by Kirk on September 27, 2011
If Edgar Allan Poe were on anti-depressants while he was alive would he have written the Raven?
Or… would it have gone something like this:
Once upon a midday overcast
While I concentrated calmly and serenely
Over a quaint and wondrous volume of regaled musings
While I sat there contently and at peace suddenly there came a calling
I opened the door and there was my best confidant William, with a parrot named Mr. Pudding.
William taught the bird of paradise to utter the phrase, “Evermore.” It was a gas.
William would say, “Mr. Pudding, do you love daddy?” and the little scamp would squawk, “Evermore.”
The spectacle was a real howl and a truly pleasurable visit. Why I just about fell to the floor dying from laughter.
- Edgar Allan Poe
Boca Raton, FL 1845
by Kirk on September 15, 2011
Life in Northeast Ohio has its rewards but it also has its disadvantages. One of which, is the lack of clear blue skies. We are the children born under clouds of gray. There is so much cloud coverage blocking out the Sun throughout the year that when it is out and the sky is blue any visitor not familiar with these parts would see thousands of people outside staring up at the sky. They would hear little children asking the adults, what is that? Don’t stare at it! You’ll make it go away. They call it the Sun, they would reply. It seems like the sight of the Sun is such a rarity that its presence causes us Ohioans to transform into superstitious primitives grunting and shrieking at the rays of sunlight hitting our pale skin.
Last year Youngstown, OH had 63 sunny days, Cleveland: 66, and Akron: 68 which gives us an average of 66 sunny days a year dispersed at random.
Fall is approaching and with it comes the darkness and cold. The days are shorter the darkness is longer and the gray prevails. Last year my family members all seemed to be ready to make a caravan and set out for the plains in search of the light. I had my vitamin d levels tested awhile ago and the results came back extremely low. My doctor had me take D3 supplements and although the science is about as solid as eggs and cholesterol, I felt that I somehow fooled the great SAD (seasonal affective disorder). While my family took to tanning booths I took to vitamins and avoided the doldrums or the winter blues. I’ll do the same this year and hope for the same results.
This morning the sky was a swirling mix of gray making everything look dull, it was wet and cold. Although I’m back to taking the vitamin D3 I’m still not ready for the great SAD and what it brings.
by Kirk on September 2, 2011
On Sunday August 21st at 9:00 am something tremendous happened, the Akron League of Rocketry sent five rockets into the atmosphere, a monumental event that shook North East Ohio to its core. So much so, that our blast effects were felt in Mineral, VA disrupting an East coast fault line on August 23 that sent shock waves back to the source of our launch in Akron, OH.
So, on behalf of the ALOR…I apologize for any inconveniences our scientific endeavors may have caused you fine citizens.
Now, what is the Akron League of Rocketry you are most likely Googling right now. Well, it is a consortium of like-minded hobbyists who, for some, had been denied the opportunity to build a rocket kit as a child. In our adulthood with income of our own, we were given the freedom to live our childhood fantasy of building a rocket and sending it into the air.
How did this come about? is the question you’re most likely looking for on our FAQs page on Facebook. For me it started one fine Sunday afternoon several months ago as I splashed about swimming in a private lake in Medina. My brother in-law KC was in the paddle boat and brought to my attention a conversation he had with one of our father in-laws about getting together and building rockets. My mind’s eye opened to when I was a young boy in Warren, OH. I’m with my father and we are in the Camera & Hobby Shop on Parkman Rd. I’m standing in an aisle looking at the glorious packages of rockets on the shelf fantasizing over the possibilities. I ask my father for him to buy it for me and he said no, that we couldn’t afford it. I don’t remember what it cost but I assumed it must have been a fortune for him to shoot me down so quickly. I didn’t ask again. What had most likely occurred was I had asked for nearly every little thing there prior to coming to the model rocket section and by that time it was an automatic response. Strange how we remember things isn’t it.
I excitedly tell KC I want in. Now when KC gets involved in something he is like a spastic squirrel on crystal meth with a penchant for DJing at nightclubs or assisted living homes, wherever he goes and there is an audience. KC may meditate and pretend to be chill but he turns the volume up on everything he touches. A couple of guys fulfilling childhood dreams on some low key whim is not in his playbook. It has to be an event, with streamers, confetti, balloons, and elephants or it isn’t worth doing. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when the next thing I know I’m invited to join a group on Facebook for the Akron League of Rocketry. That, my friends, is how the ALOR was born and what happens when you sign on to build rockets with Kris Carter.
Next, we purchase our rockets. We build them and we wait. We wait for suitable atmospheric conditions. In reality we struggle to coordinate a date and time when five grown men can get together to launch model rockets from an empty field in a housing development. On Sunday that day came and it was glorious.
Here is a recap of the day’s events:
Harvey Gold – Alpha III Estes rocket
Result: Tragedy
Cause: Poor trajectory, wind, engine load
Location: Heavily defended by dense poison ivy on a limb of a tree
Steve Tarr – Little Dingus
Result: Danger
Cause: Inherent design flaws, poor trajectory, wind, engine load
Location: Recovered from the residential neighborhood behind us
Kris Carter – The Vagabond
Result: Success
Cause: Perfect conditions
Location: Recovered
Kirk Olmstead – the SS Steve Austin (named after Lee Major’s character from the Six Million Dollar Man television show)
Result: Moderate Success – burnt parachute due to lack of wading to protect it from the engine blast
Location: Recovered
Mark Smith: the Green Goblin
Result: One mildly successful launch – it had very low altitude like it was constipated
One successful second launch – engine change perhaps?
Location: Recovered
