Shawn Mariani

This may be the ultimate geek-out, but I thought I’d write a bit about the recent shuttle mission and why I find it so interesting.

• There’s less than 8 missions remaining for the space shuttle before NASA transitions to their new vehicle.  It’s hard to watch a launch or follow the shuttle in orbit and remember that the shuttle and much of it’s technology is outdated by decades.  The coming of NASA’s new program is exciting, but I think with these last few missions comes a bittersweet feeling of all the history and strides the shuttle program made through the years.  It’s something to stop and think about.  Also, I need to get to FL to watch a launch and witness history.
• STS-125′s extended mission lasted 14 days, much longer than normal since they attempted to wait for Florida’s weather to clear to avoid landing in California (which they ultimately did).  Landing at Edward’s Air Force Base in California costs 2 million dollars more than the standard landing.  Even NASA is watching it’s spending in this economic environment.
• Michael T. Good, STS-125′s Missions Specialist 1 was born in Parma, Ohio and graduated from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School in Broadview Heights, Ohio.  This is something Cleveland should be proud of – and I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about Good in the news these past few weeks.
• This was the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope – again, really interesting to think about all of the strides the Hubble made and to think that this is the last time human hands will touch the telescope.  Astronauts performed a series of spacewalks to upgrade the telescopes components – I’m looking forward to seeing what these upgrades are capable of since previous images produced by the Hubble are nothing short of amazing.
• Shuttle Endeavor sat on it’s launch pad awaiting a possible mission (STS-400) to rescue the crew of Atlantis in the event of mission failure.  STS-125 was a high risk mission and there’s only been a few times where another shuttle has been on a launch pad standing by.  This was really a Bruce Willis movie about to happen in real life had something gone wrong with STS-125, but thankfully he was never called.  In any event, twin shuttles makes for a cool picture.

Atlantis STS-125 and Endeavour STS-400

Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble (from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day)

Amateur Astronomer Thierry Legault made this one of kind photograph from the ground of the Space shuttle Atlantis as the shuttle was passing between the sun and the earth.

Michael T. Good talks about his first job, a garbage man in Cleveland, Ohio.

• The Barley House, W 6th Street, Cleveland – April 30th, 2009
• Johnny Malloy’s, Detroit Road, Lakewood – March 22, 2008

The above locations & dates have a few things in common:

1. Both are places I’ve been to.
2. Both are to be considered decent and safe places to drink.
3. Both are related to deaths as a result of a scuffle between two men.

No one is really a fan of fighting in bars except total douche bags, but we’ve all witnessed fights on occasion.  You’re out with friends enjoying some drinks and having a good time at a place with other people doing the same.  You’ll suddenly see bouncers run in the same direction and separate two or more people usually yelling or punching one another.  The offenders are escorted out and people laugh and carry on their merry ways.  Be it in an urban or rural setting, or a dingy or classy environment  – bar fights happen everywhere.

I was shocked to hear the story of Lakewood’s Matthew Hockey, age 29.  He was involved in a fight with Derrick Dykas, 24, of Michigan outside Johnny Malloy’s last spring.  Punches were exchanged, the fight broken up.  Hockey went home and later died in his sleep.  It is unknown if Dykas’ punch or the collision of his head to the curb caused the injury (multiple witnesses state both occurrences.)

In today’s Plain Dealer, I read about Mentor’s Michael Corrado, age 22.  He too was involved in a fight, this one outside W. 6th’s hip Barley House on April 20th, 2009.  He was punched by 27 year old Walter Triplett Jr. of Cleveland.  Corrado fell to ground hitting his head on the curb, later dying at MetroHealth Medical Center.

Walter Triplett Jr. faces up to 2 years in prison and a fine of $15,000 if convicted.  (Really?  $15,000?  That’s less than what I paid for my first car.  2 years in prison?  That’s half of the total time I spent in College.)

I don’t really know what the point of this post is.  I guess if I am ever in this type of situation, I will go out of my way to avoid a physical altercation as much as possible.  Bar fights are rarely the choreographed humorous events that are portrayed in so many movies.  I guess go out of your way to be cool to everyone, Cleveland.  And if you want to fight over something stupid after drinking a crapton of alcohol, try not the kill the other guy.

Stoker & motorcycle from New York – These guys still exist and I’m glad they do.

My third time to The Big Easy, left work early last Wednesday around 3:30, rendezvoused with Courtney and hit the road by about 4:45.  Drove half the full distance of 1,050+ miles and stayed the night in Bowling Green, KY.  Finished the drive down Thursday morning and made a dinner stop at the Abita Brewpub in Abita Springs, LA (the 17th largest craft brewer in the states).  Enjoyed an average brewery dinner; burgers and a few beers exclusive to an on-site visit.  After finishing the 23 mile drive on the longest over-water bridge in the world we checked into Hotel New Orleans (Convention Center Blvd.) by about 8PM Central time and were walking the French Quarter by about 8:30.  Had some cafe au lait and beignets at the historic Cafe Du Monde before heading to Frenchman Street.  We then circled back around stopping at Coco’s on Bourbon Street after hearing the blaring sound of Bryan Lee and the Blues Power Band‘s lead and slide guitars.  The completely blind Bryan Lee can really jam and is fun to watch rip up some blues.  We stayed here for about an hour before walking back and calling it a night.  The next day we split a muffaletta from Central Grocery on the banks of the Mississippi, enjoyed an afternoon cigar from The Cigar Factory and then hopped on the St. Charles Streetcar and took  a ride through the historic Garden District.  Enjoyed a Ferdie Po’ Boy at Mothers on Canal for dinner before heading back out.  It is here my recollection of events becomes cloudy as we walked Bourbon.  Saturday morning hit the new Audubon Zoo’s Insectarium (which sucked) and then drove to the Jazz Fest.

Admission was $50 at the gate.  Next time we’ll take the shuttle since parking was a fiasco – there were private residents parking cars for $25+  near the race track where the fest is held.  We paid a young kid $30 to park.  The parking spot was on a public street; he moved his car which acted as a placeholder and we pulled in behind him.  Part of me thinks I could have gotten away with telling him to screw off and parked on the street for free.  The Jazz Fest was great – similar to Bonnaroo, but more family-friendly, with better food, less drugs, equal alcohol consumption, less shade and placed in a venue about 100x smaller.  The crowd easily filled up the interior and exterior of the horse track and by about 3 in the afternoon – there was even grid locked foot traffic while trying to walk about.  The food was absolutely amazing, I had a crawfish puff and later some crawfish bread, both for $5.  Caught a few acts before we left rather early in the day, walking past the hundreds in line just then showing up to see Bon Jovi.  Perhaps next time we’ll hit the fest the first day opposed to walking the hot streets of NOLA for hours the days before.  We were physically spent by the 3rd day to say the least.  We headed back to the room, watched the Bulls suck against the Celtics and then headed back out for a quiet dinner at Gordon Biersch (a chain brewery similar to Cleveland’s Rock Bottom).  Woke up early Sunday morning, and drove the complete distance back before falling asleep at home in Cleveland.  That and fell in love with XM’s Grateful Dead & CNN stations.  Oddly enough, while driving through central Alabama – CNN had a news break about tornadic activity near Birmingham.  Kind of cool we were in the middle of a storm that received national coverage and coincidentally heard the report.  The rain made whiteout conditions at times and we tuned to local radio & our atlas to find the storm was a few miles away.

Hitting Waffle Houses and truck stops along the way, I was taken back to the road trips I used to take years ago and found much serenity and adventure in burning up the road.  Nothing beats a good road trip, and The Crescent City is always a tremendous destination.