Winding down...

It's one of those rare nights where I am having trouble falling asleep, so-o-o-o...

My work today was fairly light, a session out at the launch pad to help the French check out a communications line that will be used during the launch. The session went pretty smoothly, and we even managed to check out the operability of the phone that'll be used during operations in a couple of days.

A satellite is set to launch in just about 24 hours aboard a Dniepr rocket, which is a converted SS-19 ICBM. To commemorate the launch, the payload for which is the Belarussian "Belka" satellite ("Bel" stands for Belarus, and "ka" is the standard Russian abbreviation for космический аппарат (satellite), whereas "Belka" itself means "squirrel), the полтинник will be visited by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. (Don't ask me why he's coming all the way out to Area 95, as the satellite was processed somewhere else, to the best of my knowledge.)

Olga, who used to work as waitstaff here and now is the food service manager for the campaign, related to us a few weeks ago of all the commotion that occurred when President Putin stopped by the cosmodrome for a meeting with the President of Kazakhstan, and it sounded pretty intense. I suppose the same is true for any high-level visitor, but I have been led to believe that Lukashenko's security detail is likely to be particularly attentive to security around their boss.

It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, the visit will have on our activities, even though his visit has nothing to do with our work. Rumor has it that, for security reasons, travel along the routes Lukashenko will take will be limited (if not cut off completely), and that some routine trips into town tomorrow have already been canceled. At any rate, all of this is above my pay grade out here, but I really hope the visit won't throw any unexpected wrenches into the works.

Anyway, it's time to go back to bed and concentrate on falling asleep.

Cheers...

Stumbling through Wednesday...

At least, I think it's Wednesday.

Despite hitting the sack soon after last night's/this morning's post, I probably didn't fall asleep until after 2 am and had another "wrestling with the bedcovers" kind of night. As a result, I misread today's schedule, and instead of reporting at 2 pm for an equipment validation activity, I showed up at the полтинник at 10 am ready to support an equipment move.

I stuck around the office anyway until 1:15 pm, and am now back in my room in the Fili after having translated three documents. I think I will take a nap after posting this entry.

The Lukashenko visit is turning the schedule on its ear, somewhat, mostly because pretty much all work will cease during the visit. For example, the move of the ascent unit was moved up 3 hours in the schedule, which put some pressure on the folks providing video support in Hall 111, but pressure - and how well one responds to it - is basically the name of the game in operations such as this, which is to say that everything appears to be under control.

When we got back to the hotel, a rumor was floating around to the effect that, during the visit, we were not to leave the hotel or even approach windows, lest some overeager security person misinterpret the move. (As I said, it's only a rumor. Me, I'm staying in my room, either sleeping or catching up on translation.)

Viktor K., with whom I worked with on previous campaigns (he was the lead interpreter during my first campaign here a few years ago), has arrived to help take up some of the load while two of the Russia-based interpreters devote themselves to the launch countdown. I was halfway hoping Viktor would be bringing my wallet with him (and that the lack of news from Moscow was simply a lack of communication and not contact), but it would appear not to be the case. My hope to recover my driver's license grows dim, but is not completely extinguished.

Yesterday, I managed to translate enough to almost cover two days of progress based on my self-imposed schedule, so even if I do no work today, I should still be under no pressure for the deadline. However, I do plan to tap out a few words after my nap, so it's no big deal in any case.

Photos continue to accumulate on my digital camera. The fact that my profile is beginning to approximate that of the late Alfred Hitchcock is... worrisome, but part of the grand tapestry called life. And so, quoting Vonnegut, it goes.

Cheers...