July 4, 2004

           This was the day JZ and I went over to do some pool maintenance at his sister's. JZ took out a pickax and hit his ankle on the second swing. That's my buddy. No picture but he would not go to the clinic. So we piled in his truck, the one with the missing back window and went over to Churchill's Pub in Little Haiti. I had a lot of fun with the waitresses from that place. The scribble in the calendar margin indicates we spent $48 that time around. You're only young once. But I guess dudes like JZ and I kind of drag that out as long as possible.
           Early this morning a space probe sent an instrument package crashing into a comet, an event that was soon forgotten. It may sound like there were missions all over the place in 2004, but the reality was NASA was just cashing in on a large number of independent missions that had been launched in earlier years and were now arriving at their destinations simultaneously. As far as I know, the mothership had a "tennis racket" to collect comet dust and ten years later, finally returned seven of these particles to Earth. If I recall, there was a sign-up program to help examine these dust specs, something like Stardust@Home, but you can look that up.
           Note: this looks like a staged photo or simulation, but it is an actual snap of the impact taken from 435 miles away. The sparks flew, and if you look closely, there were other jets from the comet center. As far as I know, there was nothing noteworthy came of this mission.