On Wednesday I leave work just as the rain starts. I consider going back into work, but I don't. I have fun riding the motorcycle home in the rain with the roads very slippery from new rain (and bringing the oil to the surface of the road). I see people spinning up their tires just as I am doing on the way home. When I get home I go for a run in the rain because I'm already wet anyway. This is a good time for running because it's getting a bit dark, the weather is cool, and there's a little bit of rain falling. I enjoy the 5 mile run.
Thursday is a good session with the weights after a hectic day at work. Followed by a relaxing evening before Friday's dry run presentation.
On Friday I'm up early to get to work a bit early and perform the last minute preparations for the dry run of my presentation. I know that we have some huge holes in the spacecraft story right now, but I'll do my best and see what happens. During the morning dry run I get beat up pretty badly. But the reviewers know that there is only so much that I can do with the situation that we are in. There are good comments made and I can fix the presentation for the real customer on March 15th.
I come home just a shade early on Friday afternoon to get a run in. I struggle through the entire run but it feels pretty good to be done. By the time I've finished cleaning up, it's finally time to start the Formula One season for the year from Australia. It is a strange qualifying session as it starts out wet, the track dries quickly in the Australian sun, and then a two minute downpour drenches the track. As you can guess, the starting order for the race will be completely jumbled up. Late on Friday Person C_T comes over and we hang out and watch an old DVD with Audrey Hepburn in it.
On Saturday I'm up late, but I get out for a god bicycle ride around the aquarium. Then Person C_T and I look at tiles, flooring, faucets, and other things for the bethroom remodel. Seeing that we are near Little Saigon after lunchtime, we pick a Vietnamese restaurant at random and have lunch. Except that they only have meat and fish dishes, so I do the best that I can eating a bit of rice and vegetables around the bad stuff and sip on my lemonade. Later we continue the shopping and finally get home for dinner and the Australian Grand Prix.
Person C_T doesn't sleep well on this Saturday night. Neither of us know why.
I'm up near 7 am to go for a long walk and buy the newspaper. After eating breakfast and reading the newspaper, I perform computer maintenance with an updated anti-virus, and updated firewall, and de-fragging the hard drive. Person C_T gets up later (because he couldn't sleep well) and we hang out until he leaves for a haircut and I leave for a bicycle ride.
On the aquarium ride there is a strong headwind against me as I head south. In the distance I see another cyclist and so I put my head down and just keep a nice rythym to catch up to him. As I catch up to him I say, "String headwind today, huh?"
Since he only responds with, "Thank you", I just assume that he wants me to take lead and break the wind for him. So he tucks in behind my and I pull him down to the aquarium. Each time that I try to talk with him by asking him where he's from or something, he just says, "Good" or "Thank you". At first I think he might be Japanese, but then I change to thinking that he might be latino or even Italian. After I circle the aquarium I note that he has dropped off and is resting by a tree, so I make a quick stop and talk with him.
When he tells me that he is Salvadoran, he gets really excited when I tell him (in spanish) that I've been to El Salvador and his hometown as well. We converse for just a few minutes and it turns out that he's at his halfway point and needs to turn around to head home. His total ride will probably be 40-45 miles today. But he's excited and I wish him well.
When I finish the ride I mow the mawn and take a shower and relax. Later I do the laundry for the week and continue to relax for the evening and prepare myself for another week at Northrop Grumman.