Bill's Binary Stars

Cleaned kitchen, cleaned mushrooms, prepared for Philomath Salon. Lumos Winery to see Debi's art. Vinwood Taphouse for lunch. Market of Choice for salon snacks. Photo shuffling throughout the day. Philomath Salon—learned about Bill's early astrophysics career, binary star measurement device, time around Nobel Laureates, later HP career. Pretty good evening. Dan and Zelda staying over. Got things mostly cleaned up before bed.

From Stars to Silicon

October 27, 2025

Spent some time cleaning the kitchen and cleaning mushrooms this morning. The preparation work for hosting—making space presentable, food ready, creating conditions for good gathering. Philomath Salon was happening later in the evening.

View from Lumos Winery

Drove out to Lumos Winery to see Debi's art. Worth the drive—seeing someone's creative work displayed, though the setting was challenging at times primarily due to lighting. Still, interesting to see it displayed outside of studio context, in a public venue where people encounter it. Tried a nice, but overpriced, Pinot Noir while I was there. As I understand it, demand for wine is going down. Raising prices to ridiculous levels seems counter to encouraging business and the industry—shrinking your customer base through pricing when the market is already declining is questionable strategy.

Stopped by Vinwood Taphouse for lunch. Good fried pickles. The chicken caesar salad would have been better without the chicken. Service was good. Interesting crowd—the kind of place where you notice the mix of people, different types all sharing the same space.

Went to Market of Choice for snacks for Philomath Salon. The hosting logistics—having good food available makes conversation easier, gives people something to do with their hands, removes the distraction of hunger from intellectual discussion.

Spent a lot of the day, when possible, shuffling photos around. The ongoing repository reorganization continues in background time—while waiting, between activities, whenever other tasks allow. Steady progress through patient incremental work.

Did the Philomath Salon in the evening. It was pretty good. Learned about Bill's early career as an astrophysicist and a bit of his, more familiar to me, later career at HP. The transition from pure science to applied technology, from measuring stars to building calculators and computers. Learned a bit more about the process of getting a PhD—the research, the challenges, the intellectual journey. He hung around a lot of Nobel Laureates during his astrophysics years—the kind of intellectual environment where being around brilliant people was just normal, where groundbreaking work happened in conversation as much as in formal research.

The binary star measurement device he crafted was very interesting. The technical challenge of measuring stellar systems that appear as single points of light, separating their individual characteristics, understanding their orbital dynamics. The ingenuity required to create instruments that could extract that information from distant pinpoints. That combination of theoretical understanding and practical engineering—knowing what you want to measure and building the tools to measure it.

The pattern is familiar: people with deep scientific training moving into technology industry, bringing that rigor and curiosity to applied problems. HP in its prime attracted that kind of person—physicists and astronomers and mathematicians solving engineering challenges. Bill's career arc represents a generation that moved from fundamental research to practical innovation, from understanding the universe to building the tools that would transform daily life.

Dan and Zelda are staying over. The house accommodating guests, the logistics of hosting overnight visitors. Got things mostly cleaned up before going to bed—the post-salon cleanup, making space functional again, dealing with aftermath before it becomes tomorrow's problem.

The day moved from preparation through execution to cleanup. Hosting requires all three phases—you can't just do the event itself, you need the before and after work that makes the event possible and leaves things ready for what comes next. The Philomath Salon delivered what it's supposed to: interesting people sharing their experience and expertise, conversation that teaches and connects, time spent learning from someone who's lived a fascinating life across multiple domains.

Bill's story demonstrates something worth noting: the value of deep training in fundamental science even when you end up doing something completely different. Understanding how to measure binary stars develops ways of thinking that transfer to other problems. Working around Nobel Laureates teaches you what excellent work looks like. The astrophysics career wasn't wasted when he moved to HP—it was foundation for everything that followed.

The art at Lumos, lunch at Vinwood, the salon conversation, Dan and Zelda staying over—a day structured around appreciation. Art, food, intellectual discussion, friendship, hospitality. The components of good life that don't require drama or novelty, just attention and effort. You make space for people and ideas, you create conditions for good things to happen, you show up and pay attention when they do.