Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, February 20, 2006 9:00 AM

Hecticity


Monday and Tuesday are sort of productive at work even though there are many meetings that take away from productive time. New models and simulations are run and some are working and others need debugging. Both Monday and Tuesday see good sessions with the weights - though I've dropped the weight a bit to help recover from the cold/flu that I had.

Wednesday and Thursday are long days at work as we try to overcome our problems and demonstrate to the government that we can perform on this satellite program. As a result, the best that I can do is get out for walks during the day to relieve stress and pump up the oxygen supply.

On Friday I stay at home in the early morning to babysit a different bathroom contractor as he hot mops the new shower. I get in a reasonable session with the weights while he does his job. And then I head to work. The day at Northrop Grumman is sorta productive as I finally get a model reduced to appropriate format for use in a later simulation. But a number of phone calls from the bathroom contractor get me worried as he says that a lot of the tile for the shower is damaged. This hangs with me throughout the day until I can get home and examine the tile myself.

Just before I want to leave work it starts raining. So I work for another half hour and it isn't going to let up, so I leave work and ride home in the wet. Because the rain has just started the pavement is very slippery and its fun riding home. I don't really get that wet at all.

After doing the laundry and some grocery shopping, I go home and examine the tile. It's bad. It's really bad. And now I know that I'll have a battle with the tile people to take it back. And it will certainly delay the bathroom remodel.

Friday night is a weird night. I feel like crying. It's a combination of the model at work and the bathroom remodel. I'm just stressed out. It almost feels like those Friday nights about 5 years ago when I would head off to the Frat House for fun. And I consider that because I haven't been there for a few years now. Instead I keep sitting down to read then deciding to go do something else. Or sitting down to update finances and then deciding to do something else. Or sitting down to play on the Internet and then deciding to do something else. I cannt sit still and focus on one thing. I keep coming back to models and simulations at work and to tile at home. I can tell this is not going to be a good night of sleep.

Satruday is a rainy day but a decent one. I skip a morning workout and head for work. I spend 4 hours being productive and almost getting all of the results that I need. When I return home I lift weights, grab a shower, and go pick up marble tile for the bathroom floors. This tile is heavy! After having lunch of vegetables and salsa and cheese, I start removing an old chandelier from the dining room and installing the one that Person C_T picked out. I have to make a trip to Orchard Hardware because it is a non-standard installation, but things work out well. When I get a chance I sneak out for a 40 minute walk and mow the lawn in between rain showers.

On SUnday I wake up and go for a walk. When I get to the farthest point from my hosue during the walk the rain starts pouring down. By the time that I am back close to home at the grocery store I am completely soaked. Normally I would stop in at the grocery store and buy stuff, but today I am so wet that I go home and take a warm shower. And get in the car and drive to the grocery store. After reading the newspaper for a while, I start in on surveying all nine boxes of tile to pull out the damaged ones (for return to the store). This tile came all the way from Spain and there is a fair amount of damage. Thus I have to pull every piece of tile out of the box and seaparate the tile into acceptable and return. I take three different periods of time for this task during the day and just keep plugging away at it so that I can call the tile store on Monday and ask for replacement of the damaged tile.

Near noon I risk it and head out for a bicycle ride. There is one threatening cloud, but it stays away for the entire ride. The ride is chilly and bright and sunny and invigorating. After another warm shower I read more of the newspaper, do some small tasks around the house, and keep going on the tile inventory.

During the day, as I work, I have a strange selection of music going. The usual techno and trance is going for most of the time. But I also pull out some old punk rock. Good old fashioned primal punk rock - the music that man made before he got up on his two hind legs and started walking. This gets my energy level up and restores my primal urges, surges, and needs.