Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, August 29, 2011 10:00 PM

Hot August


Tuesday and Wednesday are chaotic days at work. The boss has written down on his whiteboard that "Failure to prioritize" is a root cause of delays, inefficienies, and failure to meet critical deadlines. Thus, when I'm presented with multiple looming deadlines and I ask him to help me prioritize, he just says, "They're all important. Get them all done". So much for prioritizing. On Tuesday I drive the World Rally Car over to the dealer for an oil change and amm told that they are all booked up. I ask where the previous service manager is, who always snuck me in, and am told "He was asked to leave. We don't know where he is". Thus I drive back home and will try for an oil change in a couple weeks. I go for a long walk afterwards. On Wednesday I want to go cycling after work but instead do a high repetition, light weight workout. I've taken four days off from lifting and want to re-set the muscles and physiology of the lifting. Nonetheless it is a great workout and I'm left gasping for breath during the workout. On Wednesday I receive word from Person C_T that his offer on a new house has been accepted (and now I have to scrape together a bit of money to help him out temporarily during the escrow period). I'm happy for Person C_T.

Thursday is more chaotic at work. Everybody (arbitrarily) decides that their stuff has to be finished before the end of the business day. I work through the things that I can control. And then I'm invited to a meeting five minutes before the meetingstarts and told that I'm presenting. I do the best that I can and then clean up a few things and then leave work for the week. If things don't get finished and arbitrary deadlines are not met, then so be it. I get on the mountain bicycle for a semi-extended aquarium ride and stop and talk with some visitors from England before heading for home. Later I pick up Person Ti_Ca and we relax for the evening.

On Friday I wait until a reasonable hour and start working on the often-neglected sideyard. The sideyard borders the neighbor's driveway and I rarely clean it up (though it is my property). I spend 90 minutes with the electric trimmers and tree saw and broom and get it looking decent again. I then mow the lawn and finish my chores for the day by 10:30 in the morning. After a shower Person Ti_Ca and I go to two banks and open a new savings acoount for Person Ti_Ca and then go grocery shopping. The remainder of the day is spent reading and helping Person Ti_Ca with homework.

My back is sore on Saturday morning, as expected from the sideyard activity, so I start the day slowly. Near 9 am I start out for the extended aquarium bicycle ride. The ride is good and I feel strong. After the ride I trim the roses, take a cool shower, and then sweep the hardwood floors. Though my lower back hurts from yesterday's sideyard cleanup and I shouldn't take any NSAIDs because they are hard on the kidneys, I keep wanting to move around and do the cleanup tasks around the house that I normally don't want to do. I vacuum the carpet and then I get down on my hands and knees and clean the bathrooms floors. Sometime in the afternoon Person Ti_Ca comes over and I finish off the floors and we hang out. And then I drop him back off at his house.

I planned on riding long on Sunday but I have a morning headache and my lower back still hurts from the sideyard cleanup. Thus I take two Aleve (which I'm not supposed to take because of its effects on the kidneys) and go out for the extended aquarium ride. By one quarter distance the headache is gone and I feel strong today. Too bad I didn't go out for the long ride. On Sunday afternoon I finish off Keith Richard's "Life" book from 2010. I'm approximately read one book per week this summer as I had planned to do but now its time for another trip to the library. Late in the afternoon I consider getting out the paint and paintbrush to paint two hallway ceilings (that got just a bit dinged up from the bathroom and kitchen remodel). But I decide to save those tasks for a day in the near future. The week at work coming up is expected to be a long and stressful one so I try to relax and be prepared for Monday morning.

Monday at work is a difficult day as people wait for their turn to present schedules and budgets. It becomes apparent that I am not going to present today so I go back to my office and work on the other demands being put on my time. I leave work at a reasonable hour, trim and water the roses, do a high repetition workout (that leaves me gasping for breath at the end of each set), rinse off, and walk over to the store to buy some supplies. Afterwards I do some financial planning and am left wishing for more reading material.

Tuesday is another frustrating day at work as my effort, which followed the directions from one month ago, is dismissed because the people in charge changed their minds the previous evening. So I go back grumbling and re-work my effort. When it becomes apparent that I am not going to re-present in the afternoon, I take leave for home. I get in a good workout for the abdominals and then I start paiting two hallway ceilings. At first I just plan on doing one hallway, but it goes very quickly so I just keep plugging along and soom I'm finished. The ceilings and the hallways got mucked up a bit from all of the construction over the last few years, so now it's time to make them nice again.

On Wednesday I get into a shouting match with my project boss and he has to take me (and my functional manager) away from the customer so we can get our story straight, My functional manager is on my side and keeps repeating what I'm saying in his own words but my project boss wants something different. When he's picking nits about a trivial point I finally say "I don't really care. Let's change it to what you want and move to the bigger issue". And he says "Oh but you have to care - it's your effort". Except that it isn't if my project boss keeps wanting to change my effort. Eventually I manage to go along with what he says (on the trivial points) without sounding like I'm not buying into it and I finally make progress and finish. After work I trim the roses, paint the attic door, and have a high repetition workout that knocks me out again.

I drag through Thursday and Friday - it has been a long and difficult week. After work on Thursday I wanted to go out cycling but I get tied up and just go for a long walk instead. After work on Friday I get in a good weights workout and mow the lawn. After a shower Person Ti_Ca and I go pick up his car and he practices driving for about 90 more minutes. His driving exam is on Thursday and he wants a bit more seat time before the xam. But he will pass.

Saturday is to be the hottest day of the year. I wanted to go cycling early but instead watch a wild, wet and dry qualifying sessionf rom Sap, Belgium where my favorite driver snatches the pole at the last minute. The neighbor helps me pick up some drywall to finish the garage (where I had to destory some drywall to re-wire the garage) and then I get out for a bicycle ride around the aquarium and beyond. Since a road or two is closed off I don't do the fully extended ride. Since it is near mid-day and this is the hottest day of the year, I am fully worn out when I finish. I get home and take a cool shower and turn on the air conditioning. Thus Person Ti_Ca finishes his homework and then we watch silly movies until I take him back home.

On Sunday I get out early for the extended aquarium ride before the temperature comes up fully. After the ride I watch the Belgian Grand Prix from Spa and see my favorite driver win again. I go to Person Ti_Ca's house and he gets in one final driving session with me before his driving test at the DMV on Thursday. He should pass - his skills continue to progress nicely. When I return home I turn on the air conditioning (only the second time this year) and do my own homework and watch the MotoGP race. The rest of Sunday is fairly slow.

On Monday I struggle through work but make progress. I'm working through some intricate tasks that require a lot of attention and doing fairly well until my meetings start in the afternoon. In the middle of a meeting in the afternoon I'm pulled out of a meeting by a big bos and a colonel and, the end result is, that I'm going to go to San Diego for the test on Wednesday. THis is another case where I've been told that I don't have to go to an offsite facility and the answer is definite until the last minute - then I have to go. I'm not happy at all with this decision. I go back to my meeting and fortunately it is winding up for the day. I tie up a loose end or two and head for home - I am not happy. I do a workout with the weights and I struggle through it - I cannot tell if I'm just tired or if my heart isn't in it because of another stupid decision at the last minute at work. Why do we manage by panic?