"No matter in the phrase that might indict the author"

 Writing With Skill, Level 2

Final Essay

James Smith

"Neil Armstrong"

On August 5, 1930, Neil Armstrong was born at home. No one could have guessed at the time that Neil would grow up to be world-famous. 

Neil first flew when he was four years old on a small airplane called The Tin Goose. (It was not actually made of tin.) This was before huge jetliners had taken over travel, so the flight was more like an amusement park ride. Neil loved it, and from then on his childhood hobby was building (and sometimes crashing) homemade model airplanes. He saved his pennies so he could get a pilot's license, which he got before he learned how to drive. 

Neil flew fighter planes in the Korean War as well. However, this delayed the start of his college career. Neil became an experimental test pilot and moved to California with his new wife, Jan, to take up his new job. 

This was the time of the Cold War, a battle of minds between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A., the two most powerful countries in the world at the time. Both countries had the technology to send rockets into space. In 1951, the Soviets launched Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite, into space. Then the Sputnik II, which contained a dog named Taika. 

The U.S. tried to launch something of their own, but without success. Then the Soviets launched the first human into space, Yuri A. Gagarin. Several weeks after Gagarin's flight America got a human into space, Alan Shepherd, who piloted his rocket, something Gagarin had not done. The world watched and wondered, "Which country would be the first to get a man on the moon?"

The Russians continued to embarrass the Americans, like having a Soviet cosmonaut "walk" in space while NASA, the space program for America, picks a team of astronauts, Neil Armstrong among them. 

Following Neil's application, the Armstrongs moved to Texas, since NASA's headquarters were in Houston. An astronaut's job was very demanding, and Neil's daughter Karen had sadly died before the move. But still, the Armstrongs lived happily. After several years of training, Neil was made commander of the Gemini 8 mission. He would fly into space with other astronauts and dock a space capsule with another rocket. 

At first the mission went smoothly, but after the docking the astronauts' capsule started spinning. Thanks to his piloting skills, Neil managed to regain control and bring the capsule back to Earth. Despite the failed mission, there was good news for America--the Soviets were struggling with their space plans. They were building a giant N-1 rocket, but it was possible to crash. 

Meanwhile, Neil flew in the Apollo 8 mission, which was a couple orbits around the moon, and looked for good landing spots. The landing capsule would not be able to lift off from the moon if it landed on an uneven space. Neil was named commander of Apollo 11, which if all went well would be the first manned mission to the moon.

The Soviet N-1 exploded during takeoff, so the Americans were now in full control to get to the moon first. Apollo 11 took off, connected with another rocket, and took off for the moon. After several days of travel they entered lunar orbit, Neil and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin got into their landing capsule nicknamed "The Eagle." 

The Eagle was set adrift from the main capsule, which was piloted by Michael Collins, who would pick them up after their moon walk. Neil and Buzz flew over the moon, and with a little turbulence found their landing spot and landed the Eagle. 

Neil and Buzz could not spend much time on the moon, because they only had two and a half hours of air in their tanks. (There is no air on the moon.) But they planted an American flag, collected rocks, and performed experiments. Their stay was brief, but was an important scientific achievement. When time was up, they took off, rejoined Michael, and flew home.

After Apollo 11, Neil retired and turned to farming. It was a peaceful rest of his life, which hopefully suited Neil, being a person who never had liked attention. 

Edwards, Roberta, "Who Was Neil Armstrong?" New York, Penguin Group, 2012

Barbee, Jax, "Neil Armstrong, A Life of Flight" New York, St. Martin's Press, 2014

"Would the night were come! Till then, sit still my soul!"

 I'm getting more efficient at the taxes, which means that on the annual long-double day that I set up shop to take care of our tax returns "all day" between a morning rehearsal and an evening concert I am finding myself with more hours vacant than occupied as each year passes.

I had both returns submitted before 3:00 this year, which means that I've spent the last two hours involuntarily overhearing the proselytizing of two clean-cut Mormon boys in black suits and puffer jackets to an elderly janitor who is attempting to argue back against their slick prefabricated set pieces about his own Sinfulness and how Joseph Smith is really less important than Jesus.

It's depressing.

It's too cold and snowy for a walk (I came in my dress clothes today), my kindle is charging, and my earbuds haven't recharged enough to play the "Continuous White Noise--Rain on the River" track that I put it while I attempt to put my head down.

The place where I'm sitting is a riot of smells. I am directly across from a Jamaican food bar (smelling of curries, jerk chicken on the grill, and fruits) and kitty-corner from an Ethiopian place where they are grilling naan and braising meat in berbere spices. 

When the concert finally arrives it will be a relief to have something meaningful to do again, but then after the concert will follow a creeping multi-hour drive back through the blizzard that has finally arrived in Central New York after teasing with false forecasts for the last several days.

Doing the taxes was a sobering snapshot of the year that was. I added up all of the miles driven, counted the thruway tolls, parsed out the parking fees, subtracted "office" expenses, looked up the date the dates I acquired new assets (mouthpieces and trumpets) and then weighed it all up against the final number that was my W-2 income.

But it isn't all snow and gloom. I received an email just now from the U.S Office of Consular affairs that my passport renewal has been successful--which means that J and I are officially good to go on our trip to Greece this summer. We might be working hard in the snow right now, but we'll be lying on a beach in Naxos this August.

And if any IRS agents happen to be reading this blog, that journey to Greece is a business trip for musical purposes that is entirely tax-deductible for 2025.