On-call relaxation, and other matters...
Sep. 5th, 2000 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpToday, I was on call, so there was no place I had to be, much, except close to my pager and my cell phone. :^)
So I decided to throw caution to the wind and do pretty much nothing all day, to the extent that my on-call status would allow. What a treat.
I hadn't realized how hard it is to do, well, nothing. I've so gotten used to the rush-rush-rush of daily life, of having a million and one things going on, of being surrounded by brush fires of varying size and intensity, that I found it supremely difficult to just sit in my room, or sit by the pool, or sit on the beach, and do nothing. As punishment, I forced myself to go swimming in the Atlantic today. Twice.
Actually, I figure given another couple of days to get the technique down pat, and I'll be able to do it without any twinge of conscience at all. Then again, everything is slated to back to "normal" tomorrow morning, when I get up at oh-dark-thirty to drive some folks to a meeting where the status of some experimental equipment for the ISS will be finalized.
I just got back from a little welcoming get-together for a new colleague. There were several Russians in attendance and we all helped to inflict severe damage on some hot dogs, a block of cheese, some tomatoes, onions, and some liquid to wash it all down with. It was a pleasant event, complete with the requisite telling of jokes (most of them in Russian, though I'd first heard some of these tales in English, too) and, of course, the mandatory proposal of several toasts (an art in which the Russian side clearly outstrips their American counterparts).
It is at moments such as this that I detach myself from my surroundings and have visions of the peoples of this planet working together, not in a way that presupposes lions lying down with lambs, but in a way that requires the investment of knowledge, experience, treasure, and blood into something bigger than any of our own petty, parochial interests alone.
It may be that my vision is nonsensical, stupid, unrealistic, unattainable, maybe even ill-considered. It may be that I am "thinking under the influence," right now. Lord knows that it represents nothing other than my own personal, private view. Yet when I see specialists and experts from different nations sit down and apply their brain power to the solution of difficult technical problems, I feel there is hope yet for our species.
Ad astra!
Cheers...
So I decided to throw caution to the wind and do pretty much nothing all day, to the extent that my on-call status would allow. What a treat.
I hadn't realized how hard it is to do, well, nothing. I've so gotten used to the rush-rush-rush of daily life, of having a million and one things going on, of being surrounded by brush fires of varying size and intensity, that I found it supremely difficult to just sit in my room, or sit by the pool, or sit on the beach, and do nothing. As punishment, I forced myself to go swimming in the Atlantic today. Twice.
Actually, I figure given another couple of days to get the technique down pat, and I'll be able to do it without any twinge of conscience at all. Then again, everything is slated to back to "normal" tomorrow morning, when I get up at oh-dark-thirty to drive some folks to a meeting where the status of some experimental equipment for the ISS will be finalized.
I just got back from a little welcoming get-together for a new colleague. There were several Russians in attendance and we all helped to inflict severe damage on some hot dogs, a block of cheese, some tomatoes, onions, and some liquid to wash it all down with. It was a pleasant event, complete with the requisite telling of jokes (most of them in Russian, though I'd first heard some of these tales in English, too) and, of course, the mandatory proposal of several toasts (an art in which the Russian side clearly outstrips their American counterparts).
It is at moments such as this that I detach myself from my surroundings and have visions of the peoples of this planet working together, not in a way that presupposes lions lying down with lambs, but in a way that requires the investment of knowledge, experience, treasure, and blood into something bigger than any of our own petty, parochial interests alone.
It may be that my vision is nonsensical, stupid, unrealistic, unattainable, maybe even ill-considered. It may be that I am "thinking under the influence," right now. Lord knows that it represents nothing other than my own personal, private view. Yet when I see specialists and experts from different nations sit down and apply their brain power to the solution of difficult technical problems, I feel there is hope yet for our species.
Ad astra!
Cheers...
