Category Archives: Still life

Sparkly

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Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I bought a new computer a few days back and my workflow has been shot while I’ve been trudging through the process of moving all my stuff from the old gear to the new. But the good news, of course, is that I now have a much faster computer with dramatically more screen real estate (no more 15″ screen!). I can actually check my shots at the pixel level without spending all day scrolling around.

Anyway, I saw this collection of rhinestones while wandering around the stalls at the National Western Stock Show:

Sparkly

I didn’t see a lot of these actually being sold, so I have to wonder if this is really a fashion trend in the C&W world, or merely a reflection (no pun intended) of the shop owners’ own personal tastes.

Abandon in Place

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For those of you that don’t follow the space program in the U.S., this is always a sad time of year in and around NASA. January 27 is the anniversary of the 1967 Apollo 1 fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee in a pre-launch test. January 28 is the anniversary of the 1986 loss of the shuttle Challenger in a launch explosion. Tomorrow, February 1 is the seventh anniversary of the shuttle Columbia’s loss during re-entry.

All in all, a rough week of the calendar for crewed space flight.

This is the foundation of Cape Canaveral’s Pad 34, site of the Apollo 1 fire. The steel structure was removed years ago (these things decay quickly in Florida’s environment), but the concrete base has been left in place as a monument to the astronauts’ sacrifices.

Abandon in Place

A memorial plaque was installed on one side of the structure, and when I visited, saw some remains of flowers that people have left at the site. It’s a tricky thing to get to, though — although if you’re lucky, you can occasionally get to it on a tour of the historic launch pads.