I was trying to count things up as I drifted off under the covers last night. Three weeks, three continents, four countries and nearly a dozen different beds (if you count airline seats as “beds”).
But it was a good trip. Dublin and my impromptu day in London were both fabulous. And the Ghanaian Consulate sent me a lovely, gracious apology and reimbursement for my impromptu layover. Accra, as you have read, was amazing and challenging. But I was ready to be done with travel by the time I returned west.
Thing is, there was still the conference at Woods Hole, and my technical demo to deal with. Short story – and yes, I can make stories short! – is that it went better than I could have imagined. There are ten (10!) research teams now interested in test deploying the system, and many of them want me to fly out to help them give it a try. Those with a long enough attention span to recall the previous paragraph about being tired of travel will be forgiven for wondering in what way this counts as “better than imagined.”
But it really is a success: folks who know research vessel requirements inside out looked firsthand at the code and decided that that liked what they saw. It’s validation that what I’m doing matters. And isn’t that all any of us really want?
Speaking of mattering, I got to take advantage of the tininess of eastern states to drive west a couple of hours and spend the weekend being “dad,” visiting our eldest at Hampshire. Met the roommates, wandered the woods and explored the local cuisine. Turns out that 1) “Lox and Latkes Benedict” is a thing, 2) it’s exactly what it sounds like, and 3) yes, please.
Got home yesterday. The blog will probably go quiet for a while as I try to figure out what timezone I’m in. But in the meantime, here are some pics from the trip:
David Pablo Cohn 