Blood, sweat & tears

The process of stripping down and rebuilding my robot has caused much stress, anxiety, frustration, injury and annoyance in the last week. We've enrolled the newly-trained Special Ops Engineer, R, and M in the physical process. People in five time zones have collaborated on the procedure. And we've had no less than seven conference calls entirely or partly dedicated to this fun and exciting process. Tomorrow, backup arrives from Europe with the rare quest item: properly constructed replacement part.

I've got a myriad of bruises and sore muscles, too. Today the ornery robot even drew blood! And I set my engagement ring aside, so I could fit my chubby little hand in a tight space, and spent five minutes in a panic trying to find it again. (It was in my jacket pocket, because that's lined with soft fabric and has a zipper.) I nearly sat down and cried when I thought I'd misplaced it.

The next few days will tell whether this 11th hour decision will put us on track to close out the open issues on my project. Or if it was a sneaky way of forcing me to get some yoga-like exercise done in my work hours. Hrmmm.