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On Tuesday I get up at 4am to transition to east coast time and to get to Los International airport in time for a 7:30 am flight. I am heading to Fort Wayne, Indiana strictly to scold a sensor vendor on how they performed a set of tests and to demand that they perform another set of tests in a proper manner. Thus I fly through Chicago and get to Fort Wayne with a co-worker and we head for our hotel. After getting a room I get out for a rainy walk in 35 degree weather as I need to stretch the legs from all of the flying time. I get out for 45 minutes before grabbing a quick dinner and going back to my room. I sit and watch American Idol for a while. This is the first time that I have ever seen this television show and will be my last. It is a waste of time.
When I open my hotel door at 7 am on Wednesday morning I am greeted with 2 inches of new snow. After meeting my co-workers for breakfast we head out to the car. Because I have brought a winter hat and gloves, I say, "You get in the car and get it started. I'll scrape the ice and snow off the car". This act of going to each window and clearing the view reminds me of growing up in snowy and cold Michigan. As I'm finishing up the clearing of the car I clear off the headlights and the brake lights, get in the car, and say, "I didn't clear off the windflow path to the rear spoiler. So you won't have much downforce."
The non-driving coworker says, "You look like you've had a lot of practice at clearing snow off cars the way you hit all of the spots."
As we get out of the car to go to our sensor vendor's facility, I say, "A co-worker fell and broke a bone in her foot during a business trip to Boulder, Colorado. So let's be carefull now because I don't really want to find out where the ort Wayne hospital is."
The meeting is productive and the sensor vendor doesn't even make me put on a mean and evil face to get them to do the test. Our customer is happy and we move on. Thus it turns out that I spend one complete day of flying, a full day at today's meeting, a full day at tomorrow's meeting, and another 6 hours of flying for a 15 minute discussion. Oh well.
After work the snow is still on the ground and I go out walking. I'm carefull during the walk because the sidewalks and roads are slippery. In fact, I see a truck trying to make it up the hill of a small driveway and hear the spinning tires. And see the truck going sideways towards the ditch until the driver gives up and backs back down to the street. There are a couple of fields of snow that I take off running through as I feel like I'm 8 years old again - this being the first time that I've seen snow for 3 years (since hiking above Palm Springs with Dao).
Thursday is a bright and sunny morning but it is still cold enough for the snow not to have melted. As our business meeting continues on throughout the day I gradually see the snow slowly melt. I daydream a bit and realize that this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are three days of no Internet, no email, and no voicemail as I cut myself off from anything but Fort Wayne.
Late in the day we head for the Fort Wayne airport and then to Chicago. The co-worker that I am riding with is stopping in at Chicago to see her oldest daughter as a freshman in college in Chicago. As we split ways in the airport I realize that there is a flight leaving for Los Angeles in 5 minutes that I might just be able to get on. I quickly head for the gate so that I can save the 90 minute wait in Chicago for my real flight. I go up to the podium and ask in a sweet and innocent voice, "Can I get on this plane?"
After the ticket takers confirm that I want to go to Los Angeles they quickly grab my ticket, grab my carry-on bag (because all of the overhead bins are now full and I will have to check the bag), shove a bag check ticket in my hand, and push me to the door. As I walk into the jetway the door slams behind me and as I walk onto the plane the door slams behind me. I just made it! Thus I arrive at my house at 9 pm instead of 10:30 pm.
On Friday I'm up at 5 and at my office at 6 to get a head start on work. Just after 3pm I leave for the day and get in a good session with the weights before heading to an ATM and the grocery store. Friday night is spent relaxing, reading mail, and paying bills.
Saturday is very cold in the morning. In fact, Los Angeles has welcomed me back with Fort Wayne-like weather as there is actually some frost on the windshield of my car. Regardless, I do the laundry and head off to Northrop Grumman to get a head start on the week. By 11:30 am I have accomplished a lot and am heading for home. A little over an hour of cycling in the afternoon sun makes me feel better. And I swing an ax for 15 minutes or so as I chop up some wood for the fireplace. I love swinging an ax! And then the disaster starts!
I decide to flush out the water heater as one should do occasionally to remove dirty water and sediment. The flushing goes well except that the valve does not fully close when it's time to shut off the water and let the water heater fill back up. I play with the valve and finally decide to shutt he water off to the water heater. I take the valve apart and it still won't close. Dad comes over and we play around with it before he decides that we need to replace the valve and connecting pipe. Thus we pull more pieces off, funnel the dripping water out the door with aluminum foil and other makeshift pieces, and run over to the hardware store for a repalcement. We get the right pieces and install them to fix the leak. And yet there is water everywhere that I need to clean up. I was only trying to do the right thing and drain the water heater to improve its efficiency. Oh well, next time I'll just recall - "If it ain't broke, don't touch it".
I'm tired from battling the water heater valve but I still manage to get in a decent session with the weights. And then I drive off to one of the ice skating fundraisers. Person T_U joins me as well as a coworker of a friend of a friend of Person C_T. I run into a number of ex-teammates. And I also run into Person M_M. We agree to go to the Anime convention in July. (I was sick last July and couldn't go.) One of my ex-teammates, who has been on my mind a lot lately, is there. He has been HIV+ since the time I met him 15 years ago. And he has remained asymptomatic of any progression. We have a long discussion and it turns out that he has a "genetic defect" seen in a ridcuoulsy small percent of the population that blocks the receptor site for the HIV retorvirus to bind to and reproduce. Thus he will probably be HIV+ and asymptomatic for the rest of his life regardless of what drugs he uses. (And he has discontinued the drugs in light of the good news about his "genetic defect".) After the ice skating fundraiser I head for home and turn out the lights for sleep at 1:30 am.
On Sunday I wake up and walk to the grocery store for the newspaper and other supplies. After reading the newspaper for a while I jump on the mountain bicycle and do some intervals down and up the Los Angeles river and around the aquarium. I get in only 4 intervals down the trail and 3 coming back, but they feel good. This is the first time that I've done intervals since I was sick last summer and I note that I'll have to re-do them again soon when I have more sleep. The rest of the afternoon is spent watching football, fixing the brakes on the motorcycle, reviewing a ResourceScout cover letter, reviewing Northrop Grumman documents, and fixing a gate.