To Infinity and Beyond!

Yes, this is another post about Buzz Lightyear...
(and as I wrote this, it became about something more... so keep reading if you will...)
But this is pretty cool - did yall know that Buzz went up in space with the Shuttle on Saturday?!
You can check out his progress here at www.nasa.gov

My kids are thrilled... they saw the Shuttle go up last summer from Cocoa Beach with my parents, and are so excited to know that Buzz went with them this time. Cub especially - he has a ton of questions, and I think Disney and NASA are pretty smart to do this.

Okay, I know... usually rocket scientists are pretty smart, and those Disney folks are no dummies either, so this is another brilliant idea from some very smart people.

Maybe the kids will be intrigued enough to want to become astronauts like their Papa Jerry, Geoff's father. He learned how to fly airplanes from a family friend when he was young. This man, Edgar, was a crop duster in our area, and later became his brother -in- law.

Mr. Jerry then flew in Vietnam with the Navy, and went on to be a Delta Air Lines pilot. In the 80's NASA opened up a program for civilian pilots with military experience to possibly become astronauts. Geoff's Daddy was high up on that list when the Challenger exploded in 1986, with a civilian on board, and then NASA discontinued the program.

Unfortunately, just a year later in September, Mr. Jerry was practicing an aerobatic move in a plane over a town near here and crashed. He passed away immediately when he hit the ground. I always knew if Geoff and I got married in the future, and had a son, he would have Mr. Jerry's name... and so he does.

I am not sure how my simple post about Buzz Lightyear ended up with me telling about this very special person, and the tragedy of how he died, but I am going to keep it just so. I think Mr. Jerry might like being in the same post about his namesake's childhood hero, as he orbits the earth in a space shuttle.