From: Brandon Devlin
\nSubject: Starlight report
\nDate: Sagittarius 38, 0031 08:17
\nTo: Tyler R. Cody<\/p>\n
(CLT): 25.46 sec<\/p>\n
Ty, my friend, you know they don’t let angels fly in restricted space, but I’ll keep an eye open for Claire, just in case.<\/p>\n
Speaking of eyes, I wish yours could be here to see what I have seen and am seeing; it’s amazing. We’ve both been to the ISS and experienced the view from the portholes. But, that doesn’t hold a candle to the sight from this stateroom. As you are aware, the two staterooms we are using were chosen especially for the view they would get during the flight.<\/p>\n
The problem with stargazing on Earth is the atmosphere. Only the brightest stars and galaxies are able to peek through. LEO is only slightly better, due to the light pollution from Earth. The best viewing possible in LEO is the short time span when you can get to the far side of the Earth from the sun, and then only when the moon is on the same side as the sun. But, that still doesn’t beat this spectacular view.<\/p>\n
So, to answer your question, ‘yes’, the stars truly are brighter out here beyond LEO. Not just brighter, the colors are super-vivid. Reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, all of them twinkling, shimmering, like they’re on fire (which they are, come to think of it)! I can see the entire Milky Way at this very moment (well, at least the parts of it we are NOT in) and the sheer quantity of stars and other visible galaxies is staggering. Being on the forward side of the ship, the ones passing this window are moving in a slow pinwheel counter-clockwise rotation. Fantastic! What a show!<\/p>\n
Because of our rotation, the view from the side windows keeps moving past us, slowly scrolling upward on one side, downward on the other. It’s a strange sight. Unfortunately, the side views are marred by the solar panels, which extend outward nearly 26m each way. On the backside of the Hab is the Sun, so we are keeping that window shuttered until we land. The spiraling dance of stars outside this stateroom window is so mesmerizing I have to force myself to draw the shade in order to get any sleep.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, we all just need to draw the shade and get some rest. Go ahead and get some rest, ole pal. I’ll keep a watch out for Claire.<\/p>\n
-Brandon<\/p>\n
< ≡ ♂ ≡ ><\/p>\n
From: Brandon Devlin
\nSubject: Help
\nDate: Sagittarius 38, 0031 08:47
\nTo: Emma Devlin<\/p>\n
(CLT): 25.48 sec<\/p>\n
Hi Babe,<\/p>\n
I got an email from Ty, the other day. He’s really sounding down. With Claire gone, all he’s doing is sitting around moping about not being on the mission. His depression and injury are making him sit around a lot. And the more he sits, the more he obsesses on Claire’s death. At least the mission would have given him a purpose. It’s such a vicious circle. I don’t know what to do or say to help him. If I were home, I’d take a few days off to visit Ty, take him out, get him drunk, and try to distract him from things for a while. But, I’m not there and it’s so frustrating. The only thing I can do from here is to write and crack jokes, or something like that. As they say, ‘laughter is the best medicine’. Maybe that’s the answer I was looking for. Just keep telling him jokes and funny stories to provide a little diversion. What a great idea. Thanks, Hon. You always know the right things to say. Hee hee<\/p>\n
I’ll write more, later. I need to dust off the old mental joke-book and perhaps research a few new ones.<\/p>\n
TTFN, HOLLAND Brandon<\/p>\n
< ≡ ♂ ≡ ><\/p>\n
Brandon spent a good part of the next two days attempting to come up with jokes and stories to lift Ty’s spirits. While first testing them out on the rest of the crew, he found that the guys roared at the ‘for men only’ jokes, but Sally was the only one that laughed at all of the other jokes and rolled her eyes at the puns, and that was good enough for him. As engineers go, Brandon has a great sense of humor.<\/p>\n
From: Brandon Devlin
\nSubject: JotD (Joke of the Day)
\nDate: Sagittarius 40, 0031 20:15
\nTo: Tyler Cody<\/p>\n
(CLT): 29.08 sec<\/p>\n
Ty,<\/p>\n
Mornin’, old man. Well, another day, another 78 cents after taxes, right? How’s it feel to be fifty? The big 5-0! Yeah, I know I’m only a couple of years away from it myself. You know what they say, “When you stop getting older, they bury you.” So this sure beats the alternative.<\/p>\n
If it’s way too early in the morning for a good joke, then put this away until later. OK, you had your morning coffee? Good. Here goes. A lady walked into a drugstore and asked a clerk if she could speak to the pharmacist, in private. The clerk fetched the man and he came out from behind the counter to greet the lady. Recognizing her as his next-door neighbor, the pharmacist said, “Hi, Ms. Clark. What can I help you with?” “I want to buy some arsenic,” she stated.<\/p>\n
Wide-eyed, he glanced around to see if anyone else overheard what she had said. “Why on Earth would you want arsenic?” he queried in a whisper. Very calmly she replied, “I want to kill my husband.”<\/p>\n
Well now, the pharmacist was really taken aback by her statement and matter-of-fact attitude. He stammered, “I… I can’t sell you arsenic! It’s against the law! I… I’d lose my license! We’d both go to jail…” Well, before he could say another word she pulled a photo from her purse and handed it to him. It was a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist’s wife. He studied it for a moment and then said, “Well, this is different. You didn’t tell me you had a prescription.” (That’s the punch line where you should start laughing.) Bah DUM bum.<\/p>\n
-Brandon<\/p>\n
< ≡ ♂ ≡ ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From: Brandon Devlin Subject: Starlight report Date: Sagittarius 38, 0031 08:17 To: Tyler R. Cody (CLT): 25.46 sec Ty, my friend, you know they don’t let angels fly in restricted space, but I’ll keep an eye open for Claire, just in case. Speaking of eyes, I wish yours could be here to see what I have seen and am seeing; …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}