On Monday through Wednesday I re-do some analysis and simulation that was done about a year ago by somebody else. The results of those simulations are driving performance down and costs up. As I'm generating data I'm getting lower numbers, which mean that performance will be better and costs down. I share the data and methodology with some co-workers and we continue to poke and prod the data to see the differences. We see some things that were done wrong previously and are hopeful that these results will help us out. But I continue to call for a detailed peer review of my results because we don't want to be basing decisions on wrong information again. I keep plugging away with the data and cross-checks and sanity checks and can find nothing wrong with the results.
On Monday after work I lift weights heavy and think that I should not go heavier than this because my elbow is sore. Actually I put ice on my right shoulder for the first time in a long time as a pre-emptive because there is no pain but I have lifted heavy. I get a day off from lifting on Tuesday as I just go out walking after work. On Wednesday I keep the same heavy weights but add a repetition per set. And I feel no pain anywhere. What's going on here?
On Thursday and Friday I put my head down and make some great progress. As I get home on Thursday, I realize a way to make the scripts running faster. Thus I am excited to get to work and try it out. Sure enough - I'm able to do the last week's worth of work in less than one day. Everyone is surprised that I "pulled a rabbit out of the hat" and found a way to make things go so fast. After a good day at work on Frdiay, including an all-hands talk by one of the bosses to a few hundred people during which he speaks for one hour and doesn't say a thing, I get in a heavy session with the weights. Possibly my elbow hurts, so I put some ice on it. I wonder what kind of workouts to do next week before I (probably) rake a week off at Thanksgiving from lifting.
On Friday night Person Ti_Ca has gone to meet up with his group for their presentation next Thursday. I know that we will be spending a fair amount of time this weekend on homework and his presentation and that's okay because, other than cycling, I have nothing scheduled. As I'm relaxing and laundry is being done I start watching Thai and Burmese pop videos and start wanting to be in another country where I barely/don't understand the language, but I'm slowly picking it up as people explains things to me slowly. I miss being somehwere that I don't understand the language. I'm invited to a high school football playoff game by Person T_U, who went to one of the highs schools playing many years ago, but I decline.
On Saturday morning I ride the mountain bicycle for a standard two hour ride to the old yacht club and with some extra distance thrown in. I see a few of the usual faces that one sees riding, but I don't run into any riding partners. And that's how I want it because I want to be elft alone. I get some thinking done and actually think of a couple of good Christmas gifts for people that I know. After a shower I'm quickly out the door to the library to return a book and get another one, miscellaneous shopping, picking up lunch for a bit later, and some grocery shopping. (I should note that I am buy and not a shopper. I go buy things when I need them, but I'm in and out of the store in minimal time. I don't go shopping for sport or recreation as so many other people do.) By noon I'm relaxing and listening to some good electronic dance music (EDM) and getting pumped up to do some cleaning around the house. Is there something wrong with me that I actually (somewhat) want to clean?
SUnday starts with a ride to the Whittier Narrows dam where the wind seems against me all of the way. When I cross over the dam I pick up a rider who follows me for 15 miles and, at one point, comes up alongside and says that it seems the wind has shifted and we have a headwind bacck south. Well, I certainly feel it because I'm doing the pulling. Towards the end of the run down the San Gabriel trail a very nasty, gusty side wind picks up (as predicted by the weather service) but I just keep plowing on. The side wind helps me across the ocean trail and then I have to fight a nasty headwind for 7 or 8 miles home. Near the end of the ride I see the old lady riding that I regularly see riding. SHe must be at least 65 years old and isn't fast, but she rides all of the time. Today she is off her bicycle and sweeping glass/debirs off the bike trail with a palm leaf. I yell "Thank you" to her as I ride past and later I realize that she may have had a flat tire and was trying to prevent other riders from getting flats. But she is only one mile from where I see her enter the trail, so if she has to walk back home it won't be too far. By the end of the ride the wind has beaten me up quite bad. I run an errand and then sit down with some football games. But I cannot sit still. SO I trim the roses, give the stove a good cleaning, and do a few other little things around the house. And then relax in the evening.
I have a very productive day on Monday. We've had to tell some people to go find other assignments because they are not working out and the company is trying to hire people, so I have extra work to do. I rush through three separate but intricate analyses throughout the day and send draft results for people's comments. There are some comments and I'll address these on Tuesday. When I get home I lift weights heavy though it is a struggle today because I'm still worn out from Sunday's long, windy ride. I watch some football and relax and get restless, so I go out into the garage and try to fix the rear seat and helmet holder on the motorcycle. It will work fine for some time and then will decide to not work - so I cannot lock my helmet to the motorbike if I have to go inside a store or restaurant or someplace. We'll see how this repair, more like lubrication and work-in, plays out.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are a blur. I work extra hours because we are trying to finish some tasks and we have some NASA representatives visiting and it takes a long time to answer all of their questions. I'm also tied up with Person Ti_Ca's presentation on Thursday, so on Tuesday and Wednesday I don't get in any workouts. On Thursday, when I go home I have a good workout with heavy weights, take a shower, have some quick food, and go meet Person W_HK at a coffeehouse. I have not seen Person W_HK for about 4 years and he is looking good and has some promising opportunities. We also talk about other deep-rooted issues and he can get right to the point of my thought and makes me start thinking about a number of actions that I should take.
I start Friday with about a 40 mile bicycle ride over the Whittier Narrows dam and back down the San Gabriel river trail. As it is a typically working Friday, there are very few cyclists out today. But just as I'm approaching the Del Amo turnoff, I ride with a cyclist and we talk about cycling and Michigan and retirement and MotoGP. I probably should have kept riding with him for the conversation, but I have other things to do today. When I get home I edge and mow the lawn and then get out the chainsaw and bush trimmer to trim back a sidebush that I told the neighbors that I would cut back "near Thanksgiving". Im tired now, so I take a shower and eat the Japanese food left over from dinner with Person W_HK and then I ride the road bicycle over to the bicycle store. "Do you think I need a new rear tire? I have about 4000 miles on it." So my friends at the store, Brian and Ryan, look at the tire and say I need a new one and as Brian puts the new rear tire on he keeps inviting me to ride with them on their Saturday morning rides. (Recall that I rode with them once before and it was a good, hard ride.) As I'm getting ready to leave the store and young teen (I'm guessing) and his father (I'm guessing) come in and say, "He's crashed again and needs you to see if everything is okay". It turns out the teen is hearing challenged and speaks in a difficult to understand manner, but Brian and Ryan and I do understand him and all three of us keep encouraging him to get back on the bicycle after the accident and keep riding. As they are leaving, the older guy says "Thanks for being positive and upbeat with him". We just want to see everyone on a bicycle! After the new tire is installed I do some grocery shopping and trim the rosesand now I am really tired. So I sit back and relax and try to read some news for a while. But then I get up and fix the chain saw chain that has popped off during the bush trimming. And when I get cleane dup I collapse into bed in the middleof the afternoon for a two hour nap.
On Saturday Im awake before 6 am becasue I cannot sleep. I have a lot on my mind. I get up and cycle through the lawn sprinklers while watching the last Formula One qualifying session of the year from Abu Dhabi. I take the mountain bicycle out for a good ride to the old yacht club and I don't run into anyone that I know. This is good because I'm just getting some thinking done and don't want to be disturbed. Towards the end of the ride some road cyclists go past me, but not too fast, so I straggle along with them for a while and say, "I should I have brought my road biycycle out today". After a shower I get the World Rally Car washed, pick up food for lunch for later, and then start in with a claybar on the World Rally Car. It has been a while since I claybarred the World Rally Car but the clay doesn't show a significant amount of oxidation, surface contaminants, or dirt. I get about halfway through the process when I run out of steam. I go in and have lunch and then do a small bit of digging around the sprinklers that I want to re-route and then I go quickly around the house and clean every interior door in the house. Most of the fingerprints come off quickly and now I am really tired, so I sit back and relax. Late in the afternoon I keep switching between the Los Angeles Kings' ice hockey game and the UCLA-USC football game. I never watch college football, so why am I watching today?
I am so sore and tired on SUnday morning that I start the day with the final Formula One race of the year from Abu Dhabi. When the race finishes, and the guy that I wanted to become world champion doesn't make it, I go out riding on the mountain bicycle. The legs are tired for the first couple of miles but then they "come in" and I am able to crank along quite nicely to the old yacht club and back home with a few extra miles thrown in. After a quick shower I finish claybarring the World Rally Car and then set down for lunch with some football on. After lunch I get restless again, so I go rake leaves in the backyard. And then I relax for the rest of the afternoon.
I am so physically hungover from the previous days, that on Monday morning I relax a bit. And then I start out on a very windy road bicycle ride. I'm doing the old loop ride and I fight a very nasty headwind for 12 miles until I call it quits and turn for home. The ride totals 35 miles and I keep jump sprinting a Long Beach bus for the last 5 miles along Del Amo to home. I'll sprint away from a stop light and the bus will catch me and then will have to stop and pick people up. And I'll get ahead again and sprint some more. At the end I manage to get ahead and turn off Del Amo for home - but between the wind and the sprints I'm tired. I take a shower and run errands and then I start to fix Person Ti_Ca's headlights. Both headlights are fogged up from the outside and one is fogged up from the inside. I use polishing compound to take care of the outsides and I remove a headlight bulb and blow air into the inside of the headlight to dry up the inside fogging on one side. Both headlights now look brand new! But during the polishing of the outside surfaces of the headlights I spill polishing compound on the hood of his car, so I take out a claybar and claybar his hood. The front end of his 2006 car with 100,000 miles on it looks (almost) brand new and if he wants the rest of it to to look new then he will have to do the rest of the work. I need lunch! After a few other little things around the house Ive run out of steam. So I get down for about a one hour nap late in the afternoon.