Here's another week of good session with the weights, long walks with trance music blaring on the mp3 player, and reasonably low fat food. This program of weights, walking, and food is working well as I cannot feel anything abnormal in my lower back as well as other positive changes.
On Monday I pick Joe up at Long Beach airport and drive him home before sending him on his way. On Tuesday there is a resourcescout meeting and we continue to plan for our first paying customer. (The contract has been on the horizon since just before Christmas and is getting closer and closer.) On Wednesday Person C_T comes over after work and we pick up Subway sandwiches and watch television and enjoy each other's company.
Saturday starts with the laundry and a good almost 30 mile loop ride along the two rivers and along the ocean. When I finish I replenish the energy supply and relax before heading over to Cal State Dominguez Hills for a robotics project. One of the kids that I used to babysit, who is a senior in high school, is heading up a robotics project for Long Beach Polytechnic high school and we are going to visit college students at CSUDH who are mentoring the LB Poly students. Our group, two adults and eight high school students, approach the CSUDH building where the college robotics students are working and...."Oh.....my.....gosh"!
I have an awakening. "Oh.....my.....gosh!" I realize that I belong on a college campus where the students are present on a Saturday working on the mechanical, electrical, and software parts of the robot. Some of the CSUDH students are nerds, some are geeks, and some are....um....ChiChi geek nerds. "Oh.....my.....gosh" - I belong on a college campus. I enjoy interacting with all of the enthusiastic and geeky students. "Oh.....my.....gosh!"
After we leave CSUDH I get out for an hour long walk in which I keep thinking how I can arrange a teaching position at CSULB, CSULA, or CSUDH in order to enjoy the full aura of geekdom. And I keep thinking of what budget cuts I need to make in order to make this happen.
Person C_T calls a number of times to delay and finalize postpone his visit with Person L_M and Person N_L. At first we were to meet for dinner near 6pm, then it became just a short visit near 8pm, and it finally turned into, "We'll meet you in Burbank at 10".
Joe comes over at about 7 pm as I'm sweating over a model deployable arm for the robot. He uses my Internet connection to download and fill out a number of rental forms. I grab a shower and Joe and I head for Burbank for one of the fun skating parties/fundraisers where we'll meet up with Person C_T, Person L_M, and Person N_L.
The skating party is crowded tonight and there are a number of people that I recognize from previous skate parties. For our group, Joe and Person N_L do very well at skating. Person L_M eventually gets the idea and is getting quite competent at balance and striding by the end of the two hours. Person C_T doesn't quite get the hang of ice skating. In fact, for all of the previous ice skating parties that I've gone to and tried to help out the skaters who are struggling by letting them hang on to me as I skate them around, Person C_T earns the distinction of being the first one to fall and drag me down to the ice also! But there are no broken bones and Joe and I are headed for Long Beach by 12:10 am. And Joe is headed for home by 12:40 am on Sunday morning.
On Sunday I walk early in the morning and buy the newspaper for reading. After doing menial tasks around the house, I get out for a midday bicycle ride down the Los Angeles river and around the aquarium. I finish the ride about 12:30 in the afternoon. I later hear that I just missed another river. I watch most of the two football games before heading over to Mom and Dad's house to show a deployment model for the robot. We agree to work on a couple different concepts prior to next Saturday's meeting.