A New ULA Era

Friday was "Day One" of our new launch company, "United Launch Alliance", or ULA for short. We'll probably be pronouncing the acronym phonetically (Yew-Lah ??) in short order, after we get tired of saying the letters a few hundred times. It doesn't feel much different yet, since it was my 9/80 day off, but I'm sure things will be hopping on Monday. I've added a ULA link under Favorite Websites.

I took advantage of my Friday off, to go flying with a pilot friend. I rented the Diamond Star DA40, and flew the required six instrument approaches under the hood, to sustain my IFR currency, and also worked in three takeoffs and landings, to bring my VFR currency up to date. The DA40 is a fun plane to fly, and with a two-axis autopilot and the more sophisticated HSI, the approaches were quite fun. It even has a traffic alert gadget. We had some additional fun, while navigating the slippery taxiways, and doing touch-and-goes on runway 17R, which was covered in a layer of partially melted and refrozen snow.

K had a rough Friday night. Her glucose had been really high all day, and even with a lot of insulin administered, it was only coming down slowly during the night. I slept in late, she even later. It was 25 degrees, and snowing lightly, for most of the morning. I fixed us a light breakfast of hot tea, english muffins, Clementines, and an apple. I really enjoyed peering outside at the snowflakes drifting down, with a nice hot cup of tea cupped in my hands, and fooling around on the computer, which was working again, after it failed Wednesday with a pop and smell of burnt electronics. A quick trip to PC Brokers the next day resulted in replacement of the power supply and video card, while I waited. I tweaked a muscle in my back this morning, by simply reaching over my head, which made the rest of the day not so comfortable. We planned to go to the Buck center in the morning, but kept procrastinating, and finally got down there in the late afternoon. The side roads we used to get there were still snowy and slippery, so I got to play a little. We used a few machines, mostly the stationary bikes, then I used the pool, jacuzzi, and steam room just before closing. K stayed away from the water facilities, since she'd developed a very tiny wound on her toe. The jacuzzi really hit the spot, literally - those jets working directly on the one sore muscle really helped my back. I enjoyed gazing up at the stars, relaxing in the bubbles, while the 15 degree night air frosted my face. Afterwards, we stopped by our neighbor's Christmas party, and enjoyed chatting with Cat's friend Mike about his interesting work at a sound studio in Boulder.