no progress yet, but the day is young

I had been hoping to get some more work done yesterday evening after attending the wedding of some friends. Alas, it was not to be. clovis_t got a call from his mum just as food was about to be served at the after-wedding party asking us to come home and help out with an emergency in the winery. (For those of you who don't know, his dad has a small vineyard and makes wine for other small vineyards.) Apparently the very slow tiny leak on one of the large (2500 litre) tanks of wine had turned into a fast leak, meaning that all of that wine needed to be pumped out into the only tanks still empty (1000 litres each) and an empty barrel. Of course, it waited till his dad was on a Ferry heading to Melbourne before this happened, so it fell to us to deal with it. It actually turns out to be an easier process than it sounds, taking only a couple of hours to accomplish.

Once that was done I didn't quite feel like working, and, being a weekend, there weren't many new posts to the various e-mail lists, blogs, journals, etc. that I read. So, I popped over to blamebrampton's journal and read one of her stories there (Sins of the Fathers), finally finishing it at 1:30 in the morning. This is the first fiction I've read this year, and I rather enjoyed the guilty pleasure. So much so that this morning I read the part of the sequel that has been posted thus far, and look forward to seeing the rest when she gets it up there. It is now 2pm, a time of day I generally start being useful uni-work wise if I haven't gotten to it yet, so with luck this means that the rest of the day will see some real progress. It would be nice to have it done and be able to read fiction without feeling guilty about doing it...

no progress yet, but the day is young

I had been hoping to get some more work done yesterday evening after attending the wedding of some friends. Alas, it was not to be. clovis_t got a call from his mum just as food was about to be served at the after-wedding party asking us to come home and help out with an emergency in the winery. (For those of you who don't know, his dad has a small vineyard and makes wine for other small vineyards.) Apparently the very slow tiny leak on one of the large (2500 litre) tanks of wine had turned into a fast leak, meaning that all of that wine needed to be pumped out into the only tanks still empty (1000 litres each) and an empty barrel. Of course, it waited till his dad was on a Ferry heading to Melbourne before this happened, so it fell to us to deal with it. It actually turns out to be an easier process than it sounds, taking only a couple of hours to accomplish.

Once that was done I didn't quite feel like working, and, being a weekend, there weren't many new posts to the various e-mail lists, blogs, journals, etc. that I read. So, I popped over to blamebrampton's journal and read one of her stories there (Sins of the Fathers), finally finishing it at 1:30 in the morning. This is the first fiction I've read this year, and I rather enjoyed the guilty pleasure. So much so that this morning I read the part of the sequel that has been posted thus far, and look forward to seeing the rest when she gets it up there. It is now 2pm, a time of day I generally start being useful uni-work wise if I haven't gotten to it yet, so with luck this means that the rest of the day will see some real progress. It would be nice to have it done and be able to read fiction without feeling guilty about doing it...

staying home got more done than if I'd gone out

This morning clovis_t went in for fighter practice, followed by an armouring making/repair session and bbq. I stayed home and tried to get some work done, and was not as successfully as I might have been, but accomplished more than if I'd have joined him (which, let me confess, I wished to do, but then would have felt guilty about not working). But I did manage to add another 62 words and one figure to the thesis after doing the calculations for one more sample. How nice it would have been if these really did take the 1 hour per sample that I'd hoped, rather than one a day. Granted, I think I could have done two samples today if only I'd had a bit more focus.

I did get out for a trike ride this evening. I now know that it is not quite 8 km from my driveway to the home of madryn_1960 and takes 33 minutes to get there, and 42 to get home again. I suspect the return trip could have been done faster if done in the daylight. I only spent 30 to 40 minutes visiting with her before coming home again, but, alas, during that time the sun ducked that little bit further behind the ridge. My headlight, which was working during the start of the journey (when the sun was still out) got dimmer and dimmer until it was not working at all by the time it was dark. I really need to get that replaced before my next evening ride. While I could still sort of see, better light would have been nice, and would have made me more visible for the (fortunately very few) cars on the road. (We are far enough out of town that there are no street lights).

staying home got more done than if I'd gone out

This morning clovis_t went in for fighter practice, followed by an armouring making/repair session and bbq. I stayed home and tried to get some work done, and was not as successfully as I might have been, but accomplished more than if I'd have joined him (which, let me confess, I wished to do, but then would have felt guilty about not working). But I did manage to add another 62 words and one figure to the thesis after doing the calculations for one more sample. How nice it would have been if these really did take the 1 hour per sample that I'd hoped, rather than one a day. Granted, I think I could have done two samples today if only I'd had a bit more focus.

I did get out for a trike ride this evening. I now know that it is not quite 8 km from my driveway to the home of madryn_1960 and takes 33 minutes to get there, and 42 to get home again. I suspect the return trip could have been done faster if done in the daylight. I only spent 30 to 40 minutes visiting with her before coming home again, but, alas, during that time the sun ducked that little bit further behind the ridge. My headlight, which was working during the start of the journey (when the sun was still out) got dimmer and dimmer until it was not working at all by the time it was dark. I really need to get that replaced before my next evening ride. While I could still sort of see, better light would have been nice, and would have made me more visible for the (fortunately very few) cars on the road. (We are far enough out of town that there are no street lights).