Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, April 18, 2011 10:00 PM

Long Beach Grand Prix (Again)


Tuesday is a productive day at work though there are many fires to be put out and everyone wants something now. But they will have to wait. After work I get in a great session with the weights (for the pull muscle group) and then spend time on my hands and knees cleaning up the carnation bed and part of the rose bed. The bigger rose bed will have to wait until the weekend and it will be a big effort. I watch the Moto2 race in the wet from Spain and enjoy the slips and slides. And eventually I head for bed kind of early.

The rest of the week at work is spent catching up on another project that is in trouble and has been "abandoned" by a co-worker. There are personnel issues as well as technical issues and so I put my head down and work on the technical issues. I ignore everything else and make some progress - though maybe not enough to restore the confidence of the project. Each night after work I get in heavy sessions with the weights - alternating push and pull muscle groups and one day of abdominal and lower back core muscles. I've made good progress in the last month and now trying to hold on to the gains. But soon I will need a few extra days off because a couple of stabilizer muscles are asking for time off.

I don't know why, but throughout the week there have been a number of people who have changed lanes near me and caused me to take collision avoidance action. Usually close calls come in threes, but I'm beyond that. I don't know why.

On Friday I leave a bit early, get in a great heavy workout with the weights, mow the lawn, and then grab a shower. I pick up Person Ti_Ca and we eventually head for a club in West Hollywood to meet up with Person T_U. The three of us have fun anging out and talking and listening to music and dancing. Since Person T_U is not seeing anyone right now I keep asking, "Do you want to meet anybody?" And I am able to go up to strangers and say, "Hi. Are you having fun? My friend wants to meet you. Can you come over and meet Person T_U?" I do my best. When the club closes we don't hang out outside the club for more than a few minutes before we head for home. The lights go out for sleep near 2:40 am on Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning I watch qualifying for the Malaysian Formula One race and then get out cycling in the cold windy conditions. Afterwards Person Ti_Ca and I hang out for a while until we head for the movie "SOurce Code". The movie is lousy. It is so lousy that I tell Person Ti_Ca the story about the movie "Crash". (I thought Crash was racist and horrible and almost walked out of the movie and asked for my money back. And then I was slapped in the face when Crash was nominated for an academy award and then won. I still think Crash was racist and sterotypical.) After the movie we find Person Ti_Ca some food and then I drop him off at home. I get to sleep early to make up for the previous night's sleep deficit.

Sunday starts with a call to Tree in Thailand and the Formula One race from Malaysia. Though it threatens to drop rain with a few drops falling, there is no heavy rain. But the race is fun with good battles throughout the field and my favorite driver emerges victorious. After the race I start out on the road bicycle for the Whittier Narrows damn. I ride across the damn and nature reserve and come down the San Gabriel river trail for a total of 40 miles. THis is the longest I;ve ridden since I went to Thailand back in November so it is a struggle to get back into the rhythym of a long ride and a few body parts hurt. After the ride I get a nice shower and fight off cramps in my legs and ribs as I watch another race and some of the golf from the Masters. Afterwards I work on adjusting the rapid-fire shifters on the mountain bicycle (that decided to quit shifting at all on yesterday's ride) and do some cleaning around the house.

Monday is a productive day all around! After the productivity at work I go home, lift weights for the abdominals and lower back, clean the rose bed, and clean two bathroom floors. Everything feels good as I finish and I have a three-way teleconference call with Person Ti_Ca and a common friend in Buffalo. As the call goes on I feel my lower back starting to hurt and an hour after the errands I can hardly bend over and touch my toes. As the evening wears on I try to stretch the lower back out but it keeps getting worse and worse. But when I finally get down for sleep it doesn't bother me.

I have difficulty getting out of bed on Tuesday morning because of the lower back. Though there was no traumatic extreme pain as there was in 2003/2004 when I ruptured my L4/L5 discs, this is starting to feel similar. The lower back hurts and there is weakness in the right quadricep muscle. Throughtout the day I try to stretch and make myself comfortable. And I call ym doctor and speak to an assisteant and ask for a precsription. She says since I have not seen the doctor in a while he probably wont just give me a prescription. So I make an appointment for Monday and still ask for the prescription. After work I go walking, stop in at the store where the prescription will be and they don't have it, and continue walking home. I try again to stretch the back out and find comfortable positions (and abuse the Aleve in lieu of the stronger prescription anti-inflammatory).

On Wednesday there are many people who need something from me at work. There is a line outside my office as people need information immediately. I accommodate as many people as I can and then head off to meetings. "But I'm leaving at 4 pm today to go to the hospital" I tell my boss. At 3:50 pm I leave the meeting, pick up Person Ti_Ca, and head for my medical clinic. Person Ti_Ca texted me and wanted to go with me. It turns out Person Ti_Ca has been celebrating the new year and has had only one hour of sleep. So he's dropping off to sleep as we wait in the waiting area. It turns out the doctor sees me relatively quickly and I tell him the story of my lower back and L4/L5 discs. I ask him for a certains et of drugs and he doesn't want to give them to me. I ask the doctor, "Where are you from?" He responds with, "If you can guess where I am from, then I'll give you the drugs that you want." I cannot tell from his last name where he is from, but I have 95% certainty based on his first name. When I say "Oh, you're Khmer", he looks at me with a shocked look of disbelief and asks me how I got that. I tell him I've been to Cambodia a number of times and have a few Khmer friends. So he says, "Well, I have to give you your drugs because you did guess it". So I drop Person Ti_Ca off at his store so he can work and I ride back home to pick up my favored drugs (for this injury). By 7:30 pm I cannot feel a thing and I am happy that I could guess the doctor's nationality.

Thursday is spent at work at many meetings. I try to be as positive as possible and be as constructive as possible. After work I pick up Person Ti_Ca on the motorbike and we ride to my house. We walk over to the store for dinner groceries, have dinner, and watch some of the Los Angeles Kings first playoff game.

On Friday Person Ti_Ca and I head down to Long Beach for the Grand Prix. We start with the drifting event and Person Ti_Ca has seen this before in movies and it gets the day started. As the Indy cars start their practice Person Ti_Ca picks a car to follow with the number 4 on the side. He picks the car based on the driver information. I keep cheering for Justin "The Flying Giraffe" Wilson. After the first practice the celebrites charity raising racers are on and Kevin Jonas is one of the drivers. So now, on the agenda, is trying to get Person Ti_Ca's picture with Kevin Joans so that he can send it to his niece and make her jealous. Later we start wandering around the motorsports expo and discover that Person Ti_Ca's "picked" driver is going to be signing autographs. So we go to the area and get the autograph of JR Hildebrand. It's his first year in the series and shows promise. We stay for a bit of the Indy car qualifying and then we head for home. While Person Ti_Ca takes a nap (or tries to) I mow the lawn, trim the lawn, and wash the motorcycle. And then we relax even if our schedules get crossed up.

Saturday starts with qualifying for the Grand Prix of China where my favorite driver gets another pole position. After the qualifying I wax the Yamaha YZF-R1 and then get out for the aquarium bicycle ride. Today some streets are blocked off for the race so I help people get around the street closures for their rides. On the way back home I run into Dennis again and we have a brief conversation before we continue our respective rides. After a shower Person Ti_Ca and I go have lunch and then I drop him off at his home. I proceed to the Long Beach library to get some books to read, buy some fertilizer and rose bug spray, and do some grocery shopping. When I get home I take some of the drugs that the doctor gave me and relax, then wax the Yamaha YZF-R1 rims, and then watch qualifying for the Long Beach race. I don't like to drive after I take these drugs so I've removed Person Ti_Ca from the situation, put the car in the garage, and demanded that I stay close to home and just work errands and tasks that don't have significant personal safety issues.

Sunday starts with an exciting Grand Prix of China where my favorite driver eventually runs out of tires and finished second. But there is good action throughout the entire race. Afterwards I head north on the Los Angles river and the Rio Hondo path , get to the base of the Whitiier Narrows damn, and turn around for a total of 35 miles. I take a quick shower and run a number of errands including taking the 25 year old Ciocc road bicycle (with limited edition Campagnolo Olympics grupo) to the bicycle shop for a tuneup and some bottom bracket work. When I walk into the shop with the bicycle two guys start staring at the bicycle. And when they put the bicycle up on the stand to do the estimate another mechanic is staring at it and I say, "Don't even think it. Quit drooling over my bicycle". And he turns to me and says "If you ever want to sell it, please call me first". These are the typical reactions I get. When I return home I take some of the drugs that the doctor gave me, relax while watching the Long Beach Grand Prix on television (which is also exciting), and do little errands around the house. Eventually I head for bed early to do some reading and to conclude the three day weekend.

Monday is a productive day and I leave work early to go see the doctor. This is a follow-up appointment and a physical since I haven't had a real physical in about two years. This is a subsitute doctor and we talk about health as well as new electronic medical records and volunteer work. By the end of the physical the doctor is taking my phone number and email address because she might be interested in volunteering at a project in Cambodia if we ever get it launched.