On Monday after work I go out into the garage and start lifting weights again. This is the first day lifting since July 8th. I lift little piddly weights because that is all I can lift right now. But I have to start somewhere and it feels good to complete the workout. Though I know that everything will be very sore in the next few days. I definitely sleep well on Monday night.
On Tuesday I leave work a shade early to go cycling. I just do the aquairum ride but I'm cranking away quite nicely in the windy afternoon. As I'm heading for home, breathing deep to refresh myself, I pray, "Oh God, I wish everyone could enjoy this pure joy". I take a cool shower and relax the rest of the evning. I am sure that I will sleep well even though I note late in the evning that I've missed a million phone calls today (because my mobile phone was on silent mode and I just could care less about talking with anyone today).
On Wednesday I visit the doctor. I know that I have made a lot of progress since the blood test from 10 days ago that he is going to talk to me about. So I tell him the almost normal body temperature, more energy, and the other disappearing symptoms (that we won't go into here) that indicates that I am getting better. He says that I need to have another blood test in a couple more weeks and to visit him in about 3 weeks. I also note to the doctor that I am down 11 pounds since I saw him less than a month ago. He notes it.
I get home on Wednesday and lubricate the motorcycle chain and lift weights. I try to get a couple more repetitions out of each lift with the same piddly little weights that I lifted on Monday. And I keep the doctor's words in my head as I'm lifting. ("Don't get discouraged if you can't lift much right now. You'll be back to where you were shortly.") And I spend the rest of the evening relaxing and staying cool.
Friday is a productive day at work. I get some onorbit simulations done, locate some accelerometers for an upcoming test, and write responses to two action items. In the midst of the day, though, I decide to take a couple of vacation hours and go home early. When I get home I lift weights, mow the lawn, and then get down on my hands and knees and clean up the roses. I have my shirt off to get some sun (as the doctor has suggested) and I enjoy getting all dirty and muddy. After a shower and some quick bread, cheese, and diet Coke, I do the laundry and some grocery shopping. Thus most of my errands for the weekend are now finished. And, I hope, that I have tired myself out so that I can get some extra deep sleep tonight.
I'm up a bit late after a great night of sleep in the cool weather. I get out for the aquairum bicycle ride even though I had original plans to do a longer ride. Afterwards I relax for a while. Near 1 pm I take two trains and a shutle bus to Los Angeles Intenational airport to meet up with my former tennis doubles partner Karl. Karl has some business in San Bernadino, but we'll hang out on Saturday. Karl and I pick up his rental car even though the rental agency has overbooked cars and there are many angry people at the rental counter wanting cars. We drive over to Little Tokyo in order to hang out at Karl gets some shopping done for his family while I take We don't actually go into the festival, but we walk around the area and have fun. Later we drive down to Long Beach, pick up my caar at the train station, and go have dinner at Quizno's.
The telephone calls start and pretty soon Karl and I have agreed to meet up with Joe, Person T_U, Brandon (visiting from New York), and Person C_T. Person J_VKPI is nowhere to be found. Joe comes over and Karl, Joe, and I drive up to the club and start having fun though we agree that we will be leaving near 1 am tonight. The music is good and there are many acquaintances that I have not seen for a long time. (I have not been out clubbing since June.) Unfortunately Person C_T has called on the way and cancelled. As the hour approachs 1 am and beyond, everyone is having fun and I'm feeling energetic, so we start ignoring our planned departure time. We pass through last call at 1:35 am on the dance floor and we pass through the start of after hours at 2:00 am on the dance floor. Person T_U has struck up a conversation with two ChiChis, so I go on over and keep him company. The ChiChis get a big kick out of it when I show them some Japanese yen that I have in my wallet and they try to explain to me (assuming that I don't know) that the 1000 yen note is worth about 9 USD. Eventually, like after 2:30 am, Person T_U leaves for home and I go in search of Karl and Joe to leave. And, just because things don't always work out the way one plans them, we find ourselves leaving the club at 3 am on Sunday morning. We fly home (more or less) and I'm getting down for sleep near 3:45 am with Karl on the couch and Joe driving home (and leaving me a voice mail at 3:57 am that he made it home safely).
Both Karl and I are probably awake well before eaither of us gets out of bed or off the couch. We both say, "I've been awake for a while but I didn't want to disturb you". We go out for a nice bicycle ride around the aquarium, Pine avenua, and the Pike before turning for home. Both of us are avid cyclists though both of us are recovering from illness and the long night of clubbing. After a pizza lunch I suggest to Karl that he start heading out for San Bernadino soon because he doesn't want to get caught up in traffic the day before he starts an installation. For the rest of Sunday I relax and perform little tasks around the house.