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Saratoga Sampler
Space travel becomes a reality--for only $200,000
By Mary Ann Cook
SELLING A TICKET TO SPACE: As wild as it sounds, you can actually buy a ticket for space travel. Said space travel would take place in early '09 and costs six figures--$200,000 to be exact. Only two people in Northern California will be accredited to sell such tickets and Saratogan Lynda Garrett is one.
Garrett, who works for Alpine Travel, is one of 45 agents chosen nationwide by Virgin Galactic, the carrier for these sub-orbital space flights, and Virtuoso, a top-ranked consortium of travel agents. She has taken a three-day training course at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and can begin reserving seats.
The suborbital flights will be two hours long and passengers will take a three-day acclimation course prior to take-off, including G force acclimatization. Take-off is said to be gentler than a shuttle launch, because it's a piggy-back operation.
The aircraft climbs up to 50,000 feet while attached to a specially designed carrier. It's also considered a safer way to launch than vertically from the ground. The spaceship next is released from the carrier and climbs vertically, reaching the speed of sound in 10 seconds and four times the speed of sound in less than 30 seconds.
Traveling at more than 3,000 mph, the G-force surge will push the space adventurers back into their seats as they head into the black sky. Their maximum altitude will be 75 miles above the Earth's surface. When the rocket motor shuts down, they will experience the silence of space and the wonder of weightlessness.
Passengers will be able to see the curvature of the Earth and its atmosphere, as well as 1,000 miles in any direction. The space flight will pass back through the atmosphere without a heat build-up because of the unique, wing-feathering technology employed, and the craft will make a normal runway landing.
Hard to believe, isn't it?
HAIKU TWO: Jim and Betty Arnold of Saratoga are two haiku poets who will be featured at the Teahouse Reading and Workshop May 19 at the Japanese Friendship Garden at Kelley Park, San Jose. The workshop is at 10 a.m.-noon, led by Roger Abe, a Los Gatos native and park ranger.
The reading with the Arnolds and Jerry Bell, founder of Haiku North America, will be at 1:30 p.m. Both events are free. The Arnolds are retired San Jose physicians--she a pediatrician, he a dermatologist. They are particularly entranced by the reflective, spiritual nature of haiku.
"It makes me stop and be fully present in the moment," says Jim. "It's an awareness practice, a spiritual process, paying attention to your ears and eyes." And then translating those impressions into three lines of 17 syllables with this configuration: 5/7/5.
That's the mathematical equivalent of a haiku. Of course, that doesn't describe the whole haiku story: Tradition holds that the poem contain a seasonal reference word. And, if it also manages to contain something profound, you've hit haiku gold.
"butterflies fluttering/beside the stone wall ruins/cherry blossom wind" is an example of a Betty Arnold haiku that reflects present, past and the evanescence of life itself. That haiku was written in Matsuyama, Japan, where the Arnolds were on "a mission to write haiku" as part of their attendance at a Haiku Pacific Rim Conference.
Writing haiku "is a beautiful way to remember a moment," says Betty. Everywhere they went in Japan they found beauty and quiet and consideration. One example: She inadvertently left a package at a store and when she went back to get it, the package had already been taken to the hotel. Somehow the saleswoman had ascertained where they were staying and had it delivered. Such thorough attention amazed her, since she had returned to the store probably only some 10 minutes later.
The comfort and safety levels in Japan the Arnolds found astounding. Cities were graffiti-free and they encountered no rude use of cell phones. The travelers also marveled at the 180 mph bullet-train ride. Such was their take on the modern world, but they also enjoyed the ancient--soaking in the oldest bathhouse in Japan, for example--3,000 years old.
The local Haiku Society meets the first Saturday of the month, often at Hakone.
A TREE NAMED LOUISE: A large live oak was planted at the bottom of Pierce Road in honor of Arbor Day, and named the Louise Cooper Memorial Oak. The tree was a gift from the city and the Tree Society named the oak in honor of the longtime public servant, recently deceased.
Cooper was a member of Saratoga's pioneering Cooper and Garrod families, and served Saratoga all her life, particularly in the areas of education and local history.
IN HARMONY: The local Sweet Adelines will offer a free, six-week singing program to women of all ages starting May 22, 7:30 p.m., at Nordahl Hall, Los Gatos. Harriett Feltman at 510.653.7664 is the contact. Says Saratogan Susan Wong, "It's a welcoming group; so warm."
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