I wake up on Tuesday after a very good night of sleep and I feel a bit dizzy - as if I might fall at anytime. I make it to work okay, but throughout the day the imbalance or dizziness returns. I try to ignore it and make great progress on my co-worker's problem (that I volunteered to look at after he had spent a fair amount of time and money with other people trying to solve his problem). By the afternoon I have a methodology programmed up and I show him the results for the test case. He sends me 17 MB of other experimental data and I tell him I'll script it and see what kind of results we get. When I get home, imbalanced and dizzy or not, I get out for a good 60 minute run. Nothing hurts or threatens to make me stop. After a shower I try to put a memory stick in my computer and find that the memory stick has broken. And this, illegally, has the data on it that I wanted to work on. Pretty soon I have a small screwdriver out and I pull the memory stick apart and fortunately it is a one piece memory stick. If I take the bare circuit board with memory and hold it just right in the USB slot, the computer will recognize it. Well, I don't want to hold the baord in a single position for an hour to copy files, so I find the good position and tape the board into the USB slot. This allows me to copy and save the files. I'm lucky on this one! And I get a lot of progress made on my co-worker's problem so that I can "pull a rabbit out of the hat" with the solution and then give him the "You should have come to me FIRST" look when he realizes how much money and time he wasted with other people.
I make it through Wednesday by solving my co-worker's problem and providing more information when he asks me to look at newer data. There's also another test going on in the cleanroom where we have to put on clean suits (i.e. bunny suits) so that we don't contaminate the test article. It's a decent day. I get home and have a great session with the weights and then help Person Ti_Ca write a schalarship essay.
I start Thursday with a good 45 mile road bicycle ride. There's a strong headwind against going north to the dam, but I catch up to Ted, a rider friend of mine, and we ride the last couple of miles together. He turns around to go back home and I proceed north, past a detour, and then back down the San gabriel river trail. But there's a slight headwind going south also - how did that happen? And I'm worn out by the time I finish. After a shower I run many errands and get abck home a bit after noon to relax a bit. But soon I'm pulling out garden equipment to edge, mow, and trim the lawn. After a cool shower I get down for a 90 minute nap. WHen Person Ti_Ca comes home from school he goes straight to his room for sleep since he's got a cold.
On Friday I take the mountain bicycle out and do the loop ride down the Los Angeles river, along the ocean, and back up the an Gabriel river towards home. On this ride I see a mobile phone laying in the street so I stop and pull over to pick it up. As I do this a truck runs over the mobile phone. I don'tknow if the Samsung Note 4 was broken before, but it certainly is after the truck runs it over. But I pick it up and caryy it home because it could be a threat to other cyclists. AFter the ride I do some web programming and then head down to WE Labs in downtown Long Beach - a co-working space. Today the other people aren't very outgoing and I am not either, so I do some programming and work on a pitch for funding for three hours and then go home. Last time people would barge into my efforts and talk with me, but today everyone seems to do their own thing. When I get home I relax and watch the Kings' pull off a miracle 5-4 win in New York. And then I work on the investor pitch some more in advance of a 23 February presentation (I hope).
I start Saturday with an 87 minute run. I skip the cycling today since I've had two good rides over the last two days so I wanted to change things up. I do some paperwork before getting ready for the one year birthday party for Elliott, Joe and his partner Tony's adopted baby. Since Person Ti_Ca has had a cold the last day or so, I make sure he is well before contact with a one year old (whose immune system is fully developed). I have not seen Joe for a few years now and he looks good. He has longer hair now but grey hair too. And Tony has just received tenure at the University of Redlands in music. It's a fun party and Elliott is happy and well-behaved. When Person Ti_Ca and I get home we finsih the electrical work for his car's fog lights. We've had to abandon the wiring harness and relay that came with the fog lights and improvise. Afterwards I just relax - I don't seem to be in the mood for much of anything.
I have some very weird dreams about work and the Northrom Grumman Board of Directors and other things on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Thus when I wake up and hear dripping off the roof - indicating severe fog conditions - I am sorta happy because it gives me an excuse not to go for a long road bicycle ride. Instead I take the mountain bicycle ride out in the fog and wet conditions adn get down to the old yacht club. On the way back I run into Terry and I convince him to ride with me for a while because the beach trail is slippery from the wwet and from the sand. We have a nice ride until it is my go-home exit. He turns and goes back to his car to get home for a Valentine's day celebration. I get home, clean up the bicycle which is full of sand and water, get my own shower, and then run a few errands. Person Ti_Ca has gone off to do homework so I watch the Kings' game and sweep the hardwood floors and relax. After an afternoon nap Person Ti_Ca and I clean the hardwood floors. And I point out how dirty the water is when you get down on your hands and knees and clean every spot rather than try to use a damp mop. And then I relax and get ready to go back to work.
I have good days at work on Monday and Tuesday though I scare the crap out of myself on Tuesday. Just after I've presented the results from the nonlinear model tuning and everyone is happy, I discover an "error" in the simulation. There's about a factor of 4 difference. I start setting things up "to do it right" and get the process started when I realize the factor of about 4 is because its a metric model not English. I take a deep breath and am happy that the results that I just presented are indeed correct. I get in a good session with the weights on Monday and a 48 minute run on Tuesday. After the run and a shower on Tuesday I do both my US and state taxes and try to decide when to send in the extra money that I owe.
I'm bored on Wednesday at work. We were supposed to start more tests today, but theya re delayed. I keep going back and looking over my simulations to make sure that I am ready for the tests and that I am not the hold-up when we run these tests. It starts to rain a bit after noon today and when it looks like a slight break in the rain near 3:30 pm, I jump on the motorcycle and ride for home. I get a little bit wet but miss the heavier rain that comes later when I am lifting weights. Today I have a great session with this level of weights with an extra set thrown in. So it's time to increase the weights again. Later I work on the non-profit website and presentation charts for next Tuesday in case we get put on the agenda to pitch in front of investors.
Thursday isn't a good day. When I start the motorcycle ride to work the pavement is wet but there is no rain. Within a mile or so of home it is raining and my helmet visor is already fogging up. I just take my time and get very wet going to work since I can't see anything. WHen I get to work the test is still not ready to be run so I look over some test predictions and simulations, but otherwise I'm bored. When I get home I get out for a 48 minute run, grab a shower, turn the Kings game on in the background, and work on the website for Tuesday's potential investor pitch.
On Friday and Saturday we are supposed to run tests where my presence is needed. But Friday keeps dragging on - I've looked at my test predictions many times and I'm ready - and finally we get word that we won't be testing on either Friday or Saturday. All tests are delayed until Monday. Unfortunately this has become the norm for this space business and out company - little stupid things holding up tests and delaying progress. I go on home on Friday and have a great session with the weights with increased weights over the last two weeks.
On Saturday I start north on the Los Angeles river and catch up to a rider Ted. We ride up past the WHittier Narrows dam to the base of the Santa Fe dam and then turn back for home. I take the San Gabriel river trail home for about 55 miles while Ted goes back down the Los Angeles river trail. After a shower I help Person Ti_Ca with his taxes and then cook lunch for the week and mow the lawn. Now it is late afternoon and I'm out of things to be done on my list. I catch up on a couple of recorded television shows and do some reading and relax.
On Sunday I'm tired so I ride the mountain bicycle for more than two hours to the old yacht club and back up the Los Angeles river. After a shower I clean the refrigerater, cut up some old plastic chairs for recycling, clean up the road bicycle, and do a number of other errands around the house. I also finish up the web site and PwerPoint presentation for Tuesday's investor pitch. But I get tired early today and I'm down for sleep near 8 pm. Near midnight I wake and run to the bathroom. I sure hope I am not getting sick.
When I wake up on Monday morning I have a 1 degree fever and many body parts are sore. I drag myself out of bed and get to work. I somewhat feel better as the day goes on. Though we have more delays and (hopefully) the tests will start on Tuesday. WHen I get home I struggle with the weights that I lifted last Friday but make it through the workout. And take a quick walk to the grocery store for supplies before going over the webite and PowerPoint pitch.