Disaster

Tuesday, December 28, 2025

Today is a somber anniversary. On this day in 1986, America’s Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight and disintegrated 46,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, killing every crew member aboard. One crew, a non-NASA employee, was a schoolteacher going into space under a Teacher in Space Project.

Because the mission included a civilian, it drew high media interest and live streaming. Adults, as well as many children in schools, watched as video captured the launch and explosion.

Dialogues followed that unveiled “The O-ring Disaster.” In essence, key spaceship suppliers rushing to meet the liftoff date ignored their engineers who were questioning anticipated O-Ring performance.

(Spin forward to Boing’s troubles today because of gross mismanagement and frantic rushing to produce aircraft.)

The spaceship tragedy was caused by failures of the primary and secondary O-ring seals in a joint in one space booster. Record-low temperatures at launch time stiffened the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal joints. Shortly after liftoff, the seals were breached; hot pressurized gas leaked through the joint and burned into an external propellant tank.

The explosion collapsed internal structures, causing rotations to throw the orbiter into aerodynamic forces that tore it apart. The now-destroyed craft flew uncontrollably until a range safety officer destroyed it.

That disaster today is imprinted in memory as firmly as the horrific assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, MLK, and John Lennon.

Dear Friends, Reliving my memories of the Challenger disaster and its aftermath. Diana

New Dawn

Monday, January 27, 2025

This is Mozart’s birthday, and my eldest sister’s, too. She left this earth long ago, and I still miss her.

Interestingly, I’ve been thinking about her quite a bit over the last couple of weeks without consciously remembering her birthday. Thanks to Mozart for the heads-up about what’s been keeping her high in my mind approaching this date.

For many years, January 27 was a big deal in my life, and apparently, to my inner self, it still is. So, just now, I am lighting a memorial candle and inviting my inner self to remember and reflect more. The candle will burn this morning until I leave for work and again this evening when I’m home.

Now, I can let my conscious attention turn to today more. It’s another early-to-work day. I’ll be opening the store’s Jewelry Department and working almost entirely physically. I’ll be unlocking safes, moving trays of stones, resetting displays in prominent cases, and ensuring the whole department sparkles before the store opens for business.

Dear Friends: Have a wonderful day; it’s still cold but clear here in Central Oregon. Diana

Leg Up

Sunday, January 26, 2025

I am experimenting with my learning ability by signing up online for a beginning Spanish course.

Here’s why Spanish: My few years of employment in local retail businesses show Central Oregon’s sizable Spanish population. Many local Spanish are articulate in English, and many others are barely articulate or don’t speak any English.

Retail workers who understand Spanish have a leg up on communicating and selling. I hope to at least gain listening skills. That would give me insight into what customers may discuss among themselves when deciding whether to purchase.

I will again be challenging myself, and mightily. Often, I’ve attempted to learn left-brain skills like math and languages, but unsuccessfully. Taking math and language courses has challenged me, usually unsuccessfully, to comprehend specifics well enough to retain them. I can more capably understand right-brain skills like psychology and communications.

It is daunting to try again to learn a foreign language. However, this time’s different because I am clear about what I want to achieve. Having specific goals might overcome what previously were abstract wishes to learn.

I am tiptoeing into this by committing only to one month of immersion. If I am active, feel involved in the course, and discover that I am learning to any noticeable extent, I’ll re-sign up and take the entire course.

Dear Friends: So, “Hasta la vista, baby!” Diana

Starting Point

Saturday, January 25, 2025

The package that arrived included instructions for caring for my new sourdough starter. My instructions were to “feed” the tiny starter flour and water and discard most of it when the dough doubled. Afterward, again feed flour and water, and discard most of it when the “second dough” grows. Repeating that entire process over a week or more would “optimize” the doughball.

Following those instructions gives me mixed feelings. It seems wasteful to toss “living dough” and then start over to feed and toss. I’m a new sourdough caretaker, uncertain of what “optimizing” means. I suppose those repeated small-batch feedings strengthen a core so it has maximum efficiency in a bread mix.

While having such “supposing thoughts” about the dough, I also think about us and consider “trigger words,” like feed, discard, and feed again. They suggest how people usually learn and grow–similar to how a sourdough ball grows. By translating “feeding” into “learning.” we glimpse a key way our human skills develop.

Our journey of learning and growth is a continuous process. We absorb information, and like a sourdough starter being fed, we take in new knowledge. We evaluate its relevance and retain what nourishes us. We discard what doesn’t serve our growth. Each feeding deepens our understanding and makes us more discerning and wiser.

Humans become more resilient through the ongoing cycles of learning and refinement. They shape our perspectives and strengthen our abilities to navigate life’s complexities.

Lesson recognized: Sourdough starters and all other living beings evolve similarly.

Dear Friends: Soon, I will create a loaf of this complex bread from scratch. Diana

Lightening Up

Friday, January 24, 2025

I am going to my part-time job early today. I dislike working away from home in the darkest winter months because short daylight hours force me outside in darkness to give my equines their evening feedings.

Working with them in sunlight will happen soon. In these late winter months, we are experiencing added minutes of visible light daily.

That’s high on my mind today, and now I must start doing my pre-work work.

Dear Friends: Have a great day and enjoy bits more of light at its end. Diana

Oy Vey

Thursday, January 23, 2025

My brain is approaching a more normal state, recovering from a mini-depression caused by the Presidential race results. The winners immediately began generating images of a future darker than any known in modern times.

Right away, we’ve seen efforts to strip personal rights from individuals and groups, vigorous clamorings for lots of focus on religion in classrooms and government, and wild international threats by a President (and his henchmen/women) to claim uber-power recognition.

My depression’s negativity is more fueled by knowing America’s uber-rich will be co-directing the country’s economic and social future–and, therefore, MY future. I’m being forced to pivot and reevaluate my plans, options, and resources. While few plans are ever “set in concrete,” I’ve felt reasonably secure until now.

A “little guy’s” worries include ever-rising food prices, the potential of healthcare availability and costs, whether the Fed will continue supporting Social Security and Medicare, and the increasingly important issue of housing-related scarcities.

The new President’s intent to deport “illegals” boggles my mind. Equally so is the possibility that America might stop supporting Ukraine.

Dear Friends: I’m struggling now, again, to avoid re-sinking into mini-depression. Diana

into mini-depression. Diana

Thoughtfully

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

I am off today from my part-time job. I will try adding “Pimmy Donkey In Central Oregon” to the Bluesky site. Pimmy has a popular page on Facebook, but we’re leaving FB, and I hope she may continue entertaining followers elsewhere.

I’m thinking of becoming a contributor on the Substack site but I’m challenged as a writer who generalizes. Contributors to social feeds are successful by writing understandably and keeping specific areas interesting and enjoyable. I wiggle among topics having the potential to represent my areas of high interest, but electing a constant focus escapes me. Essentially, I’m baby-stepping toward new directions, and fortunately, I don’t need to hurry.

I need to untangle my interests and identify my highest motivators. Doing that calls for me to self-reflect and explore. I must experiment by engaging actively with my passions while considering practicalities. Doing the basics to “seek my true calling” should reveal my highest, most motivating interests.

Dear Friends: “I think, therefore I am.” (I think.) Diana

Enlightenment

Monday, January 20, 2025

This is Martin Luther King Day. Yesterday’s weather prevued this chilly but beautiful new day. I was outside several times to feed my animals. My gloved hands tended to become freezy, a signal to stay inside as much as possible. So, I did: cleaned the house, fed a sourdough starter, baked bread (machine), organized spaces, studied algebra online (Kahn Academy), and read more of Amy Tan’s bird book.

The more I learn about genetics, the more I appreciate that various beings, existing commonly alongside humans, may also “have intelligence.” Studies have revealed vast underground networks of tree and plant roots–intertwined, communicating, and exchanging nutrients. Researchers have learned more about how plants communicate with each other, respond to touch, store memories, and deceive animals for their own benefit.

A recently published book adds to such learning. It’s The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. Its author, Zoë Schlanger, covers climate change and here explores the contemporary world of botany.

In the past twenty years, ideas of plants communicating are more broadly accepted. Research shows examples. Lima beans protect themselves by synthesizing and releasing chemicals to summon predators of the insects that eat them. Lab-grown pea shoots navigate and respond to the sounds of running water. In Chile, a chameleonic jungle vine mimics the shape and color of nearby plants.

Those behavioral mechanisms aren’t fully understood, and scientists have different opinions about whether plants can sense the world and communicate. I’m eager to start reading this book and thinking about possibilities.

Dear Friends: Are humans possibly less supreme among organisms? Diana

Flyin’ High & Low

Merlin, atop my juniper, captured several years ago

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Yesterday, I was too optimistic about this area’s “warmish” January weather. Last night turned into a deep freeze. I must tread into the uninviting outdoors soon to care for my outside animals. Meanwhile, my early morning rituals of coffee and headlines remain unchanged.

Regarding headlines and wishing to follow state and local news more closely, I have subscribed to The Oregonian. Like many others, I can’t imagine what might occur nationally and internationally after tomorrow’s leadership change; however, staying abreast of local impacts is essential.

I’ll be engaging my brain in matters more local and specific. Local, as in political, social, and economic impacts to Oregon, and specific, as in studying math and art again. I’ve yearned to be good at math and art all my life. I have pursued and got a “leg up” on each but haven’t maintained a grip on either after periods of inactivity.

The famous saying, “All politics is local,” will be my near-focus, besides occasional outbursts if I can’t “pack it in.” Today, I’ll start by reading more from Amy Tan’s “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” enjoying her mastery of math and art–while imagining myself with similar skills.

Dear Friends: Shifting(s) in one realm may insist on shifting(s) in others. Diana