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Notes from Richland
Oct. 14th, 2007 11:27 pmI'm in the cheapest motel in Richland, Washington. I'm driving an unmarked sedan with U.S. Government plates. I feel like Mr. Mulder.
My flight out was uneventful but pleasant. On Tuesday I left our house at 9 am, walked to the bank and then to the train station, catching the 9:30am metro for Los Angeles for $1.25. At Union Station I walked under the long-distance Amtrak trains to the bus depot, and at 10:00 I was on the "FlyAway" bus bound for the LAX airpot. Four dollars. Twenty minutes later, LAX. I drank a coffee and hacked away at my computer for an hour until my Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle boarded, at 11:30.
The flight out from Los Angeles was glorious. With my nose to the window my eyes searched out the geography of the Santa Monica mountains, the Carizzo Plain, the central valley. The peaks of the Sutter Buttes rose up and I thought that Mt. Shasta was strangely wimpy--but then the real Mr. Shasta rose up, snowbound and awesome in the clouds. (I've got to get a pilot's license!) Seattle looked snug and beautiful, pretty houses and trees scarlet and gold in the autumn. From Seattle the mountains are a jagged knife. We hopped over them in a short but turbulent flight in a turboprop airplane. Pasco.
Since then, long days at the LIGO Hanford Observatory. The well water on site is delicious. It comes from a superfund site. Day two: nine AM until midnight. Since then we've taken up a more reasonable noon-to-midnight. Tomorrow: laser intensity noise. Control room just called: my script has a bug.
My flight out was uneventful but pleasant. On Tuesday I left our house at 9 am, walked to the bank and then to the train station, catching the 9:30am metro for Los Angeles for $1.25. At Union Station I walked under the long-distance Amtrak trains to the bus depot, and at 10:00 I was on the "FlyAway" bus bound for the LAX airpot. Four dollars. Twenty minutes later, LAX. I drank a coffee and hacked away at my computer for an hour until my Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle boarded, at 11:30.
The flight out from Los Angeles was glorious. With my nose to the window my eyes searched out the geography of the Santa Monica mountains, the Carizzo Plain, the central valley. The peaks of the Sutter Buttes rose up and I thought that Mt. Shasta was strangely wimpy--but then the real Mr. Shasta rose up, snowbound and awesome in the clouds. (I've got to get a pilot's license!) Seattle looked snug and beautiful, pretty houses and trees scarlet and gold in the autumn. From Seattle the mountains are a jagged knife. We hopped over them in a short but turbulent flight in a turboprop airplane. Pasco.
Since then, long days at the LIGO Hanford Observatory. The well water on site is delicious. It comes from a superfund site. Day two: nine AM until midnight. Since then we've taken up a more reasonable noon-to-midnight. Tomorrow: laser intensity noise. Control room just called: my script has a bug.
