The final tally for the recycling bin on April 3rd is two one gallon nonfat milk containers, three bottled water containers, 12 diet Coke cans, a bottle of conditioner, a supplement/vitamin bottle, a bottle of salad dressing, and four wine cooler bottles.
On Wednesday I'm doing the shopping at Vons and checking out. The cashier asks, of course, if I need any help out with my groceries. "I think I'll be okay. Thanks", I reply.
"You THINK you'll be okay?" she responds - emphasizing the word THINK.
"Well, I can't say for certain. But if I base my thoughts on a 3 sigma distribution of observations and events in your parking lot, then I can say that I think I'll be okay without help. But if there's an out-of-sample, 5 or 6 sigma event, such as me being struck by lightning, then I'm not sure that I would be okay. That's how I arrived at my initial assessment of the situation that I verbalized to you. That's why I said that I THINK I'll be okay. I can't KNOW that I'll be okay until after the event occurs." This time I emphasize the word THINK and KNOW.
Well, let's not worry here about the response to this of the cashier, the boxing boy, and the people standing in line behind me. But I am allowed to leave the store without help with my groceries.
Thursday I go to see the Los Angeles Kings play against the Detroit Red Wings at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. Person C, well, that designation has been used, so, Chris has his leg in a cast and I volunteer to pick him up in Marina del Rey and drive him to the game. So we drive across on Jefferson in my truck with no spare tire, a dying stereo, missing two gears, but only six more payments.
Red Wings' games at the Staples Center are always fun because there are a lot of transplanted Michiganders in Southern California who go to the games. And there are always a few yelling matches between drunk fans on both sides. Tonight doesn't disappoint as a fan directly in front of us can't get enough beer or enough heckling of Red Wings' fans. Security comes by and calms matters down. The Kings win a good game, 3-0, with the third period being very exciting.
Saturday is a productive day. It starts with a 5 mile run and continues on with two new tires and front end alignment for the truck (It's amazing how well the truck tracks and rides with the work. I won't add negative camber at the front corners to give more grip to counteract the understeer characteristics of light trucks.), the laundry, a session with the weights, a windy bicycle ride, fixing of bicycle flat tires, and some other small errands. After such a productive day, there is only one thing to do. Find a party!
I meet Brandon, Joe (who just received a speeding ticket on his way home from Arizona), and others at Club Asia in Long Beach. Brandon brings a girlfriend, Tracey, and she fits in well with everyone. There is a ChiChi, Person D, who has some of the qualities that I am looking for: compact, energetic, cute smile, and hair askew. (I don't know the size of his heart because I have a hard time communicating with him.) Person D has two challenges: Person D is deaf (Hence the D designation. But if I've taken up other languages then I don't see a problem picking up sign language. Besides, I played ice hockey with a deaf man. Or maybe I should be saying hearing impaired here.) and Person D is attached. I look for the perforation to tear in order to remove the attachment, but it isn't to be found.
Sunday is a typical lift weights, watch a race (A motorcycle race in the rain this time.), go for a bicycle ride, and attend to a few errands type of day. And drink heavily. To forget about ChiChi's that are unobtainable. And to forget about emails received from Person T*.
There's also this other little project (How did I get myself into this one?) that I work on. It's an audio editing project. We take songs, reform them by cutting and pasting cool sections together, modify the sound, and save an mp3. Somehow, again, I was unable to say No to somebody.
Late on Sunday night there is a telephone call from work. There's another problem with EOS Aqua at Vandenburg Air Force Base. When the PowerPoint file of photos of the damage arrives at home, I start laughing. It is just disaster after disaster. But this one is one where we should do a very quick repair and move on. But I hear that Kennedy Space Center is trying to find every manner possible to ground the Boeing Delta II launch vehicles for some reason or another. Maybe this is their chance. I end up making a number of telephone calls and send a number of emails and, I think, am able to resolve the situation from home.