Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, May 20, 2002 8:21 AM

130 km Los Angeles River Ride!


I leave work on Tuesday at 4pm. I am tired, I am drained, I am disappointed, and I am flat. I stop by the liquor store on the way home and buy a bottle of whiskey and a lottery ticket. We are working on NPOESS orals and a question on spacecraft test costs comes up. The question is passed from Mr. Adkins to Mr. Wittkopp to Dr. Manning. Dr. Manning, sitting in the very back of the room, asks, "Mr. Adkins, permission to approach the front of the room". And when everyone in the rooms bursts out laughing, I know that my response to the costing question will be okay. After I have finished the explanation, I sit down. But I am stopped by two different people on the way back to my seat saying that they want me to handle their difficult questions also.

I start drinking at 5pm and am staggerring around the house by 6pm. Dad and Scott come by the house to pick up a notebook computer for a networking party. (Scott being the oldest of the kids that I used to babysit.) I grab a camcorder and capture video of Scott explaining gaming and other things. And I capture video of Dad trying to continuously reload the printer with blank envelopes (as tonight is another resourcescout.com printing night).

Later, Brandon calls and wants me to help him with some PowerPoint charts. "Okay, but I've been drinking." Brandon doesn't believe this because he has never seen/experienced me drink before.

Before Brandon calls there is another discussion with the KM and he is mad at me again.

Brandon arrives, plays with PowerPoint a bit, sees that I am drunk, gets scared, and leaves. All within 15 minutes.

I am drinking, finally the truth comes out, because Person Roy has left me and gone back to a previous boyfriend and because I have another appointment with Dr. L on Wednesday that I am not ready to deal with.

The KM makes a number of telephone calls to my phone and mobile phone. I try to hang up as politely as possible, but it becomes a pain and I just lift the receiver off the hook amd put it back down without checking to see who is calling. Eventually there is a voice mail from the KM at 3:39am blaming me for another lost night of sleep.

The appointment with Dr. L passes and, despite the regression, says that we should aim to continue on June 14th. Thus it is.

Friday afternoon I get home and go to lift weights. Nopesterini keeps burying his nose underneath a workbench - wanting to get under it. Finally I remove some of the things blocking the path and look under the workbench and see two eyes staring back at me! There is a possum that has found it's way into the garage and has made it's home underneath the workbench. This also explains why there have been crumbs from Nopesterini's dog food bag lying on the garage floor the last few nights. I want to let Nopesterini go get the possum and add to his kill list, but it appears that there may be a number of small possum underneath the workbench and the big one is Mom. So I chase Nopesterini out of the garage and clear the path underneath the workbench - hoping that the possum will take the hint and find a new home in the middle of the night. (Flashforward to Saturday morning: The hint may have worked because the possum, upon a cursory look, is nowhere t be found.)

I watch the first mountain stage (Stage 5) of the Giro d'Italia. There is a short pass, the Colletto del Moro climb, that goes straight up for a couple of kilometers and the riders - the fastest and strongest bicycle riders on the planet - are using a 39x25 gear. This is tiny! The Giro footage, with flashing "Grand Premio de Montagne", "10 km All Arrivo", "Tete de la Corso" indicators on the TV screen, shows the riders just barely crawling along the Colletto del Moro. I am jealous!

On Friday night the KM calls and we have a civil 10 minute call. We both apologize for inappropriate behavior and agree that it will not happen again. Person Roy contacts me and shortly thereafter I am picking up Person Roy and his roommate, Ralph, to go to Fire Island. We cram into the front of my truck - fortunately it is a short drive. We only have a bit of difficulty when parking because reverse gear is...um...difficult to get into with three people in the truck cab.

Fire Island is packed tonight. I am dressed in black pants, black shoes, black dress shirt, and a grey (almost charcoal) tie. As I hang out at the club a number of people adjust my tie for me: "You should drop it 1.5 inches and unbutton the top two buttons of your shirt", "You should keep all buttons done and drop the tie 1.5 inches", "You should button everything up and move the tie up", "You should just take the shirt and tie off". And they actually perform the adjustment for me and ask, "Is that more comfortable?"

When I drop Person Roy and Ralph off at their apartment, I struggle to let go of Person Roy's hand. But I do. And I'm turning off the lights to go to sleep at 2:38am on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning sees a good bicycle ride in the drizzle and then I'm off to TRW to work on models and simulations.

On Sunday morning is the annual 130 km Los Angeles river ride. Recall that the ride starts in Griffith Park, takes the LA river trail as much as possible to the ocean (and bike station) in downtown Long Beach, and returns to Griffith Park. So I do something a bit silly. It doesn't make sense for me to drive to Griffith Park to make the ride, so I ride my bicycle to Griffith Park, register for the event, and complete the remaining part of the ride. No driving required! But this little plan entails getting up at 5:15am and cycling through North Long Beach and Watts and Compton and South Central at 5:45 am. In the rain! Because today it has decided to rain. Specifically in South Central I get a lot of strange looks - is it because I'm riding a bicycle in the rain or is it because I'm a white guy on a bicycle in this neighborhood? But the ride goes well and is fun - more of the LA river trail is completed this year so there are less detours.

I'm home, trying to recover, for less than 30 minutes before the phone starts ringing. One is an ex from San Francisco who I tell I will get back to sometime during the week. The other is Person Roy who wants to go party. So off we go - but only after I've replenished my glycogen supply with a large plate of pasta.