Back to work

Well, a very happy new year to us all.  It is a nice relief to have employment that won’t (hopefully) end before the end of this calendar year.  The cycle is (likely) broken!  I guess I’m (parenthetically) still not taking things for granted.  I have been doing a lot of solo research at work lately, since we are being withheld from most instructor-led training until after attending a series of classes called ISS Boot Camp that will kick off sometime in February.  I continue to walk to/from work, despite the cooler temperatures, which I have actually been enjoying quite a lot.  It is nice to get the exercise around the sedentary hours at work, and it is a nice hour of “reading” audiobooks when the weather allows.

I don’t have many exotic environs to share here, but I will try to find things of visual interest.  One of these is, I think, our simulator for the robotic workstations on the ISS.  This is in our simulation facility that is referred to as Sim City, and is used to give people a chance to use the two hand controllers (translational and rotational) and digital displays that would be available for crewmembers on ISS to perform robotic work, including the capture of the visiting vehicles that my group supports flights.  I got to grab the Japanese HTV back before the holiday break, which was a fun little escape from searching documents and taking notes.

Bill, wherever in the world you are, good luck and I’m definitely happy you’re setting off on this bucket list assault of a journey.  Bon voyage!

“To those bred under an elaborate social order few such moments of exhilaration can come as that which stands at the threshold of wild travel.”

~Gertrude Bell, “The Desert and the Sown”