*** JULY 4TH ***

My good friend and cousin, David Hurt up in Northern Illinois, called the other day to remind me of how we spent every July 4th in the "old days". We didn't have all the government regulations in those days, and while we were not all so protected by "big brother" we seemed to get along okay.

We grew up on farms in Southern Colorado in the beautiful San Luis Valley, and our farms were about a mile apart as the crow flies. (We were too poor to afford a crow in those days, but if we would have had one - he or she would to have flown about a mile.

Every 4th usually started around the 2nd or 3rd of July while we tested out a few fireworks. The 4th was the big event and David's family and my family and the Allison's (my mother's side of the family) would get together. This often included the family of my cousin Bill, relatives of David's family, Bill's family and other friends and neighbors.

This big event would have caused us to be put in jail, stopped by homeland security and/or many other government agencies today. We started out with sky-rockets. Our dads created a rocket tube out of pipe and these powerful rockets would be put in the end and the fuse was lit - and it was star born. We had big six inch fire crackers and we would light them and then quickly put a tin can over the fire cracker and it would sometimes go ten feet in the air or more. We had Roman Candles you would hold and balls of colored fire would shoot out the end. One exploded and caught my sister's hair on fire and she ran around screaming until someone got it put out. She had a few scabs on her scalp and forehead, but nothing more. Then my grandfather Allison lit a fountain that would shoot colored sparks into the air. Nothing happened so he stood over the fountain to see if it was lit. Just as he moved his head back it shot off and had a beautiful display of colored sparks that showered down to the ground. In the process, Grandpa had singed eyebrows. Now he was a banker, so a pin striped suit doesn't necessarily give you an exemption from getting hurt when you do something not too smart.

This fireworks display went on and on and was supplemented with gobs of great food including my mom's special recipe for potato salad and lots of ice cream and cake.

The 5th of July, which is my birthday (39th this year in fact) extended the holiday another day as David and I searched around the farm like great treasure hunters finding all of the spent fireworks. Usually we would shoot off a few more that night in honor of my birthday.

I wasn't there at the time, but a few short years ago, my beautiful mother who is 94 years old now, went to one of these 4th of July celebrations and sat on a chair to watch the display. The story goes that a six inch firecracker landed under her chair and the next day she delivered me into the world. The legend is that I have been a firecracker all my life because of this trauma I went through. I think that means that I have been exploding all over the place all my life just to fall to the ground in tiny pieces. Some say I wasn't a firecracker at all, but just a fizzle - we called those duds.

FAST FORWARD TO JULY 4TH 2007 - HOUSTON, TEXAS

Had a great 4th July with my wife, Mary Marlin and son Andrew. Spent most of the day touring NASA headquarters and what an awesome experience. I came away with mixed emotions about a number of things. MM and I had been there about 15 years ago and it has changed so much in such a relatively short period of time.

There were photos of the headquarters back around the time it opened showing people working in NASA Control with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and a celebration where everyone seemed to have a big cigar in their mouth. As a former smoker, I can't even believe that we used to work in environments with paper and other flammable materials and smoke and not think a thing about the hazard of fire, not to mention health hazards.

We saw the first manned capsule that went up which didn't have as much room as a toilet stall at the airport. Then they added another person but only increased the size of the capsule by 50%. Then a third person was added when they went to the moon and this included our own Harrison Schmitt from New Mexico.

Today the cost of the Astronaut's suit is $12 million! I just recently upgraded to $120.00 suits for business and I only have a couple of these. (Just kidding - I wear expensive clothes. My suits cost at least $200.00 and I get a new one every 5 years whether I need it or not - especially if Goodwill has a sale)

I got a lot of interesting statistics which I can't remember, but one that I do remember is the swimming pool they have. It is the largest swimming pool in the world - 4 stories deep. It holds 6 million gallons of water and takes 30 days to fill. The water is recycled every 19 hours. A full size replica of the space station lies in the bottom of the pool plus other space equipment. This gives Astronauts in training an opportunity to simulate a weightless environment while conducting studies and doing the mechanical things they have to do. Another interesting display was a replica of Saturn 5. It has five stages and the first "lift off" stage burns 1 million pounds of fuel per second on take off.

One of the most interesting bits of information I received is a process they have developed where they can insert an LED into a person and then insert a capsule of some kind and the LED will activate the capsule or pill and it goes to work killing cancer cells. No surgery, no radiation, no chemotherapy - yes, bring on!!!

We came back to Houston and drove up to the top floor of our parking garage and had a great seat to watch the most magnificent display of fire works I have ever seen. (Sorry - Cousin David, but it honestly beats what we did on the farm a few years ago. Not by much, but it still beats it.) They had a beautiful display and even sent up fireworks that exploded into a circle with a smiley face inside. It was great. Met a lot of nice people up on the top floor including several MD Anderson survivors. Spent a lot of time with a lady who came here 30 years ago at the age of 22 and had been given six months to live.

INTERESTING FACTS ON HOUSTON

The port of Houston is the second largest major port in the U.S. in total tonnage and ranks first in foreign waterborne commerce.

The Galleria - Houston's largest and best-known retail mall, has 320 stores and is visited by more than 16 million people annually.

Houston was founded in 1836 by two brothers, Augustus and John Allen who paid $1.40 per acre for 6,642 acres.

The Astrodome was the first domed stadium in the world and was constructed in 1955 and also promoted the invention of astroturf.

The first word spoke from the moon on July 28,1969 was "Houston"

Houston and New York City were the first cities to build power plants.

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OUT OF HERE!

Will be back in Albuquerque sometime next week. Looking forward to seeing all my Albuquerque friends and best wishes to all of you!!!!