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One day closer to Colorado...
Dec. 20th, 2000 10:49 pmTwelve more days, and a wake-up.
In the meantime, this morning's NASA telecon lead was a guy who routinely drives me crazy with his manner and his tendency to lecture the people he's speaking with, but I can handle the terminology in his discipline pretty well, and since he never says one word when he can utter half a dozen, there is not all that much content to his telecons, which makes them easier to interpret.
One thing I will say is that his single-minded tenacity is impressive. When we sat down to do the telecon this morning, none of the Russian parties was in place. At this point, most people would curse and give up. My guy grabs hold of the operator and starts reading off a small telephone directory's worth of phone numbers. Try this one. (No answer.) Try that one. (Ditto.) Try this third number. (No joy.) Here's yet one more...
Finally, we reach someone who occasionally participates in this particular telecon, but who is unaware that there's supposed to be one today; at least he wasn't invited to participate. "Could you tell us if so-and-so is there," asks my lead, referring to the Russian lead. "I don't know," comes the answer, "he's not here."
To make a long story short, a half hour later, we have made arrangements to redo the telecon again tomorrow (I won't be there, having been assigned to something else already). Total time spent on this non-telecon? Over an hour. Ye gods.
I've taken to walking after taking lunch in one of the two cafeterias at JSC. There is something of a "square" formed by the main grouping of buildings at JSC, and the folks who organize the center's annual "Total Health and Safety Day" have marked out a 0.6-mile loop that does a figure-eight along the paths that crisscross this square. After a bowl of gumbo and a small salad, I walked the course three times.
I met nobody else in my wanderings who could be mistaken for anyone taking a mid-day constitutional, but I did work up something that began to feel like a blister by the time I got back to my work place. Yesterday, I walked the course twice; it was cold, but I took some small comfort in extracting a small measure of warmth from the sunlight falling on my face. Today, the skies were clouded over, and although the temperature was warmer than yesterday's, the overall effect was not as positive.
My packing for Colorado has started out slowly, but I am happy to say that I am retaining the determination I know I'll need to decide which books to keep and which to part with. Getting rid of computer books is particularly hard, but there are some that I own that are so obsolete (e.g., how to program in PDP-10 assembler) that it simply makes no sense to retain them.
The pall of all this "stuff" I've accumulated is taking its toll. The other day, I needed desperately to look up a Russian welding term, but could not find it in my usual battery of technical dictionaries. But when I looked for my welding dictionary - and I jolly well know I have one - I could not find it for all the other books piled up everywhere.
So, I have to ask myself, of what use is that dictionary? and of what use is the stuff that kept me from finding it?
The most important thing, though, that I have to keep in mind for this upcoming move is to make sure the important stuff is clearly marked. I still am smarting from the experience moving from our previous house (a mere 9 miles), with the end result that today - about 9 months later - there are still things that I need that I have not found. At the time, I didn't mark them simply because I could not imaging losing track of them, but did anyway.
At any rate...it's another telecon tomorrow, and I need my beauty rest. Tomorrow's telecon promises to involve medical subjects, and of course, there is not one line of agenda to be had, so I have no idea what they might talk about. I'll just have to put on my Superman suit under my polo shirt and be ready to interpret anything from bioelectric cardiac activity to psychological assessments. Maybe I'll walk on water as an encore.
What? Ego? Me? :^)
Cheers...
In the meantime, this morning's NASA telecon lead was a guy who routinely drives me crazy with his manner and his tendency to lecture the people he's speaking with, but I can handle the terminology in his discipline pretty well, and since he never says one word when he can utter half a dozen, there is not all that much content to his telecons, which makes them easier to interpret.
One thing I will say is that his single-minded tenacity is impressive. When we sat down to do the telecon this morning, none of the Russian parties was in place. At this point, most people would curse and give up. My guy grabs hold of the operator and starts reading off a small telephone directory's worth of phone numbers. Try this one. (No answer.) Try that one. (Ditto.) Try this third number. (No joy.) Here's yet one more...
Finally, we reach someone who occasionally participates in this particular telecon, but who is unaware that there's supposed to be one today; at least he wasn't invited to participate. "Could you tell us if so-and-so is there," asks my lead, referring to the Russian lead. "I don't know," comes the answer, "he's not here."
To make a long story short, a half hour later, we have made arrangements to redo the telecon again tomorrow (I won't be there, having been assigned to something else already). Total time spent on this non-telecon? Over an hour. Ye gods.
I've taken to walking after taking lunch in one of the two cafeterias at JSC. There is something of a "square" formed by the main grouping of buildings at JSC, and the folks who organize the center's annual "Total Health and Safety Day" have marked out a 0.6-mile loop that does a figure-eight along the paths that crisscross this square. After a bowl of gumbo and a small salad, I walked the course three times.
I met nobody else in my wanderings who could be mistaken for anyone taking a mid-day constitutional, but I did work up something that began to feel like a blister by the time I got back to my work place. Yesterday, I walked the course twice; it was cold, but I took some small comfort in extracting a small measure of warmth from the sunlight falling on my face. Today, the skies were clouded over, and although the temperature was warmer than yesterday's, the overall effect was not as positive.
My packing for Colorado has started out slowly, but I am happy to say that I am retaining the determination I know I'll need to decide which books to keep and which to part with. Getting rid of computer books is particularly hard, but there are some that I own that are so obsolete (e.g., how to program in PDP-10 assembler) that it simply makes no sense to retain them.
The pall of all this "stuff" I've accumulated is taking its toll. The other day, I needed desperately to look up a Russian welding term, but could not find it in my usual battery of technical dictionaries. But when I looked for my welding dictionary - and I jolly well know I have one - I could not find it for all the other books piled up everywhere.
So, I have to ask myself, of what use is that dictionary? and of what use is the stuff that kept me from finding it?
The most important thing, though, that I have to keep in mind for this upcoming move is to make sure the important stuff is clearly marked. I still am smarting from the experience moving from our previous house (a mere 9 miles), with the end result that today - about 9 months later - there are still things that I need that I have not found. At the time, I didn't mark them simply because I could not imaging losing track of them, but did anyway.
At any rate...it's another telecon tomorrow, and I need my beauty rest. Tomorrow's telecon promises to involve medical subjects, and of course, there is not one line of agenda to be had, so I have no idea what they might talk about. I'll just have to put on my Superman suit under my polo shirt and be ready to interpret anything from bioelectric cardiac activity to psychological assessments. Maybe I'll walk on water as an encore.
What? Ego? Me? :^)
Cheers...
