I was sitting down watching yet another moonshot documentary just now and a realisation crossed my mind.
Observation: Since 1969 when I saw Apollo 11 lift off, I have been completely obsessed by the notion of space, and the thought of being somewhere out there in it.
All I watch are space-related documentaries and movies.
All I read are space-related books - either documentary or fiction.
My favourite movie of all time stars Robby the Robot.
When I visit a book store at the mall or a library I head straight for the science section.
Both my dunnies have a magazine rack-full of astronomy rags and nothing else.
My main hobby is staring out into space through numerous telescopes and capturing it with a camera.
Of the 11,000-odd images my camera has taken, nearly 8,000 have been snapped off the back of a telescope.
I'm an active member of two astronomy clubs.
The only "parties" I go to these days are star parties.
I call mine a three bedroom house, because I couln't fit a bed in my gear room.
Every time I meet someone new and am invited over to their place, I silently evaluate their back yard for its potential as a viewing site.
I'd rather go to Magellan Observatory for the weekend than Hamilton Island.
Most of my purely disposable cash goes on astronomy-related hardware or software.
I avoid going to Bintel on work days because I quite frankly haven't the time to sit there and yak with the lads for hours - much to my chagrin.
A proportion of my spare time is spent in building and maintaining an astronomy club website.
At least 50% of my Google searches are space or astronomy-related.
Of the eight browser tabs I currently have open, 7 of them point to astro or weather websites.
At least 2/3rd of my real friends are also interested in space and astronomy.
Of the 16 programs I have queued to record on Foxtel iQ for the next two weeks, 15 are space-related programs.
No matter how much crap I have to crush into the 4WD when preparing for a trip - there HAS to be room for one tripod, a 60 or 80mm refractor and a camera or two or something else (probably important like a sleeping bag or food) gets turfed.
A new filter takes precedence over getting the sqealing fan belt in the fourby fixed.
I fiercely defend the reality of the moon missions, and go off my trolley at people who have nothing better to do than debate whether they were genuine or not.
I can pull facts and figures relating to spaceflight back in 1957 out of my head faster and more reliably than I can recall what I had for dinner just last Friday.
With the very short lifespan of a typical human, I'm constantly gladdened that I am priviledged enough to have been born at the beginning of the space race era, as opposed to any other point in history.
I fall asleep each and every night by dreaming that I'm in a zero-g environment.
Sorry...rambling along....
Anyone else totally absorbed in all of this, or am I just a weird case?
This can't be healthy! LOL!
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