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It's the weekend!
May. 2nd, 2010 08:19 amAnd it occurs to me, having just typed the subject line of the post, that it's actually Sunday, and that it's actually been "the weekend" for a while. I just hadn't noticed.
Trying to get online yesterday was the pits. My dialup connection didn't connect (though it did this morning), the status of the Beeline USB modem hasn't changed, and the wifi kiosks in the lobby were in use every time I passed by yesterday. (Still, I was able to post a short message using my BlackBerry, so all was not lost.)
Yesterday was May 1, a date of venerable tradition around these parts. That said, a number of Russian specialists showed up out here to help the early team get stuff done. My big support gig for the day involved climbing lots of stairs and then over and around various obstacles along catwalks to interpret during an inspection of the infrastructure around the spacecraft processing room.
At the close of the day, everyone came back to the hotel area for a barbeque dinner held outside in front of the hotel. By the time I went downstairs, most of the hamburgers had gotten a little cold, but it was still a nice dinner.
As on previous campaigns, I notice there are a number of ownerless (feral?) animals in the area, including a pair of dogs with a lot of German Shepherd in them that I've seen returning from a hunt in the adjacent desert, with ground hog carcasses hanging from their mouths. By and large, however, I've noticed that such dogs don't associate too closely with humans.
Cats, on the other hand, are readily tolerated. I noticed one cat the other day, hanging out out in front of the hotel and meowing loudly, as if demanding to be fed. I caught sight of the same cat yesterday at the barbeque, and it paused long enough in its search for scraps for me to grab the following shot:
Those eyes are really something. They betray nothing, and everything. There are gears turning in the brain behind those eyes, wouldn't you agree?
After dinner, I hung out mostly with the members of the French early team, which gave me an opportunity to exercise the French-speaking neurons in my head. We spoke of many things, from the meaning of millésime, to how I came to acquire French and Russian in addition to my native English.
I asked Alain C., the team's security manager (with whom I've worked before, who appears to share an interest in language) to look at a Russian-French visual dictionary I picked up in Moscow before leaving for Baikonur, and although he was able to find one error rather quickly, his overall conclusion (and that of Serge B., the group lead) was that the information in the volume was basically sound, which was good to hear. Over the years, some dictionaries have turned out to be duds because they were full of less-than-accurate information.
* * * It turns out, quite remarkably, that no significant activities are planned for today, so there is a good chance to hop the bus going into town later this morning. That will give me an opportunity to visit the local Beeline office, among other destinations.
Cheers...
Trying to get online yesterday was the pits. My dialup connection didn't connect (though it did this morning), the status of the Beeline USB modem hasn't changed, and the wifi kiosks in the lobby were in use every time I passed by yesterday. (Still, I was able to post a short message using my BlackBerry, so all was not lost.)
Yesterday was May 1, a date of venerable tradition around these parts. That said, a number of Russian specialists showed up out here to help the early team get stuff done. My big support gig for the day involved climbing lots of stairs and then over and around various obstacles along catwalks to interpret during an inspection of the infrastructure around the spacecraft processing room.
At the close of the day, everyone came back to the hotel area for a barbeque dinner held outside in front of the hotel. By the time I went downstairs, most of the hamburgers had gotten a little cold, but it was still a nice dinner.
As on previous campaigns, I notice there are a number of ownerless (feral?) animals in the area, including a pair of dogs with a lot of German Shepherd in them that I've seen returning from a hunt in the adjacent desert, with ground hog carcasses hanging from their mouths. By and large, however, I've noticed that such dogs don't associate too closely with humans.
Cats, on the other hand, are readily tolerated. I noticed one cat the other day, hanging out out in front of the hotel and meowing loudly, as if demanding to be fed. I caught sight of the same cat yesterday at the barbeque, and it paused long enough in its search for scraps for me to grab the following shot:
Those eyes are really something. They betray nothing, and everything. There are gears turning in the brain behind those eyes, wouldn't you agree?
After dinner, I hung out mostly with the members of the French early team, which gave me an opportunity to exercise the French-speaking neurons in my head. We spoke of many things, from the meaning of millésime, to how I came to acquire French and Russian in addition to my native English.
I asked Alain C., the team's security manager (with whom I've worked before, who appears to share an interest in language) to look at a Russian-French visual dictionary I picked up in Moscow before leaving for Baikonur, and although he was able to find one error rather quickly, his overall conclusion (and that of Serge B., the group lead) was that the information in the volume was basically sound, which was good to hear. Over the years, some dictionaries have turned out to be duds because they were full of less-than-accurate information.
Cheers...
