MIA (with some SUV, PT & NASA)

I'm going to be MIA for the next few days, probably not back to a real blog post (or real blog reading!) until next week sometime.  Nothing bad, just busy at work (including a 7am start-time on Thursday morning), and I hate to post something that hasn't had at least a little bit of time and effort put into it...  Notice how the last two posts were just photos?  I'd love to say they were created out of pure laziness, but in all honesty, editing pics takes time.  So add that to a bunch of words, arbitrary or otherwise, and you get a much bigger project altogether. 

Blogging is usually something that's done while I'm eating breakfast in the morning, in that precious 1/2 hour of blissful silence and alone-time, just me, my oatmeal, and my computer, quite a content bunch.  And usually, I'm late to work (just a teeeeeny bit!) as a result (uh, pretend I didn't just say that, Mom and Steve...).  But yesterday morning, just as I sat down to write (and eat), I got a call from Steve that he and Samantha had been in a car accident and after ensuring that they were both okay, I rushed out of the door to go and comfort my terrified daughter.  Most of you have already read my status from yesterday morning on Facebook, so I won't go into too many details here, but in a nutshell, they were parked, Steve was taking Sammi out of the car, and another car backed into them.  Steve, bumped in the shoulder and bruised by the reversing SUV, was only seconds away from setting Samantha down in the exact same spot, so we're thanking our lucky stars.  The car wasn't so lucky, and we're currently in a loaner until the repairs can be made. 

On the plus side, I got to take Samantha to her PT appointment yesterday, which was a real treat for me!  I loved watching all the hard work she puts into it, and how proud she is with each accomplishment.  I can never get enough of that.  Seeing her jump more than a foot by keeping both feet together and bending her knees was so amazing to me!  It's not like we don't see it at home, but in the home environment the action isn't as pure and purposeful as it is in the PT gym.  Or at least we hadn't viewed it as such.  I will be paying more attention now, and will employ some of the techniques used in her session to encourage the ever-advancing progress. 

Oh, and on a totally random topic, mentioned only because I'm so excited about it, as I was leaving work yesterday evening I caught a headline on Yahoo News that said that the Shuttle Discovery is going to be flown in to DC to live the remainder of it's life on the ground as an exhibit at Air & Space!  This is particularly exciting to us because we live on the Dulles Airport flight path, close to the runway.  I don't know if that's the path they would take to bring it in, and heck, I don't even know when they're planning this monumentous flight, but how freaking cool would that be to watch it coming in from the perfect vantage point on our deck???  Years and years ago, I remember my father telling me that while in DC on business he saw the shuttle piggy-backing on a 747 as it flew over the Beltway.  I always thought about how amazing that moment must have been, and how jealous I was not to have witnessed it myself.  I had to console myself by watching the Concorde flying low over the Thames on several warm summer evenings while I lived in London.  What a beautiful, graceful, noisy sight that was...

I wonder if we can build up the shuttle landing for Samantha, to make it something memorable for her?  Better start talking it up now...