It takes a while to get back into the swing of work on Tuesday, but both Tuesday and Wednesday are good days. As I'm talking with a co-worker in my office on Wednesday I look behind my office door that wants to keep closing and I see a deflated space alien doll. This space alien doll was in my office almost 10 years ago in another building and has been passed around many people. I think one of the last guys to have it and who retired snuck it into my office. Regardless I have no idea how long it has been there. But its in good condition so I blow it up and go around the bay, stop at the door of people's offices, throw the alien doll at people at their desks, and yell "alien". I completely scare the pants off three people before others have caught on and everyone vows to get back at me. After work on Tuesday and Wednesday I still feel hungover physically so I go for long walks and work the abdominals and lower back. And I relax on Wednesday night and feel sad when the Kings lose in double overtime to force a game 6.
It's a good Friday. I make it through some meetings and make progress on my work until it is time to go home. I mow the lawn and then go walking for a bit. Today I watch the Los Angeles Kings lose another playoff game and there will be a game 7 on Sunday. Late at night, when I would normally be going to sleep, I pull the car out of the garage and ride with Person Ti_Ca to pick up two of his friends and one of mine to go clubbing.
I sleep until 6:45 am and get up to review MotoGP qualifying from Mugello, Italy. When I'm more or less coherent I got on the mountain bicycle and ride to the end of the ocean trail and then add some more miles on at the end. I've had to dodge a lot of mini-triathlon traffic and a pet-walk fundraiser, but I come out unscathed. After a shower and some errands, I pull Person Ti_Ca's car halfway intothe garage in the shade and start chanign the brake pads. The brakes have been making noise but I'm not sure changing the brake pads will solve this type of nosie problem, but its the cheapest first try. Person Ti_Ca comes out to help and we've finished with the right side and doing the left side and we realize we've left out two small clips on the right side. When we finish the left side Person Ti_Ca asks if we need to go back to the right side. If it was just my car, I would ignore it. I'm sure those clips don't do diddly. But because it is Person Ti_Ca's car, I say, "We probably should" and we go back and re-do the right side. It is the right thing to do - "Do it right". And I hope it is a lesson that Person Ti_Ca learns for the future - "Do it right". I grab another shower and then relax.
Monday is an okay day at work. After work I come home and watch the Moto2 race. I'm less enthused this year about Moto2 than usual because I don't have a favorite to cheer for. After a break Person Ti_Ca go over to the tennis courts in the park across the street and we try to bang tennis balls around. I'm swinging a racquet that is 30 years old and I haven't touched it in about 20 years. It seems so foreign to me. Person Ti_Ca actually doesn't do bad for his first time.
Wednesday and Thursday are not good days. I've fallen into a funk after Monday's tennis session. I realize (again, as I've known this in the past) that when I was playing chess and ice hockey I have a killer instinct but when I played golf and tennis I did not have the killer instinct. Why does this come up? Because Person Ti_Ca and I are hitting the ball back and forth and I see the smile on Person Ti_Ca's face during good hits and very wild hits where the ball goes over the fence. But I also see a look of panic on Person Ti_Ca's face when I hit a ball a bit too hard and he's going to get close to getting the ball but not quite. That look of panic on someone's face is what took away the killer instinct in me. If I saw that look in someone's face, then my killer instinct just melted. And over the next few days I keep seeing the look of panic in Person Ti_Ca's face and it doesn't matter because we were just hitting the ball around for fun but I don't ever want to see that look in his face again. Needless to say these thoughts keep surfacing during work on Wednesday and Thursday and I have to fight back tears. It feels good to lift weights again on Thursday and I vow to have sessions with lighter weights and more repetitions for a long time now to avoid joint pain. But after I lift my thoughts wander back to "the look of panic" and I have trouble functioning and sleeping.
I get out for a two hour ride on the mountain bicycle in the morning. The Wrigley district fun run has the river trail blocked off going south, so I go north up the real Los Angeles river until it ends. Near the end of the ride there are two road cyclists who pass me but aren't pulling away, so I stick with them for the last couple of miles. I watch qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix and do little things around the house until the Kings playoff game comes on. This game goes to two overtimes with the Kings playing catch-up the entire way until the Kings win.
Workis slow going because I am unmotivated and because there are a fair number of people absent today. When I get home I lift weights and watch the Kings playoff game. I'm supposed to take Person Ti_Ca to the airport later in the evening but that changes and I'm off the hook. So I sit down and try to get re-started on some web programming.