On Tuesday, in between other activities, my boss has a sitdown meeting with me. He tells me how much the new employees have enjoyed me helping them, alerting them to tests to watch, and teasing them with silly questions in the midst of learning sessions. And my boss also says that all of the regular employees appreciate my knowledge and help and attitude. Thus my plan to make my boss regret bypassing me for a bonus this past year and miss me when I'm gone is working. I've been letting my hair grow very long and my boss has asked on a number of occasions about my hair length. And I can only say, "I can't afford a haircut since you passed me over for a bonus last year". I keep digging! After work I go out walking and watch a very fun mountaintop finish to the Tour de France.
I take Thursday off from work to make a four day weekend in the middle of July. I start with a mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back with a few extra miles thrown in (expecting a long ride on Friday). I get out and trim the front yard. WHile I'm trimming the front yard city workers come and trim neighboring palm trees. So I rush back into the house to grab Cokes and Orange drinks for the city workers who appreciate the gesture on this hot day. I grab a cool shower and go to the barber with a "I don't want to lose any length, I just want my hair thinned a bit so that it doesn't puff out so much" direction. After some grocery shopping I start in with today's mountain stage of the Tour de France. It is everything one could hope for with hot weather, then rain, then hail, a breakaway with non-climbers gaining 10 minutes on the peloton, and finally the lead riders losing all of their 10 minute lead and many attacks on the yellow jersey holder. What could be better? Late in the afternoon I get down for a nap and just relax for the evening before Friday's long ride.
We start with the club that I used to go to all of the time and it is just a shell of it's former self (after a fire put it out of business for 15 months). We run into a former clubbing friend and we catch up a bit before heading to the herd, clone club. I don't like the music that this club plays but we come here and find Person Ti-Ca and I finally meet his very cute classmate Sarah. We run into clubbing friends until they have worn out their welcome and Person T_U and I decide to get to a third club. Here the music is very good - not excellent as usual - but very good. I run into a former ice hockey teammate and he and I catch up on various aspects of life. He shows me pictures that he has of himself and the Stanley Cup at the Los Angeles Kings' announcers house from two years ago. Eventually the club is closing at 2am so Person T_U and I slowly make our way back to the car and rush on home. When I arrive at home it is 2:50 am and I read for a bit before turning off the lights after 3 am on Saturdy amorning.
After all of the cycling and lack of sleep from clubbing, I should sleep well on Saturday night. But I don't. Anyway, I get up and ride to the Whittier Narrows dam with legs that want to stop at any moment. Derrick is not going to ride because the rain maybe made the trails slippery and dangerous. But, other than some rain debris, the trails are perfect. At the dam I turn around and go all the way back to the ocean and finish up in the increasing heat and humidity near 45 miles. At the end of the ride I see Terry starting his ride and I continually worn him to take it slow and drink a lot because I had to pick him off the pavement once on a hot day when he fainted twice. Now I am tired from 250 kilometers of riding over the four days (and a night of clubbing) so I try to have a quiet Sunday. I break down and turn on the air conditioning for the first time this year because of the heat and humidity.
Tuesday and Wednesday are productive days at work as I just put my head down and make good progress on things on my list. But Tuesday and Wednesday are opposites after work. On Tuesday I am feeling lazy at it is hot, so I go walking for a while and then relax at home. On Wednesday I get on the mountain bicycle after work and do some vicious intervals down and back up the Los Angeles river trail. When I get home I can barely stand straight up without losing balance or tipping over. But after a cool shower I am able to concentrate on a super apline stage of the Tour de France.
I start a very hot Saturday riding north on the Los Angeles river trail. I meet up with Derrick and we head back down to the ocean and stop for a break at the aquarium. When we turn to go home we run into Terry and stop and talk for a bit and ride back north with him. We start slow and a rider passes us who is blasting music - not using earphones. So I drop off his rear wheel because I don't want to listen to his music. And we let him go ahead for a bit and then I start increasing the pace. Soon Derrick is calling out the speeds...23 mph...24 mph...25 mph...and we've caught up to the "loud" rider and then we slow down because I still don't want to listen to his music. Eventually I turn around and go home and end up just short of 50 miles for the day. After a cool shower and some ice water I run some errands and watch a relatively boring F1 qualifying session from Hungary. And the I sit back with veggies and chips and ice cold Coke to watch a super stage of the Tour de France that includes a climb up the Col de Fer and Alpe d'Huez and many attacks. It's a slow, hot Saturday afternoon and I get in some reading and relaxing. These hot days tend to take a lot out of me.
On Monday I've forgotten to set the alarmbut I wake up at 5:10 am anyway. I get to work and have another productive day as I've addressed how to handle the uncertainty in all of the test measurements and one of my co-workers thinks my idea is very good and will solve some of our problems. I continue on and make progress documenting results and then I go home. At home I have a good workout with the weights but with slightly increased weights, but still high repetitions as I strive to eventually get to heavy weights without pain. Afterwards I catch up on a lot of small email and book reserve tasks and etc.