Wipe out

Well, I’ve hit a period of not being able to sleep very well for about the last week.  I usually have at least one of these over the course of the winter.  I hit the sack around 9:30-10:00 PM, but then wake up sometime in the 1 or 2 o’clock hours, sometimes getting back to sleep but most times just tossing and turning.  I’m sure it will pass, and am not going to get any medication for it, but will just continue my clean living (same wake-up, no alcohol, exercise, etc.) and weather the storm until it passes.

Most folks are enjoying a 2-day weekend this week, but I’m still on the job.  I believe I am now at 208 consecutive days of work for this contract.  With early scheduling for station opening happening on October 27, that means I have likely…aw, you do the math.  I have a ways to go.

I have been keeping tabs on the SpaceX launch of the Dragon vehicle to the International Space Station, and am thrilled it has been a success thus far.  It would be great to be involved with space flight again, manned or otherwise.  Perhaps that is in my future for after this contract.

The auroras keep coming here at Pole.  I enjoyed doing some outdoor work by their green illumination yesterday out near the edge of the Clean Air Sector.  I don’t know what it is about this year, I must have been eating my carrots, but it seems it has been much easier to see than winters past.  I’m of the old school mind that letting one’s eyes adjust is superior to using head lamps for the usual transiting between buildings and work sites, but perhaps my practice of walking down the beer can (sorry, vertical tower, or whatever the official name for the metal cylinder that links the elevated station to the sub-ice arches is) with both-yes, both-eyes closed is working quite well.  It’s not actually that difficult, since each flight of steps has seven steps.  Yes, I do peek briefly if needed.  Anyhow, it seems to be working.

Sorry for the dearth of photos, I will try to take some, but I really don’t do the aurora photo thing.  Having done this a couple times before, it can be difficult to find new images to capture, but I’m going to give it the old college try.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.”

~”Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost