do anything else in life. Everything would be complete. ... For the first time in weeks, Nicole was back with me for the night and it felt good to have her there. The major topic of the night was the new car that she bought after her fiance ruined her old one. She didn't have that much time to think and ended up buying the car in less than an hour. Naturally this bothered her, but like I told her sometimes people simply run out of options and you have to do the best that you can. Every time that I talk with her she seems so defeated and I wish that she would fight more for herself. She really is a great person and I hate seeing her dying ever so slowly. Then again I can't make her do anything that she doesn't want to do, because it is her life. I just wish that she knew that she could make it so much better if she tried.
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