Tuesday and Wednesday are slow days at work and at home. I have to admit I barely put in a minimal effort at work as I'm waiting for a number of models and information from other people. I try to work on utilities that will make my future work go faster, but the angst isn't there. On both days I just go walking during and after work. I want to give myself an extra day between lifting sessions for the shoulder. And on Wednesday I even leave work early and miss the first rain of the year on the motorbike. I get a few drops, but I miss some light/moderate rain later when I would normally be coming home. Instead I try to work on a few things for work from home before doing other, fun things.
Thursday is similar at work as I've really already started my three day weekend. I provide some good help for people who have technical problems, but my own work is unmotivated and largely absent. I get on home and have a good workout with the weights and ice the shoulder afterwards. It seems the shoulder has stabilized at a level where I can do many things put still lets me know it is there at times. So it's time to have a bit of think about it.
Friday starts early as I ride up and meet Derrick near the Whittier Narrows dam. We ride over the dam and head south on the San Gabriel river trail. Both Derrick and I point out the improvements they've made to the trail near the southern half and admit the northern part of the trail needs more work. As we leave the trail and are riding on surface streets to get over to the beach trail and to the Los Angeles river trail, Derrick has a complete tube and tire blowout on his front tire. I know there is a bicycle store nearby so we limp over to it and wait 25 minutes for it to open. Between Derrick and I we have enough money to get a new tire and the tube replaced and we continue on our ride. This ride totals 55 miles for both of us. Afterwards I run a few errands and then relax during the early afternoon. At mid afternoon I get out and edge and mow the lawn.
Saturday starts with qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. After qualifying I get out for a strong ride on the mountain bicycle to the pier and back where I push the pace more than I should. After a quick shower and snack, Person Ti_Ca and I drive down to Irvine and go hiking in Bommer Canyon and Turtle Ridge. There's a fair amount of climbing and I'm tired from the rides, but it is good to get out of the city and hike in the fields and canyons. On the way back home we stop for dinner, relax a bit, and do some homework.
Sunday starts with a road bicyle ride with Derrick. My legs are tired but we still chase down people ahead and catch them. The overall ride is cut short by the Long Beach Marathon which takes over some of our route, so we only get in 40 to 45 miles today. I relax at home with the Japanese Grand Prix where my favorite driver wins with an alternate strategy and I catch the MotoGP and Moto2 races from Malaysia (which I attended in person a few years ago). Since my legs are so tired I relax a lot this afternoon and catch up on some football also.
I'm productive on some things on Monday morning and take a tour with my co-workers in the afternoon to the build facility. Besides the tour guide pointing thigns out, I point out some critical aspects of the hardware and how things work. It is informative for me and ym co-workers to take this tour and "get closer" to our build as opposed to just looking at CAD models, drawings, and other models. When I ride home I get down on my hands and knees to wash the kitchen floor, let it dry, and then wipe it down again with an antibacterial to make sure it is extra clean (as is my usual practice). I even find a small piece of glass from a glass that I dropped and broke a few weeks ago and later remind Person Ti_Ca about walking in the kitchen with bare feet after I've broken a glass. Later I do some programming and relaxing. Each of these last three nights I've been working on my Halloween costume and I just keep plugging away at it.
I don't know if Thuesday and Wednesday are my "off days" that I typically have two or three times per year. Typically I have I have "off days" in February, July, and November, but I did not have "off days' in February or July of this year. On both Tuesday adn Wednesday I have mediocre days at work and and a reasonable workout on Tuesday and just some walking on Wednesday. I have no fever, but feel tired. I can exlain that February and July did not happen this year because I had previously been in Cambodia and Tahiland, but I don't know about this time period. I enjoy the warm, sunny days and the chilly days, but I feel tired. Nonetheless I vow to have better days on Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday's motorbike ride to work a small flatbed truck makes a lane change right in front of me and though it isn't quite a panic stop, I miss hitting the truck by an inch or so. I just casually go around the truck and there is no point to giving the truck driver the "evil eye" or the "death stare". On Thursday I am productive at work with my own work and problems that other people have. I set about listing all of the effort that we need to get done in the next year and get a concise database set up so that we can see the progress that we are making. I also help some co-workers with problems that they cannot solve. When I get home on Thursday I have a good session with the weights with slightly lower weights and higher repetitions. This is just to cycle back on the stress of the shoulder and its working because I feeel no pain in the shoulder during or after the workout. Maybe I just need to stay at this level of weights for some time. I do some grocery shopping and then watch the football game and continue to work on my Halloween costume.
On Friday at work I get some data that I need and find that our metrics are built in metric units as NASA wants and the data provided is in English (in-lbs) units. How can this be after the program has been going for 10 years? I do my best use the data that I have and make some porgress. After work I lift with the weights slightly lighter weights to avoid shoudler porblems and help Person Ti_Ca with homework. Later I have a stunning work revelation that will help me on Monday morning do my job. I can't wait to see when people build structures that are supposed to be 11 meters long and they end up 11 inches long. I'm going to be laughing my head off!
On Saturday I feel lazy, so instead of getting out for a planned long ride I take the mountain bicycle past the peir to the end of the bicycle trail and turn around and come home. My legs feel strong today and I am disappointed that I did not ride long on the road bicycle. I run a few errrands and, just in case I am a bit under the weather or being lazy, I just trim the roses and rake some leaves and clean Person Ti_Ca's car's windows and relax for the day. Person Ti_Ca and I work on some homework, but its a slow day.
On SUnday I ride north on the Los Angeles river and catch up to anothe rider. I don't recognzie him, but it turns out we have ridden together in the past and I pull him along until I run into Derrick. I turn around and Derrick and I start picking riders off and catch up to someone going at a fairly quick pace. We look over at the rider and note, "That man and woman on the tandem up ahead are really fast". This throws down the gauntlet so soon Derrick and I are pulling the other rider along at speeds approaching 25 mph until we ctach the tandem riders. As we ride with the tandem riders for a bit and exchange pulls at the front, the tandem riders blow a tire. The rest of us have road bicycle tires of a different size so we point the tandem riders to the Long Beach BikeStation where they can get their tubes and tires fixed. Derrick and I end up near 50 miles for the a good ride. After a shower and some errands I settle in withthe Australian MotoGP race which ahs to be run in towo segments because the tires won't last the entire race. I lambaste the Australian MotoGP organizers on Faecbok suggesting that they need to be banned for life and this generates some interesting discussion. But the race is a farce! A complete and utter farce! ot to take away from the participants at all who fought hard, but from the Aussie organizers. For the rest of SUnday I rela and help Person Ti_Ca with some homework.
Monday is just a super day! I get to work and make a lot of progress on an idea that I had over the weekend. The idea seems to be working and giving good results from my analysis. At 2:30 in the afternoon I leave work and visit my dentist. Except for the left, inside rear which I always have problems with, she says that I am doing well at keeping my teeth clean and healthy. When I get home I see my favorite riders win their respective Moto2 and Moto3 races after race-long battles. And then, to top everything off, it appears that I have an offer on my 1985 Ciocc road bicycle for $1300 - more than the $1100 that I paid for it back in 1985. Life is very good today!