Thursday, March 13, 2014

A day of major change and progress


The 13th of March.  I am convinced that I am healthy.
I've extended my stay in Timor Leste by 12 days. 
We finally received the seismic equipment.

I was uncertain about extending my stay given the possibility of serious illness and endless hangups with customs.  Nonetheless, it seemed to be worthwhile to assume these things would work out, and accordingly, take advantage of being here with equipment in hand.  I one day I have ranged from nearly complete uncertainty to the ambitious goal of installing most of the equipment.  Here is a rundown of the day:

7am - wake up feeling well
8am - arrive at the Timor Plaza shopping mall to change my flight(s)
9am - was not successful changing flight home from Bali
9:10am - freak out and email the Banda Arc crew at USC, then get cut off from internet access
9:20-10:20am - change my flight from Dili to Bali, assume that the rest will work out
11am - get back to IPG to see if my assumption was valid...don't find out because the power was out
12pm - find out that Josh West took care of it all, all travel arrangements set
2pm - go to collect equipment
4pm - arrive back at IPG, triumphantly
4:30-6:30pm - test half of the equipment pool to see if all is ready for deployment

 
Testing the last set of equipment for the day.  Seismometer on left, data recorder in middle, battery on right.

The equipment I tested seems to have survived the journey here.  We plan to deploy 3 sites in the next 2-3 days and push on next week.  The first install will be very telling - there are always unanticipated problems.  The only certainty I have, based my equipment test runs, is that I will perspire well beyond the saturation point of my clothing.  Seriously, if there was a way to harness this and send it back to California, all our drought issues would be solved.

My clothing was originally light blue and light grey.

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