The Big Wet?

I woke several times last night to the sound of rain falling, but it was a soothing sound...no thunder, no lightning, no telltale drip-drip-drip of a weakness in the roof. At least it wasn't like the night before, when a raucous cacophony of two trains serenading each other not more than a half-mile from here woke me at 2:30 am. (I can live with the plaintive wailing of a train at any time...it's when they start to whooWHOO at each other with some kind of orgasmic overtones that I get annoyed, but I digress...)

It was a different story at the MCC. Arriving this morning, I set up my materials and half-listened to the morning chit-chat, which concerned the thunder and lightning that made itself apparent to the people inside the building (besides the standard precaution of going over to diesel power backup when weather threatens). I was told that the thunder was audible inside the MCC, which is hard to believe because the building walls are pretty thick (built to withstand strong hurricanes), and normally no noise penetrates.

I had a telecon this morning. Kind of. I got there on time, but just as the phone was being picked up on the Russian end, the U.S. lead realized that the person he was calling was very likely attending a meeting with some other Americans who were in Moscow. A brief conversation with a female voice on the Russian end confirmed this, so the telecon ended a couple of minutes after it began.

This gave me an opportunity to stop by the cafeteria in Building 3 and pick up one of their breakfast burritos and a sweet roll. Also a copy of Chris Kraft's book Flight: My Life in Mission Control, which the author was going to be signing at the cafeteria today from 1 to 4:30 pm. I took my break around 2:30 pm to see about getting my copy signed, and got on the end of a line of about 50 people (I had hoped that the crush of fans would be over by the time I got there).

Kraft is an ordinary looking kind of guy; the only thing that betrays his background is his manner, speech, and the fact that people on site generally treat him with a great deal of respect (he is, after all, the original NASA Flight Director). I also noticed some folks in front of me had bought two and three books for him to sign.

Just as 5 pm was rolling around, one of the RPEs came up with some mods to tomorrow's "Form 24," which is the Russian document that outlines the crew's schedule for the day. Technically, my day ends at 5 pm, but years of habit and my knowledge of the way things work at JSC kept me there until nearly 6. I shouldn't complain...the FCR shift that was on duty when I came this morning (and which should have gone home around 10 am, if I'm not mistaken) was held over due to some issues with today's EVA, and they were not released by the Flight Director until after 2:30. Yikes.

Anyway, I decided not to stop at some fast-food place and fill my gut with junk, so I went home...and filled my gut with other junk. Frankly, I'm still hungry, but I'm afraid I've eaten way too much for the day, so I'm just going to guzzle water until I go to sleep.

I have another telecon tomorrow morning, which means getting up an hour earlier...again. This one is supposed to discuss various computer-related issues, if I read the agenda correctly. Too, I have a translation due in the morning.

And that just covers my work. There are a lot of other things that need doing around here, including laundry, but we'll take that one task at a time.

Cheers...