Who needs thumbs, anyway...

Yesterday morning we got 2 more crates in and started unpacking them. They had all the necessary cable stock to make the cables to go from the electronics to the telescope. Walt and I disassembled the 2 non-working rack-mount monitors in an attempt to fix them, but we had essentially no improvement. We got one working as good as the other, which was not good enough to use...

Afterwards, we all started making cables. As I was cutting the casing of the cable, I slipped and sliced a nice gash into my thumb. I did some first aid in the building, then trudged back to Sick Bay (I love calling it that) to get it properly dressed. By the time I got there, it had stopped bleeding, so it was pretty easy to take care of. It was a good clean cut. I learned a couple of things at the doctor's office. First, he said that I shouldn't be surprised if it takes upwards of 5 weeks to heal the cut. Things heal slowly up here. Second, there's 1/3 the oxygen here than at sea level. That's a lot less than I was expecting. Third, my heart rate is a good deal higher than at sea level (which is normal).

Anyway... after getting treated for my owie, I met the group for lunch, then we headed back out to the lab. I pretty much just made cables until dinner time. It's pretty monotonous and tedious work, but it needs to be done, and the more I do it, the better I get at it, the faster it goes. After dinner, I went and jammed in the music room for a while.

I haven't been feeling well, so I left early to get some sleep. The past couple days, I've started to get a headache. Last night I woke up with a pounding headache. I took some ibuprofen and now it's feeling a little better. I got to sleep in an extra hour or so today, which really made a big difference. This is the first morning that I've woken up feeling rested. All my symptoms have been normal altitude sickness symptoms, so I'm not too concerned. I just need to make sure to rest and they will go away.

Today, we have the big teleconference with the group at 9am. After that, I'll probably finish making some cables, but my main goal today is to take it easy.