Powerball Anyone? (OT)

I've had a good week. It's been exhausting and emotionally draining, but on reflection I have to call it a good one. The Tulsa Tough and the Tough Kids events went well. I worked my butt off since last Wednesday, and it was actually a relief to go back to work! It offers an opportunity for some rest.

But I'm not writing about the Tough events again today. No, instead I want to talk about some other good things.

In aircraft electronics, we have some units rotate in and out of the shop far too often. These are chronic or 'dog' units that have low reliability. Until recently, I had seven of them sitting on the shelf. I'd tinker with one when I had some time, but by and large, they were parked for months or even years. That is, until this last week.

Last Wednesday, I fixed one of the dogs before leaving for the weekend. It was the beginning of an upswing.

I wrote about working with the 'varsity', the professional bike shop mechanics, at the Tough Kids bike build. Honestly, that was a big morale booster. It may go far to explain my attitude when I walked into the avionics shop yesterday morning. I pulled one of the dogs off the shelf, a unit that had frustrated me in previous attempts, and had it working again in a few hours.

And I did it again today. All three computers had different problems. I found a new way to use some test software in one instance, and used other methods to isolate the problems in the other two. One of them had microscopic cracks in some solder joints. The other had a failed part that I had never seen fail before.

So things have gone very, very well this last week, so well in fact, that I think I should buy some Powerball tickets! If I win enough money, I'll sponsor the Tour de CycleDog!