Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, April 17, 2006 9:00 AM

Happy Easter!


The Monday bicycle commute goes well and it's good to get this activity started again for the year.

On Tuesday I get out for a brisk walk before work, vote in the Long Beach local elections, have a reasonable day at work, and do abdominal/lower back exercises afterwards before going for another walk.

As a sidelight, it's interesting to note a few coincidental facts about this year's Long Beach election for mayor.

On Wednesday I'm lazy so I don't bicycle commute (as planned). I ride the motorcycle to work and afterwards I work on abdominals and lower back again as well as mowing the front and back yards.

On Thursday I bicycle commute again. I'm rewarded with the prettiest full moon in the western sky. For the first 20 minutes of the ride the moon pulls me along towards work. And then it disappears beneath the horizon (of land and buildings) and leaves me on my own.

On Friday I get up early and drive to work because it is supposed to rain. I'm at my office before 6:30 am and work away undisturbed for a good part of the morning. A number of people have taken the day off and the entire buidling is quieter than a usual Friday. I leave work early and do the laundry and then lift weights. It has been 6 days of recovery and recuperation and it is time to start back in. I do 15 repetition sets to get started and the workout just kicks me in the butt. I'm sweating and shaking from the workout - it feels good. Though the high repetition workouts are a different physiological load than the low repetition, heavy weight workouts. The rest of the evening is spent catching up on some paperwork, some reading, and some web crawling scripts (just for fun).

On Saturday I get out for a run with a stop at an ATM along the way to get cash for the next week. The left calf threatens to hurt a lot and so I slow down occassionally to let it "recover". After some paperwork I get out to the Library coffeehouse to read. Marty is there again and we have a short chat about punk bands and other new music that we've heard lately. I'm currently reading "The Jasons" about a group of physicists who have been advising the government on technology since 1960. It's a good read for wannabe geek and physicists like me. I get home near 4:30 and lift weights. I didn't intend to lift two days in a row, but I feel that I need more exercise and it's still threatening rain, so I can't get out cycling. The lifts are a bit of a struggle after the good workout on Friday and the 6 days off. Later on Saturday I just relax and read and watch television and go to bed early. I am tired.

And I sleep in fairly late (for me) on Sunday morning. But I get out for the aquarium bicycle ride in the morning gusty wind and get the day off to a great start. Person C_T comes over in the afternoon and we celebrate Easter and have dinner and do yoga together. After Person C_T my string of accidents start.

Just before bedtime I'm doing stuff in the kitchen and I slice my hand open on a knife that Person C_T has left point up in the dish basket. Some slight pressure gets the bleeding to stop. On Monday I'm at work doing something and I stab myself in the finger with an X-Acto knife. And a bit more pressure gets the bleeding to stop. Finally on Monday after work, when I'm watching Sunday's tape of Desperate Housewives, I get up out of my chair and knock a diet Coke onto the hardwood floors. I wipe it up quickly but I'm thankfull that I haven't had the floors refinished yet.

Monday is a spacey day at work. Bt eventually I get some work done and get in a high repetition weights workout after work.