On Monday I'm walking down the hallway of my building at Northrop Grumman when a lady near a side exit turns to me and says, "Do we have to swipe our badges to leave the building or do we just walk out? I just started here and I don't want to set off any alarms."
So I decide that this recent hire at Northrop Grumman needs the proper indoctrination. So I respond with, "As employees of Northrop Grumman we aren't allowed to leave the building until we've worked a full 8 hours."
The lady looks at me and me asks, "You mean we can't leave the building until the end of the day? No going out at lunch?"
"Oh you can go out for 5 minutes at lunch to pick up some food from that catering truck over there. But don't be out beyond 5 minutes or they may write you up." The panic is starting to set in - you can see it in her face. So I finally start laughing and say, "No - I'm just teasing. Just go out the door. You don't have to swipe." With this I continue walking down the hallway and I don't get to see her final response.
The entire week is a bit disappointing. The disappointment is more related to myself than anything else. I'm a bit disappojnted with my work performance and the junk food that I've eaten and a reduced exercise rate.
On Friday night I go to bed early because I am just worn out and don't want to think about disappointment anymore. Person N_V has a business Christmas party to go anyway.
On Saturday there is a cold but reasonable bicycle ride followed by a haircut and some house painting. As the haircut is finished and the painting is being performed I keep feeling worse and worse. When the painting is finished Perron N_V and I take a nap - mine lasts about an hour and his lasts about three. When I take my temperature (as Person N_V wakes up) I see that I am running a 2 degree fever. We have a simple dinner in downtown Long Beach and head back for home. I'm not feeling well so I get ready for sleep early as Person N_V heads out to hang out with friends.
When I wake up on Sunday, after wearing extra clothes and a hat to bed, I feel better even if I'm a bit sweaty. Person SB is the one who wakes me up with a phone call. Person SB is doing well even if he is working two jobs. And Person SB, though very young, is very level-headed as he knows not to quit his first job until the benefits from the second job kick in. After having soup for breakfast and reading the newspaper, I get out for a slow bicycle ride at midday in order to raise the metabolism and body temperature and burn/flush out toxins. During the ride a bee gets underneath my helmet and stings me in the ear (near the top). The ear hurts but there is nothing to do now except to keep riding and deal with it when I get home. When I get home I check out the ear in the mirror and see the stinger still present. So out come the tweezers and Dr. Manning performs a successfull self-surgery to extract the stinger. The bicycle ride does it's job as I continue to feel better throughout the day - both physically and mentally. Okay, I disappointed myself recently. But I just need to change my ways and do better. Let's see how the week turns out.
As of this writing it appears that my premonition from a few months ago is wrong. Recall that I had a premonition that after much searching, both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden would be captured on the exact same day. Another bad premonition. Much like my selection of lottery numbers, this premonition goes into the waste basket.