The place where lost socks go...

Continuing the chronicles of my Summer Vacation...

Yesterday, I met The Kiddo and his girlfriend in Woodridge to spent the afternoon at the Cypress Cove water park. I had been there two years ago, with resourceress, and we'd had a great time... but then there were no water parks for me last summer. So I had some catching up to do. The park is cute, and not very big[*]; it has three body slides, a tube slide, a lazy river, and a drop slide. We were there for four hours and got to partake of all a fair number of times. Indeed, The Kiddo and I raced several laps around the lazy river in a fashion most unlazy -- to the amusement of the kids doing lifeguard duty. The weather was quite cooperative, which I particularly appreciate since it is raining today. With the exception of said girlfriend flipping at the bottom of the tube slide and banging her head, it was a very nice afternoon. When the park closed, we went to get Mexican food at the nearby Burrito Loco so that I could stock up on Mexican and sate such cravings for another two months. After dinner, they headed south and I went back to the Event Horizon.

During the evening, I got a call from sweetsourcat. We talked for a couple of hours, having a very nice conversation... and the longest chat of our friendship (so far). We've known each other since I moved to Chicago in 2003, and I've always liked her. So getting to know her better, even after I've moved away and she is just about to do the same, is quite nifty. She has some big changes coming up in her life, and it is great to see things falling into place for her.

This morning, I woke up to find an e-mail in my Oxford InBox from JI. He sent me an "e-highfive." It seems that the latest cooldown of the K-400 -- the one that I set up and started before leaving last Thursday -- has been quite the success. We have reached a new low temperature (for us) of 6.3mK and we are making the measurements that we wanted with the legacy detector. Counting the many months that we wrestled with the K-400 malfunction, this result has been over a year in coming! It feels great to have succeeded on this front because it clears the way to some serious R&D (and publications). Electronics are now being put into place, with the cryostat still cold, to take our work to the next logical step. This makes me a very happy scientist, indeed! Perhaps the only thing better than taking a nice long summer vacation is watching one's work make good progress while enjoying said vacation.

Today has been raining. So the day has been largely devoted to errands. I renewed my International Driver's License. I got my annual haircut. I hit the comic book store and found that my bag had gotten so full that it had to be upgraded to a box. There were about 125 comics in said box, being the new issues that I collect which have come out since cheshcat last picked up my subscriptions in early March. Lots of good reading to be had in my near future! I also drove up to Villa Park to get fitted for my wetsuit and other equipment, in preparation for a SCUBA dive in Lake Michigan next Sunday. It has been nearly two years since I last dove, making me very eager to get back under the waves once again!

Now I am home again, waiting for gyades to finish getting ready for his impending departure to England. He leaves the Event Horizon tomorrow, and we are both eager to get in another game of GO before he heads out. I have not beaten him in quite some time... but I have been practicing. So, gentle readers, wish me luck!

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[*] Thus making it a nice warm up for the upcoming trip to Hurricane Harbor!

Hmmm... Looking back at the past week of entries, it seems that I've written a fair bit without actually saying very much about what I have been up to. So, to rectify that, here is one of those "week in review" posts:

Saturday: As mentioned, circumstances in the lab necessitated that Saturday be a workday. And, despite working from 10:30am until 11:30pm, it was not a terribly exciting or successful workday, either. That's the way life is sometimes when you work with cryogenics, but it can be frustrating. High points of the day included sneaking away for an hour and a half to get cream teas at The Rose with EB & cheshcat, and playing Settler of Catan when I was finally done working.

Sunday: This was the day of many vehicles. First, I drove Peter down to Didcot with EB. We visited the Didcot Railway Centre and got to ride in the cars of an old steam train. Ye gads -- those old wooden cars were opulent and comfortable! The first time we rode across the site, we were duly impressed. When we got out, we realized that we had been in third class! So we had to ride back later in first class to experience that, too. I also got to drive a steam engine locomotive for the better part of a mile. Good fun! When we got back to Oxford, about an hour before sunset, EB and I took out a punt on the Cherwell and watched the sun go down. Cars and trains and punts -- oh, my!

Monday: I gave myself Monday off as compensation for forcing myself to work on Saturday. For EB's last full day in England, we went to visit Avebury and Stonehenge. The old stones are as impressive as ever, but this was my fourth such outing so the thrill has faded a little. At least it was my first visit to them in ten months, so it wasn't quite as redundant as it could have been. Also, EB preferred that we take back roads rather than motorways, which made the drive longer but much more scenic.

Tuesday: Went to work. Drove EB to the bus station. Went back to work. Listened to a seminar on single top quark physics at the Tevatron. Whenever somebody from Fermilab shows the canonical ariel photograph of the site, I can't help but realize about where the Event Horizon should be on the picture and feel a twinge of homesick. After the talk, went back to work. Cycled to Iffley Road to meet cheshcat for a bit. Went back to work. Rang bells at Mary Mag with OUSCR for the last time of the academic year. Went home to eat dinner and watch Babylon 5 with cheshcat.

Wednesday: Good day at work! Did clever things! Yay for me! In the evening, with no more bell ringing at St. Cross, we invited C&M over to play Puerto Rico.

Thursday: Came in at 8am to get some work with the SQUIDs started before the video conference began at 8:30am. I am so very unsuited to mornings. Nonetheless, I worked from 8 until 4 sans any break and had a very productive time of it. In the evening, cheshcat and I went to a Wine & Strawberry party at the University Newcomers' Club. This took the place of my ringing lesson at St. Giles, but I still attended the regular practice afterward. I rang the tenor up, which involves taking a 1456 pound bell and turning it upside down. I rang the covering bell on several methods that I am not familiar with; I finally understand that the point of this exercise is to teach me ropesight. I can't do it yet, but it comes in small bursts. I also rang the tenor on Plain Hunt with six and seven bells. I understand the method fully, but at times I still need better bell control. After ringing, went home for dinner with cheshcat and we finished watching the third season of Babylon 5.

Friday: More work. The K-400 is now ready for another cooldown next week. We have one of the SQUIDs attached to a very basic detector of our own design and construction. The other SQUID has an open input just for the purposes of testing some wiring. All is set now, and it is Friday night... so in a few minutes I am off to an OUSCR end-of-term bar-b-que and party.

And that was the week that was!

This was a bank holiday week. The good thing about having a bank holiday week was that I had an extra day off of Monday. The bad thing about having a bank holiday week was that I I had fit five days of work into only four days. Deadlines will be deadlines.

In brief, here is what I have been up to:

( Bells )

( Work )

( Everything else )

I shall be leaving the University soon to shave, shower, and pack for a weekend road trip. It has been a good and solidly productive week... but now I am very much looking forward to going somewhere else for the weekend. Heading out of Oxford in two hours -- back late on Sunday evening.

I am writing this entry from pomoloco's apartment in Manhattan -- not quite as cool as a decommissioned underground nuclear bunker, I know -- as I finish transitioning from P**T*** back to the outside world.

To a certain extent, what happens at P**T*** stays at P**T***. So I will not delve into great depth about what happened during the weekend. I will say that it was an active and fantastic gathering. I took poi lessons and drum lessons, made a broom, and delivered a well-attended talk on my dark matter research. I sat in the sauna, purging my system of its toxins. I went canoeing on the pond -- and "rescued" a fellow canoer who had capsized -- hiking in the woods, and sat on rocks watching a waterfall. There was ritual and fire and drumming... as well good conversation and good community. And then there was Aphrodite's Temple, of course.

The weekend went a long way towards restoring the mental/physical/spiritual balance that I wrote about a few weeks ago. I did take part in mental-mode activities, such as discussing my research, political discussions, and accumulating old British coins from a friend who is a professional numismatist. However, the majority of my time was spent engaging on the spiritual and physical planes. This restoration of balance was very much needed and I feel more whole and rejuvenated as a result. I intend to continue the process during the remainder of my trip to the States. Not all parts of the weekend were solidly joyful, as the gathering provided a safe magickal space to delve inwards and work with the chronically difficult parts of my psyche. But that, too, was a good thing and contributes -- rather than detracts from -- the restoration.

This was my tenth year attending the P**T*** gathering. I have been to a variety of other Pagan gatherings -- such as Starwood, Free Spirit, and Wild Magic -- but P**T*** is, by far, my favourite. It is also the only one that I have never missed since the first time that I attended. The combination of the land and the people -- many of whom I have known for twelve years now -- makes the event exceptionally special. Each time I return to A****** (the site at which P**T*** is held), the year in-between events melts away and I enter a truly magickal place. I know that, for cassiopia, Diana's Grove is the physical center of her spirituality. Last September, at the Wild Magic festival, I met many people for whom Lothlorien -- the site of Wild Magic -- is the physical center of their spiritual worlds. For me, A****** serves the same purpose and I cherish my time there each year.

More update on recent events during resourceress's visit:

Thursday evening we went to St. Giles Church to look in on all this bell ringing. We watched the change bell ringers do their thing and hope to come early enough for a lesson this coming Thursday. After the bell ringing was over, we went out to a nearby pub, the Royal Oak, for drinks and conversation with three of the ringers.

Friday evening, we got together and had a snack of nachos at a different pub, the King's Arms, before meeting the same three bell ringers for an outdoor theatre performance of The Tempest in the Trinity College gardens. Good show... (nicely done, Bill!) and we got to wander about in the college garden, which is not something we would normally have access to.

Saturday, we went to the Oxford Castle, which doubled as a prison from as early as 1071. In fact, for the past few centuries, it only served as a prison, and no longer as a home for the royalty. However, ten years ago the prison was closed... and it now serves as a luxury hotel. Seriously. Three cells are combined into one guest room -- two for the bedroom and one for the bathroom -- with rates starting at £140/night (or about $260). Hoy vey! Some torrential rain trapped us at the castle for a bit, so we went into the Krispy Kreme and ordered a dozen donuts to tide us over. Very surreal. Eventually the rain let up, and we wandered to the Ashmolean Museum, which claims to bethe first public museum in Britain. We made our way through the Greco-Roman exhibit, the Egyptian exhibit, and a special photographic exhibit on "Oxford at Night." This was the last weekend for the special exhibit, so I am glad that we went. In the evening, we went to an outdoor performance of The Taming of the Shrew, which was performed quite well, with much humour!

Sunday, we slept in and then made our way to the Oxford Botanic Garden. Like the Ashmolean Museum, the Botanic Garden is owned by the University. There was a special summer festival going on, which was nice. We went on a "Secret Garden" literary tour of the grounds, which resourceress describes in her own entry about this weekend here. The Oxford gardens are the oldest in Britain -- seems like everything here is (a) owned by the University, and (b) the oldest in Britain -- begun in the 17th century, during the reign of Charles I. We saw a yew tree, possibly the oldest specimen at the garden, planted in 1645. Upon leaving the gardens, we took a snack and then hired a punt at the Magdalen Bridge Boathouse. I had never tried my hand at punting before, but I seemed to be okay at it. Certainly much better than some of the other beginners that we saw making their way along the river. We did get lost a bit, wandering off of the River Cherwell and onto the Thames (or, as the stretch in Oxford is called, the River Isis). Whoops... Eventually we found our way back, though, based on a combination of resourceress's memory, the waterway map, and directions from passer-bys.

Today, both of us have been at work. However, we took a lunch break together to climb the two highest towers in Oxford: Carfax Tower and the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. And, yes, of course the church (with its tower) is also owned by the University. Other than the lunch break and an interesting astrophysics seminar on the search for extra-solar planets, today has been a pretty standard day. Still no liquid helium...

And that is about all the news that is fit to print. Tune in next time, gentle readers...

Lately, the weather in NorthEastern Illinois has been very strange. The sky has been blue, the temperature has been moderate. Not what I am used to from these parts, but I sure do like it!

Taking advantage of the situation, resourceress and I spent most of the day in the great outdoors. After sleeping in, we headed into the city where we ran a couple of errands... all of which were accomplished outside. Then we drove back to the Event Horizon and went for a bike ride around the neighborhood. No destination in mind; we just rode around for a few miles for the sheer fun of it. And fun it was. Valley View, the subdivision I live in, has all the drawbacks of being a white, middle class suburb -- namely that it is white, middle class, and a suburb -- but aside from its sociology, it is a very pleasant area. Being adjacent to an arboretum doesn't hurt the scenery any, either!

After working up a little bit of a sweat from bicycling, the two of us plus polymorphism went to her apartment complex for a dip in the community pool. That complex has a very nice and quite sizable pool... but no one ever seems to use it. This is perplexing, but it is a situation that works for me. I am not going to complain about having the entire pool to ourselves! We floated around and chatted. We swam a little bit. And, of course, PM and I engaged in a fair bit of our customary wrestling. Possibly the best moment of the afternoon, though, was when da_pupdetz gave PM a kiss on the cheek. Boy howdy, did I get pummeled for that one...

As the sun started to go down, we emerged back onto land and dried off. resourceress and I returned to the Event Horizon for a nice hot shower to dechlorinate each other. Then it was off to Elmhurst for dinner with one of my colleages (MW) and his wife (CD). Other than the Moof -- who I have known for years -- these were my very first friends when I moved to Illinois, nearly two years ago. Unfortunately, though, scheduling time to get together has been very difficult for us this year. Before tonight, I do not think that we had seen MW since my birthday party in March. For CD, it had been even longer; last Yule, perhaps! Some things never change, though: CD prepared a delicious meal, with enough food to feed a small army. The conversation was lively and fun. And the evening was clear, starry, and rich with the buzz of secedas. We caught up on the adventures that 2005 has brought to us thus far, then just let the conversation roam where it wanted. Probably the most hysterical point of the evening was when CD was telling stories of meeting the other women in her neighborhood. MW and CD are German and apparently CD has been asked -- on more than one occasion -- if the people in Germany have cars. Hoy vey! I was simultaneously stunned with both laughter and incredulousness.

So, why am I awake now? Beats the helavic out of me! The past two nights, I have been waking up at 4:30am for no particular reason, and not drifting back off until nearly 8am. Go figure. With all the physical activity and sunlight of yesterday, I would have expected to sleep like a baby! Hopefully my sleep will resume some semblance of normality soon but, until then, I have been using the time to finish off a reading project of mine. It's nearly 8am now. Time to see if I can fall back asleep...

This evening, I went to the monthly packing party for Midwest Books to Prisoners. This was the first time that I've done prison book work since March -- the absence due to conflicting travel plans -- and it felt good to be back in the fold. Working on books to prisoners leaves me feeling that I have done some concrete good... rather than the symbolic work of demonstrations and protests. Both types are important, but balancing them is paramount. It would be too easy to burn out otherwise.

We knocked off the book packing around 10pm and SJ suggested that we all go for a swim. There is a pond in Humbolt Park, which is a short walk from her house. So about twenty of us headed to the park and we went for a spontaneous dip in the water to cool down from the hot and humid evening. Not being prepared for a swim, I stripped down to my briefs and took the plunge into refreshingly cool water. I would have preferred to skinny dip, but getting arrested for indecent exposure was not a risk I felt comfortable accepting tonight.

After splashing about for some time, I drove home and arrived at the Event Horizon shortly before midnight. Had a long discussion about various upcoming logistics with cheshcat, which brought me up to nearly 1am. So, after posting this, I'm off to read myself to sleep with The Ultimates (v.2). There is no need to wake up early tomorrow, so hopefully I can get a full night sleep for the first time in many days...