Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, April 19, 2010 10:00 PM

Spring


On Tuesday I leave work and fight miserable traffic for almost an hour to get down to the city of Orange for a Habitat for Humanity meeting. A co-worker and I have been talking about helping out on some Habitat for Humanity homes and tonight is the orientation. After the 9 0minute orientation my co-worker and I grab some food and talk about the construction projects and other things. Its now fairly late for a school night so there is little traffic on the way home and I'm able to cruise near 90 mph the entire way on the Yamaha YZF-R1. I wake up in the middle of the night with another version of the "trapped and cannot escape" nightmare that occassionally surfaces.

Wednesday sees a productive day at work though the day ends with a problem that I cannot (yet) solve. As I lift weights and do other tasks around the house the work problem bothers me and I finally have some solutions to try.

Thursday is supposed to be a bicycle commute but I wake up with a sore throat and ride the motorbike to work. I solve my work problems, get out for a 30 minute walk during the day, and head on home for another 30 minte walk. Before the walk I take an Actifed for deep sleep later tonight. As I finish the walk the neighbor catches me and she and her boyfriend are leaving again and I'm to watch the house. And her medication has been changed, so I volunteer to look up information on her new drugs on the Internet and get her the printouts. I work some small errands around the house but feel the drowsiness coming on early.

I leave work a bit early and get in a "best effort" workout, mow the lawn, do the laundry, and grab a warm shower. The evening is spent relaxing and resting to get rid of the sore throat.

Saturday starts with a visit from Person M_Fl prior to his work. After the visit I start out on the extended aquarium bicycle ride. During the ride I see, hear, and smell the Formula Drift cars on the Long Beach Grand Prix track and stop near the hairpin. It turns out one can get right up against the fence and watch for a while without a ticket. After a while I head for home. Near noon I meet Person S_Kh at the Starbucks near my house and we come back and hang out. We have a long visit and nly Person S_Kh having to go to a birthday party removes him from my presence.

On Sunday morning I have a YM discussion with Tree in Thailand and then I start out for the extended aquarium ride. Because we expect rain it is a chilly and windy ride. The 5 long months of waiting are finally over as the first MotoGP race of the year comes from Qatar. It's an exciting race with passes and crashes and good, hard racing. I'm excited for the season to be starting up again.

Monday is semi-productive at work and then I have a great session with heavy weights for the push muscle group. Since it rained in the morning and the Yamaha YZF-R1 got all wet, I wipe down the bike so that it looks clean and shiny again.

On Tuesday I have a good day at work. Then I take the Yamaha YZF-R1 to Bellflower Motorsports (where I bought the bike an always have it serviced) for a minor tuneup and a new rear tire. It takes two buses to get home and on the way I stop in to vote in the Long Beach city elections. Of the 6 races, I vote for two people and vote a write-in "None of the above" for the other two. When I get home I have a great heavy session with the weights for the pull muscle group and then do some minor administrative work at home.

Wednesday is supposed to be a bicycle commute day, but I'm tired and drive to work. This makes an extra bicycle commute that I have to do sometime this calendar year. I havea good day at work until the last couple hours when I'm told I might have to go to Colorado. Okay, I'll go. Just make a decision! I'm not here on Thursday, so you need to tell me now so that I know if I am flying to Colorado on Monday or not. When I leave work on Thursday I'm probably going to Colorado for work. It's a reasonable drive home to grab dinner, work the abdominals a bit later, and then relax to start a four day weekend.

I sleep an extra hour on Thursday morning and call Tree in Thailand at our designated phone time (for this week). We have a nice discussion and start making plans for a visit. After the call I start to drive to the car wash when a light comes on in my head: Why get the car washed now whens its going to sit at the airport for a few days and get covered in dew and jet fuel? So I run a few errands and then get out for the extended aquarium ride. Today there is pandemonium as it is the last day to get everything set up for the race in downtwon Long Beach. But I have a good ride. When I get home I pull out the electric trimmers ahd trim every bush in the front yard. When I'm done I get cleaned up, grab a sandwich from Togos, and relax. At mid afternoon there is nothing left, so I lie down and have a 60 minute nap. Later in the evening I get in a good heavy session with the weights for the push muscle group. Late at night I have a message from Person A_M...well, that's been used before, so let's try Person A_LB. Person A_LB wants to meet for a drink so I grab a quick shower and start getting dressed and then receive a text message that we better do it another time. It's okay - I needed the sleep anyway.

Friday is a good day with the extended aquarium ride (shortened a bit by Grand Prix closures, errands around the house, mowing and trimming the lawn, and some relaxing. As I'm aboutt o get down for a nap I find out that the motorbike is ready with the minor tuneup and new rear tire. So it's a two bus ride to pick up the bike and head for home. I check out the ice hockey playoffs and am excited by a very intense Detroit/Phoenix game which Detorit ends up winning. I then get in a heavy session with the weights for the pull group and grab a shower to head for clubs.

Traffic isn't bad today, but I don't get to the first club until 11:15. I get engaged with an acuqaintance on the political situation in Thailand and so I have no chance to get over to the other club for a short while. Soon Person T_U is in line to come in and I run into Person B_HAIHA outside the club. He's living in Burbank and doing well, though I see him with a package of cigarettes. He says its for a friend and I don't smell smoke on him, so I give him the benefit of the doubt. It's a boring evening though I do run into a few acquaintances. And, as usual, I wait outside the club until 2:20 am and then head for home. The lights are going off for sleep at 3:20 am.

Saturday starts with qualifying for the Grand Prix of China at 7 am. My favorite driver again gets the pole position for the Sundays (anticipated wet) race. After the qualifying I remove almost everything from the garage and hose down the floor. It's going to take a while to dry, so I go cycling down near the aquarium and stop and listen to and watch the Indy cars. (If one climbs up onto the road above the aquarium one can see a couple of the corners farly well.) I only watch for a few minutes before I return for home. I take my time putting the garage back together over the afternoon to give time to various spots of the floor to dry and to try to squeeze a bit more room. Late in the evening I get in a reasonable (since I'm tired from all of the recent activity) workout for the abdominals and lower back. And I head for sleep just after 9 pm.

When I wake up on Sunday morning I see that I've missed a couple of text messages throughout the night. I watch the Grand Prix of China in varying dry/wet/dry/wet conditions and enjoy the activities and events (even if my favorite driver ends up sixth from the pole). When the sunshine has warmed the day up I start out for a ride north on the Los Angeles river (to avoid all of the Grand Prix traffic and commotion). And then I pack for a work trip to Colorado.

On Monday I start at work in the morning and then go to the airport. I catch up with some co-workers at the airport and we get a flight to Denver, Colorado. From there, in separate cars, we make our way to our respective hotels in Boulder, Colorado.