On Columbus Day I have a productive day at work at Northrop Grumman. We work at Northrop Grumman on Columbus Day - why should we celebrate the colonization of a new country and the stealing of land from the indigenous peoples?
After work I lubricate the motorcycle chain, get in a great session with the weights, have dinner while watching last night's tape of "Desperate Housewives", and paint some more trim.
On Tuesday we have the ResourceScout meeting. After the meeting I'm heading home and rounding a corner on the motorcycle - and the next thing I know I'm sliding and tumbling along the pavement. There must have been some oil or something in the road. I pick up the motorcycle and realize that the front brake lever has snapped off and so now I have no front brakes. There are some scrapes to the side of the motorcycle and I get it started after a few attempts. And seeing that I have no choice, I ride home without front brakes - making sure that I leave plenty of room between myself and other cars. As I'm riding I start realizing that my right elbow hurts, my right knee hurts, my right hip hurts, and my left knee hurts. When I get home I survey the damage to the motorcycle and it could have been much much worse. It's probably rideable with a new front brake lever. And then I survey the damage to myself. There are scrapes and blood in the aforementioned places and my right elbow is already turning black and blue. And I have the start to a headache though the motorcycle helmet shows no scrapes (indicating that I didn't hit my head). Oh this entire old man's body is going to be sore for a few days.
As I'm laying in bed on Tuesday night I'm starting to wonder (again) about
my recent string of bad luck:
1) The fractured wrist during inline skating at the end of 2002.
2) The ruptured L4 and L5 discs at the end of 2003.
3) A nasty week long flu at the Christmas of 2004.
4) The entire summer of Hepatatis B in 2005.
5) The little motorcycle incident in October 2005.
Well, what am I doing wrong here?
On Wednesday I realize that I get more sore if I sit still for too long. Thus after restlessly getting away from my desk regularly on Wednesday I leave work a bit early. When I get home I lift weights. This is a heavy session - approaching weights from before the Hepatitis B. And I throw in extra sets to make this a brutal session. Afterwards I paint a bit more trim. I now have probably two hours worth of trim painting to consider the entire house finished (except the bathrooms and kitchen which get remodeled anyway). And then I try to relax for the rest of the evening but now the soreness in my neck and back is sneaking up on me. Oh this entire old man's body is going to be sore for a few days.
On Thursday I get out for an early morning walk/run - whatever my body allows me to do at the time. I stay at work late to make up some time and drive home with fairly light traffic. I go out to the garage and start repairing the motorcycle (in parallel with waiting for the new parts that were damaged beyond repair). Later I have an hour long conversation with Person S_IP who I haven't seen for almost 20 years since we went to UCLA. And then a conversation with Person C_T.
On Friday I get to work early, have an un-productive day at Northrop Grumman (except for playing with Catia models in order to propagate pyroshock environments), and then leave a bit early. I absolutely drill my body with heavy weights and extra sets and then I mow the lawn. Person C_T comes over later and has to avoid touching any sore body parts from either the motorcycle accident or the heavy lifting. We watch the first half of qualifying for the Grand Prix of China and then go to sleep.
On Saturday I get up and out for another run/walk - whatever my body lets me do at the time. I watch the last half of qualifying for the Grand Prix of China and then Person C_T go have breakfast. When Person C_T leaves for work I do the laundry and make some more motorcycle repairs. And now I'm tired. So I get down for a 75 minute nap just after 1 pm. I am so tired and lazy today - there is no bicycle ride today but I do work the abdominals a bit and then get out for a long walk.
For the walk I've loaded up my mp3 player with some techno and trance music from the past 4 years. I get some thinking done as I relive some of the events of the last 4 years and try to figure out mt streak of injuries and illnesses. I come to one conclusion. I come to one very striking and obvious conclusion: I am absolutely indestructable! Thus I will be ready to ride the motrocycle faster when it is repaired, drive faster, and go completely out of control!
On Saturday evening Joe calls and twists my arm to go out - he'll be unavailable next weekend so we should go out this weekend. After sitting on the fence for a while, I agree. I make phone calls to Person T_U, Person C_T, and Person J_VKPI to give them the arrangements in case they will be joining us.
Joe and I ride up to a club in West Hollywood. I run into a former ice hockey teammate, Person E_Ice, and he introduces me to Person D_Ice and Person K_Ice. Person D_Ice makes a statement to the effect "that I can see why you would want Ray on the ice" to which Person E_Ice begs me to play again. Joe and I go off and have fun. Towards the end of the evening we are both agreeing that this outing was the most fun outing that we've had in quite a while. There are offers made in my direction of which one is from a ChiChi that is only met with a huge smile on my part. There is nothing else to be done or said. During the evening Person J_VKPI and his cousin (who is more like a twin) make an appearance and we chat for a while. Joe and I drag our feet and finally decide to leave just before 2am. We rush home and Joe is driving away for his apartment at 2:40 am on Sunday morning.
The tape of the Grand Prix of China is available, so I watch the race and have some bread and cheese. When the race and post-race interviews are over with I go to sleep as it is near 4:30 am on Sunday morning.
I'm awake at 7 am and stay in bed for a few minutes to think about my life. Shortly I am out the door for the aquarium ride. Today is the Long Beach City marathon so there is about a mile of my ride that is blocked off as I watch people running their races. But it's a good ride that is followed by a shower and buying the newspaper. And then the Australian MotoGP race is on where Vaalentino Rossi rides a carefully judged race to win ahead of the young USA rider, Nicky Hayden.
The rest of the day is spent relaxing, reading the newspaper, painting some more trim around the dining room window, doing a very heavy session with the weights, and getting ready for another work week.