Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, August 18, 2014 8:02 PM

Birthday and Beyond


On Tuesday I keep plugging away because I know there is something "not quite right" with the results that I am getting. Towards the end of the day I start replacing models and modules one-by-one and finally have results that feel better. I don't know the exact inaccuracy or error in one of the replaced models or modules, but they are obsolete and everything is good now. When I get home I put the old, refurbed pedals on the mountain bicycle and go for a hard ride to the aquarium and back. I keep the ride shorter today because I go out hard and then face a strong headwind the entire way back. But I hear none of the noises or clicking so these old pedals should be good again for a while.

I make good progress on Wednesday at work as I confirm Monday and Tuesday's debugging and then extend the fixes to a higher level of simulation. When I get home from work I lift weights (still keeping with light weights and high repetitions), clean the roses a bit, and paint two windowsills. I'm making good progress on painting the exterior windowsills and hopefully will be done by the end of the month.

I have a good day at work on Thursday as the office is quiet with people on vacation and I've found the little problems that kept bothering me. I finally start a long Monte Carlo analysis run and work on documenting the rest of the results that I have so far. When I get home I scrape and prime two windows as I've decided a priori to take today off from working out for rest before the weekend's activities. At night I work on websites and make a good start on getting encryption implemented for one of the sites.

Friday is a slow day. I babysit some simulations and work on documentation and then go home. The motorcycle is acting up when I try and start it - exhibiting the same symptoms from a few years ago. When I get home I lift weights and then go to mowthe lawn. Except now the lawnmower won't start. I pull and pull on the rope starter, I spray gasoline and other flammables into the carburetor, I take some of it apart, and I change the spark plug. Just as I'm about to give up for the day it starts and I'm able to mow the lawn. After a shower and dinner I go try to work on the encryption algorithm that was giving me headaches on Thursday night. Within an hour or so I think I have it figured out and I have limited encryption running on the website. I send email to the partners and tell them to give me some feedback before I proceed.

My birthday starts with a long road bicycle ride above 60 miles. It had to be above 57 miles (i.e., one mile on the bicycle for each year old). On this ride I have a pre-planned gel stop at Liberty park since I typically just keep riding and don't stop enough for re-hydration or gel. But on today's ride I've collected some riders down the San Gabriel trail that I'm pulling along, so it's hard to just pull over and re-fuel. And by the time the collection of riders has broken up, well, it's only 12 miles to home so not worthhaving the gel. Regardless I feel strong today and enjoy another birthday ride. Person Ti_Ca and I have a birthday lunch and he tells me that his Khmer friends want to take me to a birthday dinner next weekend. Person Ti_Ca and I also run some errands and then relax around the house. When the afternoon has cooled I trim the roses and trim a bush in the front yard. After the long birthday bicycle ride, it's been a quiet day.

On Sunday I get Person Ti_Ca out of the house as he is going hiking with friends for a week. I take the mountain bicycle out for a ride to the old yacht club (plus a little bit more) but my legs and entire organism are pretty tired from Saturday's ride. After a couple of errands I stay close to home with motorcycle races on television and other relaxing pursuits.

A couple of good productive days at work. Monday going over results with a fine tooth comb to make sure that the results are unquestionable and defendable. And Tuesday leading a review and keeping the review headed in the right direction while taking everyone's significant concerns. After work on Monday I increase the weights and have a good workout. Why did the increased weights not hurt more than the lighter weights? And then I paint two windowsills and relax with a Moto2 race. On Tuesday after work I drive the World Rally Car tothe dealer for a very expensive maintenance that involves changing the timing belt and many auxiliary units (because they are 10 years old even though they only have 41,000 miles on them). And I walk ahome for 45 minutes and stop in at the grocery store for supplies.

Even though it was weeks ago, I still keep getting people amazed at me for traveling to Pakistan. I always use the line, "But I was safe because I was no closer than 45 kilometers to Afghanistan at any time".

Wednesday and Thursday are also productive days at work as I work on my regular work and answer a lot of questions from people who want to rely on my experience. I've warned my boss that retirement is inevitable in a short timeframe and that I will not be available to answer all of these questions that come up. But I don't hink my functional boss believes me and feels that I will always be around to help the younger people. My project boss, on the other hand, is believing my retirement threats and keeps pleading with me to stay through the end of clendar year 2015. (But the way the current schedule is slipping, that will not even be enough time.) Also on Wednesday I get an email from epople who praise my leading of the review on Tuesday and wonder how I am able to control the "unctronollable" NASA reviewers and keep the meeting on track. I get in a good workout on Wendesday night and then ride over to a coffeehouse to read. There is nothing going on, so after reading for an hour I head back home. And on Thursday after work I take the day off from working out to work in the yard and save energy for a (hopefully) long bicycle ride on Fridya morning. On Thursday night I receive a phone call from a long lost cousing Joanne who's son or grnadon is going to travel to the Czech and Slovak republic and wants to talk with me or meet me (since he lives within a half hour of me) about my experience from a few years ago. There is a city council budget meeting that I should attend, but my heart isn't in it and I blow it off to relax at home with some more down time.

On Friday I intend to ride long, but I'm not up to it. Instead I ride for two hours on the mountain bicycle and then edge, trim, and mow the lawn. After getting cleaned up I have lunch and open up the new shredder that came. It goes together easily and soom I've shredded the backlog of papers that needed to be shredded. In the early afternoon I lay down and end up falling asleep for about an hour nap. As I'm waking up the car dealer calls and says that the World Rally Car is ready. I get on the extra bicycle and ride over to the dealer. I have joking around with the service manager and the technicians about the car and the work and the price. I see the parts that were replaced and none of them look bad, but certainly 11 years on the belt is stretching it. After I finally get out of the car dealer's place (because I have to talk to everybody about the car when they see it and want to talk about it) I go to one library and get two books. The librarian says that the book that I've back-ordered is finally available at the library branch near my home. So on the way home I slightly detour to get that book. When I get home I do the laundry and start in on reading "Flash Boys" about high frequency trading on Wall street and get almost halfway through the book by the time that the lights go out on Friday night.

I wanted to ride long on Saturday also, but I don't. Instead I work on the roses and then ride the mountain bicycle for two hours. During the ride I run into Terry and Kin and I ride with them and take a break with them before they continue on and I head for home. I tell Terry and Kin that there is always one weekend in August when the riding does not come easy for me. Maybe this is the weekend. After getting cleaned up I go run some errands and then try to have a quiet, relaxing day as it is hot outside. After doing more reading in the afternoon I get into a cleaning mood so soon I've dusted the hardwood floors, cleaned the kitchen floor, and cleaned/wiped down the two bathroom floors.

I wake up on Sunday tired and get out on the road bicycle. I get over the Whittier Narrows dam and start heading south to face a haedwaind the entire way. I'm feeling pretty good after the first 5 or 10 miles, so I don't take the cut off that would return me to home for a 40 mile ride. And I continue to fight the headwind all of the way to the ocean. I ride along the ocean and back towards home for about 57 miles with me just crawling along for the last few miles. I'm just entirely worn out. After getting cleaned up and trying to re-hydrate I watch an exciting MotoGP race from the Czech Republic and later in the day I also watch the Moto3 race. In the Moto3 race my favorite rider crosses the finish line first with one lap to go and starts celebrating - he thinks the race is over. But when everybody passes him at full song he realizes his mistake and ends up 8th.

I surprisingly have a productive day at work on Monday considering how physically hungover I am from the cycling. When I get home I skip the workout because I stayed late at work, pack up a book to be shipped off on eBay, and then get a great start on a domestic violence website and new process. I have details to fix, but I make a lot of progress during the evening before getting down for reading and sleep.