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From the porch
Since Vana won't charge us to reside with her for a week. it will be a relatively inexpensive vacation - probably well below $500. Compare that to 58-yearold Charles Simonyi's $25 million vacation. Of course, my trip will be nine or 10 days. His out of this world vacation will be for a full 13 days. Simonyi is due home Friday. He has a first class ticket as a space tourist. He is only the fifth paying customer of the Russians. He blasted off from earth in a Russian rocket on April 7 along with two cosmonauts for a two-day journey to the international space station. At the space station, Simonyi will be conducting a number of experiments, including measuring radiation levels and studying biological organisms inside the lab. Simonyi is a native of Hungary but emigrated to the United States in 1968 and worked at Microsoft Corp., helping to develop Word and Microsoft Excel before founding his own software company. Will average U.S. citizens ever be able to vacation in space? If it happens, it will be many years (or centuries) in the future. It will be a long time before average rich people (multi-millionaires) can afford to relax in the stillness and quietness of space. Simonyi is a billionaire and that is the only income level that can presently afford such luxuries. I like the idea of exotic trips. But I can only afford a little exotic - maybe to the extreme outer limits of Unaka - possibly an out-of-state tour of Turtletown, TN. To make the Simonyi story even more bizarre is that recent jailbird and cooking television personality Martha Stewart was in Kazakhstan, Russia to bid farewell to Simonyi. News reports stated that Stewart spent time on a camel before the launch of her billionaire friend into space. I've been on a camel at a circus and I rode in a small stunt plane at the local airshow a couple of years ago. I prefer the camel. At least it doesn't do loops and travel at high speed upside down. Simonyi treated his fellow space station crew to a gourmet meal chosen by Stewart. It included quail roasted in Madiran wine; duck breast confit with capers and shredded chicken parmentier. I would think that $25 million would include all meals but I guess not. If I were a space tourist, I would have to bring peanut butter sandwiches. It may be that a new invention will allow cheaper space travel and perhaps a moon colony or sub-divisions on Mars. At the rate people are moving into Cherokee County, perhaps some of them could be diverted to another planet.
Maybe one summer, instead of visiting Vana, Mike and my granddaughters in Hampton, I could visit them in their domed city on the Red Planet. Since they never charge me for room and board, perhaps I could afford such a vacation.
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