Daily Success for an elderly peregrino is symbolized by this statueDaily Success November 11

Daily Success November 11 – Okay by the skin of my scoring teeth. My back remains a major problem, but I’m not sure it should be keeping me off the bike as totally as I’ve been allowing it to. I did a few minutes on the bike yesterday, I was really cold and just used it to get warm, and it didn’t seem to make anything worse.

All of the painting stuff got put away, a major plus, and the “secret passage” to the storage under the basement stairs is closed.

And a lot of SurveyorBot work got done. The N-square diagrams are coming along nicely, albeit with some necessary revisions to the Block Diagram.

Today

Veterans Day

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent on the Western Front. The incomprehensible killing of the first fully industrialized war was put on pause.

This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty yearsFerdinand Foch is alleged to have said. If he did, he was prescient almost to the day. And the industrialization of war was expanded to include the industrialization of mass murder.

My guess is that that bit of history took a bit of the shine off that Armistice. In any event, an act of Congress changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954 and then President Eisenhower signed it.

We thus honor all our veterans, every one who took the oath and wore the uniform until honorably leaving the service (which includes my father), today. As one who never served, yet reaps the benefits of what our veterans accomplished, please accept my thanks for your service.

Thank you. Thank you very, very much.

My Day

After thinking about it, it seems worthwhile to spend some time on the bike today. Careful time, quit when the first sign of trouble shows its ugly head. And none of the “well I know I can do 700 calories so I might as well despite a little discomfort” crap.

Some other today’s agenda items include finishing the N-square and updating the Block Diagram memo.

I also have to write another email to the customer explaining that our key guy for the key instrument sees himself as a scientist, not an engineer, something he reiterated Thursday evening. He does not want to do the instrument Systems Engineering and is not planning to do it. That is a HUGE hole in the center of the SurveyorBot Project.

I am simply sick and tired of this.

The Future

I signed up for the American Pilgrims on the Camino March gathering yesterday and was successful in getting albergue style accommodations. It’s dumb, but I’m looking forward to spending a few nights in a bunkroom with other peregrinos more than any other aspect of the gathering.

As to the rest of “the future,” well my back remains incalcitrant. How likely is adding hospitalero training to the gathering plans? It’s at least a 50-50 bet at the moment.