Return to the land of the daywalkers

I get the pleasure of participating in major, national level exercises a couple times a year for work. The idea behind an exercise is to implement scenarios and to react accordingly. A wonderful concept to simulate damaged networks or elevated threats from other world superpowers, but a significant pain in the butt to anyone who maintains a semi-normal sleep schedule. I'm usually the day time guy that mans the fort from 6am to 6pm, but for this lovely exercise, I worked nights. Sometimes a perspective change is welcome and can remind you how your nice, simple, synchronized, steady schedule can be completely flipped around and destroyed. If you've never switched your work / sleep / family schedule 180 degrees, try it sometime. Go to sleep at 7am, wake up at 12:30pm, go back to sleep (try...) for another hour if it's not too light in your coffin..err..bedroom. When you've reached your daytime sleep quota, wake up and try to figure out why it's so bright. Stumble around rubbing your eyes for a bit whilst trying to clear the cobwebs from your mind. The one constant between schedules is the requirement to ingest coffee within 15 minutes of waking up. I'm addicted - don't judge. Once the first cup of coffee kicks in, get cleaned up and dressed for work, then out the door you go. Once at work, try not to look at the clock which constantly reminds you that you have 12.3 hours left until you can go home. Since the rest of the world is sleeping comfortably (in the dark...), there really isn't anyone to talk to that isn't in the office. I have a feeling the first YouTube surfers were shift workers. During my night shifts, I watched more T.V. (for situational awareness, of course...) and Internet videos than I have in the last year combined. The later the hour, the funnier the videos. Good times.

On occasion during these exercises, we move to our other office in Cheyenne Mountain.



Having been to some very, very cool places in my life, this one ranks high on the list. The mystery surrounding "the mountain" always peaked my interest growing up. The thought of a complex, hardened facility INSIDE a mountain is pretty cool. My first trip inside, it didn't disappoint. After many trips inside for work over the last couple years, it hasn't lost it's appeal. I still enjoy riding the bus down the long tunnel to the doors, knowing I'm headed deeper into the mountain. From a physics and historical perspective, the place is absolutely amazing and I feel privileged to call it my other office. The downside is driving from the mountain all the way home after a long, night shift. Fortunately this exercise only included a single night up there.



So after 5 nights, they decided not to have a night shift anymore and that we should transition back to "daywalkers." Alyssa was glad to have me home (and awake) for more than an hour and I could tell her stress level dropped substantially at the news. The rest of the week should be fairly normal and will culminate in a 4-day weekend to celebrate Veteran's day, a personal favorite holiday of mine.

In other news, Jonah has a tooth. I don't know how it's possible, but the small, human, boy-child that lives in my house is growing up. I hear that growing a tooth is tough work and based on his fussiness levels and the revoltingly explosive diarrhea that my angelic wife is dealing with, it seems to be taking its toll on him. It also means he's growing up. Every person with kids that asks about him tells us how fast it'll go and how fast he'll grow into a little boy. I have no doubt he will, but for now his mother and I are happy with the chubby-cheeked, little (ish) baby that he is.