Hartford Garbage Picking & New Mexican NASAns

In the suburbs in Connecticut, we have tag sales on Saturdays all year round unless it's absolutely frigid and there's a foot of snow on the ground. If you have junk to get rid of, you try to sell it first. Thrifty yankees and all that, you know. They say there are two seasons in Connecticut: Winter and construction season. That could be amended to winter and tag sale season very easily.

But here in Hartford, we don't have tag sales. We just put our old crap out on the curb before the weekend and by the end of the weekend, it's pretty much all gone. Of course, whatever's not gone will be picked up by the trash man during the week, but let me tell you, whatever is left by the end of the weekend is some pretty ugly crap. I saw an old armchair and ottoman from the 70's in Harvest Gold with tears in the cushions disappear this morning. Of course, what bothers me is when there is good stuff out there and I'm not in time to get it! I saw a great dresser, a little small for my needs, but it would have done until I could save up to buy what I really needed. An hour later, it was gone, before I had the chance to scrounge up the appropriate male to come help cart it up to my second floor apartment.

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The space shuttle should land tomorrow in Florida. There was talk of having to use this base in New Mexico, which hadn't been used since the early 1980's for a landing, because the weather has been poor in California and Florida. The news was all about how the New Mexico base was not a great place to land but they'd have to make do if necessary. It really looked like they'd land in New Mexico until this evening, when they announced that the weather will clear enough in Florida for the shuttle to land there tomorrow.

I feel really bad for those poor New Mexico NASAns. First, they get told on national television and radio and in the papers that they are definitely the last choice for the shuttle to land. Then they get their hopes up that the shuttle will land there for the first time in 20 years. "This is our chance," they must have said to their fellow NM NASAns. " We will show them. Third rate, my ass!" I mean, there are people who have spent their whole NASA careers at this shitty little New Mexico outpost and for like one day they had the glimmer of hope that they would actually see some action, have a chance to prove themselves, be in the national spotlight. I bet there are many Americans that didn't even know there was a NASA location in New Mexico.

And now that is all taken away. Their chance at 15 minutes of fame is gone, and they must go back to their sad little lives as NASA rejects, working at the worst outpost NASA could assign them to, hoping that in another twenty years the weather might be bad enough to force a landing in New Mexico once again. Poor NM NASAns. I feel like sending them a condolence card.