Thursday 12/16/2021
Made myself hit the gym at 7:40 for resistance exercise. Then headed out for CHM work, the last of the year, this time at the Yosemite warehouse. There I was assigned to repack this object.
It’s a semicircular array of small vacuum tubes all wired up to vertical bus wires. It was a logic module for the ILLIAC I. Ten years ago, when it and a dozen like it were moved from Mountain View to the then-new Yosemite warehouse, they were packed in non-archival cardboard boxes which are now starting to fall apart. So this is probably not the last one I’ll get to repack. I made custom hunks of foam to stabilize it in a new box, all acid-free materials of course.
Another fine object came in last year and only today was being unpacked It’s an exquisitely detailed model of an IBM 1401 installation.
Unfortunately it had suffered some shipping damage. However I understand the maker of the model is local and may come by to repair it at some point.
Back home by 4:15. I had to leave at 6:30 to pick up Jean and attend a play at the Bus Barn. I thought, phhhht no problem, and went down to get some dinner at 5:30. Unfortunately we seem to be a bit understaffed in the dining room. At 5:50 I hadn’t even gotten a glass of water or given in my order, so I apologized to my table mates and got a sandwich from the grab-n-go and ate in my room.
The play was Every Brilliant Thing, here’s a review that describes it well. An important feature of the show is that the solo performer calls on audience members to play with her. “Excuse me, sir, would you mind being my father for just a second?” and drags some guy up on the stage. The audience members so treated tonight did not include me or Jean, although we were asked to sit in the front row and be an elderly couple in a hospital waiting room. That was easy. But at least three were asked to improvise characters for several-minute scenes, as the lead’s father, school teacher, and lover. The people chosen stepped up and did very well.
Codgerville 