Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, December 5, 2011 10:00 PM

Thanksgiving and Beyond


On Monday night I have a horrible time sleeping. I wake up after 2 am and cannot sleep so I surf the Internet and read for a while. The lights go out and I still cannot sleep. So I take the bull by the horns and start painting the hallway. You're painting the hallway at 3:30 am? Yes, because there is nothign else to do when sleep is impossible except to try to be constructive. I get back to sleep and wake up just before 7 am. I let the morning warm up a bit and go out for the extra extended aquarium ride. It is cold today and I am glad to get home and have a warm shower. Just before 11 am I pick up Person Ti_Ca and drive him to his sister's store and we wait for a brother to "cover the store". THe brother shows up and we go to buy car insurance for Person Ti_Ca. But because of the timing the insurance place is closed for lunch. Thus I drop everyone off at the store and go back home with a grocery stop on the way - there is no way I want to be anywhere near any stores on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. When I get home I clean up the sideyard, add more weed-preventitive to the front bushes, and install the World Rally Car air cabin filter that I just bought. And then I relax - I am so tired from lack of sleep but I just keep moving around to stay awake.

I sleep well on Tuesday night and have a great Wednesday. I start by painting the hallway and even though the paint is supposed to be almost the same color, it looks brighter. And when it is finished I like it - either the 7-8 year old paint had become dingy or the slightly brighter shade livens the hallway up. As I start out on the bicycle ride I assume it will be a bit of a shorter ride but I end up putting in extensions and ride about the same distance as I have for the last five days. After a shower I get gasoline for the World Rally Car and have it washed at the car wash. During the afternoon I spend time claybarring the World Rally Car and it is looking like a new car again. The rest of the evening is a bit slow.

I should have good sleep on Wednesday night because I was active and continually moving around on Wednesday. But it is not to be. I wake up after 2am from a bad dream in a pool of sweat and know that sleep will not come back. So I get up and surf the Internet and read for a while until it is approaching 4am. I get up and get out the door a bit after 7 am for a long Thanksgiving bicycle ride. Because I've missed so much sleep I know it won't be as long as I want, but I get in a good ride except where I have to fight against runners taking up the bicycle path along the ocean for some sort of Thanksgiving morning 5k and 10k run. I pick up Person Ti_Ca but he is sick so he spends most of the day sleeping on the couch. I have two different waxing sessions with the World Rally Car - one on the gold rims and one on most of the body. I'll have to finish waxing the body on Friday. Later in the evening Person Ti_Ca goes off with a friend to the black friday sales.

Friday starts with finishing the waxing of the World Rally Car, a semi-extended aquarium ride, and mowing the lawn. I shortened up the bicycle ride because I knew I still had other activities to do. As I mow the lawn the lawnmower keeps giving me problems with pieces falling off of it. Twenty five years ago I bought a cheap Murray lawnmower and it lasted 20 years with minor maintenance and repair. A few years ago I bought a Craftsman mower and it already has pieces falling off of it and runs cantankerously. What a piece of crap it is! As I finish mowing the lawn Person Ti_Ca drives over. I am so happy to see him and express my feelings for him that I am in tears. I get cleaned up and we have his "driver's license pass" celebration lunch at Red Lobster. And we have some informative discussions about each other's needs and finances. The discussion goes a long way to ease most of my recent fears.

I have trouble sleeping again on Friday night. But I get up before 7 am and go cycling. It's the longer ride and my legs are starting to get tired by the end of the ride - is it the constant headwind of today's ride or is it the 8 rides in 8 days? Person Ti_Ca and I go have japanese food for lunch and poke around at mobile phone plans. Later I help Person Ti_Ca with his calculus homework and also work in the yard more. Person Ti_Ca leaves before nightfall and I relax with some television.

I wake up on Sunday closer to my usual wake-up time after 8 days off from work. I mill arounf the house and work on the roses and then go out for a bicycle ride. This is the ninth ride in nine days and the legs and the entire organism are a bit tired. As I'm heading towards the ocean I start thinking about some of the incredibly happy and incredibly sad times that I've witnessed in my life and there are tears of joy and sadness streaming down my cheeks. The other cyclists probably think that I'm wiping sweat away from my cheaks - but they are tears. I don't know where this came from even though the recent times have been an emotional roller-coaster. During the ride I run into some Guatemalan riders and we talk about their home country as I struggle to keep up the pace - they are on road bicycles and I'm on a soft-tired mountain bicycle. I watch the Brasilian Grand Prix and my favorite driver leads from the start but is told to slow down from the early stages of the race because of a gearbox problem. But he continues on to finish second to his teammate - was this a ploy to get his teammate a win for the season? After the Brasilian Grand Prix I finally cook my traditional Thanksgiving dinner of pasta with red wine sauce. Other than a few little things around the house, today is a slow day as it is time to go back to work.

Monday is the first day back to work after nine days off. It feels great to be back on the motorbike on the way to work and back home. It's a bit difficult to get back into the swing of work but eventually I start being productive again. After work I lift weights for the first time in 10 days and it feels good. Though I know that I'll be sore again soon.

On Tuesday I have a wildly productive day at work. I'm efficient and fast and make rapid decisions and spread my knowledge around. But a bit early I can take no more so I go home and lift weights for the pull muscle group, do more scalping of the backyard for winter, and take a quick shower. And then I start working some more on processing the data for work. At some point I've done as muchas I can and cannot make any more sense of the processed data, so I call it quits for the day and read.

On Wednesday I have another super productive day at work. And when I have had enough I rush on home. Person Ti_Ca and I go out run/walking for 42 minutes and then we dive into his calculus homework and selecting classes for next semester. Since Person Ti_Ca has an exam on Thursday we stay up late getting his homework done. And when I do get to sleep it is not good and I wake up and cannot sleep again.

The alarm goes off for Thursday morning and I don't want to get up. But I get out the door quickly and am in my office before 6 am. I have another fairly productive day at work. WHen my meetings have ended I head for home, walk to the grocery store for supplies, lift weights for the push muscle group with an extra set added, do some small errands in the yard, and then relax. I expect deep sleep tonight due to the missed sleep last night.

I have a night of great sleep on Thursday but I'm raring to go when I get up. I'm in my office a few minutes after 6 am (Had to stop for gasoline on the motorbike, you know?) and I have another very productive day until I run out of steam a bit after lunch. I drag through the rest of the afternoon and head for home. I get in a good solid session with the weights for the pull muscle group, work a few details on the motorbike, sweep the driveway after the windy days, do the laundry, and then have dinner. Person Ti_Ca comes over and we have dinner together. Later I go walk over to the First Fridays celebration in Long Beach while Person Ti_Ca goes to meet a friend of his. I walk for a long time at the First Fridays celebration and hope that the extra walking will help with sleep.

I sleep horribly on Friday night. I'm awaked at 1 am by...I don't know what. But then I cannot fall back asleep. I surf the Internet for a bit and then try for more sleep. And it takes a long time to happen. When I wake up in the morning before 7 am it is very cold and I work on the roses and impatiens before going out for a bicycle ride. I feel strong today despite the lack of sleep. After the bicycle ride and a shower go to the library and return two books and get two more and then do grocery shopping. And then I relax. Person Ti_Ca calls at the mid afternoon and I go help him move stuff and change locks on his new house and run errands. We eventually end up back at my house to eat dinner and watch a movie before he heads for home. Since I had a slight fever this morning, I've taken an actifed and hope that it will drop me into deep sleep tonight.

I have deep sleep initially on Saturday night and then just medicore sleep for the rest of the night. When I get up near 6 am the morning is very cold and I do some things around the house and wait for warmth. Just after 8 am I cannot wait any ligner and get out for a very cold extended aquarium ride. My legs again feel strong and, except for number fingers and some chill, I enjoy the ride. I run some errands and then I start trying to fix a cheap old piece of furniture for Person Ti_Ca. It seems that as I fix one thing something else breaks. But I do my best to clean it up and fix it up. Today is a slow day and I just stay bundled up and warm. But by early evening I start wondering how my sleep will be.

I have good sleep on SUnday night and wake up ready to go. It is a very cold morning and the Yamaha YZF-R1 does not want to start at first. But I force it and everything is good. I have a lousy day at work in terms of productivity and I text Person Ti_Ca, "I'm having a bad day and I'm bored". Eventually I make progress at work and when I get home Person Ti_Ca is waiting for me. I sneak in a good workout for the push muscle group and then Person Ti_Ca and I have dinner and watch a couple of our favorite recorded television shows. Eventually I head for reading and more sleep. Tonight and tomorrow night it is supposed to be in the 30's F in Long Beach and I'm hoping the motorbike will behave in the morning.