Well, here we are. My first ever blog post. I’m sure that is a cliche first sentence, but who am I kidding? I don’t care. Ain’t nobody got time for that anyway. To kick things off, can we just all agree that this month has absolutely flown by? I mean if you told me January was a fighter jet, it could hardly have went any faster. I promise you just yesterday I was waking up on Thanksgiving..wait no.. Christmas morning? (the two seem like one holiday now in my memory). Its a strange thing how time goes by. Have you ever really stopped to consider it? We are stuck experiencing time like its a line, stretched out in both directions forever. We move from one moment to the next, without any effort. In fact, all the effort in the universe would not generate enough energy to stop this flow. Your chi-tea wouldn’t give you enough gumption either.
So what is going on here? Why did January go so fast? One theory I have is that for us humans, the present is the only moment that actually exists. Think about it. The past is done. Its not something you are living in is it? Well, maybe you are trying to. That’s fine, I do it too. The future? Well frankly my dear, it doesn’t exist. As soon as it arrives, it assumes the identity of the present, before being itself replaced instantly by the next waiting “future” moment. I think January may have gone by so fast because all the present moments this month have been so darn busy.
So lets recap what exactly happened this January, at least for me. It started off as it probably did for many of you. Family, holidays, not working, eating too much, etc. My wife and our little baby boy went up to Omaha Nebraska to visit my parents and our family up there. (We live in Tennessee right now). It was a grand time. We played lots of board games, card games, etc. My brother-in-law made a massive ball of marshmallow mush with me and we threw it onto the ceiling to see if it would stick (my mom did not like that so much until I cleaned the spot where it left behind a sticky mess). You know, the typical stuff. I always love visiting Omaha. Its like I get to cheat time for a week or so and travel backwards to when we used to live there. I do miss it. The people mainly. All of my connections I made growing up are in Omaha. Most of my adventures I’ve had happened there. I went to high school and college there. (I was home schooled up until high school). Go Central High Eagles! And Go Big Red!
On our way back from the trip to Omaha, we took Lewyn (our son) to the zoo in St. Louis. My favorite part was when he squawked back at the penguins like they had challenged him to a squawk-off. We stayed at a hotel a few hours outside of the city and there is where things went wrong. Remember how we were coming back from visiting Omaha? Well Haleigh, Lewyn, and I weren’t the only ones hitching a ride. We apparently were free transportation for a whole lot of Flu Strand A virus. Lewyn didn’t sleep at all that night and we still had about 5 more hours of driving to do the next day. Lets just say it was not that fun. He had a peak temp of 103.5 (I think), and was whining and moaning all night. Then once we got back I also got sick of course. Which meant I had to take work off for a few more days than planned adding to my already long vacation (but not the good kind of extension).
What then? Well it was back to it. Back to work, back to “the grind” as they say. And what exactly is the grind for me? Well for me its not really a grind at all. In fact its one of my favorite things about life currently, (don’t get me wrong it has its moments). I work for an aerospace startup called Whisper Aero. We make ultra quiet, ultra efficient electric jet engines – check out our website!
Great, now that you are back from checking out how awesome my company is let me tell you a small amount about what I do there. I am a computer engineer, which means I get to work with hardware and software. I prototype circuits, power electronics every now and then, but mostly MCU-based embedded systems. (an MCU is a mini computer). I then design, build, test, and code those circuits to accomplish whatever Whisper needs them to accomplish. I like to think that I get the fun job of making things actually come to life. I had a professor in college, Mr. Herbert Detloff once say that “without hardware, software is a dream, and without software, hardware is a brick”. He could not have been more spot on. I get to make things come to life. When I put my systems into our electric jet engines, they do stuff like data log, control the speed of the fan, etc. Making those embedded systems is a huge part of my personality, and one that I don’t think many people understand. It is more to me than engineering. When I’m making a embedded system however complex or simple, its a life that is in my hands. Anyway, I could go on forever about that. Maybe in my next post. But this one is not about Whisper or embedded systems, its about January.
So here I am, back in the swing of things. Its been rough to be honest. I feel like I’m walking through molasses. Or to try another analogy, something feels off but I can’t quite pin point why. Have you ever jumped in a swimming pool in mid-summer, only to find that the water is super super cold? You hop right back out. Then you realize you are just as uncomfortable out of the water as you are in it. There is a breeze making you feel even colder than you were in the icy water. That is how I feel these days. Jumping into work was like a cold shock after such a long vacation. But when I’m not working, during the weekends and nights, I feel plagued by some sort of “breeze.” This makes me feel just as strange as I did when I first hopped back into working. What is the breeze? Ah that is the question. Maybe its the cold snow crystals that are falling down outside right now, putting a chill into my bones. Maybe its the bad news every night about another American being killed by our country’s problems. Maybe its the fear in the air, or anger or worry. I can’t quite tell, but something is off. We left 2025, and I am starting to think we arrived at 2026 in a different world. Maybe that is why January has went so fast. Or perhaps its all the sweet tea I’ve been drinking at work.
Well here we are, the month is over. “month” what a strange word. Is it the fact that we partitioned 31 days into a special word? Or is it the sound of the word itself that is strange to me? I can’t quite tell. And that I’m afraid has been the theme of poor old January, I can’t quite tell. So, its with a sense of hope that I wave goodbye to this month. I want the sun to come back. I miss the sound of the birds. January was fun when I was on vacation, but she turned out to be a stone cold mistress by the end of her. So my dear January, goodbye, and I suppose I’ll see you next year.
The Perry Scope 