LIGO from below

There is something liberating about being at the bottom of the work-heirarchy, something refreshing about the total singleness of purpose, the ability to work full-bore while the machinations of the organization complete seemingly useless 9-5 cycles of bureaucracy.

I camped out at the lab for the first time on Sunday night. At 5am the interferometer wasn't working and I decided to crawl into one of the 'sleeping rooms' to snooze before the 10am staff meeting. Only it turned out that the sleeping rooms (established during Katrina) had been turned into offices in the meantime. I camped out on the floor of Rana's office but got too cold and slept fitfully. I gave up and did some more work. Went to the staff meeting. Then got the key to the lab's "Kamp Katrina" (no joke), a trailer out back next to the chiller farm with a bare mattress where I slept out the rest of the work day. Ready to begin again when nearly everyone else had gone and the lab was again quiet and ready for work.

36 hours at the lab.