I continue the good momentum at work on Tuesday and through to Thursday morning. By late Thursday morning and into Thursday afternoon I am burnt out and ready for a three day weekend. I get in good workouts with the weights on both Tuesday and Thursday. But using the same weight levels, Tuesday's workout is a struggle and Thursday's is quite a bit easier. Why is that? On Tuesday after a one hour phone call and after helping Person Ti_Ca with homework, we get into a discussion which turns into an argument. This goes on until midnight when we both decide we need to sleep.
On Wednesday I ride the motorbike home and take the car over to Cal State University Long Beach to pick up a friend, Person J_V. Person J_V and I drive down to 2nd street in Long Beach and do a lot of walking. We walk into a store and I start talking with Person I_C who works in the store. We're talking about the manufacturing of the clothes that he selss and some other things. And I think nothing of it. Person J_V and I both decide that we are not hungry or thirsty so we get back in the car and drive over to the pier. It's nice to walk out on the Long Beach pier on a cold night with nobody else around. But Person J_V gets cold and has to go back to his school, so I drop him off. Instead of going home I drive back down to 2nd street and park in front of Person I_C's store and walk in. This time he has a lot of customers in the store (it was empty an hour ago) so I just give him my phone number and invite him to a Halloween party on this coming Saturday. And then I drive home for sleep.
After Thursday's workout I do some web programming and help Person Ti_Ca with homework. I seem to be getting a partial silent treatment and so it is good that he and his sister and another friend are leaving for San Francisco for the weekend on Friday morning.
On Friday I'm up early and I manage to heard Person Ti_Ca, his sister, and his other Khmer friend up and drive them to the airport. On the way to the airport they get a text message indicating their flight is cancelled, so they end up getting on a later flight. I rush on home and meet up with Derrick for a long ride. Because of where we've met up this time I end up going all the way back to the Whittier Narrows dam for a ride that is more than 55 miles. I feel pretty good for the entire ride. But afterwards I realize that I may have become dehydrated and I end up laying around the house for the most of Friday. I do run an errand or two and mow the lawn and trim the roses, but there's lots of time spent on the couch reading, flipping through television channels, and later watching old youtube videos. I'm getting down for reading and sleep before 8:30 pm tonight.
I thought that I would be tired and sleep well on Friday night, but I don't. I keep waking up. EVentually at 4:20 in the morning I get up and watch F1 qualifying from India (which was recorded a couple hours earlier). And I also go check the MotoGP qualifying from Motegi, Japan where weather is playing havocwith the weekend and where a co-worker is currently visiting. When the light pokes throgh I put on my winter riding shell (or jacket) and take the mountain bicycle down to the pier and back. I'm a bit tired from Friday's ride, but its good nonetheless. And I also notice some chord showing through on the rear tire and need to buy new tires for this bicycle. After a shower I have two big plates of spaghetti and work on websites and prepare some materials for Person Ti_Ca's homework (for when he returns on Sunday). I end up getting down for an almost two hour nap at 2 pm. Hopefully this evening's activities will allow me to sleep well on Saturday night.
On Saturday night I stop off at a bakery and buy a pie and drive over to Frank and Jeanine's house for their Halloween party. It has been many years since I did anything other than wear an ice hockey jersey or the like for a costume, but this year I grab a list of 500 words and definitions, but them out, and paste them all over a used laboratory coat and along the bottom of a pair of pants (where the laboratory coat dioesn't cover). I guess you could say that I'm going to the Halloween party as a dictionary. I've printed out a mess of word and descriptions and pasted them on a lab coat and a pair of pants. When I get to the party I have to explain my costume (as opposed to Dracula and vampires), but people enjoy the costume and see that I've put in some time coming up with the costume. I stay util about 10 pm and then head home.
When I wake up a bit after 6 am on Sunday the weather looks nice. So I start north on the Los ANgeles river and the farther north that I get the foggier the weather gets and actually starts misting. I'm unprepared for the cold weather but just keep riding north until I meet up with Derrick (pretty much at his entry point). We start back down the Los Angeles river and both of us are tired and we go at a reasonable pace except for some surges and bursts of speed greater than 22 mph. As we get to the pier and turn around we see the tandem-riders from last week and we greet them, but since they are going in the opposite direction this time we continue on our way. I'm glad when my exit comes becomes I can leave and go relax. After a shower I put on warm clothes because I'm afraid the cold, wet weather will contribute to me getting sick. I watch the recorded F1 race from India where my favorite driver wins again despite being on a non-optimal strategy and becomes world champion. I switch to the Lions game and see that they are losing by 6 points with 1 minute to play and consider turing the game off, but I leave it on. The Lions move down the field with three critical plays and with 7 seconds to play they get into the endzone and (assuming they make the extra point), they will win the game. I'm jumping up and down in the living room and yelling so loud that I think the neighbors might call the police on me. But the Lions win! From the ecstacy of the Lions win I check the Internet and see that Lou Reed has died. I start crying uncontrollably and it takes me playing the Velvelt Undergound's (with Lou Reed) "Heroin) many times before I regain my composure. Finally I turn on the recorded MotoGP race from Motegi, Japan where a co-worker has traveled to. I watch the MotoGP race and see a tightening world championship race and I see my favorite Moto2 rider clinch the Moto world championship.
On Tuesday night after a boring day at work I'm yelling and screaming because my favorite Moto3's riders protagonist has been crashed into on the opening lap and I'm starting to count the points that my favorite rider will need. But as he rides in a comfortable third place that would allow him to lead the Moto3 world championship going into the final race, he crashes, remounts, and finishes in 25th place. I am bitterly disappointed but this sets up a three way literally "winner take all" Moto3 race in two weeks time.
I continue a life of boredom at work on Wednesday as I work away on repeat effort things and deal with constant changes to designs and work flow. When I get home I get in a good session with the weights and very gradually I am getting to the point of no shoulder pain or discofort at all. (I have not stopped taking the glucosamine chondroitin as an experiment to see if the pain returns when I stop taking it.) After a shower my nose starts to bleed profusely and I'm shoving kleenex up my nose and running around the house to get clenaer because blood has dripped on the marble and that would make huge stains. But I think I'm able to hold tissue in my nose and aplly pressure with one hand and spray cleaner and clean the marble countertop in the bathroom and marble floor without too much difficulty. My nose stops bleeding eventually (as I drive to meet up with a friend) and I have a strawberry smoothie with Person J_V and then head for home.
On Halloween there are some people dressed up at work and our little group has a little party, and afterwards I stay in my office and work away at borning things. I'm stuck in a big rut right now and can't get out.
I take my body temperature orally on Friday morning and I don't even look at the temperature - I know the thermometer will record the temperature for later use. I feel tired throughout the day, get in a decent workout after work with the weights, and mow the lawn. It is only later in the evening when I check the temperature recording and realize that I've had a 0.5 degree fever throughout the day. That explains my lethargy. I take an actifed early and am dropping off for sleep by 8 pm or so. A few days ago I wrote my PhD advisor from UCLA a letter letting him know what's going on in my life. I do this from time to time and also to see how he and his wife are doing. On Friday afternoon I've recevied a very rapid reply from him and I'm afraid to read the letterso I vow to wait until Saturday or Sunday to read it.
On Saturday I plan to ride extra long and I feel good when I start the the ride north on the LoS Angeles river and meet up with Derrick. I'm a bit late because a neighbor caught me before 7 am and wanted to talk about my new bicycle. But I have to leave. Derrick and I have a great ride and he's surprised when I don't turn off at my exit (which would be about a 54 mile ride). Instead I continue to pull Derrick north and eventually I turn around and head for home. Its a 105 kilometer (65 mile) ride. When I get home I wash the bicycle down and trim the roses and note that I have to look at the front end stearing head that is making noise. I watch qualifying from Abu Dhabi for F1 and my favorite driver gets second to his teammate. After a giant plate of pasta I have somewhat recovered from the ride and change both the front and rear tires of the mountain nicycle because both of them are getting old and I want to avoid flat tires in the future. When I've finished I realzie that I mounted the two new tired with e wrong rotation direction. I know this won't effect anything serious for a ride or two so I don't worry about it.
On Sunday I wake up at my usual time of 5:30 am, but that is now 4:30 am because of the change from daylight savings time. I cannot sleep anymore so I get up and watch the F1 race from Abu Dhabi where my favorite driver storms to a massive victory and is in pursuit of the record of the most consecutive Grand Prix wins by a driver. I get out riding on the mountain bicycle (with the reverse-mounted tires) and enjoy the ride past the pier and back home. On the ride I run into my neighbor who congratulates me on the new road bicycle and offers helps in selling the old, classic Ciocc. And I also run into Terry just as he is parking on Del Amo to start his ride. As I've finished the ride the day is still cool so I put on warm clothes to try and make sure the slight fever doesn't come back after all of the riding. And later I put on light clothes as the sun comes out and the day warms up. When I get home I do some cleaning of the bathrooms and just relax since I'm a bit tired from the minor fever on Friday and the long bicycle ride on Saturday. Later in the day I reverse both the front and rear tires on the mountain bicycle and just keep shaking my head at my silly mess-up.
On Monday at work I volunteer to fix up a Monte Carlo simulation to give us the right data in the right orientations. It seems like a streaigh-forward thing to do, yet over the enxt few days I keep chasing my tail on thsi effort. Right when I am about to declare victory, I find something still wrong with the results. Fortunately we don't need the results for a while. I also work on other things, but the chasing of my own tail gets me down over the next few days.