Tuesday is a blah day at work. I am very productive in the morning and then the day starts to drag. At a reasonable time I rush on home and ride the road bicycle over to the bicycle shop. There are a few things that need attention including possibly new bearings in the bottom bracket. I walk back home with a stop at the grocery store for supplies for the week. And then, after watching the season finale of State of Affairs, I send emails to Cal State Los Angeles students and I work on the Arduino motor controller and data acquisition system that will help one of the teams out. Working on these projects is good for me because it gets me back up to speed for some projects of my own that I want to work on.
I have a frustrating day at work. I'm trying to make sense of some test data and to correlate a model behavior with the test and not having any luck. It isn't even close. I take a couple short walks during the workday to get the blood pumping and to get a fresh perspective on the problem, but it isn't working. Finally I just set February 1, 2016 as my retirement date and go on home. I get in a great, heavy session with the weights. This is a good level of weights to be at for a while. And afterwards I prepare the bookshelf and area for the cleaning/refinishing to be done this weekend. Later I watch a recorded "Blacklist" and then work a bit on income taxes. I just want the evening to finish so I can go ride on the tuned up road bicycle in the morning.
Sunday starts with me physically hungover from Saturday's activities and the threat of rain. Thus I get on the mountain bicycle and ride to the old yacht club and add some extra miles for a good ride. It takes more than 5 miles for the soreness to leave my legs as I get started, but soon I'm cranking away. As I'm adding the few extra miles in I see two road bicycle riders who passed me a while back stop with a flat tire. So I keep going and hit my turn-around point and go back to see if they need help. But they seem to have things under control and I ride on home. WHen I get home I water the impatiens, trim the roses (including bringing some cut roses into the house as usual), start the laundry, and start cooking vegetables for the week's lunch.
Wednesday is another blah day at work. Oh I make progress on things that I have to do and I help some people out with things that they don't know how to do, but I could be more productive. (They will miss me when I retire because I like to help the less experienced people out with their problems and I tend to be patient and encouraging with them.) At the end of the day we have a final meeting before our trip to Santa Barbara on Thursday to visit another division of Northrop Grumman. When I get home I have a great session with the weights and I am thinking that I cannot even tell that I have ever had a shoulder or elbow problem because there is no pain or discomfort. But I do put ice on both areas after lifting as a precaution. There is a community meeting with the city councilman about the recent closing and, hopefully, relocation of the neighborhood post office branch. But I decide to sit this one out and just relax and later help Person Ti_Ca with homework.
Friday starts with a good 40 mile road bicycle ride. I consider riding longer, but I have other things to do and it is more difficult to ride alone with nobody to pull, push, or talk to. When I get home I trim the lawn, grab a shower, and run a number of errands including dropping more books off at the used book store as well as getting two more books from the library. Late in the morning and into the afternoon I take a break and have some lunch. After lunch I wax the rims of the Yamaha YZF-R1 and then I collapse down for a nap. When I wake up I have energy so I udst the hardwood floors and get down on my hands and knees and wash the hardwood floors with the special cleaning fluid. (In reality, I wonder if all of these special cleaning fluids for hardwood floors, stainless steel, ceramics, and other surfaces are special chemical blends or just a mild soap and water?)
Sunday starts off rainy and wet and I keep checking the weather forcasts before starting off on the mountain bicycle. I do not take the road bicycle for a longer ride because I don't want the road bicycle to get wet and dirty and because my legs are still stiff and because I'm unmotivated. There are some drops of rain during the ride but I'm enthused to be riding and I enjoy the different smells that occur due to the wet rain and plants and pavement. I ride down to where the bicycle path is temporarily closed and then head back towards home for a few extra miles. I catch up to a guy on a road bicycle and he says, "I remember you on the road bike last week". I don't think it was last week - maybe a few weeks ago. But we have a nice conversation as we push against a headwind and we each eventually head for our respective homes. It's a quiet day with the Kings' game and catching up on some little things around the house. I notice that my legs are STILL stiff. What's going on here?