Wednesday is a very hot day. I walk over to the liquor store near noon to get something to drink and it is very hot. Hopefully the last hot weather of the year. When I get home I start back in to lifting weights after about a two week break. I drop the pounds just a bit to get back into it. There is nothing that feels as good as finishing off this workout - though I know that I will be very sore in a couple of days.
Our Friday day off starts with a ride down and around the aquarium. After a shower I run into a neighbor at the grocery store who I sued to cycle with and we have a nice conversation as we wait in the check-out line. We can both see and hear fellow shopeprs chuckling with us as we talk about our lives. I go visit the eye doctor and insist that he take a good hard look at my retinal nerve for neurological damage. I explain that my eyesight is good, I have not been dizzy, and have not fallen or taken any bangs to the head, but rather I feel myself "slipping away" a bit. He finds nothing at all wrong anywhere and suggests a cognitive test with my regular doctor. After the eye doctor I have a long and relaxing session at the acupuncturist. During this visit I can feel every limb as heavy as can be and the stress and energy-blocking mechanisms disappearing. As I pay for my visit I invite the original receptionist to email me some of his mp3 files (as he's tried out for American Idol in the past and is pursuing a singing career) and the new receptionist to go inline skating with me. And then I drive down to Irvine to visit with Person W_HK. We have a nice visit but when I feel our visit lagging I head for home to relax for the rest of the evening.
On Saturday I get up late, go cycling before the rain comes, relax a bit, do the laundry, and finally do some grocery shopping. As the noon hour passes and the rain continues to fall I head out to try and get motorcycle parts (of which the dealer has none) and go browse at Borders Books (and they have none either). Thus I head for home and wax the motorcycle and wax the rims. Late in the afternoon I get in another good workout with the weights and then I just fritter away the rest of the day. I sleep very well on Saturday night - even missing a text message that comes in late.
Sunday starts slow with a 35 minute walk and a stop-in at the grocery store. This is the third or fourth time this year that I've bought the Los Angeles Times to read. Thus I read for a while before I go and clean up the roses and put the finishing touches on the motorcycle. At mid-morning I sit back down to watch some football, continue reading the newspaper, and doing homework. The MotoGP and 250cc races from Asutralia are pretty good though my favorites did not do was well as desired. Later I get in a good session with the weights and relax for the remainder of the day.
Monday starts with some small efforts around the house. When the morning has warmed up a bit I head out for the loop ride. Being a Monday morning there is very little bicycle traffic and it's a good ride. As the day approaches 5 pm I jump on the Yamaha YZF-R1 to Cal State Long Beach to check out a photo exhibit of a recent humanitarian trip to Burma (now known as Myanmar). A young lady made a trip to help out the cyclone victims and has returned with many photos of her trip. When I get to the exhibition there is a standing room only crowd even when additional chairs are brought in. I give the Burmese lady (who is now a US citizen) a one sheet description of the in December and she introduces me to the department chair at Cal State Long Beach. The slide show is very good and moving. After the slide show the Burmese lady finds me and we have a brief further discussion before I say, "I don't mean to be keeping you. You have my contact information to see if there is synergy between our projects".
On Tuesday I get up early and rush to work for the start of the 6 am teleconference (at 9 am on the east coast). A few minutes after the start I am told that my portion will not be addressed at all for the entire day. Thanks a lot, guys! But I'm at work and wade through all of the emails and phone messages. I run off to many meetings and at noon I return to my office. And the heat is going! On one of the hottest days of the year the building people have the heat going to our corner of the building. I work through the heat and just tell people to imagine that they are in the Phillippines or Thailand. And finally the air conditioning comes on. At 5 pm I rush up to my class. I do not do well today in class - I don't know why. I struggle through the exercises and with the words. And then I rush on home to vow to do more homework for the coming weeks.
Wednesday is another frustrating day at work as I continue to tell the truth and tell people how far in a hole that we are and yet they don't want to hear it. They keep insisting that everything will be just fine. I get home and have a good session with the weights before performing some rose maintenance and relaxing. I'm just going to bed to read before sleep when Person JT_X from San Frnacisco calls. We talk about a lot of things and 97 minutes later I'm hanging up the phone and turning the light off for sleep.
On Thursday after another frsustrating day at work, I have a great session with the weights and mow the lawn. Afterwards I assemble some tool storage equipment that just arrived in the last few days. A quick shower gets me out the door to the ResourceScout meeting.
Friday starts early and ends a bit early. I do the best that I can to stay motivated at work and to keep others around me enthusiastic - it is difficult to do the way that things have been going lately. I leave work a bit early. I work the abdominals and then...then....do nothing.
Saturday starts with a text message at 5:05 am and a visit with Person M_Fl at 5:30 am. We hang out before he has to go to work a few hours later. I watch an exciting qualifying session for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix and then go cycling. The weather has suddenly turned cold and windy and I battle a very strong headwind the entire way home. I do some errands including buying some clothes and shoes. At Macy's, when the lady who sold me shoes tries to give me a trial of David Beckham's cologne for men, I launch into an, "I don't like anything about David Beckham or his wife and I don't want his cologne. He and his wife are all packaging and no substance". The saleslady understands and says as I'm leaving, "Thanks for getting me to laugh this morning". As I'm finishing p the laundry and doing some grocery shopping I feel myself ready to collapse. I manage to get back to my bed, all food perishables put away in the refrigerator but everything else left askew, and drop off. I wake up about two hours later at 4:15 in the afternoon and wonder what just happened. I've felt a bit drained lately and maybe I needed some sleep. But I almost didn't make it to bed. When I regain consciousness I relax and do little errands around the house. A 40 minute walk in the evening gets the blood pumping a bit. Otherwise I am down for sleep sort of early.
I sleep well on Saturday night and check out the Japanese Grand Prix first thing on Sunday morning. Here's another strange race, a surprise winner, and some bad penalties handed out. This F1 season is so unpredictable! Late in the morning I get on the mountain bicycle and head north on the Los Angeles river trail - avoiding anything near the ocean since they are running the Long Beach marathon down in that area. There's reading, television, and more little errands around the house until I walk to the grocery store for food, get in a great session with the weights, and then relax with Sunday night football and the Dodgers playoff game. This has been a slow weekend but obviously I needed that.
Monday is another frustrating day at work. It culminates in me "being yelled at" by a certain person. I'm trying to make a satellite work based on the laws of physics and it is unacceptable to the yeller. I give nine reasons for why our spacecraft is a bit different than any other spacecraft. But these are not enough for the yeller who responds with, "But I can't understand how NPOESS is different than anything else that we've built". I just take the yelling and go on home. Needless to say I have a very very good session with the weights to relieve stress.