Astronaut Memories

It is absolutely pouring here in Boston. However, I’m not really all that wet, thanks to my rain gear; just my feet a bit (I need a pair of those shoe covers), and the lower half of my face (the part under my goggles).

Doing a full seal on my goretex jacket, plus putting on my overpants, plus the usual safety dork gear (glow vest and anklets, lights on the bike), takes a good five minutes.

It reminds me of going outside in deep winter in Minnesota; I would pretend that the garage was an airlock or shuttlebay. I’d get dressed in long johns and clothing inside, then don snowpants, coat, boots, gloves, and headgear in the garage, where it was freezing, but where there was no wind. The coat I had in elementary school even had snow glare goggles that zipped right onto the hood.

Once I was suited up, I’d usually have a brief “ready for EVA” conversation with “mission control”, and then hit the garage door opener. I might do a little khoo-pah breathing in there, too. Then I’d walk slow-mo out into the snow, and the well below zero air. It was awesome.

I guess the point was, I had a serious nostalgia flashback tonight, and just really enjoyed riding in the rain.

Did I mention already that I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid? Appropriate then that I am posting at 2001 military time, locally.

Another Star” from At The Close Of A Century by Stevie Wonder


Comments

6 responses to “Astronaut Memories”

  1. Yeah, it’s been awfully wet here as well, and although it’s not raining now, it’s supposed to be threatening all rain for the rest of the week. Ugh.

  2. What sort of jacket do you have? Mine lost its waterproof long ago, so I’m in the market for a new one… pronto.

    My brother is a frosh at Macalester. I don’t think he even brought a winter jacket, let alone boots or snow pants or anything. Boy, is he in for a surprise!

  3. You remind me of what I had to do to go on mid-winter distance training runs in Minneapolis: thermal underlayer, sweats, windsuit, scarf, breathing mask, thinsulate hat and mittens, and heavy lotion on every piece of exposed skin (what little there was).

    And it’s raining quite hard out here in SF as well.

  4. Eastern Mountain Sports 3-in-1 jacket; I forget the model name. The second-to-outer layer of the overcoat part is GORE-TEX®. I don’t really have much need for the inner insulated layer here in Boston, especially when riding.

  5. what a dork.

    in other news, I’ve started rewatching some of Enterprise. there’s some very decent stuff in there, but the series overall just lacked depth… and quality….. the effects are still pretty, though.

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