Waiting

July 3, 1997

I.....really......hate.......waiting.

Most of my work is done, everything that has to be done prelanding. The Nav guys (actually, two guys and a gal) are busy as beavers, checking and rechecking our trajectory, or flight path. There is a possibility of one more maneuver, and they have to analyze all the data they can get, right up to the time of that potential maneuver, to decide if it needs to be done. That will happen (or not happen) sometime tonight.

Technically, I don't start work until 11:00 p.m. (23:00, by our clocks) tomorrow night, which means that I SHOULD be sleeping tomorrow afternoon--just about when all the data are coming down. Right...like I'll be able to sleep through that. I'll try to stay up tonight until about 5 or 6, so that I'll sleep in the morning, but I'm not optimistic. There will just be too much excitement and I'll be too anxious. At least they've brought in cots for anyone who has to sleep in their office, for whatever reason. (After a night shift during one of our tests, I fell asleep on the freeway while driving home. No accident, nobody hurt, but it scared the bejeezes out of me. Now I have a sleeping bag and pillow in my office so I can sleep a few hours, if I need to, before I drive home.)

This time tomorrow, the first picture comes down.....