I sleep well on Tuesday night and into Wednesday (New Year's day) because I'm a bit sick with the sniffles and I've put in ear plugs to not hear the gunshot and fireworks celebrations of new years eve. I get on the mountain bicycle and ride to the end of the ocean trail and turn back for home. When I'm getting close to home my neighbor Russ yells at me so I turn and ride with his small group back to the tree at the end of the Los Angeles river. One of the riders has my 1984 Ciocc bicycle in gray and white in almost perfect condition! I talk with him and tell him that mine is rusted badly but I'm still trying to get rid of it. The group is heading down to Newport Beach but since I'm sick and on the mountain bicycle, I turn around at the tree and head for home. Today is a quiet day as I just watch some football and relax and fix some gutters. Later in the afternoon when Person Ti_Ca goes to work I get into the garage to workout with the weights. I've taken two full weeks off and now it is time to start back up with light weights and high repetitions. It feels good to lift again! And later in the evening I get a call from a co-worker and he needs some help reducing, parsin, and examining data so I agree to work some magic for him.
Thursday and Friday are similar days: Two hours of bicycle riding in the morning, some errands, some small maintenance or tidying around the house, some relaxing, and some reading. I do get out and return a book to the library and get three more to read. On Thursday I get a call from work and spend a couple hours on the phone and processing data for a co-worker and trying to determine our course of action for a failed component. And on Friday there is a First Fridays event, so I walk over to Atlantic avenue and check out the galleries and street performers. During my walk I see my 8th district city councilman so I go over to say hello and he remembers me and asks if I retired or not. I say that I will retire in December, but he has to start lining up some volunteer opportunites for me. He hands me a flyer for a tree planting event to be held at the park near my house on Martin Luther King day. I don't get this day off from work, but I take a flyer and save it for an opportunity and to drag Person Ti_Ca along. There isn't a big crowd for today's event, so I walk over to Person Ti_Ca's workplace and we hang out for a bit when he is on break. And then I walk home.
On Saturday I am tired from everything but I get out on the road bicycle and crank out 40 miles before calling it quits. I have ridden 15 of the last 16 days and I am (almost) looking forward to going back to work so that I can get some rest. After the ride and a shower I clean up and wax the mountain bicycle and adjust the brakes and gears for its next ride. And then I veg out with football playoff games.
On Sunday I start north on the Los Angeles river to meet up with Derrick. When I get to Grant Rea park he's waiting there for me to say that he can't ride because he's sore and stiff from a long hike on the previous day (and I've already missed his text this morning). We have a little conversation and then I turn and head for home - I'm tired too and I just get in about 40 miles and call it good. After a shower and a couple of errands I wash and clean up the road bicycle for future rides and then veg out with more football playoff games. On Sunday evening I just try to prepare myself to go back to work.
I hit the ground running on Monday and have a fairly productive day. There are many conversations with people about their holidays, but I use my other time efficiently to make progress. By the end of the day it has been a satisfying effort. When I get home I workout with the weights using light weights and high repetitions to get back into the routine.