Over the last week and a half, I had plenty of opportunities to dream about space. I usually hear from somewhere when there is a space mission in progress and I check it out on the NASA website but when there is a space tourist walking the planks of the International Space Station I am really all ears (and eyes).

Such is the case right now with Charles Simonyi being up there at about 250 miles above us. He chronicles his adventures and experiences on his web site Charles in Space (seems to be gone). Lots of photos and videos on the site so that I checked at least once every day what is going on up there. I was fascinated by his demonstration of drinking water out of mid-air.

The aspect of this whole adventure that intrigues me so much is the fact that this guy is about my age and he has just made some different decisions than I. Because of these decisions he is now in the position to buy a trip to the ISS for something that costs him relatively about the same as a weekend trip to Magic Mountain does me – not that I go to Magic Mountain though – it’s just for comparison.

I am sure that as kids we both read science fiction and imagined being up there in ships going into hyperspace and doing many light-years a second, discovering new planets and eventually making it to Andromeda.

Then I joined a group to save mankind and he joined Microsoft – an interesting perspective!

But don’t read any complaints or regrets into that statement – it is just amazing what decisions can do, isn’t it?