Just going about the day

It’s rare to find something that requires my expertise here. Unsurprisingly, peak physical fitness and a vast knowledge of different engineering functions rarely come in handy as a part time lecturer living in suburban Melbourne. There just aren’t any emergencies or problems that can be solved through utilising my skills. Having been in space and done things under such enormous amounts of pressure, making potentially life or death decisions in the silence of space, deciding which pest control company in Frankston I should call to deal with our termite problem seems a foreign, meaningless problem.

Often, the only time I have to think, to really use my brain in a day, is in creating problems for my students. At least that involves the application physics and aerodynamics involves some kind of mental exertion in this otherwise stale and repetitive state of being. The problem with being at home while my wife works full-time is that certain things are expected of me. I’m supposed to do the household chores, prepare meals for the children, get on top of doing small, banal things like making sure the we have the termite problem under control. Frankston has an array of different pest control companies, all much the same but with their own artistic flares, their own special offerings. Would it surprise you to know that I spent weeks meticulously researching which company we ought to do business with, which company would offer us the best deal for the highest level of service? Perhaps not. I’m used to doing things with an extremely small margin for error, the fact that few others see the world as I do only factors into my thought process on days like today, when I contemplate the way of the world.

Old habits die hard, they say. I was used to having a lot of time to think, in space, and, looking at it that way, not much has changed.