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September was a strange month. My wife went off to visit her youngest
daughter's family, so I spent a week and a half as a bachelor. The
weather here was either still way too hot, or pouring rain and still
too hot. The pets and I spent most of our time wishing the AC was a far
more powerful unit than it is. I took two weeks off of work so that I
could dog-sit during Lyn's trip. We worried that our surviving dog
would be too lonely with Lyn being gone and me having to leave him
alone every day I I went to work. He's not yet adjusted to the loss of
his big brother--only a couple of months ago and he still wanders the
back yard looking for his missing brother. So I made sure he wasn't
alone. I missed out on doing some of the work on the project I've been
assigned to at the factory, too. That turned out to be all right, since
I was back in time to get in on the largest tasks of the project.
The project has been a change of pace for me in that it has been a lot
of problem-solving, making lists, a few drawings, and some public
speaking as we train to give a good presentation to company executives
once the project concludes. The group has most of the detail work
completed, and their drawings look highly professional. Now we're down
to tracking the repairs we've suggested, mapping the progress, and
rehearsing twice a week for the big presentation. Some of the progress
recording involves a little bit of photo manipulation & graphic
artwork with the computer, and I'm good at that!
As I said, it's a nice change of pace compaired to my doing quality
tests and lab work.
In a few hours it'll be time for the monthly Larry Niven E-Mail List's
IRC chat. I always look forward to those. They wind up being quite a
lot like a mini-convention, but in VR as it's simply text on a screen.
Larry, himself usually shows up for a couple of hours. Other guests
have included Ed Learner and the late Jerry Pournelle. The usual
attendees include rockt scientists, computer IT folks, a biologist, Big
Name Fans, writers, artists, and all manner of fans of Larry's work. As
I said, it's quite like a small convention. Try looking up the
definition of "Topic Drift" sometime. That's us, LOL!
In less than ten days my wife and I, and a few of my co-workers will be
flown to a big awards banquet for people who have 40 years seniority
with the company who owns the factory where I work. Hard to believe
that I've spent 40 years of my life working for the same company, but
there you go. There will also be people from others of the company's
factories and facilities. There are tours of historical sites and
museums, Company HQ, the formal dinner, and everything else that can be
crammed into a three-day trip to Pennsylvania. We're looking forward to
it.
I realize this isn't much of an editorial, but my schedule is full for
today and I don't want to be the reason tomorrow's new issue upload is
late. I'll try to think up a better topic for November than a glorified
blog post, LOL!
All right, it's about time I shut up and let y'all get to reading the
eighth issue of Aphelion of 2018! Enjoy!
Dan
ON
THE COVER
Title: Cosmic
dust clouds in Messier 78
Photo Credit: ESO/APEX
(MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/T. Stanke et al./Igor Chekalin/Digitized Sky Survey 2
This issue is dedicated to my Great Aunt Bea Jordan,
who passed away Saturday.
Her obituary can be viewed here...
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