Tuesday is another bicycle commute day. The ride to work is fast and I have a very productive day at Northrop Grumman. The ride home is going along well until the rear tire starts going soft very quickly. Well, I'm only a mile from home, so I walk the bicycle home with the flat rear tire.
On Wednesday I rush home after a productive day at work to mow the lawn, do some heavy weights for the abdominals and lower back, and ride on over to the park on the bicycle for the Wednesday evening concert. Person T_U is nowhere to be found, but I run into a couple sets of neighbors and have nice conversations. On the way home I stop in at the grocery store for a few things and come out to find another flat tire on the bicycle. Thus I'm walking home again. But at least I walked over to the bicycle store near work during the day to buy new inner tubes for repair.
Because it looks as though I will be out of town for work on my birthday, I declare Friday, 27 July 2007, as my birthday this year. Thus I start out early in the morning on the road bicycle and head for the Los Angeles river, up and over the Whittier Narrows damn, past the damn towards the Santa Fe damn, and then back down the San Gabriel river towards home. It's the traditional "one mile on the bicycle for every year old" birthday ride. I get in the 50 mile ride with minimal difficulty (except that my lower back is hurting and I can't tell if it's the kidneys working hard to remove the lactic acid or if its muscular). After the ride I run some errands and rent the DVD of Factory Girl that I've wanted to see since it came out at the theatre. The DVD is pretty good. After the movie I fix the mountain bicycle rear flat - it turns out there was a wire in the tire that caused the first and second flats and I didn't find it after the first flat.
In the afternoon I relax and hang out with Person M_Fl when he finishes work and doesn't want to be stuck in traffic. Later I head to the herd/clone club to get a wristband and then wander to a couple other clubs. There are some acuqaintances present, but I go back to the herd/clone club and enjoy myself tonight. During the last hour I start receiving offers from various people but I dismiss them with, "I don't think that my boyfriend would like it if I did that with you". This deters most people. Except that I get dragged into an argument between Person E_Pe and his friend. Person E_Pe and I hang out after the club closes and we wander back and forth down the street. I work on another foreign language with Person E_Pe and he laughs at my usage. Oh well, I tried. Person E_Pe wants to come home with me seeing that he lives down in my area. But I stick with the "I don't think that my boyfriend would like that" line and it eventually works. Thus I'm leaving the area at 2:40 am on Saturday morning and the lights are going out for sleep (after some reading) at 3:38 am on Saturday morning.
On Saturday I get out for the aquarium bicycle ride and do laundry and that's about it. Except that I receive a text messgae from Person J_VKPI indicating that he is in Los Angeles and we're going to meet up at a club tonight. It turns out Person J_VKPI has another week of leave before he ships out to Europe for his duty. Thus I head out for the designated club and skip the neighbors' party.
I wander to two clubs before heading back to the designated club. But at the first club I strike up a conversation with an architect, Person J_M, who eventually gets my phone number. And just as I'm heading into the designated club I strike up a conversation with an artist, Person Pe_P, who gets my numbers with, "We should go inline skating someday". Person T_U arrives just before midnight and we hang out. However, despite a text message to Person J_VKPI, there is no sign of him. Person T_U and I note that this is a different crowd than usual when we come here. But it is a different night of the week than usual also. As the club closes Person T_U takes leave and I hang out for just a bit before heading for home. When I'm pulling into my driveway at 3:05 am I see a guy on his hands and knees on my front yard throwing up over the curb into the street (as the neighbors' party is breaking up). One of the neighbors is out and apologizes to me for the mess and I just dismiss it with, "The street cleaners will get it on Tuesday. I hope that your friend is learning a lesson". After reading in bed for a few minutes, the lights go out at 3:30 am on Sunday morning.
On Sunday morning I get up and watch the second part (of three) of the miniseries to the movie Traffic because they both have multiple storylines that finally converge at the end and you still wonder who the good guys and who the bad guys are after they are finished. Late in the morning I get out for the aquarium ride where I'm just going to spin, but I end up cranking along nicely. Even after Friday's 50 mile ride, the ride on Saturday morning, and two nights of 3.5 hours of sleep, I crank along nicely and feel good.
Sunday afternoon is a relaxing day of one race (CART race from San Jose) and little errands and things around the house that I've wanted to get to for a while. There is no Sunday afternoon workout - I'm saving the last couple of workouts for Monday and Tuesday before I finally take a week or so off while in Fort Wayne.
Late on Sunday night when I'm taking the trash out I see something small crawling along the neighbors driveway. When I stop to stare at it, it stops to stare at me also. It's a baby possum. I do not know if it is the same one that I found inside the house a while ago. But I call the neighbors over and point it out but warn them (and the kids) to keep their distance because it could be rabid.
I have a good workout with the weights on Monday, but by Tuesday I have nothing left to give. It is time for a break from the weights. My need in Fort Wayne is changed, thus I change my flight from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning. After work on Wednesday I get out for a long walk to the ATM and beyond and then I stop in at the grocery store on the way home. It's a warm and muggy day, but nothing like Fort Wayne is going to be. I'm actually looking forward to the trip.
On Wednesday night somebody calls and I can't quite figure out who it is. It takes me 4 or 5 minutes of non-commital conversation until I realize that it is Person A_G. Thus we have a more specific conversation after I figure it out.
On Thursday I am up at 3 am PDT to catch a 6 am flight to Chicago and continuing on to Fort Wayne, Indiana for work. All planes are on time! The flight to Chicago goes smoothly - well, I don't remember much of it. I had to get up at 3:10 am to make the 6:00 am flight, so I sleep on most of the flight. After sitting in the Chicago airport for a short time and helping an older asian man make a phone call on the strange american pay phones (Pay phones still exist?), I have a smooth flight to Fort Wayne with a 10 year old boy sitting next to me and unaccompanied by an adult (including me). The flight attendant tries to liven the flight up during her safety announcement: In the event of a loss of cabin pressure, or if I just want to liven things up, the safety masks will fall from the ceiling. And later she tries again: The seat cushion bottom provided by Dolce and Gabbana also serves as a floatation device in the event of a water landing. When the flight attendant comes through the cabin and gives her final safety check, I stop her and say, "These seat cushions are obviously Prada cushions. You can tell by the design and the quality of the stitching". Of course she takes this in stride and says that she will use Prada during the next flight.
I receive Chevy Impala (Impaler) for a rental car and head directly to our subcontractor with it. The team is happy to see me and it turns out there will be a slight delay in testing. But testing should now happen on Saturday. During the Thursday evening I eat a mess of cookies and do not get out walking, running, or exercising in any manner.
On Friday I get up a bit after 6 am and get out walking (with just a bit of running). Is is already getting humid and warm, but I walk for an hour before work. Seeing that this is a different hotel than usual I explore a new route with sidewalks near the roads and no need to cut through people's private property (and no men in trucks asking me not to walk across their property). We have a meeting at work and get everyone on the same page for the Saturday testing. It turns out one of the key subcontractor people has a final exam in his music therapy class on Saturday morning, so we will start early on Saturday afternoon. (Music therapy? He describes it as playing music and dancing around and etc etc. We stop him before he can continue.)
When I return to my hotel my card key will not work again. Thus I go to the front desk to have them progam my card key for the third time (including the initial programming). There's a lady ahead of me who is checking in for two rooms. After not getting the adjoining rooms that she wanted, she settles for two rooms next to each other. And she requests, "I need two keys for one room and three for the other".
The desk clerk is helpfull. "I can give you as many as you want. So I'll give you three keys for one room and two keys for one room."
"No, I want two keys for one room and three keys for the other". This goes back and forth between the lady and the desk clerk for two minutes...or is it three minutes...before they both realize that they are saying the same thing.
As my key is reprogrammed I note a large crowd of women coming into the hotel. It turns out that Fort Wayne is hosting a "Women of Faith" conference and this has thrown hotel reservations in the area into disarray. But the immediate concern is a man of my age but much larger size walking around the hotel lobby with nothing on but a white towel. (I can only hope that he has a swimming suit underneath the towel and has been using the hotel's pool, but...) I start to wonder what kind of hotel this is with people walking around with nothing but a towel on. And I can only wonder what the women of faith participants are thinking of this entire scene.
On Friday I relax in the hotel for a while until 5:15 pm when I go out walking again despite the television indicating that it is still 91 degrees outside. After the walk and a cooling off shower I work on some Excel macros in order to speed up the testing.
On Saturday we start testing. There are representatives from five agencies incuding Northrop Grumman overseeing this test. I've borught my handy-dandy Excel macros that process the data very rapidly to speed the testing up.
Over the next week I get in some morning walk/runs, some afternoon walk/runs, and/or some stationary bicycle workouts at/near the hotel. During the days we make good progress on the testing and are finishing up by Friday August 10th. A number of people, including Northrop Grumman's customer representatives, give me kudos for the Excel algorithms and processes that I have and they claim that I (personally) have saved two days of time during the test. I don't know if this is a good number or not, but I accept the kudos and give copies of my scripts to the people who want them. (Because I'm an open source guy.)
I do note that I have missed the delivery of a at the Fort Wayne zoo.
On Saturday morning I am up at 3:10 am EDT to try and catch a 4 am flight to Chicago and on to Los Angeles. Note that getting up at 4 am EDT on a Saturday morning overlaps when I would normally still be awake and partying at various clubs in Los Angeles on a normal Friday night (which usually goes until 3 am PDT). I get to the airport and at first there is a 10 minute delay. But this changes to "an additional 25 minutes" followed by "an additional 30 minutes" until I've already missed my flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. We eventually leave Fort Wayne 2 hours late and I beg for mercy in Chicago to be put on the next flight to Los Angeles. Unfortunately the best that I get is standby. But today is my lucky day as I'm squeezed unto a 9 am flight (only an hour behind the original itinerary). Of course my baggage does not arrive, so I tell United Airlines to call me and deliver it later this afternoon. Do you think that this will happen?
Thus I head for the post office to pick up held mail and the grocery store to get some food. And then you know I'm going to go out cycling and then mow the lawn afterwards. It feels so good to be driving around again in a World Rally Car, to be out cycling on a real bicycle, and to get cleaned up in my own shower! By 6 pm on Saturday there is no sign of the luggage even though the United Airlines bagtrack website claims that they know where it is. Late on Saturday night I go to bed. Well, it's early, but it's late on EDT.
On Sunday morning I try to regain consciousness as I find my luggage delivered and placed - more or less - where I asked them to put it if nobody answered the door. I head to work at Northrop Grumman to catch up on email and paperwork at a time when I will not be bothered. After returning home and watching the CART race, I head out for another good bicycle ride down to the aquarium and back.
After the ride and some work in the yard with the roses, Person T_U calls and invites me to a party of a friend of his (who I've met a few times). I should go. I should go. I should go. But I don't. I'm relaxing on the couch and also having a self-confidence crisis. Thus I do not go. Instead I wallow in my little self-confidence crisis and vow that I will be better tomorrow.
On Monday morning I get out for a walk before work. And then I enjoy being on the Yamaha YZF-R1 again after missing 12 days. Monday is productive at work and follow that up with a good workout for the abdominals and lower back. I get one more day off before I start lifting again.