I have a semi-productive Tuesday at work. My boss has to go home before noon because she is feeling a fever and I tell her about my 6-10 hour fever last week. I hope that is the worst that she has. When I get home I lift weights despite my entire body still being "hungover" from the last three days of cycling and the long volunteer day. So I relax in the evening as Person Ti_Ca goes off to his statistics class.
Wednesday and Thursday are good days at work. I put my head down and keep working away on models and simulations and corrections of other people's documents that are about to be released. On both days I'm working away and almost forget to eat lunch. When I get home on Wednesday I jump on the mountain bicycle and ride down to the pier and back. The return ride is entirely against the wind and gives me a great workout. After a shower I help Person Ti_Ca with his Kant and Utilitarianism understanding for his Thursday midterm. On Thursday when I get home from work I have a good workout with the weights and relax. It's probably time to bump the weights up a bit again and slowly work my way up. It has been a while now since I've had any shoulder pain whatsoever.
Friday is a good day at work and by the end of the day I have this one model and simulation almost completed. Until I have to put the effort down and go to a two hour meeting that consumes the rest of the day. I take my time getting home because it is very hot and because drivers have been driving crazy lately. I get in a good session with the weights, mow the front yard, clean and water the roses, water the impatiens, and then take a shower. After a quick dinned I ride a bicycle over to the First Fridays event and wander around and meet up with Person T_U. Though they have many new bands playing at various spots on the street, I'm quite bored by everything and finally take my leave and go home.
Saturday is supposed to be a blazing hot day, so I get out on the mountain bicycle and down to the old yacht club and head back towards home. I run into Terry and Kin, so I turn around and go back to the lighthouse with them for some extra miles. And then we head north on the Los Angeles river - I'm heading for home and they're heading for where they parked along the trail. I take a quick shower and am stunned by the wild driver changes in store for next season that are announced during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. After the qualifying I drive to Pasadena for a hackaday event. The Hackaday event is the 10th anniversary event where there were builds in the morning, discussion/conference type events in the afternoon, and a party in the evening. I listen to fun and interesting topics of discussions and talk with some very smart people about various hack-type things. I leave near 6 pm before the party starts to get home and relax.
On Sunday I get up to go cycling but there is a thick fog. I hem and haw and try to decide what to do and eventually watch a rain-delayed and then rain-shortened Japanese Grand Prix that ends when an up and coming driver has a bad accident and there are no celebrations on the podium because his condition is very critical. And thw weather conditions in Japan don't help because the medical helicopter cannot fly in the bad weather and the critical condition driver has to be driven to the nearest hospital. I get out and do some grocery shopping and then slap sunscreen on and go cycling on the mountain bicycle. All goes well at the beginning but as I get near the ocean the combination of sweat and sunscreen is burning my eyes. I take off my shades hoping that the wind blowing past will dry the sweat, but it doesn't. So I'm constantly wiping the sweat away from near my eyes and constantly keeping one eye or the other closed to alleviate the burning. Eventually I get home and clean off all of the offending fluids. Throughout the day on Sunday I watch some abseball and football and clean the bathrooms and cook food (vegetables and brown rice in a tomato-based soup) for the upcoming week and try to relax. I'm having bad feelings now about all sorts of different subjects ranging from work to my health to Person Ti_Ca to the future. I don't feel good about any of them right now. What's going on?
I have a super-productive Monday as I fix some inaccuracies in the models and simulation and now the results are exactly as I expected and I can stand behind them and defend them. I also help some co-workers prepare for an upcoming test that will take pace in Pennsylvania (and I decided not to attend directly). When I get home I bring in the empty trash and recycling bins and go to put my motorcycle jacket in the closet (as usual). As I'm shutting the closet door I see something moving on one of the other jackets. I grab Person Ti_Ca and tell him I saw something move in the closet, so he stands ready as I grab the hangers that the coats are hanging on put them down on the driveway. One by one I pick up each coat and swing it around and try to see what is moving around. The lasty jacket sees a giant cockroach fall out and I manage to step on it and kill it. "I killed it. I killed it". And tears start coming to my eyes as I realize that I killed it. I don't know why I feel this way - my emotions have been very weird lately. (I've seen three cockroaches in/near the house in 27 years and the other two were during major construction events. Maybe this one found its way up through the foundation during the recent heatwave?) After the event I lfit weights and get in an extra repetition for every set and lift. After a shower I help Person Ti_Ca with homework and watch the Dodgers lose a playoff game to go down 2 games to 1 in the series.
I have a decent Tuesday until the afternoon when many people start asking me for too many things and I start to get stressed out. I start making some mistakes and I finally say that I'm not thinking clearly and I need to get out of work (even though it is already past my usual quitting time). When I get home I go for a walk and stop by the grocery store for supplies before being a vegetable in front of "The Blacklist" and then I have a conference call with one of the websites.
By Wednesday and Thursday of this workweek I'm running out of steam. I've turned to writing up documents of our work and the words are not coming and the motivation is lagging a bit. After work on both Wednesday and Thursday I lift weights with heavier weights and have good workouts. And I have no joint pain. I help Person Ti_Ca with homework and otherwise just relax.
I get up on Friday near 6:20 am and get out the door for a road bicycle ride well before 7 am. And Person Ti_Ca has beat me out the door to go hiking! I ride over the Whittier Narrows dam and down the San Gabriel river trail. When I get to the 40 mile cutoff I take it. Let's aim for a longer ride on Sunday. When I get home, feeling strong, I mow the lawn and trim the edges near the street, get cleaned up, and head down to the Long Beach Public Library. I grab 4 books to read (3 non-fiction and 1 fiction), stop at the ATM, and stop at the grocery store on the way back home. At home I pay some bills online and call the drecit card company again to straighten out some charges in the transition between the old credit card (that was fraudulently used) and the new credit card. It turns out that I am trying to give them back some money that they over-refunded me. ANd it takes me talking to three different people to get it straightened out.
Saturday starts with a mountain bicycle ride down to the old yacht club and back. During the ride I run into Terry and Kin, so I turn around and ride back with them to the lighthouse. I point out that the Long Beach marathon is on Sunday, so don't ride down in this area. Terry and Kin continue on (to whereI just came from) while I head for home. I clean up and water the roses, which are not doing well this year at all. Probably because I missed a month of caring for them at the beginning of the summer. I watch the inaugural Grand Prix of Russia (held near Sochi where the winter Olympic games were held earlier in the year). I cheer for the Russian driver because its his home Grand Prix and because I'm liking him more and more. I also check out Japaense qualifying for the MotoGP race - this being one of the rare weekends where both F1 and MotoGP are active. I also trim a front bush later in the afternoon. It's a slow day, but I help Person Ti_Ca with his statistics homework and face more homework on Sunday.
I'm out the door before 7 am for a road bicycle ride. I gop the Los Angeles river to get away from the Long Beach marathon. When I cross the Whitter Narrows dam I go further north towards the Santa Fe dam. At an appropriate mileage marker I stop for a quick drink and turn around for home. On the run down the San Gabriel river trail there are no cyclists who pass me or grab onto my wheel. Is everyone else going the opposite direction or am I going at a decent enough pace that nobody can catch me? I get to Del Amo and head for home just under 50 miles of riding. The Russian Grand Prix is a bit boring and the home hero fades to 12th from his 5th place starting position. I also watch the Japanese MotoGP race and Moto3 race sometime throughout the day in between helping Person Ti_Ca with his homework. And I continue poking around places to go live for a few months at a time when I retire.