My first trip to Durham Tech’s main campus

More than enough excitement for the day

Today was the most tiring day in a while. I woke up at 6:35, left around 7:15, and took 25 minutes to get to Durham Tech’s main campus in a drive that just fell short of harrowing at times. The traffic was not any heavier than usual, but what made it so difficult was having to adjust to the changing light conditions at first. Then came the full blazing sun, shining right in my eyes for long stretches of time while I was traveling 55 mph on Highway 147.

I could barely see ahead of me, not to mention the cars coming in from the side, or the lines marking which lane I was in. I had maybe about 1 second of visibility in front of me at any one time while I was facing the sun directly. It’s quite a demand to place on my poorly functioning processors so early in the morning. Needless to say, afterwards I was quite run down. I didn’t regain my energy until 11:30 this morning, well after I had gotten back from Durham Tech and stopped to run a few errands.

Still looking on the bright side

Although I was wiped out by my early morning drive, it has not greatly impacted my excitement at being able to take my Basic Wiring class. I will just have to leave earlier in the morning (about half an hour earlier, I’m thinking) so the sun won’t have risen above the horizon yet. Then I will be one of the first cars on campus, and can claim my parking space right beside the front door.

My trip around campus

While at Durham Tech today I visited the building where my class was going to be, and found that all I had to do was walk inside and my classroom would be conveniently located directly in front of me. I did a test drive around campus and by my classroom building first, but then had to park by the security office to get my parking pass and student ID done. I then took a walk to the student center which was on the way to my classroom building, but the bookstore wasn’t yet open and I couldn’t find the lounge where I could test my iPod for wireless internet access. So I headed over to my classroom building and walked all throughout the building before I took notice of how tired I was. Time to get on with the rest of my morning…I had errands to run before I returned home.

I took lots of pictures while I was on campus today…I will have to edit and upload them at a later date since I want to finish my blog post before getting ready for bed tonight. If I go to bed at 9 and it takes me my usual 1 hour to fall asleep, I will be awake at 6 AM which will be in time for me to leave at 6:45 (30 minutes earlier than today’s departure time). No, I won’t do another test drive to Durham Tech’s main campus tomorrow…I’ll save that for class day on Monday.

Breaking new ground on my basement renovation project

At long last, and despite my morning tiredness, I resumed working on our basement renovation this morning. It was 11:30, I had finished my morning set of orders, it wasn’t yet lunchtime, and I couldn’t yet go to sleep (I needed to wait until after lunch, due to my upcoming class being in the mornings). So I decided to do some work in the long-neglected room next door.

I figured I would get at least one ceiling tile put up today, and call it progress. Instead of getting one tile up, I managed to measure and cut several before we ate lunch at 1:30. I then did more work on it this afternoon after my afternoon nap, and amazingly I finally came up with an idea for suspending the drop ceiling where it didn’t quite match up with the wall. So progress has been made today…don’t know what I will do tomorrow but I will try to get more done.

Some notes on time management

Something I’m learning is not to be so picky about the content of my blog posts, to make the most of my time. Also, when I get free time from orders, I better make the most of it. Today I’ve had the most free time since New Year’s Day, and luckily so since I was so wiped out this morning.

Another thing I’m learning is to always keep track of the time, since if there isn’t something I need to be doing right then, there’s probably something that I would like to do that I could be doing with my free time. I should do it then (like writing a blog entry), since I might not get the chance to do so later. Another important thing is to try to get an afternoon nap even if I’m not obviously tired, since I will be tired later when it’s time to fill orders in the evening.

Considering what’s important

All in all, this is definitely a new direction that my life is taking right now. I’ve never consistently gotten up this early in the morning in my whole life. I never had the need to, partly because I never had the desire to (why get up early when my body seems built to wake up late?). However, I want to learn how to install solar panels, and the only way I’m going to do that is by getting up at the crack of dawn and driving the 25 minutes or so to Durham Tech so I can take the same class electricians take to learn how to do wiring. So, for now, I will be up and driving at the crack of dawn because it is something I have to do in order to do something else I want to do.