Perhaps I should have gone into astronomy. I still recall a jigsaw puzzle I had as a child that had pictures of galaxies and stars and other astronomical features on it. And I still recall the dream that I had at some point in my life — I think it was during my marriage to Melissa, but I could be wrong — that involved me standing in a football stadium, and the “dome” was the edge of the universe, and I could see, not one hundred feet above me the pictures on that jigsaw puzzle. Nothing I’ve ever seen before or since has ever left such a mark on me — sort of a soul-deep magic.

I still get hints of that same dream echo when I see a lot of today’s current space imagery. Thus, I could kill years at the TRACE site — those with broadband can even see movies of solar activity.