I have a lazy Tuesday because I didn't sleep much on Monday night. I get through some reasonable efforts at work and sit in on some meetings and contribute expertise where possible. And then I run out of steam and go home. On the motorcycle ride home I keep hemming and hawing between what kind, if any, workout to do today. Instead I just do some grocery shopping, update some finances, and then drive to Los Angeles International airport to pick up Person Ti_Ca.
I start out Wednesday with a vow to work on documentation. But in the first 20 minutes at work I keep spelling almost every word wrong. Am I just typing too fast or am I mentally disconnected? I need to take action. In rapid succession I get some caffeine, grab a medicine known for stimulant properties, raise my desk up so that I am standing, and turn on some house/techno/EDM music. I'm having a rave at the office! Soon I am buzzing through documents with text and words that sound good and when I go back to re-read the documents there are no incorrectly spelled words, bad grammer, or unclear meanings. Later in the day my Boss comes by with an aircraft person whO I have never met and an intern from the University of Florida who I met a week or so ago. By now I have my rave beads on and am just having a good old time buzzing through tasks. Needless to say I have to explain myself a bit, but then I take the three visitors for a tour of places that they requested and I provide them with an algorithm to speed up their jobs. On the way home there is a bad slowdown in traffic and two left lanes closed and I see a motorcyclist laying on the ground with other motorcycles and police officers attending to him. I get out for a 35 minute run and trim the roses before having a quiet evening.
I try to stay upbeat on Thursday with some good progress. But I also have calls saying that the software tools that I developed aren't working. When I go babysit the people the tools works fine. "But that's what I did before and it didn't work" How to make things idiot-proof? How? When I get home I work the abdominals and lower back again since I've decided to take some extra time off from lifting weights. And then I go trim and clean up two bushes in front of the house. After a shower I watch the US Open gold from a strange golf course where you can't tell where the rough/fairway/green separation is. Should be a fun weekend! Person Ti_Ca continues to sleep and ignores any of my suggestions for getting off Cambodia time.
I start Friday by riding up to the Whittier Narrows dam to meet up with Derrick. But he doesn't show up. I give him a ten minute grace period and then I take off with another rider. He's originally from Poland and we ride back to Del Amo (where I get on the river trail) so that he can go back home. I continue riding down to the Long Beach pier and then get home for about 52 miles. After a quick shower I get to the bicycle shop for lubricant, the bank, and the grocery store. Other than working on my resume and a web site, I have no other tasks on my schedule for the day.
I start Saturday with qualifying for the Grand Prix of Austria in mixed wet but drying conditions. A fun session! I get out on the mountain bicycle and do the "old" complete loop - going down the Los Angeles river and up the San Gabriel river and through Heartwell park to get home. It's a good ride though it took my legs 5 miles to get started after Friday's long ride. I get out to the library for two more books to read and then have a very slow day at home just relaxing. I don't get to the task of filtering out old paperwork that I want to get started.
Sunday starts with a good 45 mile road bicycle ride. As I'm coming down the San Gabriel I pick up a rider and pull him along for the longest time. When it is time for me to exit the river trail it is a different rider that I am pulling along. I don't know when he joined in. But I get within a couple mile of home and I'm tired - it has been a great three day sof riding ana precursor of retirement. I watch a boring Austrian Grand Prix and relax around the house. It has been warm these past three days so I've been a bit lazy.
It takes a while to get started on Monday though a Mountain Dew mixed with Red Bull helps. I continue with some simulations and presentation charts that have to be completed and manage to get some feedback from the customer regarding the suitability of the results. After work I am tired so I just clean the kitchen floor and do some web programming - no real workout today.
On Tuesday and Wednesday at work I just keep plugging away on tasks and sometimes get bored (because things that I am supposed to work on keep getting delayed). I meet another new hire and, along with the other new hires that I've tried to become friends with and mentor, invite him over to my building so that I can introduce him around. I get in a great run on Tuesday where, besides some normal aches and pains as I slowly try to get back into running, I feel good and strong. And on Wednesday I take the mountain bicycle out and just absolutely beat myself up with intervals in the windy conditions. I'm sure I'm going to hurt physiologically on Thursday and Friday.
I expect to sleep well on Wednesday night but I do not. And...As I am awake and taking my body temperature and blood pressure a ghost walks through my room. Yes, a ghost. As she walks through I get the shivers up my spine and the tingling and the goose bumps that come with the sighting of a ghost. I do not panic, but I do not know who she is. As I am taking a shower I get the tingling and goosebumps again and I get a theory. This is the ghost of Person Ti_Ca's grandmother and she is here in his presence and checking up on him and his surroundings. As I am showering I say aloud, "Maybe I met you. Maybe not. But I hope that I did not hurt you. Please give me a chance to make amends." I make it through work on Thursday semi-productively and go on home a bit early. When I get home I mow the lawn and minor trim a few tree branches and then relax and do some web programming. From lack of sleep I have been incoherent and tired since 3 pm anyway.
I struggle through Friday and make some progress and then grow bored. Today is "Take your sons or daughters to work day" so there are many kids running around the campus. My co-workers know that I have a box of toys in my office for visiting kids, so many of my co-workers bring their kids by to visit me and play with the toys. I wish we allowed kids to be on campus more often. When I get home I go for a long walk and stop in at the grocery store for supplies. At home I polish my work shoes (recalling the Saturday night ritual of polishing our dress shoes before Sunday church when we were kids) and cool down with a shower and start the laundry. My legs are a bit "hungover" from Wednesday's interval ride so I just relax and do some web programming and finally start to sort through technical papers from the last 30 years to decide which ones I want to keep.
My legs are stiff from Wenesday's workout but I get up and get on the road bicycle. After 5 miles or I am starting to feel better. As I approach the Whittier Narrows dam I run into Derrick and make him turn around and we ride to the Santa Fe dam. When we get to the base of the dam we take a break and Derrick goes over to the trash can and throws up (since he hasn't ridden much lately). We turn around and head back south. It ends up a 25 mile ride for Derrick to get him started again and about 60 miles for me. After some errands I watch a breath-taking and spine-tingling Dutch TT from Assen (i.e., the Cathedral of Speed). Just a super MotoGP race! Later in the afternoon I get down for a nap and then clean, feed, and water the roses and relax for the evening - I'm tired.
THe SUnday ride on the mountain bicycle starts slow since my legs are tired. But pretty soon I start cranking along nicely. I catch up to this other rider who is doing n organized century and I ride with him a a bit and help him with directions through Long Beach before I make the turn for home. This ride is two hours long but it just seems to pass rather quickly. After a shower and cleaning the shower stall I watch a wildly exciting Moto3 race from Assen (i.e., the Cathedral of Speed) recorded from yesterday. And then I do some web programming as Person T_U is supposed to call to hang out today. When Person T_U calls it we decide that itis very hot and muggy and not worth hanging out. So we agree to hang out soon in the evening. Instead I do more web programming and just relax. I also receive word that one of the prinipals for funding/building the orphanage build in Indonesia scheduled for December is now fine months pregnant. So, posssibly for other reasons, the orphanage build is now scheduled for January 2016 instead of December 2015. Stay tuned.
We hope to start testing another article on Monday but everything takes longer than expected and we don't even get the test started by the time that people are going home. When I get home I do very high repetition weights in order to get started again. I've taken the last three weeks off from lifting (except abdominals and lower back) to let joints heal. So I'll start back in at the beginning and slowly work my way back up.