Oh, What Joy!

I am so happy right now. Words cannot describe how happy I am. The seemingly impossible became possible today. What could possibly make me this happy right now? It's very simple. I turned on a gas compressor.

That doesn't sound too exciting, does it? Trust me, this is a pretty big moment for me, and here's why.

Last summer I was told that we needed to do some safety upgrading on the facilities used for my research. At the time it wasn't too big of a deal...install some extra outlets, clean up some wires, etc. Well, not long after that, we got the news that we needed to move our gas supply from the basement of our building to a spot outside before we could run anymore tests. Well, this has been a major inconvenience. Our gas system consists of a natural gas compressor that fills up 4 natural gas cylinders to 1500 psi, and we didn't want to move it. We were able to get an exception for a couple of months as long as we only filled the tanks to 500 psi, but we eventually had to take the steps to move everything outside. After all the planning for that, we were told it would take 1 to 2 weeks. It's been 4 months now, and we haven't been able to do any testing this whole time. Inconvenient? Yes. Frustrating? Yes. Anyway, we finally got everything moved and hooked up how it's supposed to be, with proper safety measures and such. I went to turn on the compressor today to start filling the tanks, and it wouldn't turn on. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was wrong. Anyway, after a day full of running around, annoying people, and jerry rigging a temporary solution, the compressor finally turned on. The tanks are filling as we speak (or as I type). The end of this 4 month frustration is finally coming to an end!

If you don't believe me that I was as excited as I stated at the beginning, well, I'll just say that I started laughing and dancing around by the compressor when it turned on. If you know me, you'll know I don't just randomly burst out into dance all that often.