Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, January 12, 2004 8:00 AM

Weirdness


The week of work at Nrothrop Grumman is a reasonable one for the start of a new year. There are meetings held, agreements made, algorithms developed, models looked at, and new years' fun and greetings.

The pain and weakness in the right leg continues to haunt me throughout the week. A visit to the chiropractor possibly helps somewhat - I don't know. But now it's just a matter of trying to stay active and waiting for the appointment with the neurologist. I'm sure that I look funny trying to walk up and down staris, but that's the way it goes right now.

On Thursday I leave work just a bit early and jump on the mountain bicycle - it's time for night riding. I do the usual 20 minute warmup ride to the business park and then do laps around the business park where there isn't much traffic and no stop signs. I do ten laps during which a guy finishes trying to fly his radio-controlled helicopter and another finishes flying his radio-controlled glider because it is getting dark. And then I head for home in the dark. It is a good ride. After a quick shower and a trip to the supermarket, there is a guy in the market staring at me. I notice him staring but I try to ignore him. Finally, when I can take it no longer, I look up at him and smile as I walk past. I catch a glimpse of him in the corner of my eye and see that he has turned 180 degrees and is still staring at me as I continue with my shopping. I just ignore him for the rest of the trip.

On Friday morning there is some open road so I wind the motorcycle up just a bit and back off when I see 135 mph on the speedometer. The day at Northrop Grumman is hectic and then I ride over to Boeing for a late afternoon meeting. When the Boeing people realize that I ride a motorcycle they try to convince me to stop riding. Afterwards I find out that one of their coworkers had a fatal motorcycle accident just a few days beforehand. But I can only say, "Once it gets into your blood you can't get rid of it". I get home for a session with the weights and an intermediate length walk before spending a quiet evening at home - Person N_V being with his family following the death of his aunt.

For some reason, during the entire day Person K_K is on my mind. I have not heard from Person K_K for a long time, so I wonder what is spurring this on.

Saturday is a good day of sunny cycling and running some errands. Later Brandon calls (visiting his parents in CA from NY) and I agree to pick him up and go clubbing. At the designated club we run into many, many acquaintances and friends. Person J_VKPI is there with Dario and Person Ray is also there. There are a few offers to be made, but I wave them off and/or avoid the conversations. Late in the evening Person J_F walks by and kisses me on the chest. Well....it was dark and I assume that it was Person J_F. Regardless, it was (hopefully) an innocent gesture of friendship. After I drop Brandon off I make it home for sleep right near 3 am on Sunday morning - having missed two calls from Person N_V and it being too late to return his calls now.

I'm up a bit after 7 am as Person N_V is calling to see where I went the previous night. After doing some shopping I get out for another sunny bicycle ride. I'm a bit slow, but that's due to both the lack of sleep and the little neurological problem that I'm having.

The weekend ends with some football watching and some work on websites for Person M_C and Person N_V.