Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, September 9, 2013 10:00 PM

The Announcement


Tuesday is a slow day at work though I acccomplish some test preparations, some documentation, and some fixing of discrepancies in a model and simulation. When I leave late from work, since I'm making up time prior to Wednesday's orthopedic doctor visit, I get home and do some watering of plants and stuff and just relax. Today is an off day since I'm lazy.

On Wednesday I'm on a mission to clean up the last remnants of "stuff to do" at work before the Labor day holiday. I don't quite clean them all up, but I do make good progress. I leave work early to go see the orthopedic specialty about my shoulder. (Both shoulders hurt from ice hockey about 9 years ago, but the left shoulder fixed itself. The right shoulder has been giving me problems when I lift heavy or do other extraordinary tasks, such as tree trimming.) The doctor has extra xrays taken and we have a discussion and he decides that it is a mild case of arthritis in the shoulder and that I should concentrate on lower weights and higher repetitions. I tell the doctor how much better I feel and sleep when I lift very heavy weights and he understands. I'm not sure that I agree with the doctor's diagnosis of arthritis, but I go along with the "try glucosamine chondroitin and maybe lift lighter" and come back in six weeks. When I get home I lift at the same weights as the previous session and then ice the shoulder down. Later I help Person Ti_Ca with some writing assignment and some biology homework. This gives me a chance to go back and learn some biology starting with the cell and proteins.

I take Thursday off to make it a five day weekend. I start out towards the Whitter Narrows dam on the road bicycle but I can tell from the very start that this is going to be a difficult day. I continue past the Whittier Narrows dam and make it almost to the Santa Fe dam before I decide that I better utrrn around and head for home because the legs aren't lively today. I drag myself down the San Gabriel river trail and just try to keep the pedals turning over since various body parts hurt and my legs are finished. EVentually I get back home after 50 miles of riding and I'm finished. After a shower I lay on the bed for a few minutes and then try to re-hydrate before getting a haircut, dropping off books at the library, and buying the glucosamine. I relax around the house because I'm still finished until the plumber comes. It turns out the supplier has sent the wrong part again but by taking the first delivery and second delivery apart we're able to get what we need. Later Person Ti_Ca intend to watch a downloaded version of "City of Ghosts" but the file is mislabeled and we watch some movie with Mel Gibson in a Mexican prison that is mostly in Spanish. Later I have a teleconference with one of my side ventures and then I collapse into bed.

With all of the alarms silenced, I wake up near 6:30 am and get ready to meet up with Derrick for cycling. Though I am a bit late and bit slow, we meet up close to the usual place, Derrick admits to already struggling 5 miles into the ride due to the heat so we both just ride to our capability down to the pier. There are not many people out on a hot Friday morning, but we get to the pier, take a short break, and the head back. Eventually I peel off my street and continue on home. When I get re-hrydrated I slowly make it through the tasks of edging the lawn, mowing the lawn, and sweeping up the residue. As I finish a shower afterwards the hot water is entirely turned off and the pure cold water helps to cool me down. I have a brunch of brown rice and vegetables and then Person Ti_Ca and I head for the main Long Beach library and the lawyer's office. I keep finding so many books to pick up and end up with five books to read. We stop at the lawyers's office to officially form a revocable trust and it goes smoothly. I still have to fund the tust, but the initial setup of the trust goes well. We both relax in the heat since there is a power alert notice and we cannot use the air conditioning between the hours of 2pm and 6 pm. I make a lot of progress reading two of the books and eventually we can turn the air conditioning back on. Later in the evening Person Ti_Ca goes out with friends that he has not seen for a while and I continue reading books about baseball sports statistics and Tour de France riders who eventuallty dope to get good results. Due to the heat and cycling and busy day, I'm in bed well bedore 9 pm to read and to drop off to sleep - again with no alarm set for Saturday morning.

On Saturday, after a pretty good night of sleep, I do some gardening before heading out on the mountain bicycle for the pier. I can tell that my legs, and entire organism for that matter, is a bit drained. But I stay on top of a good gear and only at the end of the ride do I start tailing off. In the afternoon Person Ti_Ca and I go to a beach festival in Hermosa Beach. Other people have been invited but are busy. It's a boring festival with tribute bands and we happen to be stuck with a Rod Stewart tribute band. I didn't like ROd Stewart's music in the 1970's, why should I like it now? We end up walking around and spending about 90 minutes there before we head for home and have dinner at Souplantation With Dennis. After dinner I continue working through the reading of all of the books that I got from the library.

On Sunday I sleep in late and then go off on my own 40 mile ride. I'm not sure why I didn't try to meet up with Derrick this morning, but maybe I wanted to see how my legs would be or maybe I wanted some solitude to think. Regardless the legs were pretty good and it was a great ride! After a few errands I relax with the MotoGP and Moto2 races from Silverstone, England and continue reading away while laying on the couch (during our first real heatwave of the summer). Last year's summer was brutal with very hot weather from the beginning of August all the way through October. This is the first weekend this year that I've needed to run the air conditioning. In fact, I do so much reading that I finish one of the four books from the library.

Labor Day starts with me physically hungover from the last four days of cycling. So I mill about the house and water the impatiens before going out on the mountain bicycle down to the pier and back. I originally wanted to go long on the road bike, but that doesn't happen. My legs are stronger than expected after four consecutive days of riding in hot weather. When I get home I cut the roses back by one-third to promote a second bloom season in 8 weeks and I scrub the new motorcycle tire. After a shower I relax a bit and then Person Ti_Ca and I do homework.

On Tuesday after Labor day I am at work just after 6 am enthused and ready to go. I'm productive at work and in meetings with co-workers. I even start in on a small task that I've been dreading becasue, even though it has to be done, it is tedious and I didn't want to deal with it. The rumors are floating around about a retirement incentive, or really, a lack of retirement incentive. It appears the offer will be more of the same offer that has been made each of the last three years with the same "This will be the last one" words attached. The ofer is disappointing from my benefit, so maybe that's why I'm producive today. I ride home on the motorbike in the September heat wave and go walking since I'm not feeling up to lifting weights today. Later Person Ti_Ca and I do homework. I'm interrupted by a phone call from Mr Tree in Thailand. He will be going to visit Rohng in Cambodia. I met Rohng and hung out with him and other friends of Tree's for a week a few years ago. Rohng was always laughing and smiling and silly and fun-loving. But Tree has said he has been depresed and crying lately - hence Tree's visit to go see if he can help him out. I do a lot of listening and just offer advice where I can.

Wednesday is a productive as I turn my attention to a completely different task. I put together a Monte Carlo simulation for a nonlinear system and get it working before day's end. I script the runs so that a 1000 analysis Monte Carlo simulation will be done for one test configuration by the time that I get to work on Thursday morning. It should be interesting to try and interpret the results. I lift the same weights as last week after 6 days off of lifting. The shoulder hurts during lifting but doesn't seem to hurt 30 minutes later. Am I making progress? I finally get tothe Moto3 race from Silverstone where my favorite younger rider gets a very close second place.

On Thursday the Northrop Grumman "retirement incentive" announcement comes out. It's a sissy announcement. It is no different than the ones they've had the last three years with the exact same language "this will be the last one". A number of us gather around and are a bit down because we thought it was going to be enough incentive to retire. But then I say, "Everything is negotiable". And nobody quite gets what I mean, so I have to explain that they might be trying to get rid of us older, higher paid workers, so it's time to to make a counter offer and see if they will accept it. What have we got to lose. So I start drawing up a counter-off and I show some people and they are a bit taken aback by my boldness. And I just say, "I'm going to work on it over the weekend and see if it looks good enough to try". When I get home I get out for a good mountain bicycle ride to the pier and back home. Since the wind is out of the northwest today I have to battle a moderate headwind for the last half of the ride. I stay on top of the higher gear and finish up a great workout. Afterwards Person Ti_Ca and I do a bit of homework and then I finish off the second of four books before dropping off to sleep.

I dont have a good Friday at work. I've received a new model and it is not set up well and is cumbersone to strip out the features that I don't need. So I end up working almost the entire day on it and can see the light at the end of the tunnel as the day ends. For lunch we take a summer intern out as he is leaving to start at the University of California at Santa Cruz. And as everyone is talking and giving advice, I just say, "Don't accept it when somebody says you can't do something. Go prove them wrong". When I get home I lift weights and notice the shoulder pain is down more, though still present, and then mow and trim the lawn. Person Ti_Ca is out with a friend so I have a relaxing evening watching movies and looking forward to the Saturday and Sunday rides and F1 race.

Because Saturday is supposed to be fairly hot, I start the road bicycle ride before 7 am. I get to the Whittier Narrows dam and feel strong and head back towards Long Beach and past my exit. By the time that I am finished with this ride it will be about 50 miles and I will feel strong throughout. Just as I am finishing the ride I run into Terry and he rides with me to my exit where he has parked his car. We stop and talk for a while and Terry is acting a bit strange and before I know it he is fainting onto the ground. Another cyclist stops and he has a phone and I ask him to dial the Long Beach Police Department (which I have memorized). But Terry regains consciousness before the guy can dial the phone number and we let Terry sit by the bike trail for a while. A number of cyclists ask "Is everything okay?" and this makes all of us feel good that the cyclists are wanting to help each other out. Eventually Terry stands up and I hold him up and it seems like things will be okay but he faints again. I start rummaging through his pockets for his mobile phone but he regains consciousness and says that he is okay. I make him sit for a long time and then I make him walk his bicycle over to the shade near his car. He wants to keep riding, but I don't let him. I tell him, "When you are stable we're going to go get some ice cold drinks and sit for while". Terry rejects this but he is becoming stable so after quite a while of sitting he does finally seem okay enough to drive home. I insist that he call me when he gets home and he finally does this. Throughout this ordeal I want to calm Terry so I keep repeating, "It is a hot day. Maybe your blood sugar is low. Maybe your blood pressure is low. Maybe there's an electrolyte imbalance. It has been hot so your recent sleep has not been so great". And though he admits this is the first time that this has happened, I tell him that it has been very hot lately and maybe, though very impalatable, he should take a day off of cycling when it is hot.

That was my Saturday morning and I eventually return a couple of books to the library and do some grocery shopping and watch qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza where my favorite driver gets the pole. Because it is hot today I turn on the air conditioning and do a lot of paperwork around the house, reading, and watching a free HBO/CMAX weekend on DirecTV and then later help Person Ti_Ca with homework.

Sunday starts with an early morning bicycle ride as Derrick wants to get finished before it gets too hot. WHen we get down to the Long Beach area and the aquarium there are two events that impede our progress: a mini-traithlon and a separate 5K running event. But we get in a great ride and I feel strong throughout - pulling Derrick all the way back up the Los Angeles river above 20 mph. When I get home and cool off I watch my favorite driver win the Italian Grand Prix from Monza but not without drama as he keeps getting radio messages from the pits about the crippled nature of his car. And then I watch the season opener for the Detroit Lions. The game starts horribly as the Lions botch a field goal attempt and have two touchdowns called back. But they later get on track andwin by ten points. The rest of the day is spent relaxing and watering plants and doing a minor trim on a bush.

Monday is a good day. By the time that I have ridden the motorbike to work and pulling into the parking lot I have realized what is wrong with the model and simulation from last week. (I didn't even think about work all weekend and now, just as I arrive at work, the solution to my problem has popped into my head!) I implement the solution and now the model runs well and I get results to be passed along. I also make progress on two other tasks and then quit for the day. Throughout the day there are a number of people who come up to me and tell me and told me that they have heard about my idea to make a counter-offer to Northrop Grumman's non-retirement offer and they are working on their own. What have I created? Everyone is going to beat me to the punch! When I get home I lift the same weights as last week and except for a few instances, the shoulder does not hurt. We'll see how it holds up throughout the night. I help Person Ti_Ca with some homework and then do some web programming before going off to read and sleep.