Back in Business

As things turn out it was an incredibly intense training session. Plus I think I was sick the whole time, so I fell asleep by 8pm every night. Woot woot. I am a party animal. Luckily my co-worker is not a night-owl, so this didn't seem unnatural to him. I cried inside each time I woke up and saw all the books I wasn't reading, and the parts I wasn't designing. Then I cried even more when I remembered the closest thing I could get to a cup of coffee was something that was vaguely brown and mildly warm, but still as transparent as weak tea. (I drink expresso at home. Only one cup a day, but dammit make that cup COUNT!)

All hell broke loose when I got back, though. The crunch had hit at work, so I've been making parts almost non-stop. The crunch also hit at home. My car gave up the ghost and I had to spend yet another weekend working on it. It's running now, but if I don't adjust the belt tension soon I'm going to go deaf from the squealing when I start it.

I finished the last of the parts this morning, and can hopefully get back to doing my own stuff again. Some things I learned over the last week: Contour milling is COOL! Having an axis jam two hours into a part is NOT COOL! 3M radial bristle discs are COOL! Putting sixteen hours into a part and then breaking a tap in it is NOT COOL! Finding out you can chemically burn the broken tap out (and having it actually work as advertised) is REALLY REALLY COOL! But coolest of all is finishing everything and handing it to someone else. Aaaaah.

I'm going to spend the next couple of nights cleaning up the shop and putting everything back in its place. It'll be relaxing.

Unfortunately I started getting a sore throat this morning, and it's only getting worse. I may not be quite as back in business as I'd hoped. Can't win them all.