Change and wolf.

I realize the title makes little sense, but I couldn't figure out how to tie... WAIT! I have it!

Two optics are being built now, so my NuSTAR life has changed forever. Instead of starting at 05:30, I'll be starting at 04:30. The scariest part of that for me isn't getting up at 04:00, it's having to go to bed at 20:30. Maybe I'll try something I did when I was in the habit of staying up very late, many years ago. I'd be up until 2 or 3 in the morning, then get up in 3 or 4 hours for work. When I got home, I'd take a short nap, and I was able to go on like that for months. Of course, I'm not 30 anymore.

One change that is part of my new schedule is that Twila won't be getting up with me and making my coffee. Hopping out of bed at 5 was no problem for her, but 4 is ridiculous. I have to decide whether to make my own coffee at 4, or wait until I get home. It's just a matter of how long it takes. I don't want to have to get up at 03:45 just so I can have coffee.

Also, the lab is on a true campussy campus, not the cookie cutter industrial buildings that some companies like to call their campus. It is part of Columbia University, after all. There are trees and open spaces. I see deer almost every day. But today I saw a wolf! Yessiree bobberskins, it was a wolf. It was 05:29:30 and dark, and my headlights caught it running across the road about 15 yards in front of me. It quickly disappeared into the dark, but I got a clear view of it. It was neither a coyote nor a fox nor a dog, all of which I've seen many times. I hadn't seen a wolf in the wild before, but there was no mistaking it.

Possibly when I'm going in to work at 04:30, I'll see more of them.