Monday I am driving the truck to work - horror of horrors - driving a vehicle that leans the wrong way around corners when it isn't raining. But it is only because I'm leaving for San Jose on Monday night.
I attempt to get a ride to the airport from a coworker. Except that a dashboard light on her car comes on (related to the brakes) and so she calls her husband (who brings their daughter) to give me a ride. We decide that the dashboard light is related to a failed brakelight bulb (after checking the brake fluid), but the entire family (minus their oldest son) escorts me to the airport. As we're entering the airport traffic comes to a standstill with flashing police lights up near the terminal that I need to get to. And the airport police are diverting traffic around and out of the airport. I get dropped off two terminals away and I start walking towards it. Just as I pass one terminal and approach my terminal, the police pull back the yellow "Do not cross" tape and let me through. Another bomb scare at LAX avoided. After I check in at the gate I overhear the flight attendants talking about a piece of the airplane that has been accidentally broken by a mechanic and a "20 minute delay" sign goes up on the board. Later I find out that the airspeed sensor was broken off by a mechanic. If this was a REAL pilot he/she would fly the plane without the airspeed indicator. But because he/she isn't, we get a delay.
The San Jose trip is a fairly productive trip. I catch an earlier than planned trip home and use the shuttle bus and green line train to get back to the truck parked at TRW. I help a cute Japanese tourist find her way through the train ticket process, onto the green line train going the opposite direction that I am going, and through the two transfer process that she must go through to get to downtown LA. i consider going with her because it is downtown LA, but I have to see Dr. L later tonight. But I do notice that she gives me a huge smile and a friendly wave (which I return in kind) through the window of the train as she heads off.
I get out for a good bicycle ride to relieve stress prior to visiting Dr. L. Dr. L prepares me for the Friday morning "visit" with Dr. B.
Thursday and Friday (as we skip ahead temporarily) are occupied with fantastic mountain stages in the Tour de France. I cheer for Joseba Beloki again and he actually holds his own during the Col d'Abisque, Col du Tourmalet, and the run up to Le Mongie even though he is outnumbered by US Postal riders. I drool over the savage climbs and the scenery.
The visit with Dr. B is a bit problemmatic this time and we have to re-start a time or two. But things turn out okay. And now I face another week of those tedious and draining antibiotics and catabolic steroids. But during the visit with Dr. B a Dr. D preps me for the...um...thing. Dr. D and I hit it off well and we're joking around about various things and teasing each other. As I'm leaving the office, I tell Dr. D to give me a call and we'll have lunch or soda or something somewhere in Long Beach (where Dr. D lives).
Saturday morning sees a follow-up visit with Dr. L before I head to K-Town to see Person J_VKPI. We go to see the movie "Halloween Resurrection" at his request. It is entertaining. Towards the end the designated heroine is hiding in a closet from Michael Myers. And she abruptly erupts from the closet with a running chainsaw in hand. I cannot stop laughing after this scene for the shear absurdity: 1) She finds a beautifull, brand new chainsaw in a house that has been abandonded for 15 years, 2) The chainsaw has fresh (not spoiled) gasoline in it, 3) The designated heroine is able to start the chainsaw on the first pull, 4) She seems to handle the chainsaw as a master lumberjack would. After this scene I cannot stop laughing and I probably ruin the remaining 20 minutes of the movie for Person J_VKPI as well as the other 8 people who are in the theatre with us. Like I really care!
The medicine is kicking in and I am getting tired, so we stop for a quick water and coffee at a nearby Starbacks before I head for home.
Early Sunday morning while I have energy I get out for a short and slow morning bicycle ride. I rest while watching a motorcycle race and the French Grand Prix on television. I then go rollerblading for an hour in the midday sun. I rest for a couple hours while watching the Tour de France climb up Mt Ventoux - where the last few kilometers look like the moonscape (from the deforestation that occured 400 years ago). And then I get out for a short walk because, even though I am very tired from the visit with Dr. B and the medicine, I am restless. I am in bed by 10pm before I realize that I have not returned the 10 telephone calls from Person Roy over the past two days. It will have to wait.