Tuesday, March 19, 2013 – Cocoa:

            Well, this was an interesting day – we saw a space launch!  But, first, let’s start at the beginning. 

            After breakfast, I checked our e-mail, and noticed we had received some grousing e-mails that I had not done a “blog” the night before, so I figured I better get busy and fill in the missing day.  So as I was starting to write I realized that I had written the previous day’s blog with an incorrect date.  So I hope I have straightened out the date confusion, and filled in the missing page for those of our friends who like to read this daily drivel.

            While I was writing about the previous day’s events, Bob decided that we really needed to go to the store again.  What?!  I have to ride that torture machine another six miles today – do you wonder why I still think I am being held prisoner?  And what do we need at the store – especially since I am trying to use stuff up!  Well, we needed paper towels (because we didn’t get enough the other day), milk (well, you have to have milk with cookies), some really heavy stuff like cat litter (which, the small size, weights 14 lbs. – and, yes, I thought that was a good idea), a gallon of drinking water (I don’t know why we can’t just drink the water from the tank – but we don’t), and that weighs about 8 lbs., and some other stuff like pastry for breakfast and, of course, cookies to go with the milk we bought.

            So we get all of this stuff, and I have no idea how we are going to get this stuff back to the boat, but we tie the kitty litter down on my bike with bungee cords, and we manage to get the rest of the stuff in the basket on the back of Bob’s bike.  Carrying 14 lbs. of kitty litter definitely gives the bike a different feeling, especially when it’s painful riding anyway.  Finally, when we got back into Cocoa, I got off the bike and walked, and SWORE I would NEVER get back on that bike again – EVER!   Do you remember what I said the other day about NEVER SWEARING THAT YOU WOULD NEVER EVER DO SOMETHING?  Oh yeah…

            When we got back to the boat and started unpacking our groceries, we depressingly noticed that the pastry and cookies didn’t seem to be anywhere.  Now this was depressing because that was $10.00 worth of groceries (if you can believe we actually spent $10.00 on cookies and pastry – uh huh).  So, after mumbling grievances and other things under our breath, we decided to just let it go because I was NOT going to get back on that bike and go back to that grocery store.  But – after talking to daughter Kathy, and bemoaning the issue in question to her, she suggested we call the store and see if anyone there happened to be coming this way after work, and that maybe they would be willing to drop off the missing items.  So I thought that was a good suggestion, so I called the store, but the nice young man I talked to said no one had found or turned in a bag with cookies and pastries (well, duh, who would turn in something like that – no, they would eat it!).  Anyway, he told us that if we would come back to the store tomorrow with our receipt, he would  replace the items.  Wow!  That’s great!  But…wait…that means that I have to RIDE THE BIKE BACK THERE!  Aaaahhhhhhh….

            So after that realization and wondering if cookies and pastry was worth it, I succumbed after Bob got this faraway, panicky look in his eye that he might have to ride his bike back there by himself while I stayed comfortably on the couch.  I think riding this bike this could be compared to hard labor so there’s that prisoner thing again!

            Well, anyway, we were invited to visit the 49’ Grand Banks boat just bought by this couple in the marina (they were the couple that we had invited over for drinks last night), and just about the time we were supposed to go over, Karen calls us to let us know that she had heard that there is supposed to be a space launch at Cape Canaveral, and for me to bring my camera, and we can watch the launch from their fly bridge.  Wow!  We were both excited, but I was really wondering if a launch was really going to happen, because I think there are probably a lot of things that could go wrong and delay a launch.  But, anyway, we head on over to their boat, and the people on the boat next to them say they have information that the launch is going to happen between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. (or thereabouts). Well, we got a tour of their boat, and then headed up to their fly bridge, and no sooner had we settled in up there when someone yelled, “There it goes!”, and sure enough, we saw the launch of a satellite!  That can now come off the “bucket list.”

It's far away - but you can see the rocket and contrails

            After that, we headed back to our boat, and I made fried chicken for dinner, and we marveled at how our country could have dropped the space program.  It’s odd, but we haven’t talked to one person who thought dropping the space program was a good idea.  I guess someone must have thought it was a good idea, however.

            Tomorrow should be an exciting day also – we going to go for another bike ride!