On Tuesday morning I wake up with the sniffles. I get through the day at work with reasonable productivity and then go walking when I return home. I take an Actifed almost as ssona s I get home to dry up the sniffles and to help me sleep. I have a big weekend planned and don't want to be sick for it.
On Wednesday my condition has worsened and I sit through meetings all day sneezing and with watery eyes. Outside of the meetings I make some progress and get stopped by the boss late in the day. She says, "Joe of NASA really likes you and think you've got everything under control and are the only one that can solve this difficult problem. So expect some of our people to be coming to you to ask to solve their difficult problem". I'm not sure I can solve their problem, so I just give the non-committal, "Let's talk on Monday when I'm feeling better and put together a plan for what we want to do and we can add NASA's requests as we get them." I ride on hme and work the abdominals and lower back to the best of my ability when feeling under the weather. All of the weights and lifts seem very hard, but I do my best. After wards I pull Person Ti_Ca outside and tell him that we can see the International Space Station going overhead. So we stand outside for 10 minutes watching it pass over. I'm not sure Person Ti_Ca appreciated the event, but maybe he will after Saturday's planned trip to the California Science Center where space shuttle Endeavor is on display.
On Thursday I continue to work on details of the model and simulation and keep putting the building blocks together. It is soon going to be time to start generating results and defending the results. When I get home I just think I'll try my best at the weights since the cold and sniffles have hampered me for the last few days. But it turns out I repeat Monday's lifts without anything more than the expected difficulty. Afterwards I walk to the grocery store and water the lawn and relax.
Friday is supposed to be a beautifull sunny day. I get out cycling just on the mountain bicycle down to the pier and back. I skip riding with Derrick because I don't want to overdo it after the sniffles and have a relapse. After the ride I edge and mow the lawn and then relax during the afternoon. On Friday night Person Ti_Ca and I go over to First Fridays and meet up with Person T_U and his friends. Tonight is kinda boring but we walk around a bit and enjoy the warm evening.
ANother sunny day sees me riding the mountain bicycle again down to the pier and back. On today's ride I see many of the usual people that I see out riding including some of my co-workers and people that I've cycled with. Just after noon Person Ti_Ca get on the motorcycle and ride to the California Science Center to see the space shuttle Endeavor as well as the other current science displays. We enjoy the story of the space shuttle and transporting it through the streets of Los Angeles and actually seeing the size of shuttle itself. After a 60 minute nap at home people start whimping out on clubbing for the evening. So eventually I decide not to go out and instead assume that I'll go cycling with Derrick in the morning and try for clubbing next Saturday.
The morning starts a bit chilly but I start cranking along towards the Whitter Narrows Dam. When I get there I have not crossed paths with Derrick, so I turn around and head back south towards the mouth of the Los Angeles river - fighting a gusty headwind the entire way. But today my legs feel strong - as if I never had those sniffles throughout the week. When I get to the mouth of the river I turn around and head towards home, but I run into Derrick. He must have been chasing me down the river the entire way! So we ride out to the pier and then I finally head for home. Fifty four miles of riding never felt as easy as today's ride.
On Monday and Tuesday I keep running into roadblocks at work but I just keep trying to debug the models and simulations. It seems like its continuously one step forward and two steps back. At home on Monday I struggle with the same weights as last week. And then on Tuesday I go walking for about an hour before helping Person Ti_Ca with homework and working on web programming.
There are threats of rain on Wednesday through Friday but I just keep getting on the motorbike each morning to go to work and let the rain fall where it may. Thursday and Friday actually has was wet roads on the ride to work but I don't want to drive the car for a number of reasons. At work I keep trying to make steps forward but it still seems like one step forward and two steps back. Finally late on Friday I get a good tensioning simulation results andtake the results home to study and to prepare for Monday. These are results that people didn't think could be done so I want to examine them carefully before going public with them. On these three days, Wedneday through Friday, I get in very heavy sessions with the weights and a day of walking. There is the troublesome right shoulder pain from lifting, but I use some anti-inflammatory before lifting and ice afterwards to reduce the pain.
Saturday starts with a good road bicycle ride with Derrick though by the end I'm tired and almost falling back. On the ride home a neighbor cyclists stops me and shows me the new carbon fiber frame that he is building up and encourages me to get a new bike. And another neighbor stops me and we talk for a while about retirement and family and things. I finally make it home after the ride and mow the lawn. Today is a slow day so Person Ti_Ca and I do homework and just relax.
I have trouble sleeping on Saturday night and into Sunday morning. There are deadlines and websites and a stomach ache that keep me awake. With the hour lost due to the daylight savings time shift, I decide just to ride the mountain bicycle to the pier and back rather than a longer ride that I had planned. After the ride I run an errand or two and than work on web sites. When I get stuck, I stop and clean a part of the house and then return to solve my web programming problem. By the middle of the afternoon most of the house is clean and there is a lot of progress on the recent document indexing web site.
I have a good Monday at work as things actually start coming together on the final details of the models and simulations. Possibly the start of geenrating results is near. I have a great session with heavy weights on Monday after work. As Person Ti_Ca and I are doing homework two bees get into the house and buzz around. I capture both (one at a time) with a glass and cardboard and take them out back and release them. I think nothing of the coincidence of two bees getting into the house at once. I should have thought harder about it.