Well, I?ve gone 0 for 3 on thruster tests this week. I think I?ve gotten the problem isolated and now I?m just pacing around the lab, drawings in hand, waiting for some ceramic to come in. My box of destruction has certainly grown this week though. On Tuesday I completely vaporized like a 2 inch section of some ultra heavy duty thermocouple and shattered the ceramic protection tube it was in. That was sort of need. It is always easier to disconnect things when the wires are burned off.

Brad and I ducked out of the lab around 4 yesterday and went kayaking down by Chassel. He has this amazing 17 foot mahogany kayak that he made himself. In the land of kayaks, the longer the boat, the faster you can go. Needless to say then, I was busting my ass to keep up in my little 9? 6? kayak. We went out for about two hours and he took mine out for a little cruise when we got done (meanwhile I was on the beach with both arms hanging limp). ?Wow, this is like a sports car? he said ?in mine, the turning radius is a zip code?. So that was fun.

For the balance of the week, I’m going to be cutting ceramics and then test until I can test no more. Gazing into my crystal ball I see the lab . . . with pizza boxes everywhere. I also see that I haven’t written my paper or even started on my presentation that I’m giving in Tuscon in less then two weeks. Hmmm, better get on that.

Somehow I lost my voice this weekend. It started on Friday, my nose was quite literally dripped all over the lab. When the evening rolled around, I was sounding like crap but still felt fine. It only got worse from there. For all of Saturday, I was just a whisper in the breeze. Which was too bad too since I had company at the house so they had to tolerate me sounding like someone who needs to be put down. Today wasn?t much better. I was playing beach volley ball and still sounded like crap. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Speaking of tomorrow, I have another couple hours of assembly on the thruster and them I?m good to go. Brad wanted to be there so I held off on Friday (went kayaking instead). Eh, I should probably go to bed.

Well, it is time to put hippy kayak Dean back on the shelf and dust off pseudo-rocket scientist Dean. Various thruster parts have been converging on Houghton over the last several days and will hit local critical mass tomorrow morning. So begins then the pre Joint Propulsion Conference ramp up. Unless I destroy something with some serious lead time (unlikely), I?ll pretty much be haunting the basement of the MEEM until mid July. Don?t get me wrong though, I love testing in the lab. I haven?t fired a thruster since that fateful evening a while ago and it has sort of made me stir crazy. Well, in keeping with tradition, the lab is going on the pre thruster test bender this evening and it would be sort of tacky if I didn?t show up.

*cracks a beer*
Holy crap was that a trip ? we?ll get back to that in a minute. As you may have guessed, I?ve sort been spending all my time oscillating between the lab and my kayak. The weather has been absolutely stunning the last few days and I?ve tried to capitalize on it. Yesterday I went out along the cliffs near Redridge. While I was out there, I can honestly say, there was no place else I would rather have been. Even when I?m doing something I really enjoy there is usually something that could make it just a bit better; yesterday however, it was absolutely perfect. I was flat out shocked by the shear beauty of the surrounding landscape and couldn?t help but think about how rock is so much more permanent then we are. I?m probably beginning to sound like some sort of hippie now but it truly was an amazing trip. Here’s a couple of pics I snapped.

Since today was equally as nice, I headed up north to the Calumet Water Works. I was gone for way longer then I thought; on the water for a little more then 4 hours which equates to a trip of about 15 miles. What is interesting though is the bulk effect that such an excursion has on your body. On the low side, it is estimated that your body burns 350 calories per hour kayaking. So on my 4.25 hour journey I should have burned about 1500 calories. I?m quite certain I did too since I had a half of a bag chips right before I left and was absolutely starving by the time I got back to the house Not to mention my arms are mush right now. I?m amazed I can actually lift this beer to my face. In any case, I have to admit traveling along a beach is much less interesting then around huge cliffs but it was still fun.

I learned today my mp3 player is one hell of a trooper. At my turnaround point, I hopped out for a minute and I?ll be dammed if my mp3 player didn?t fall out of my pocket and fall into the water. Amazingly though, it kept playing for about 30 seconds then died. In typical Massey fashion, I managed to drop in the water AGAIN 10 seconds later. Once I got my kayak up on the beach I attempted to wring that thing out. After drying out for about 45 minutes, it started working perfectly again. Before that it was hit or miss. So hats off to the engineering department at RCA.

Yeah, I’ve been sort of busy of late. I’m working on rolling all the pictures posted into a more usable interface. I did some work on it last night and this afternoon for like 10 seconds. But it is super nice out, I just sent my thruster parts down to Ann Arbor and I got the quote back on replacing all the windows in the house so you can pretty much guess what I’m going to do. No no, gentle reader, not the bar (probably later though) but rather the a couple hour cruise in my kayak. And before I forget, here’s the link to the new photo gallery.

Wow, what a nice wedding. Those two are crazy about each other. The wedding was actually in Egg Harbor Wis but we stayed in Sister Bay at a nice resort sort of thing for the weekend. Just to prove that I don?t always just wear white t-shirts, I have two pictures.

This first on is Adam and me standing on rocks (duh).

And this one is a classic shot of ?The Boys? from Kasson. When I talk about my friends from ?Back Home Long Ago?, these are the guys. From left to right, it is Abe, Mike, Adam, me and Cory. The only one missing from the picture is Sean who was otherwise detained by the whole getting married thing.

I brought my kayak down with me too which had an interesting side effect. My gas mileage actually increased. On the way back I got nearly 26 miles per gallon . . . up from my usual 22-23. Aside from that though, I went out twice on Lake Michigan which was fun. On the way home it was such a nice day, I stopped off at the South Entry of Portage Lake and tooled around there for about two hours. Did I mention I love my kayak yet? Anyway, I?m beat.

I forgot to post before I left, but I’m down at my friend Sean’s wedding in Door County Wisc (so no I didn’t die). Anyway, I’m on the beach and the connection is sort of hit or miss, so I’ll just hedge my bets and cut it short.

I punk?d out of the lab around 3 this afternoon, grabbed my kayak and headed to the north-eastern edge of the Keweenaw peninsula. After some crazy off roading in the stamp sands near Gay, I ditched my truck on the beach and put in near the ruins of some old foundry. First thing I noticed was the 15 degree drop in temperature as I approached the water, but it was still pleasant out. I headed north for bloody ages. I have no idea how long since I didn?t have any implement of chronological reference on me but I was in the water for a total of 3 hours. After stuffing from food in my mouth and washing it down with a Bush light (hey, it was free alright), I took to the internet to see how far I actually went. Lucky for me, TerraServer has satellite photos so I can actually tell for real where I was. So, a nice composite of images shamelessly stolen tells the story. Round trip, I would estimate it to be about 9 miles so I was doing approximately walking speed (3 mph). I?m not going out tomorrow I don?t think, but Brad was all geeked when I told him I bought a kayak and wants to go out on Wednesday. Did I do anything else important today? Nope.

So Ed and I arrive on the scene of the wedding 5 minutes before it starts. It is hot as all hell outside and the wedding party doesn?t look too comfortable. Unfortunately, it was standing room only inside of the church and the one guy we saw coming out of there was sweating like a pig. Since we couldn?t really see in the church either, there was but one thing to do: go to the bar. So we holed up in some seedy bar around the corner for 30 minutes while everyone else was enduring the wrath of God in the sweltering heat. Once the wedding was over though, we snuck in the receiving line and no one was the wiser.

Fast forward to the reception (after a trip to AuTrain beach for an hour or so). That was one hell of a party. In typical UP style there was an open bar and man did we take advantage of it. Anyway, here?s the requisite group photo of Dani, Tom and me (no I’m not choking her either).

They kicked us out around midnight and might I add I was turbo drunk. The highlight of the evening though was the drunk bus. Dani and Tom had charted a bus to tote people back to sobriety. It was probably a solid half hour on this trolley like thing but the college crew was still drinking beer and bouncing off the walls. The only causality of the night was my left shoulder which is angry with me likely stemming from the instant I was doing flips on the bus.

Morning came fast (sobriety was a bit slower), and on the way through Marquette I decided to bite the kayak bullet. I mean, I?ve lived within 500 feet of a lake for 6 years and really haven?t done anything about it until now. So check this bad boy out. It is pretty short, at only 9? 6? and I chose that size for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted something that is easy to maneuver in tight spots. Second, it fits well in the back of my truck. And finally, it was a heck of a lot cheaper then the much larger models and not being rich, that is important.

I spent a solid two hours just sort of dorking around in Portage Lake. I had a lot of fun sort of exploring all the things I wanted to see but didn?t feel like swimming over to. Of course I brought my camera too. So here?s a nice pic of MTU from the lake.

I should really just go ahead and write the post where I tell everyone about how my camera is sitting in the bottom of some lake and I?m 17 shades of not-at-all surprised for it truly is only a matter of time. Like I said though, I was just sort of tooling around, rocking out with my mp3 player which carries an added liability. You really have to watch out for the other people out there lest yet get creamed by Joe Yooper?s jet ski. Or maybe be crushed by a billion tons of ore freighter. Or sunk by a ferry?s bilge pump turning on at a bad time. In any case, I really like it and plan to spend a lot of time this summer sitting the sun cruising around various bodies of water.