As I’ve done so many times in the past, I apologize for the vast gulfs between posts. Life, as you might suspect, has gotten in the way something fierce.
The last decade has been pretty wild: I got married in 2010, my wife and I moved to Switzerland for me to go to graduate school, we had two kids, I finished graduate school with a Masters and PhD in physics, I got a postdoc (a term-limited contract for a new PhD to do research and kick-start one’s career, sort of like a residency for newly-minted MDs) in the US so we moved to California, I worked furiously for two years doing science, and we bought a house.
Just before this whole COVID situation struck, I had the good luck of being hired on as permanent staff at the lab. This helps provide some much-needed stability in a turbulent time, and I’ve been keeping my nose to the grindstone to make a good impression and get off on the right foot with the new group. The work is exciting, challenging, and interesting, with many opportunities for growth, applicability in the real world, etc. Basically a dream job. Can’t complain at all.
With a finite amount of time in the day, I’ve been focusing on spending quality time with the family, working hard, various home-improvement projects, etc. The kids are old enough (6 and almost 4) that their worlds are getting bigger and my role as a father has expanded as well, so I’m teaching them (and they’re learning) how to take care for a house, garden, build and repair things with tools, take responsibility for their actions, interact properly with other people, etc.
Unfortunately, this has left little time for writing, shooting, and other similar pursuits. I’ll do my best, but in the interim I’m still here, still reading what others are writing, and glad to be part of the broader community.