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Person #1:  You’re up late.
Me: Yeah, I’m staying up to see the shuttle launch at 4:30 or so.
Person #1:  That’s like 10 minutes from now.  The server time’s in Central time.
Me: Crap.

I jump from my treadmill put on a coat and gun to my car driving at excessive speeds to my chosen viewing area.  I step out into the parking lot in my sandals and exercise shorts with my camera poised at the horizon and waited…10 minutes later after seeing nothing I checked the launch status on my phone and the launch had been scrubbed due to cloud cover.

I waited again today at 4:20 AM in the parking lot of workplace, and 6 minutes after launch a white dot a bit bigger than Venus began screaming North about 5 degrees (3 fingers) above the horizon.  It puttered in and out of view obviating every cloud between the dot and I.   I choked up a little and then went about my day.  And by that I mean I nodded off while removing crapware from a PC I was recommissioning.

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I went to Lowes to get some wire management stuff and was stopped in the parking lot by a man trying to sell me a Lowes card.  Normally, I’d politely decline, but the pieces didn’t quite fit, and I was going to call him out on it.  First off, he was standing in the middle of parking row rather than near the door, second he was looking around crazy shifty and third he picked me out.

Guy: Hey, I have a $200 Lowes card that I’m to sell it.
Me: No thank you.
Guy: But you can use it for the stuff you’re going to buy anyway.
Me: I’m only getting about $3.00 in stuff. I have no need for a gift card.
Guy: It’s not a gift card, you can use it for anything.  I just lost my job, help a guy out.
Me: I’m sorry where from?
Guy: *Pause* Lowes.
Me: So you bought a gift card from the Lowes you worked at.  Is that your truck you were leaning against?
Guy: Yeah.
Me: It says FOX carpentry.*Awkward silence*
Guy: So are you going to get the card or not?  You can take it inside and see that it’s legit.
Me: I’ll give you $30 for it.
Guy: I was looking for $150.
Me: $20.  Final offer.
Guy: *Walks away in frustration*

The guy was also holding a receipt from Lowes the whole time. Had he allowed me probe further I would have asked him about that.  At least the pushers at Temple had tight backstories when they tried to tell you shit.