"That's quite some alphabet soup you have going there, until the last part."
Right? But it does all tie together, as all of it was experienced today.
"Oh? Do tell."
"Most def!"
So, the very first one the contestant suspected was a "bad singer" was the guy dressed as a firefighter, the one in my photo. Only he wasn't! His rendition of "Burnin' Love" was spot on! It turned out he had won the Ultimate Elvis competition back in 2008.
"Very nice!!! He had been a real ETA!!! Was he the only one who had been?"
I don't know. I remembered I had reserved a spot to watch an AARP MFG, which had started at 8 PM, same as that show. Oops!
No, that's how I remembered. I saw it when I got some water. So, I missed maybe the first ten minutes or so of "Space: The Longest Goodbye". I tuned in for the talk with Cady Coleman, who was on the ISS, and her son Jamey Simpson, who was 10 years old when his mom left Earth. Coleman was one day past her 50th birthday when she left for Expedition 26.
"Wow. That sounds like it was quite interesting."
It certainly was, though it left me with a lot of questions. The documentary was about the ability of humans to cope with long separations from family and friends, as well as their ability to acclimate back into those lives when the separation was over.
"Well I recall the difficulty you had adjusting back to civilian life when you returned home from the Navy. In fact, you'd had a bit of a disconnect every time you returned home on leave from wherever you'd been stationed. There were always a few days of feeling like being in the military was a dream, then you'd settle in."
You know, I had forgotten about that! This movie brought to mind the one I'd seen in 2020, during the summer of the pandemic, about Scott Kelly. He was 51 years old when he was part of NASA's yearlong mission on the ISS that began in March of 2015. The 340-day mission was to determine health effects of long-term spaceflight. For that mission to the ISS, Scott Kelly was also part of a study by NASA on twins, which found his DNA was altered, and cognitive ability as well, from that of his identical-twin brother, Mark. Very interesting studies! It was also a very interesting look at isolation during that summer of COVID-19.
"I bet it was. It really doesn't matter if the isolation was chosen or not, the ultimate effects are the same: a disconnect from self-identity due to loss of connection to others."
I would be interested in the Russian studies about such isolation. Scott Kelly is the only astronaut from the USA to do such a mission. Russia has four cosmonauts - Valery Polyakov, Sergei Avdeyev, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov - who have been on missions that were longer, and which were done in the mid- to late-1990's.
"That's amazing!"
Truly, it is. I don't recall that the earlier documentary raised questions so much as it was reassuring that I would survive the pandemic and the inflicted isolation from all the social activities that had been my norm. However, this MFG tonight left me pondering. How could NASA's research be utilized for prisoners returning to their communities after they are released? How could that research be applied for military personnel returning home to the US from war zones? How could it be used to help folks adjust to life working in remote locations, or even for troops before they go to strife-ridden sites? I even left those questions in the comment section of the post-film chat.
"I wonder if you will hear anything back from that? As for the questions you've posed, I'm willing to bet recent events have a lot to do with those. The monologue from Lee Osorio, the prison film on Monday, even the talk with your brother at dinner - those all have had an impact on your psyche and resulted in those questions being raised."
Oh, I am sure of that. As for the military angle, that's probably from the American Legion meeting earlier tonight. I have officially become the Historian for Post 36! The former Historian, Byron Stephens, passed over to me the thin binder of documents. Surely some are missing, right? I mean, Post 36 was the first American Legion stronghold in Savannah and is more than 100 years old. Perhaps the rest of our history is with the district site?
"That's something to look into, for sure. How many members showed up tonight?"
Six. There were six of us. I was disappointed. I created an event page on fb, on the Post 36 page, and I had hoped to see some new faces tonight. Doug told me that's the first time we've had such an event listed on fb, so kudos to me. I replied that I'd like to have seen all the officers show up, at the very least. He feels that once we have the Two Firsts Club up and running that we'll have many more members at the meetings.
"Let's hope so. But do you recall how many came for the meetings when they were held at the Thunderbolt location? At most, there were about twenty, right? Not including the wives who were part of the Women's Auxiliary?"
Yeah. Maybe 25 or 30 on really special meetings, like the one tonight, or for the one for the official induction of those elected. That would have represented about 10% of the membership at the time."
"That sounds right. Only about ten percent of the members of any group show up for the activities and meetings. Given that, and that current membership is down to about 120, then a good meeting attendance would be about 12."
Yeah. Okay, new topic! Today, I participated in the 14th Annual VA 2K Walk & Roll!!!
"I thought that was yesterday."
It was, but I couldn't work it into my schedule. Between my first day tending to my brother's dog and the impromptu dinner with Christina and her girls, I couldn't juggle in the time at the Purple Planet. Specifically, I wanted to be at the one on Victory. So, I took care of that today! I trod the treadmill for 42 minutes, racking up 2.3 km while watching Vince Vaughn for 45 minutes in "Couples Retreat".
"Something is amiss with your math..."
... no, it sn't! I continued watching during the three minutes of cool-down! Now, excuse me, but I must return to the dog for our sleepover tonight! Not that he sleeps in the same room I do, but he does like to know he isn't alone in the house. Bye!
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