Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday February 8, 2016 8:02 PM

Starting February


We finish the testing on Tuesday. Now it is time to make sense of the data and to update the (nonlinear) models and simulations. After work on Tuesday I get in a good session with the weights and relax. But I'm cold tonight so I end up in bed very early to read and go to sleep.

I'm awake on Wednesday at 4:20 am and at my office a bit after 5 am. I have my little office rave going as I start updating the models and simulations. THe music keeps me in-tuned and focus and I find some things that make a lot of sense. I keep plugging along and by the time my boss comes in to work I can tell her, "The model is updated and matches the test data". She's stunned! This is a task that can take weeks with a linear model and longer with a nonlinear model. And it's "close enough" after just one day. But by noon I've lost momentum in getting ready for a test next month. It's okay - I made a lot of progress. After work I get out for an hour run with some walking thrown in. This is the longest I've run for quite some time. The left calf feels a bit off, but nothing major.

I have a decent Thursday morning and tidy up a number of loose ends related to the recent test as well as an upcoming test. After noon I loose momentum. And leave work at 3 pm. I have a a great session with the weights as I add an extra set to each exercise, talk with the neighbor about a pseudo-stalker that she has, and make a rain deflector for a piece just outside my bedroom window. And again I'm in bed early to read.

I get up on Friday enthused about the long weekend. I get out on the mountain nicycle for a good, strong ride to the old yacht club and back home. When I approach home I ride through the park across the street and as I approach a slow rider and I make a sudden move to go around the rider, I end up on the ground. I've hit my knee and my elbow, but I'm back on the bicycle within one minute and finishing up. The slow rider has the presence to ask, as he hears me hit the ground, "Did I cause the accident". But he didn't - it was my fault. I get cleane dup and put neosporin on the right knee and ice on the right elbow. And then I ride the motorcycle up to Cal State Los Angeles to meet with the team I'm helping. I've brought chocolate chip cookies to pump up the team's blod sugar and I leave with, "Don't be afraid to ask for help". When I get home I fertilize the yard and paint the rain deflector piece. When Person Ti_Ca comes home we install the fog lights that I bought him for his car. Except that the wiring diagram is all messed up and there are other issues. So we get the hard part of the installation finished and put the car back together. We'll have to improvise to finish the effort. And then I relax on Friday night for a long bicycle ride on Saturday morning.

I start the Saturday ride north on the Los Angeles river. I'm feeling squeamish today because of yesterday's fall and thinking, at any moment, I'll fall again. And there is a nasty headwind as Sunday's storm starts coming in. I get to the Whittier Narrows dam and go past it a few miles and then turn around and head for home. I'm still squeamish about "things falling apart" but it's a good 45 mile ride. After a shower I vaccum the inside of Person Ti_Ca's car and then start with my errands. I visit a Radio Shack (Yes, some still exist), a Home Depot, Togo's for lunch, Walgreens, the Long Beach public library, and a grocery store. I buy the things that I need and a few that I want. And I have almost no money left for the next two weeks and the next paycheck. When I get home I start in on some wine, put all of the shopping articles away, and tidy up everything from yesterday's fog light install. Later in the afternoon I get down for a nap and feel well rested. In the evening I take a short walk and just relax.

SUnday is finally supposed to be a nasty day of rain and wind. I'm out the door at 5:30 am for an 81 minute run/walk. There will be no cycling today because of the weather so I have to get out running before the rain starts. This 81 minutes is the longest that I've run in a long time. I grab a nice warm shower and mill about the house tidying up paperwork and other things. When Person Ti_Ca wakes up I start the shredfest to get shred all of the older papers. We go get an oil change for his car, buy new windshiled wiper blades, and go to a Moneygram station so that I can get a refund. When we return home I continue on with my abdominal/lower back workout. (This is one of those "go do leg lifts, crunches, and lower back curls once every hour or so" workout to improve core strength. This continue throughout the day.) It's a slow day so I continue cleaning up paperwork and play with a small RC helicopter inside the house to learn control sensitivities.

Monday and Tuesday are slow days at work as our NASA customers and their technical representatives are present. And I am unmotivated. I get in a good workout with the weights after Monday's unproductive day and I go walking on Tuesday after work - deciding not to run and give the left calf an extra day of rest if it needs it.

On Wednesday I have some good ideas at work and start building the simulations and algorithms to solve the problems. But I run out of time in order to visit the doctor. When I get to the doctors office I walk right past the doctor and smile and he doesn't even recognize me. When he comes into the exam room he says, "I walked right past you and didn't recognize you. You look great! You've lost weight and your muscles are showing". As he says this he keeps touching my biceps and shoulders. Everything is looking good except my blood pressure is still a bit high. So I ask, "What do you want me to do?" And the doctor says try some more for three months and come back. Watch the sodium (which I've been doing) and try to cut back on caffeine (which I haven't been doing). When I get home I increase the weights a bit and have a great session with the weights and then work on paperwork for the new non-profit corporation.

On Thursday I get the simulation and algorithms to play together and start a long run in the afternoon. Hopefully when I get to work on Friday I'll have interesting results. At home I go run for 60 minutes and my left calf does not give any indication of pain or injury at all. The few days off after Sundays 81 minute run must have helped. After a shower I work on the paperwork some more for the new non-profit and watch some of the Kings' ice hockey game.

The simulation and algortihm isn't performing as well as I want based on the Friday morning results. I change courses a bit and try something else and set it up to run over the weekend. When I get home I have a decent session with the weights - the same weights as Wednesday is more of a struggle.

Saturday starts with a road bicycle ride. As I'm entering the Los Angeles river trail I run into Ted, the Polish cyclist, so we ride up to the dam together. It's a bit slower than I would ride, but it gets me going. When Ted turns around I continue north a bit and then come back down the San Gabriel river trail for 48 miles. As I've finished the shower and squeejeing the water off the glass shower doors I feel a twinge in my right lwoer back. This will hamper me the rest of the day as it doesn't go away. Nonetheless I run some errands, cook rice and vegetables for the week's lunches, sweep the driveway, and backup the PC. Person Ti_Ca returns home from an accounting club meeting and we wash and wax his car and repair some plastic pieces. By now it is after 4 pm so I get down for a nap hoping that my back will feel better. When I wake up the back still hurts but I'm able to slowly and cautiously go through my activities. I don't know why, but I've been avoiding taking Aleve for the back. But I give in and take two Aleve and the bask is almost unnoticeable within 10 minutes. My body has always responded well to Aleve (and the pre-Aleve prescription version called naprosyn).

I get up on Sunday and get out the door for a windy and strong mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back home (with the standard extra miles thrown in). I didn't feel like a long road bicycle ride since my back is hurting. After the ride I cut up some old wood laying around from an old project and clean up two planters for the spring. I get a nice warm shower and run errands and then get back home to clean up the road bicycle. I do take some Aleve today and this helps as I progress through the day. Near noon I start categorizing paperwork into various topics for when I am retired. And I grab a quick lunch before the Super Bowl starts. The SUper Bowl is kinda sloppy but I am happy with the outcome. Only a few commercials stand out and the half time show is lame.

I am committed on Monday to getting back on track with healthy eating. I keep myself occupied at work in the high bay (which is a cleanroom so I have to wear one of those white bunny suits) and on some other problems. Towards the end of the day a co-worker tells me about a problem that he cannot solve (and that he has had other people spend a fair amount of time and money on). I tell him to send me some sample data and let me look at it. Thus, after a great workout with the weights, I start working on the framework to solve my co-worker's problem.