(no subject)

The last 24 hours have been very healthy mentally, I think. Last night I spent some time reading Anna Karenina and listening to music. I finally got around to hearing Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. I don't think Berlioz will ever rank up among my favorite composers, but I enjoyed the work nonetheless. I finally, after 5+ weeks here, hit upon the idea of connecting the speakers my roommate has for his GameCube to my computer. Finally, music sounds the way it ought to... I listened to some of the arias from Le nozze di Figaro and now have things like "Non piu andrai" stuck in my head. Carmina Burana and the Verdi Requiem sounded good too.

There's supposed to be a jazz festival here this weekend, and it's a big deal. I was downtown for a bit this afternoon and caught some of the music. Unfortunately, we're in the midst of one of those severe Midwest thunderstorms now. I'm writing this from the lab because I don't want to walk the mile home in pouring rain; I've already been soaked enough to reflect on nightengalesknd's practical sense in always carrying around a pair of dry socks.

This morning I went running in light rain. I hadn't run in rain in a while. What a change from high school when my XC teammates and I would egg each other on to see who could do the most mileage in the worst weather. Some of those runs (during heavy snowstorms when we technically weren't even supposed to be around the school, for instance) were memorable, to say the least.

I went to the public library this afternoon for a bit and read Flying magazine, for the first time in years. I used to really want to be a pilot, preferably a Navy or Air Force fighter test pilot, until I realized that my vision and especially hearing issues made it impossible. I still remember the time in middle school when I did an extended research project on general aviation (non-commercial, non-military, and I think non-agricultural flying) accidents. I remember pleasant afternoons spent in the Main Library in Lawrenceville reading and tabulating results from the accident report synopses in Flying. I think I wound up concluding that pilot error was the main cause or factor in general aviation accidents (which is less often the case with commercial plane crashes, due perhaps to more rigorous pilot training). Frequently, there was some mechanical failure too. But usually when that happened, the mechanical problem would not have been catastrophic in and of itself, but the pilot made some devastating mistakes trying to respond to the problem.

( Houston, we have a problem... )

(no subject)

The vacuum chamber leak turned out to be a minor one; something on the chamber wasn't tightened down all the way. Funny because that's not something we use or adjust at all. But the panic's over and it looks like the pressure is dropping back down to its normal level.