Flux

When I was in college, I worked in a Physics Laboratory. I was helping build an instrument that flew on the Space Shuttle. Since we were building just one of them, it was green circuit boards with connectors that needed wires soldered into each hole in the connector, not a massed produced circuit board - one made by hand. I was the 'soldering queen'. I could make a solder joint that would hold up in space (had no air bubbles) and when the equipment we were using was all gold plated, the fact that I could do it consistently on the first try was of paramount importance. So I soldered. To make the metal hook to the metal strands of the wire and stay in the metal cup you were trying to solder a wire into, you used flux. A strand of braided copper wire soaked in some sort of resin to facilitate the connection and the flowing of the soldering material itself.

From Wikipedia:

In soldering of metals, flux serves a threefold purpose: it removes oxidation from the surfaces to be soldered, it seals out air thus preventing further oxidation, and by facilitating amalgamation improves wetting characteristics of the liquid solder. Flux is corrosive, so the parts have to be cleaned with a damp sponge or other absorbent material after soldering to prevent damage. Several types of flux are used in electronics.

Why, you ask am I rambling on about Flux? Because I cannot get the word out of my head today. Has it anything to do with my 'glory' days as Solder Queen? No. (Aren't you pissed now that you read all that crap!) It has everything to do with definition 3 at Dictionary.com:

flux  /flʌks/ [fluhks]
–noun
1. a flowing or flow.
2. the flowing in of the tide.
3. continuous change, passage, or movement: "Her life was in a constant state of flux."

I had lunch with two people on Monday and we were all discussing our lives - things were changing, but relatively stable. It is now Wednesday and that is not the case for any of us. Two days. And all lives are different in ways none of us had even fathomed.

It seems like life is getting to be that way now. I started this blog one day before I found out that Richmond State School was accepting Jessie. If that isn't change I don't know what is. And every week has been different from the last. Somehow I don't see it easing up in the near future.

Tomorrow will be the 6 month mark for Jessie at Richmond State School. I am still unsure how I feel about it, or what to tell her, or what to think about the whole situation. Maybe it is just today ...

Ryan has been ill and I am coming down with it, the washer is broken, and Gary is headed to Australia for 2 weeks on Sunday.

Just a gray, slow, deep thought, lie in bed and moan kind of day, I guess!