Friday, June 8, 2007

Hawaii, so far...

 I landed in Hawaii at 8pm Sunday. At 6:30am Monday, I was at base in town, waiting to head up to the work site.  Worked all day Monday.  Spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday paying bills, getting back in touch with friends, and getting a little less jet-lagged and sleep-deprived.  Worked all day again Friday.  Now I've got about an hour before I drive to the airport to drop off the rental car.  (I figured 1 week of rental car would be enough for me to settle in and get things done.)

I was surprised to have the 3 days off in mid-week; I had hoped to get more hours.  But I may pick some up next week since it was too windy today to finish a thing or two.  I've got a lot of other stuff scheduled in the remainder of my time here, involving at least 3 of my different part-time jobs.

Right now, I feel totally drained (not uncommon after a 10-hour shift up and down) and a little queasy (to be expected after being in the back seat for the winding 13700' descent).  I'll find something minor to eat, maybe a few ounces of peanuts, go home, rest for a few minutes, then go to the airport and either bike or walk back, maybe stopping for dinner along the way if I feel up to it.

I'm not setting any alarms for tomorrow morning.  I'm looking forward to a weekend that doesn't involve work or travel!

I'm also looking forward to next Wednesday, when they tell me I will once again have DSL. I've been coming to the office on my days off just to check my email and stuff.  It'll be nice to stop doing that. :)

Still got plenty of stuff to do around the house, too.  At least the dishes I washed before I left in January didn't magically become dirty again!  But I have to tidy up in general.

Old-School Aluminizing on Mauna Kea

This week, the 88-inch primary mirror in the University of Hawaii's telescope on Mauna Kea got re-coated with aluminum. This involved a whole lot of steps, not much in the way of automation because the whole thing was built before I was born, and healthy application of brute force.












 

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