Saturday, November 16, 2013

Time flies whilst gainfully employed

The weeks are already clipping by at a rapid pace, now that some sort of routine has been established at and away from work.  It has been a long while since I’ve had this out in “the world”, as I usually conceptualized non-South Pole living over the preceding years.  I have not really done anything much of interest away from work, since weekends have been made use of to attend to the necessities of living and the recharging of my own internal batteries outside of the work week.

I have regularly been walking to and from work, which is a pleasant way to begin and end the workday hours.  It ensures I am definitely awake by the time I arrive and provides a nice (active) contrast to the sedentary interval spent on base at JSC.  I have yet to start riding my bike, since the best practice of wearing a helmet conflicts with the marginally vain goal of having decently presentable hair freshly showered.  I certainly have challenge enough in that regard these days.  On occasion, I drive my car, but that is usually reserved for picking up groceries on the weekends.  As the months have progressed, the temperatures have generally cooled to a very pleasant range, and this week I had the pleasure of walking to work a couple days with temperatures in the 30-Fahrenheit range, which was a welcome contrast to the heat and stickiness I typically associate with weather in Houston.

My training at work has steadily progressed, though the pace should pick up greatly starting this coming week.  I have been reading a lot of technical documents in preparation for a lot of training, and hope to keep the progression clipping along toward official recognition that I have internalized enough information to be of practical use to the team.  I have also gotten to observe and play a minor part in a number of spacecraft rendezvous and capture simulations, which have been interesting and presage the activities I will someday be allowed to take part in with actual spaceships flying about in the heavens.  At some point I will share photographic evidence of my new activities and environs, but it has eluded me thus far, having had plenty of other responsibilities to which I have had to attend.

In conclusion, life is good, and I feel most wholeheartedly fortunate to be in the straits that I am in at present.  Though, I am at wits’ end to understand why I rendered this missive in such a stilted idiom.
“Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong.”
~Thomas Jefferson