Friday the 13th

Today was a weird day. I'm not superstitious, but the day didn't exactly end on a good note. We'll get to that in a minute.

Today was actually a relaxing day at work. I gave a presentation and tour to a class of students from Texas A&M. Dr. Vadali's space craft dynamics class came to JSC for a visit. I had a class with Dr. Vadali back in the day, and when i was asked to give a tour and presentation, i didn't hesitate. I like doing things like this so it was easy to take a "day off" from work to educate potential new flight controllers. It was good to see Dr. Vadali again.

Tonight was another scheduled Finding Reason practice...this is where the day turns sour. It was perhaps the worst practice i've had ever...it was one of those days where i just felt like quitting all together. It was as if i had never picked up a guitar in my life. Ben was in a grumpy mood and i couldn't play worth a darn. That damn blue devils is getting on my nerves. That put me in a grumpy mood.

I came home and continued to practice. I had to get that bad taste out of my mouth. I'm not really any better at blue devils, but i'm not any worse. I may have accidently stumbled upon a new song in the process. I decided i'd try to do some recording through the laptop...and it friggin' worked. I've had problems recording through my desktop for years...but i never tried the laptop until tonight. So, i did a quick recording and sent the newly created piece to ben and greg. I don't know if they've listened to it yet, since it was about 10:45 tonight when i did this. I'm not going to bed grumpy ... so i guess that's good.

Oh...speaking of blue devils, greg posted the other two songs to our myspace website. The songs aren't perfect, but if we want to attract a drummer we need to have our music avaiable for them to listen to. And with that, you can listen to them too.

Tomorrow will be a better day...

Professor Thomas U. McElmurry

Yesterday, I learned that my very first Aero professor had passed away early last month. Professor McElmurry was a great professor. Aero201, i believe, was the class. This was our first taste of the aerospace world. I still have my model airplane that we built in that class. I still have the report of the airplane that i designed in that class. If i recall correctly, I was in the second to last class that he taught. I think there was one more class of students prior to him retiring. I was completely honored and privileged to be in the presence of this man. He had so many great stories to tell. Somewhere amongst his belongings is a book full of polaroid photographs. These photographs will contain each and every student he ever taught. That was his thing...at the beginning of the semester he'd pull out his camera and snap a few pictures of the class so that he'd be able to put a face with the names.
Below is the article that the Texas A&M Aerospace Department put together:

Thomas Uriel McElmurry

Aerospace engineering professor McElmurry remembered

Thomas Uriel McElmurry a visiting associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering for 13 years, passed away today (Nov. 3) at the age of 85. McElmurry, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, began his Air Force career at age 17 with the Army Air Force in Seward, Ak., eventually receiving flight training in Santa Maria, Calif., in 1942. After flying two tours of duty in World War II, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama and master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of

Michigan. Remaining on activity military and as a test pilot, McElmurry was chief of the Operations and Training Branch of the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base and an astronaut candidate in NASA Group 2, selected in

1961 for military astronaut class 1. He also was an instructor at the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, where he was involved with the NF104 space plane, and a test pilot at the Naval Weapons Center in California and at Holloman Air Force Base in

New Mexico. During his career with NASA, he was chief of flight crew operations in the Office of Manned Space Flight; chief of the Orbiter Atmospheric Flight Test Office; deputy manager of operations integration for the Space Shuttle Program; manager for operations integration for the Space Shuttle Program Office; and assistant for systems reliability and quality assurance for the Systems Division, Mission Operations. Upon retiring from NASA, he served 13 years on the Texas A&M aerospace engineering faculty. While at Texas A&M, he was the advisor to the student Aviation Association and the Corps of Cadets. In his spare time, McElmurry was a very active flight instructor and avid flyer.