Today I went back down to the research facility for the first time since the accident.
The drive, all 75 miles of it, was as dull as I remembered, but today I had a little added thrill from the black ice left over from our surprise Thunder Snow Sunday night.
I had to check in at the gate since I didn't have a valid pass and wear the V (visitor) badge all day.
I got to see everyone (almost: Office Extrovert had already left for the holidays), and answer questions about the accident, that being the last any of them ever heard of me. So much has happened since then.
Hooking up the Hamsters was not, as expected, as simple as hooking up the Hamsters. When you disappear for five months, very little of your stuff is where you left it, although, oddly enough, the really nice multimeter I'd been using was exactly where I'd left it. The desktop computer I'd been using had been borrowed and had developed a crashing problem, so a new computer had to be set up. The power supply arrangement had been disrupted, so new arrangements had to be made. Wires popped off the Hamster boards on the trip down and had to be re-soldered. The microphones we were going to hook to the Hamsters had special power needs, then the amplifier was getting saturated and required particular attention. My contribution to the chaos was bringing the wrong version of some Hamster software.
On the upside, I get to go back again soon.
258 words | December 21, 2004 08:22 PM | Rocket science