It Was A Good Day!

Song: N/A

Mood: 7

Nightmares: 0

Ghosts: Several

My plan to go to bed earlier last night worked alright. It took me a while to get to sleep and I still moved pretty slowly in the morning, but I don’t remember any nightmares. I woke up four or five times, one of which was because I was worried that my soldering iron was plugged in and turned on. Since that’s something I don’t usually check during my evening circuit of the house (and I hope it stays that way), I ended up needing to get up to take a look. I tried to be stealthy but I accidentally woke J up, who turned, squinted at me for a moment, and said, “HURGHFLMRGHH,” before promptly turning back around and snoring lightly.

Today was a very brain-intensive but rewarding day. FA arrived at about 10AM with a box and a backpack full of parts and tools. We started in on her project shortly after she arrived and made a LOT of progress over the next ten and a half hours (yes, we did stop to eat). We ran into quite a few speed bumps along the way, but in every case (so far) we figured out a way forward. I think I can say with some certainty that every component of the device mostly works. Now, we just have to get them all knit together.

I have some programming and power supply work to do, while FA is going to whip up a new chassis design and has to talk with the web hosting folks. Now that I think about it, she wrote down a detailed list of what we still needed to do; I probably should’ve asked her for a picture of it. The plan at this point is to get together again on Friday morning. With luck, everything will go together and just… work. If not, we have quite a bit of time to figure out what’s going wrong and solve the problem.

I have always enjoyed making things, and this project has been a really great experience. That sounds odd, like I’m talking about a movie I just saw, but I can’t think of a better way to put it. There’s something gratifying about taking an idea and turning it into something real that accomplishes or does something. Whether it’s something that makes life easier or something weird, or something that exists just for the heck of it, it makes me feel good when I can look at something and know that I built this or got that working. That sort of thing. This project has been a lot of fun, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed batting ideas around with FA, even moreso during those brief times when I can keep up with her.

One bit of a blotch on the day, though, was my Dr H appointment. Turns out the time on the calendar was wrong and I got to the clinic two hours after I was supposed to be there. They weren’t able to fit me in, and I’m now booked in for the end of April. Not a huge deal but I don’t like it when things like that don’t work out.

On the upside, my appointment taking approximately zero minutes meant that FA and I could get back to work sooner. On the downside, it cut FA’s trip to the hardware store short (sorry about that!). We got back to the house and back to working on things.

When J got home from work, the three of us decided we’d order out for pizza and we kept going until it arrived. We took a break and shot the breeze over supper, then got back to work while J studied for her exam. I’m not sure how FA was feeling, but after supper the ideas and things I was thinking about were starting to come to me a little slower than they had earlier in the day.

At around 8:30PM, FA packed up her backpack and box, we said goodbye, and she headed home. I went and sat on the couch and J and I talked for a while. No TV this evening – J was reading a book and I was arguing with a supposedly critical update for my computer that wouldn’t install, and time got away from us.

Wait a second… there was a burrito lunch in there somewhere, too! I just can’t quite remember exactly where it fit during the day. It was an amazing burrito, though!

So yes, today was a good day. Hanging out with a great friend, doing neat stuff with electronics and motors and printing and measuring and programming and all kinds of neat stuff, and having a delightful burrito lunch and wonderful pizza dinner… it was a good day.

Thanks to J and DM for being patient with FA and me as we leave boxes of parts scattered around and blabber on about the stuff we’re working on – it’s much appreciated! 🙂

I suspect I will sleep pretty well tonight and will be moving and thinking pretty slowly for a while after I haul myself out of bed tomorrow. I don’t have any appointments or places I have to be, so I will have plenty of time to play around with some of the project stuff. I think things are in good shape.

Stay safe.

Comments are closed.

Post Navigation