I mkae good progress at work on Tuesday and Wednesday with an overall system model and a detailed Monte Carlo analysis of material creep over long term. Both of these analyses will help the project to overcome some alignment difficulties. And I get in a long walk on Tuesday and a great mountain bicycle ride to the pier and back home on Wednesday where the wind is against me the entire the way home (for a great workout). After a shower I meet Oliver at a coffeehouse and we just talk about our lives and I give him a Thai shirt with Thai characters on it.
Thursday at work is a blah day. But later in the day I have a meeting a co-worker, who has been troublesome in the past, asks me when I'm in a meeting, "What are you doing here?" and later, as the meeting ends, "I bet the meeting was entertaining for you". With the tone in her voice I can tell they were meant to be derogatory and snide remarks. I let my project boss know the remarks and the tone of the remarks and then I pack up and head for home - I really need a three day weekend. As I'm riding home the remarks from my co-worker bother me and then I have a revelation: Fill The World With Love! I'm now determined to take anything that she gives out, however nasty and snide, and turn it around with a smaile, with understanding, and with technical excellence. When I get home I wash the motorcycle, workout with the weights, water the backyard, clean and feed the roses, and finally walk to the grocery store for supplies. When I return home I take a quick shower, update some finances, and work on retirement planning for the short term.
Friday starts with a long ride with Derrick. We both feel strong today and have good pace throughout the ride. WHen I finish the ride I get in a quick shower and run a number of errands that includes picking up books from the library (inluding marathon runner Bill Rodgers' autobiography). I collapse when I get home and have an hour nap followed by 15 minutes of trying to regain consciousness. When the day has cooled off a bit I was the Yamaha YZF-R1 and help Person Ti_Ca with homework before reading and heading for sleep.
Saturday starts with another long ride with Derrick. We fight some wind going south and then enjoy the wind going back north on the Los Angeles river. When I get home I change into yard clothes and edge, mow, and fertilize the lawn. Now I'm tired! I take a quick shower and grab some lunch for later at Subway. Person Ti_Ca and I do homework until I enjoy lunch watching the last mountain stage of the Tour de France. After relaxing a bit I get out and wax the rims on the Yamaha YZF-R1 and declare it ready for riding again.
On Sunday I drag myself out of bed and get on the road bicycle again and ride to the Whitter dam and back. During the ride I try to invite a few other riders along with me to (to trade off pulls and for conversation) but it doesn't work as they are riding their own pace or waiting for their own riding partners. I finish the ride up and call it quits near 40 miles. That's about 150 miles over three days and now I'm tired. When I get home I water and feed the roses and trim some low lying tree bushes in the backyard and that it is for the day (even though it is only 10 am). For the remainder of the day I relax, read, watch the MotoGP race from Laguna Seca, install a new door lock, and just be a vegetable.
I don't have a tremendously productive day at work on Monday since I'm hung over from all of the weekend cycling. But I do finish off two documents and get started organizing a third and fourth. When I get home I have a great, high repetition workout with the weights and install a new front door lock (since the old one had become sticky). I'm sticking with the high repetition workouts right now because I can get a decent workout in and my shoulder doesn't hurt. I'm hoping the time away from lifting heavy and the light lifting will be good rehabilitation for the shoulder and, at some point in the future, I'll be able to lift heavy again.
Tuesday through Friday are mixed days of productivity at work. I keep plugging away on specific models, simulations, and tasks and I also contribute to some "heated topics" that are floating around right now. But I am tired and find myself taking small naps throughout each workday. After work I get in a high repetition workout with the weights on Wednesday and a very good bicycle ride on Thursday where I continually push the pace and catch riders on road bicycles that I should not catch. And on the entire last leg of the ride with a strong headwind, I push one bigger gear quite well. By the time that I am finished and had a shower Person Ti_Ca comes home and thinks that I am drunk (because I'm staggering around the house from the severe workout). But we take a quick trip to Macys to buy stainless steel cookware and I have trouble getting out of his car because my legs are already sore and tired.
Friday is an interesting day at work. One of my co-workers brings her two kids to work in the afternoon. When I see them running around or working on coloring books, I pull out my box of accumulated toys for them to play with. There are wooden blocks, robots, books, figures/figurines, and other devices. Soon they are building castles out of the blocks and having the robot walk against the castles and destroy them. It's fun to hear the kids playing and laughing as I work away in my office. At the end of the day the kids (and Mom) thank me and I say, "I hope that you come back and visit again soon". After work I get in a high repetition workout with the weights with slightly increased weights and then mow the lawn. Besides a bit of homework with Person Ti_Ca, it's a slow evening.
Saturday starts with qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix before Person Ti_Ca, his friend Dennis, and I go hiking out at Topanaga State park. We only hike for about 2-3 hours, but its good to get out of the city and be among nature. On the way home we stop for lunch and then proceed back home. Later Person Ti_Ca and I do homework and I just relax around the house - putting up with the new neighbor's party. As I head for sleep I put in ear plugs and hope that the party does not go too late - giving the neighbors a one and only "get out of jail" card by not calling the police on them.
Sunday starts with a big bicycle ride where I push the pace up the Los Angeles river until I meet up with Derrick and then I drag him all of the way back down the Los Angeles river at 23 mph speeds. From my slipstream he keeps saying to me, "I can't take my turn pulling" and "Have you been using the white bags?" (Referring to Tyler Hamilton's book about doping in cycling where the EPO and steroids were handed out to favored riders in white, non-descript bags.) I just tell him that I need to push so that I can do justice to a new bicycle when I get one. I'm tired afterwards, but I run an errand or two and then watch the close, exciting Hungarian Grand Prix where my favorite driver brings a stricken car home third and still slightly increases his lead in the world drivers champaionship table. During the afternoon I relax, feed and water the roses, and do some interesting bits of web programming.
On Monday morning I start at my regular worksite but then ride the motorbike a few miles away to run some tests. I wait around the test facility for a while until the hardware shows up. And then we get into a good rhythm and we manage to complete the planned day of testing without staying late. When I get home I have another good high repetition workout. Even after the long layoff and the lighter weights (but higher repetitions), I feel the size and strength slowly coming back without the shoulder pain.