“Eeeek Alors!” as my old friend Shears used to say (especially when I dropped a stove on his foot, although — now I come to think about it — I think he phrased things a little differently), we’re on the Day 18 build blog, which means we are not 60% of the way through our 30-day build at only 19 instructions per day.

I don’t know you, but I’m up to my armpits in alligators fighting fires without a paddle (I never metaphor I didn’t like). I’m also running around in ever-decreasing circles shouting, “Don’t Panic!” But it isn’t working because I’m panicking — so many things to do — so little time to do them all in. But enough about me…

Accompanying today’s photo, John conveyed the following words of wisdom: “After completing the engines, I had this nagging doubt in my head that I had worked out the number of instructions per day incorrectly.”

“Oh no!” I thought. “What are we to do?” Happily, John continued to say, “I checked, and I hadn’t.” Well, as far as anticlimactic endings to grim pronouncements go, this one was right up there.

But wait, there’s more, the saga endures, the tale continues to unfold, because John proceeded to say, “The reason this thought came into my silly head was that I couldn’t see how it would take that many instructions to complete the piece. I needn’t have worried as you can see. Today’s work on the front hasn’t produced much visually, even though it consumed 19 instructions. I can see this section taking a couple more days, and similarly on the other side. Note all the different colors that will get hidden away.”

That’s sad to think that all of these colored pieces will soon be hidden from view, but interesting to reflect that we will know they are there, even if they remain veiled to the casual onlooker, bystander, or passerby. It’s also interesting to think about all of the antique coins and artifacts and works of art, science, and technology that are out in the world without anyone being aware of their existence. For example, consider the Irish farmer who recently stumbled onto a previously unknown ancient tomb and the discovery of two previously unknown Van Gogh drawings.

Apropos of nothing at all, I just saw an interesting comment on Twitter: “The difference between mathematicians and computer scientists is that mathematicians love math and computer scientists hate computers.” Well, it’s hard to argue with logic like that.

How about you, do you have any thoughts on the build or any words of wisdom you’d care to share?