Both Mike and Kelly refer to The Right Stuff as this transformative experience that set them on this path. I’ve heard this aot from epople, even my friend Eric, but I admit to being a bit surprised. It’s been a while since I watched it, but it didn’t - it seemed to present an uncouth side of astronauts, misbehaving around the medical staff evaluating them.
Mike talks
A theme in the first half of the book is being inspired by a central, overriding drive. Having a clear goal, not always a clear or direct way to achieve it, but a tangible endpoing, something to fight for, that makes you consume your days and
I’ve had the pleasure of feeling that before. I don’t feel it so strongly now.
Another theme is comeraderie - buddies (his word). “boy’s club” has a negative connotation in my head. I’ve felt a tendency to leave any group that felt like a boy’s club. That time at the Hose & Hydrant felt like a boys club, and both T and I split.
Mike’s account makes me think maybe there could be some healthy side of this.
He recounts the time he met his wife -
we started talking around 9:30, and around 11:45 we looked up and realized the barman was falling asleep waiting for us.
stung a little. I’ve had the same, once.
There’s a glossy page in the middle of the book with a picture of Mike as a kid wearing a pretend spacesuit, and then Mike and his proud parents. That made me feel feelings. I don’t have any pictures in my house.
There’s a point where Mike ranks people he looked up to. His father is on the list. His mother isn’t. His mother tends to get short shrift, actually.
There’s a point where Mike is training on the T-38, and he describes how happy he is flying every. I couldn’t help wondering how happy his wife was taking care of two young kids.