On Monday at work Lori and I have our annual date to go get a flu shot. There is no line this year and before you know it we've both been stuck with needles and the date is over.
On Monday night I drive down to Huntington Beach again to help Person M_C finish his move to Santa Ana - fitting things in the truck that won't fit in his car and that the movers didn't take. I'm back at home and relaxing by 8:15pm.
Thursday is a good day inside and outside of Northrop Grumman. I get a complex multibody deployment to run and give realistic results in just a few short productive hours. And I make a high speed run to downtown Los Angeles for ResourceScout (meeting Ruby and Joseph in the process) to come to a working agreement for our upcoming contract with Los Angeles. Life is good! Life is very good!
After work I get in a reasonable session with the weights and relax before another ice hockey game. This is a terrible game where both teams are sloppy and play poorly. We get lucky enough to win 5-4 even if I sit in the penalty box during the last two minutes of the game for drilling someone who was in front of our net.
On Friday I'm hit by a sudden cloudburst of rain as I ride to work. Except for having to wipe my helmet shield every 15 seconds in order to see, I enjoy the ride in the rain. I step in to Northrop Grumman very wet and proceed to make great progress on the expanded multibody deployment model and simulation.
On Friday just after noon I receive a phone call from Lori (who is in Colorado overseeing some testing). After the call I go in to my project boss's office and say, "I have a problem". The project boss, who is very conservative, gets up out of his chair, closes the door, sits back down, and gives me the "I knew that you had a drug problem and I'm glad that you are finally admitting it" look. Before he says anything I can see what he is thinking, so I start with, "Lori called from Colorado and says that she slipped on the ice and broke her foot or ankle. There will be intense pressure from my functional manager for me to fill in for Lori while she is away". The project boss is both relieved and horrified with my problem. I'm sure that he didn't want to deal with a drug abuse problem (that's the relief) but he certainly doesn't want to deal with less of my time (that's the horror). We have a discussion and we go on about our business.
Because it is wet and cold, I run on Saturday morning instead of cycling. I get in a good 7.5 mile run before taking Person N_V to the airport, doing birthday shopping, and going to a birthday party for Person T*'s son. The birthday party is at a miniature golf place and I stun everyone when I get a hole in one on the very first hole by bouncing the ball off the cement walls and avoiding the up and down ridges. I just look up with a sheepish grin as everyone looks on. I enjoy the golf because there are a lot of cute little latino/a and asian kids running around (reflecting the ethnic makeup of the surrounding area). I skip the birthday dinner to go home and take a long one hour walk and try to get in touch with some feelings.
Person J_VKPI calls and I'm headed to a club for the first time in 4 weeks - since the night I met Person N_V. And, why would I expect otherwise, both Person F_F and Person J_U are present. (Persons F_F and J_U were rendered obsolete by the appearance on the scene of Person N_V.) Person F_F finds me and now is stuck to me. Person J_U waits for his chance and catches me in one of the few moments when my entourage is away and starts up a conversation. I can see that Person J_U is a lot more accepting of my non-availability than Person F_F. It is a reasonably fun evening even if the crowd is down from Halloween parties. There are people who want to make offers to me (or want me to come over and make offers), but I fend them off. At my request we leave a shade early and I'm laying down for sleep at 2:40am on Sunday.
I'm up on Sunday near 7 am for a cold Aquarium ride. After a quick shower I'm headed for Northrop Grumman to get a head start on the week (due to Lori's absence things will be very hectic). I leave work near 1 pm, do some shopping, and clean/wax/detail Person N_V's car. Not that I know what it means, but I believe that this is the first time that I've ever done this for a partner or potential partner.
Later on Sunday I take two Kava Kava tablets (to promote deep sleep) and get out for a 30 minute walk. I'm not into the walk for 5 minutes when I have a great idea: Free up some of the constraints on the multibody dynamic simulation and use Lagrange multipliers to dynamically regain the constraints. This should help us overcome the last issues in the simulation.
I'm in bed and headed for sleep (with all telephones turned off) before 9pm.