Tuesday and Wednesday pass in a flash with productive days at Northrop Grumman. I decide late on Wednesday to take Thursday off and have a four day weekend.
On Thursday I get out walking early in the morning to the ATM and to the grocery store. I make a lot of progress on little errands as well as on painting the porch columns. Just before noon I go have a follow-up visit with the dentist and she is convinced that I'm having a non-contagious auto-immune response due to stress (as I told her about model deliveries and stuff at work lately). Though the rinse has not removed the symptoms, she tells me that it isn't a harmfull thing to just live with. And we both agree to keep a very close eye on it with me having the responsiblity to visit her and my regular doctor immediately if I have another flare-up of symptoms. Person M_Fl comes to visit during his dinner break at work and we have a very short visit. After listening to an hour of my favorite DJ's music, I have a good session witht he weights and get in some reading to end the day.
Friday starts with more painting of porch columns and a bicycle ride up the Los Angeles river. During today's ride there is a lot of hustle and bustle for me to take in: the ride parallels the 710 freeway and so I see a lot of traffic congestion and horns being blown, some firemen are using the concrete bed of the Los Angeles river to practice driving their trucks in confinsed spaces, and there are other riders and pedestrians enjoying the day. When I get back home I continue to fix the front end of the Yamaha YZF-R1 before taking a shower. The early afternoon visit to the acupuncturist goes well as I ask for some electrostim near the L4/L5 discs. Afterwards I get out and mow the lawn and trim some bushes in the warm sunshine - it feels good to be doing productive tasks in nice weather (seeing that it rained last weekend and was almost 100 F the previous weekend).
Late on Friday every body part is sore. I look back on the day and realize that I've been up and down and moving all around, so that's why everything is sore. There's only one thing to do now - go party! Thus I head for two different clubs. The second finds some great music (and the bartender almost remembering my Red Bull and 7-Up drink even though I hadn't seen her for a few months now). It is now approaching midnight and Person T_U calls and so I head back over to the first club to meet up with him. There are many many acquaintances present tonight and its, more or less, a fun evening. As I'm about ready to leave at 2:20 am on Saturday morning Person E_Ice and his friend stop me. (Person E_Ice is a former ice hockey teammate.) Thus we have a conversation about ice hockey, health, clubs (It turns out Person E_Ice was at the club last week that was so crowded and I didn't even run into him.), and other topics. Now it's very late, so I head for home. Except that the 110 South is closed so I keep heading east on the 10 to catch the 710 south. And now the 10 comes to a complete halt with brake lights all across the board. I make a quiack exit off the 10 on Central avenue and find myself heading south on Central, Long Beach Blvd, and Alameda through Vernon, South Central Los Angeles, and Compton at 3:00 on Saturday morning. There are a couple of traffic lights that are red and nobody else is around. So I come to a complete stop, but don't want to be a sitting duck for potential crime. So I check all directions of traffic - who else would be driving through Compton at 3 am? - and proceed through the red lights. I finally get to the 91 freeway and make it home for the lights to go off at 3:40 am on Saturday morning.
Saturday starts with a good aquarium bicycle ride just before 7:30 am. This is followed with the laundry, some grocery shopping, lunch, and more work on the front porch columns. The afternoon is slow as a lot of bodyparts are sore.
Sunday is another slow day that starts with the aquarium ride. There are moments of excitement watching the Italian MotoGP race from Mugello, but that's it. In fact the race is again so exciting that I think that I may have to walk away from it for a while (because I'm that keyed up and that into it). But I persist and enjoy the MotoGP results and will have to wait until Tuesday for broadcast of the 250cc race. (I can recall when I was a kid and the family would be watching a close, exciting football or basketball game and my Dad would have to walk away into the kitchen or the basement because he was getting "too into it". I didn't understand what was going on then, but now I do. I guess I inherited that excitability though it's related to motorcycle roadracing and not football. But I admit I was really keyed up on Saturday night also as I watched the Detroit Red Wings playoff game. Hmmm.) Late on Sunday some of the recent depression returns. I feel like I want to cry (and hope that I am able to because I feel better after I cry).
Monday and Tuesday are horribly blah days. The only thing that gets me through the days are a good session with the weights on Monday after work and a triple overtime Stanley Cup final game where, unfortunately, the Red Wings lose. But at least I'll get to see one more game on Wednesday! The 250cc race from Mugello, Italy, delayed viewing until Tuesday, is also exciting even though I already know the results of the race.
On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I struggle through work, but have good sessions with the weights after work.
On Saturday morning I get in the final tune-up ride before SUnday's long ride. I just go north on the Los Angeles river on a timed ride to make sure that the road bicycle is ready. After the laundry and qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix I try to get down for a nap but keep getting interupted by phone calls. Thus I take care of the roses and relax until Rob comes by. (Rob is a former neighbor who I used to ride bicycles with all of the time. He's come up from San Diego to ride the river on Sunday.) We go carbo-load at an Italian restaurant where I run into a co-worker and his date as we're walking out the door.
On Sunday Rob and I are up at 5:15 to get out the door by 5:30 to ride up to Griffith Park for registration. Halfway to Griffith park we pick up another cyclist who says he started from the same Los Angeles river entrance that we did. He's a history teacher so he and I have a great conversation along the ride about the neighborhoods that we are riding through: Vernon, East Los Angeles, and Boyle Heights. And we look at beautiful architecture of Victorian houses and beyond. The registration goes smoothly and soon Rob and I are headed off on the ride - we actually missed the start of the 70 mile ride. I don't know how that happened. We were a bit slower than usual getting up to Griffith Park and the ride started 15 minutes earlier than usual. The remainder of the ride goes smoothly with Rob insisting that we stop for a couple minutes at each rest stop. Normally I would just blow past them, but it turns out I shouldn't. On this ride I finish feel strong rather than beaten up. So I vow to stop at each rest stop for just a handful of minutes to get off the bicycle and stretch the legs before moving on.