Tuesday and Wednesday are productive days at work and at home. I work on some analysis and simulation that needs to get finished before the end of the year and then I have great push and pull workouts with the weights. I do am not as strict with my diet as the "New Ray" title sugegsts, but I don't do bad. On Wednesday Person Ti_Ca comes over to visit and we enjoy each other's company.
On Wednesday night and Thursday morning I have trouble sleeping again. But I get up and am at my office just after 6 am. Thursday morning is productive as I close out the year's activities and attend a final meeting for the year. When I can take it no longer, but before the meeting has concluded, I leave work. I go down to the main Long Beach public library and pick out four books to read. I then finish up my Christmas shopping, get in a heavy workout for the push muscle group, and then rake leaves near the roses and trees. Afterwards I take a warm shower and start some laundry and am happy to have completed another year at life. It has been a difficult year at work and (sometimes) at life but it is almost finished now. I relax on Thursday night with the football game on in the background and a smile on my face!
Person Ti_Ca comes over near 6 am on Friday morning after he has dropped his brother off at work. I get up before 7 am and mill around as I wait for the morning to warm up. It was 37F last night in Long Beach and not particularly conducive to an early morning bicycle ride. Just after 8:30 am I start out for the ride. I do the extended aquarium ride only because I have a busy day scheduled. During the ride I stop and talk with three visitors from Hong Kong and help direct them to the train to get to downtown Los Angeles and I welcome them to the USA (as locals have always welcomed me when I have gone traveling). After the ride and a discussion with Person Ti_Ca about some family troubles he is having I go to meet Ruby for lunch. We sit down at the Souplantation and have a very long lunch as we plan our strategy for a January meeting in San Diego. When i eventually return home Person Ti_Ca is getting ready to go out to dinner and shopping with a friend. When he leaves I do some grocery shopping and then get in a heavy session for the pull muscle group. I see good rpogress now but I'll probably have almost a week off from lifting due to the trip. On Friday evening I just realx and read some of the books that I've checked out from the library.
On Christmas eve morning I wake up before 4 am and cannot sleep. Thus I finish off one of the books that I just checked out from the library - it wasn't very good at all. Near 6 am I take a pile of old towels to the laundromat and wash them because I don't want the dirt and lint and grass plugging up my laundry filters. After filling the car up with gasoline I get out for a long ride. It's cold and chilly but it feels great! And then I settle in and cheer on the Detroit Lions as they demolish their opponent and clinch their first playoff spot since 1999. THe best Christmas present ever! Later in the afternoon I get out for a 30 minute walk and then I start calling my overseas friends to wish them a Merry Christmas. After work Person Ti_Ca comes over and a friend of his, Person E_U, visits. As they go off to have dinner I find out that Person E_U is an F1 fan and a Fernando ALonso (of Ferrari) fan. So I can tell that Person E_U and I will become friends too. I head for reading and sleep.
I'm awake near 6 am on Christmas morning. I wait for the morning to warm to go cycling. As Person Ti_Ca is driving off to work I am starting my road bicycle ride. I do the 30 mile loop and have a good ride though I know my legs will be tired and be threatening to cramp later in the day. Today is a slow day but I leave messages for people with holiday greetings, do some laundry, and pack for the trip to Las Vegas. Later in the evening both Person T_U and Person Ti_Ca come and visit and we have a short visit until it is time for everyone to leave.
On Monday morning Person Ti_Ca and I start out for Las Vegas at 6 am. It does not bode well for the trip that my sinuses are in pain a few hours after arriving in Las Vegas due to the casino smoke and the desert dust. Putting ice on my sinuses helps. This last happened when I went for very long exploring walks in Cambodia along the polluted streets and eventually cleared up when I self-medicated with a strong anitbiotic (which was over the counter in Thailand). The trip shall hereafter be referred to as "The Great Los Vegas Disaster" for many reasons and shall never be mentioned again.
On Wednesday Person Ti_Ca and I make it home by about 4 pm and have dinner and continue discussing finances. I go out for an 80 minute walk as Person Ti_Ca gets ready to visit with a friend.
Wednesday night and into Thursday morning is another night of horrible sleep. I'm worried about the entire situation with Person Ti_Ca. On Thursday morning I drive to Torrance to go cycling with a co-worker. We go cycling along the ocean in the areas that I used to ride many years ago. All of the twists and turns and sights are familiar even though I have not ridden this path in more than 25 years. When I get home, Person Ti_Ca and I are giving each other the silent treatment, so I take a shower and go to the public library to use the WiFi and to browse through books. When I return a few hours later the silent treatment (from both of us) is still going so I grab some food for dinner and then go read a book. Eventually Person Ti_Ca asks for help with his school books for the spring semester and we we buy books online and still give each other the silent treatment so I force a discussion out of Person Ti_Ca. It takes some doing, but I force the discussion out of him. We're both in tears as we talk about the recent troubles and the disaster in Las Vegas and the ways to fix the situation. Person Ti_Ca insists that the silent treatment now is not a threat to our relationship. After some course of action and some additional financial and lifestyle discussions we seem to be okay again. We both have things to work on. Person Ti_Ca grabs a quick shower and heads for home (partially at my insistence) because I need to get some sleep tonight.
I sleep deeply on Thursday night and into Friday morning until 2:30 am when I wake up and cannot fall back asleep. There is nothing in particular that pops into my mind during this wakefullness, but I still cannot sleep. I get out of bed before 7 am and mill around the house until the fog has cleared to go cycling. I start down towards the aquarium and the fog keeps getting thicker and thicker as I get closer to the ocean. Nonetheless I continue on for the extended aquarium ride and turn around and head for home. Its a good ride even if I'm fairly wet and the bicycle is now dirty and grimy. After a shower I run a few errand and then meet up with Ruby to talk about the adoptions palcement process and upcoming business opportunities. On the way home near 3:30 pm I stop in at my health care clinic to get some antibiotics for my sinuses (which are still killing me from the Las Vegas smoke and desert dust). But the wait is 2 hours so I continue home, lift weights, grab another shower, and read until Person Ti_Ca comes over. We exchange one year anniversary gifts and cards and then go have dinner at the restaurant that we ate at the very first time one year ago. Eventually we head for home and then Person Ti_Ca goes home so that both of us can sleep - he for work for tomorrow and me to recover from sleepless nights.
Saturday looms very foggy. I remember last year's bicycle ride where I fell off and got all scraped up, so I wait until the fog clears and proceed out. It is an eventfull ride though I am carefull to not fall off the bicycle. I am somewhat unmotivated at the start of the ride but just keep going for the extended aquarium ride. On the way home I stop and chat with Dennis about doing the roof of my house in April or May 'cuz I just received a notice from his company and wasn't sure it was him. As I'm talking with Dennis some other cyclist yells out, "Hey Ray!". I don't know who it is but after I finish chatting with Dennis I do interval-like speed for an extended time to catch up and find out that it is a co-worker from the test area. So he and I and his fellow rider ride together for a few miles until they turn around and I continue on for home. After the ride I mow the lawn, rake some leaves, pull out some long weeds in the backyard, sweep the garage floor, and wash the mountain bicycle from the recent dirt and grime. And now I am tired. So I just relax for a while with a few phones calls and adoptions programming.
Later on Saturday Person Ti_Ca comes over. Person Ti_Ca was supposed to be working today but was called at the last minute to change to Sunday. So we relax for a bit and look for new year's eves celebrations to go to but we're having a hard time finding a suitable event. Eventually we call Person T_U and go have Thai food at a new Thai restaurant in the area. None of us have anywhere to go so we spend three hours at the restaurant just sitting and talking about all sorts of things. When the restarant is closing we each head for home - each of us alone and heading for sleep early to the 2011.