NASA Shuttle Launch & Mike Massimino

When we moved to NY we became acquainted with one of my mothers friends. They belonged to the same church organization. In March of 2002 her son - Michael Massimino - was launched on the space shuttle SST109.

The whole family were in Florida for the launch, so we volunteered to video tape the launch and all Mike's walks to fix the Hubble Space telescope. (This was before DVR's!) Of course most of the walks were in the middle of the night, so Gene set the alarm to be sure all recorded well.

Mike grew up in the same town I did - Franklin Square, Long Island, NY and attended the same high school - H. Frank Carey.

Saying that the whole town was so proud is an understatement. A few months later he returned to our hometown and was greeted by a parade and several events. It was then we met him. What a nice person he is - full of fun and a decent family man.

Fast forward to May 11,2009. SST125 Atlantis was launched to return to the Hubble to do work on it for the last time. And Mike is aboard this flight also and will space walk at least 2 times.

Unfortunately we were not able to be in Florida for the launch, but we were there in March for another space shuttle launch that went to the space station.

Below are pictures from that launch in March 2009. It was just after sunset at 7:45EDT so the lighting was awesome.

We were able to be on a beach in Titusville - directly west of the launch pad. This is 'our' beach just before launch. It is hard to guess but as the crow flies we were 6-8 miles from the launch pad with just water between us. It was a Sunday so there were so many people there, that it took us 4 hours to go 40 miles back to Orlando.

LAUNCH - It was silent. It took 8 seconds for the roar, blast off noise to reach us. So that is why I said we were about 6 - 8 miles away. The crowd was silent until we heard the blast off and then they erupted in cheers and whistles. Absolutely brought tears to all our eyes.

Is this too amazing or what?

Separation - see the tiny little white dot? That is the fuel tanks separating from the vehicle. Also notice the blue line coming out on the right side. We all can't figure out what caused that.

Some of the sun reflecting on the vapor trail and the blue line is still there. And if you look really close you can still the white dot on the left side almost across from what looks like a loop in the vapor trail.

As I write this SST 125 just snagged the Hubble and will be working on it the next few days.

BTW these photos were taken with Sony Cyber-Shot 8.1. Some were taken with the zoom all the way out.

When Someone Says They Don't Know What to Sell on eBay!

So many times I have heard this statement. "I need money and don't have anything to sell". The first suggestion always is to clean out all the unwanteds from the house. Next is to re-evaluate the collections and accumulated craft things.

I know I have tried almost every craft known to man and have all the supplies to go along with them. I will need 2 more lifetimes to use them all, so it is time to start decluttering.

So many times it is as easy as just looking around. When we lived in my childhood home in Franklin Square, NY 2001 - 2005 there were Lily of the Valley growing all over in one part of the yard. Actually even tho' I love them, they were quite invasive.

Being the eBayers we are, http://tinyurl.com/den8g9, we listed them for $9.99 plus priority shipping. Gene dug 25 pips (roots) at a time, only after they were sold and paid for. With a damp paper towel and wrapped in plastic, they arrived in great condition.

We moved before we dug them, all but I suspect we sold over 1000 of them. Many people bought 100 at a time.

Last fall I had this very conversation with a gal in the mid west who has Bittersweet growing like a weeds in her yard. At the time the only Bittersweet that was listed, were plants which I was not interested in purchasing but was very interested in cuttings for fall arrangements. I never got those cuttings, which is unfortunate because that could have been a recurring, annual sale.

There are so many things that one part of the country has that others don't, like the bittersweet, pussy willows, sheet moss from the forest/wood, holly, etc.

We thought of the Spanish moss, when we were in FL, but it is buggy and to debug it, the moss really needs to be dried, which takes away some of the beauty of it. The soft fresh Spanish moss is so much nicer.

Scrapbookers use pressed flowers all the time and there are so many different ones that bloom all summer long, including weeds, fruit trees and wild flowers. They are no big deal to press, take no room to store and light to ship.

None of these ideas are going to bring huge amounts of money but think of it this way - they all are free, so the bottom $$ line may even be higher than purchased goods. And the best is that they generate sales, keeps the account active, accumulates feedback and makes a few bucks too, with very little effort and no fear of the item getting broken, on its way to its destination!

We know a teenager who had some sort of critter that ate a certain kind of bug. Turns out the bug was easy to procreate and raise. He sold batches on eBay and did fairly well doing it.

But with any live creature or plant one has to be careful of the laws in different states. We refused to ship the Lily of Valley internationally.

I have been told repeatedly that I could sell a snowball to an Eskimo but really the trick is look at everything and put a dollar sign in the picture. Ask yourself if anyone else is selling this thing and if no, why not? If no, then why not try one listing and see what happens.

In these hard times, being creative will save a lot of sellers, rather than going down the path thousands of other sellers are strolling down too!

The bottom line is that any new listing line is a gamble but as the saying goes List More; Sell More; Hire a Cleaning Lady!!!