Summer Update 1
June 15, 2020
With June already half gone, the summer has been flying by already. I wanted to use this post to update what has been going on already and plans for the coming months.
Most establishments in Stillwater have reopened, following the COVID19 closures in March and April. In the past few days, there have been spikes in new cases within Payne County, so things are not going the right direction at the moment. Hopefully this is temporary and doesn’t impact jobs or invoke re-closing of businesses. While playgrounds and most city parks are remaining closed, the tennis courts have been open since May 1st, so I’ve been playing tennis just about daily ever since. The OSU gym and recreation center is set to open July 7th, but since I’ll be moving just a couple weeks later, it probably won’t be worth a membership. I miss the gym a lot, but tennis has been more than enough fun and exercise to fill that gap.
The other exciting news I have to report is that I bought a car yesterday! I’ve made do without one for all of high school, undergrad, and even grad school, but with a few complicated upcoming months for travel and moving, I needed to buy one this summer. I was going to put off the whole process until July (one less insurance payment), but a family friend reached out about a vehicle he was selling. I went from hearing about it to buying it within about 3 days, but now I am a car owner of a 2007 Chevy Cobalt! I intend for it to be mostly used for commuting once I start work, so I wasn’t looking for anything fancy or especially new. It has 85,000 miles and a bunch of items replaced and inspected recently including the tires, battery, and spark plugs. I test drove it, bought insurance the next day, and then wrote a check! This morning I got my license plate and tags, so after years of asking people for rides and borrowing Sam’s car, I finally have one of my own. I’m a lot more excited about than I thought I would be.
The plan for the coming weeks is to continue working as a Research Engineer on the Kratos RATO project. Our Phase I wraps up with a 300lb mass simulator launch by the end of July (targeting end of June), and then we’ll either receive funding for a Phase II, or the project will take another approach.
I’m also working part-time on this year’s Honeywell project like I did last year. We launched payloads for the National Security Campus on M and N motors, and we’ll continue doing that for a few launches through the fall. If the Kloudbusters still host their July Fun Fly, we’ll get to return to the Rocket Pasture for flying our rockets for the first time since October! I’m very excited to say the least.
Near the end of July, Sam and I will start packing up the house and moving things to a storage unit in town. I’ve lived in this house for 4 years now, so I’ll get to see how much stuff I’ve accumulated in that time. I didn’t even know what high-power rocketry was when I first signed the lease for this place in 2016, which puts into perspective how long it’s been!
We’re moving most of our belongings into storage for August because we’ll do the classic millennial thing of moving back in with our parents after college. Fortunately for us, it’s only for 4 weeks until we move into a place in Wichita for September. Around September 1st, we’ll get a moving truck to transfer everything from the storage unit in Stillwater up to Wichita. We then start our jobs on September 14th, which I imagine will feel very odd to not be returning to school with everyone a month earlier.
I’ve optimistic for the rest of this year. I’m excited for what it has in store, and I hope I won’t eat my words when I say, “How much worse can 2020 get?” Guess we’ll find out soon enough.