Tuesday at work goes past very quickly. Before I know it is 12:30 and time for lunch. I just keep working along on work and documentation. When I get home I lurbicate the chain of the Ymaha YZF-R1, water the impatiens, and walk to the grocery store for minor supplies. Later in the evening I send off birthday wishes to Tree in Thailand and have a number of text/line/facebook conversations with people who all seem to want to talk with me today.
The last few weeks have been strange because I keep running into or getting contacted by people that I haven't seen or heard from in 10 years or more. A NASA guy is on a teleconference and says, "Is that Ray manning's voice that I hear?" It's a guy I worked with more than 10 years ago and I take his number ot catch up with him. I get a text from my Burmese friend Sundie who is opening a new office and wants me to come and visit her new office and catch up on things including the possibility of working on building an orphanage in Indonesia. I had not heard from Sundie for a few years. I also hear a Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) guy's name mentioned in a meeting. I had tried to work with him 20 years ago on some advanced technology and when I see him in a meeting a few days later I re-introduce myself and we agree to try and grab lunch one of these days. And Greg, who I've forgotten his designation, is back on my work campus and I run into him on Thursday. And we agree to hang out soon. So what's going on here?
On Saturday morning near 2 am I hear heavy rain coming down and I figure that cycling on Saturday morning will be out. The pavement is all wet when I wake up so I go for an hour long walk, get cleaned up, hit two shops for shopping, and then go to meet my Burmese friend Sundie. It turns out she is involved in a financial management company and the meeting is more of a sales pitch, but I'm glad to catch up with her and to meet her husband and to say "Keep me in mind about building the orphanage in Indonesia". (I met Sundie in 2009 or so after her trip to Burma - or Myanmar - to help people devastated from the cyclone. We've been in and out of contact over the years.) I go to a recycling center after the meeting and they take my old chemicals but they do not take an old motorcycle tire that I wanted to recycle. And then I stop in for groceries before going home and trying out the new weight lifting gloves since I did not get in a bicycle ride today.
On Monday and Tuesday I struggle with various issues at work. We're trying to set up for a test this week and everything is taking longer than expected. And a model and simulation that I inherited is not behaving properly. On Monday I work off stress with a good workout with the weights. Since it is supposed to rain on Tuesday, I drive the car to work. And then I stay late for an educational session on one of the new 3D printers that we have acquired and can use.
On Friday I'm a bit lazy and don't get out on the road bicycle. Instead I ride for two hours on the mountain bicycle becasue the mountain bicycle has not been ridden for two weeks and is probably starting to feel neglected. After the ride, during which I feel strong, I edge and mow the lawn, clean up the roses, try to pick up some wet leaves, and then clean the lawn mower and edger. If I'm going to change the oil and spark plug on the edger and mower shortly, I at least want them clean to start with. After a shower I get down to the main branch of the Long Beach public library and drop off the three books that I have. (One I completed and the other two were not doing anything for me.) I come away with three books including one that is a self-help book subtitled "How to stop hating yourself". I pick up the edger and mower oil and spark plugs at Home Depot and then get home to start cooking lunch and scrubbing a few pots and pans that have stains/burns on them from a lot of usage. As I'm driving away from the Home Depot I notice a young lady throwing up in the parking lot. Flu, bad food, morning sickness, or hangover?
Saturday starts with another cold two hour mountain bicycle ride. Hopefully I'll ride long on the road bicycle on Sunday. When I return from the ride I pull out the lawn mower and edger and change the oil and spark plugs on both. (An annual thing to keep them running as well as can be expected.) After a shower I grab lunch for a bit later, get more glucosamine chondroitin for the shoulder, and buy groceries. When I get home I starts some poataoes baking and vegetables cooking for lunch for the entire week. The Los Angeles Kings have a rare matinee game at 1pm, so I turn on the television and keep it playing in the background when I'm not watching.
I go to work on Monday morning hoping to solve a problem with the test data that has been bugging me since Thursday. I do all of the statistics on the measured data and I play with the model/simulation but don't get as good a results as I want. I can get the positive side to match but not the negative side. It is very curious behavior. Since this week feeds into the Christmas shutdown, there are very few people present at work. But I plug away and then go home when I have run out of steam. I get in a great workout with the weights with not a single joint pain anywhere. Was it the four days off since lifting last or the Aleve that I took yesterday for a headache (after the bicycle ride)? Later I watch the Los Angeles Kings' game and relax.