From the ashes

Yesterday turned out to be quite a long day.  After putting in my requisite 12 hours, the dept heads got together for a mid-trip, ops meeting.  An hour plus of that shit really knocked my dick in the dirt. It was pretty light-hearted for a meeting, but still left me shuffling my feet and mumbling.  It was all I could do to drag my tired ass outta bed this morning and I barely made shift change.  Fortunately, there is little to do tonight, being the weekend and all caught up with my production and testing.  I'm putting together a small shipment and wishing I could ship myself home. 

Back home today, my son is standing up in his cap and gown and officially graduating from high school.  I just called him, but we only spoke briefly.  He was attending another school's graduation ceremony and it would've been rude to sit on the phone during the proceedings.  Made me feel very disconnected and far away.  I guess 15,000 miles is pretty far away, unless you're an astronaut, but I don't normally feel it this bad.

Had a long talk with the only other American onboard.  We spoke of things we've read, or heard from our family.  It sounds like things are starting to get pretty bad back home.  Tell me, are things really falling apart back in the U.S.?  We get a sense that things have really taken a turn for the worse in just the few short weeks we've been away.

Completely unrelated, but my science buddies on the Interwebs tell me that the Phoenix should be landing right about now.  I'm trying out a few non-NASA websites, but can't seem to get any information.  Hope that little bastard makes it.  I'm trying to connect to the Phoenix Landing BLog right now, but my connection is shit, or their site is down:(

Hope all you folks have a nice, lazy Sunday.  Monday down here so far, sucks.