I have a horrible time sleeping on Monday night into Tuesday morning. I wake up at 1:30 am and cannot sleep. I get up and see more blood test results that have come in and I see that they are great results. But I'm still thinking about the low red blood cells, the low hematocrit, and the low hemoglobin - not good tests for a cyclist and a runner. EVentually I think I fall back asleep.
I start Tuesday with sore legs from Sunday's ride. But I take the mountain bicycle down to the old yacht club and back home with a few extra miles thrown in. Low red blood cells? What low red blood cells? It's a good ride. I trim the roses and spot water the backyard before a shower. And then I take an extra bicycle out to vote and buy healthy, blood-enriching foods like spinach and eggs to try to get my blood work up towards normal. Since it is election day I've started sipping wine very early and cooking and cleaning and catching up with email regarding the work at NASA's Jet propulsion Laboratory and finally watching election returns. At some point I tidy up the bathrooms and get down on my hands and knees to clean the kitchen floor, but other efforts will have to wait.
On Wednesday morning the suns till comes up, people still go to work or school, and life returns to normal (despite the wild election cycle). I go walking before getting cleaned up and riding the motorcycle to CSULA to meet with my two teams. Afterwards I ride home with two errand stops along the way. At home I clean a bathroom floor and read the news and trim the roses. I'm lazy today!
On Thursday I take the motorcycle and ride up to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near pasadena to help run a test. I was the Northrop Grumman representativ for this test one year ago and JPL liked me and have called me back. It's good to see some faces from a year ago and I'm tied up in paperwork, badging, and computer account work. But things are ready for the testing to start on Monday. When I get home I get in a good workout with the weights and then work on paperwork at home.
Here's another night of horrible sleep. Why? It was a long day at JPL, two long motorcycle rides, and a workout with the weights and I end up waking up at 2 am and not being able to sleep. Why? Nonetheless I get in a good mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back with a few extra miles thrown in. While still sweaty I clean and water the roses and rake some leaves. After a shower I get out to the library for two more books to read and do some grocery shopping. The rest of the day is slow, but I do some work for Mr Karl and watch the Kings' ice hockey game from Ottawa.
On Saturday morning I turn over and go back to sleep rather than going out cycling. I'm just blah today. When I get up a bit later I wax the gold rims of the World Rally Car, lift weights, clean up the carnations, and trim a front bush before getting cleaned up for qualifying from the Brasilian Grand Prix. By nighttime I don't know where the day has gone, so it's good that I accomplished a few things in the morning.
I get out the door on the road bicycle first thing on Sunday morning. There's a persistent headwind all of the way past the Whittier Narrows dam and halfway to the Santa Fe dam where I stop and turn for home. Now the tailwind helps me home and I crank along very strongly. This is the first good ride since I started eating iron rich foods and taking an iron supplement and I seem to feel more energetic. But I just started. After a shower I watch a wet Brasilian Grand Prix which gets red-flagged a number of times and the recording misses the last part of the race. Later I catch the MotoGP race from Valencia and prepare things for the trip to JPL on Monday.
Monday is a very long day. I'm up at 5:15 am and on the motorcycle for NASA's Jet propulsion Laboratory near pasadena. I take care of some issues at JPL before heading to the vibration laboratory where we'll be running our tests. Things start slowly but we gain confidence and start making reasonable progress. But we don't quit until 6:30 pm. And then I have the long motorcycle ride home in the dark and through some bad traffic. We hope to finish the first third of testing by Tuesday near noon.
On Tuesday I'm out the door before 6 am on the motorcycle and fight traffic all the way up past Pasadena to JPL. I get a chance to relax in the cafeteria before climbing up to the laboratory where we do our testing. Today goes extremely smoothly - too much so. But we buzz through the test program and finish by noon. On the way back to where my motorcycle is parked I finally get my official badge and then I have a good ride home. I take a quick walk to the grocery store and somehow the day flies by and it is time for reading in bed and sleep.
I start Wednesday with a 45 minute run/walk. The right calf threatens to have a problem, thus the walking parts of the workout. I get cleaned up and have good meetings with the two senior design teams at CSULA. I rush on home to avoid traffic and make some phone calls for the non-profit, work on a couple of small projects, and work on paperwork for the non-profits. Paperwork - what a mess! Later in the day I finally catch the Moto3 race from this past Sunday in Valenica, Spain and then get ready to go back to work at JPL on Thursday afternoon.
I'm a bit lazy on Thursday morning and only go out for a two hour mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back with a few extra miles thrown in. I get cleaned up and take care of some small things before riding the motorcycle back up to JPL near Pasadena for work. There are some delays and today is a struggle making progress, but we push through and finally make progress. It takes until well after 6 pm, but we've made enough progress to call it a day and not do something stupid as the team is getting tired. At home I cook dinner and relax and get ready for two more long days at JPL.
I'm out the door on the motorcycle at 5:35 am on Friday morning and arriving at JPL's parking lot at 6:20 am. I go sit in the cafeteria and have a muffin while I work on the test data processing and on the report. I get up to the vibration lab and we make good progress and finish the second axis of testing before lunchtime. I'm assuming we will pick back up in the morning, but the team says that they can't get reconfigured to resume testing late this afternoon. So I work away on data processing and the report and we do start the final axis of testing near 4pm. We make the best progress that we can until we lose team members to other commitments near 5:15 pm. I push through Friday rush hour traffic and get home in about an hour and just be a vegetable for the evening. As I'm getting ready for sleep somebody starts blasting their car horn. Incosiderate and irritating and it won't stop. So I walk outside and I realize it is my neighbor's 30 year old car horn going off by itself. It has done this once before due to a short or something. So I walk over and get my neighbor just to beep the horn and that stops it. But then we disconnect both of her actual horns from the electrical system so that is the short reoccurs it won't blast the neighborhood. My neighbor now has to decide between driving without a horn or trying to get it fixed with the scarcity of parts for a 30 year old car.
Saturday morning is cold as I ride up to JPL near Pasadena. We get started and get into a good flow and nothing will stop us. We rip through the test program and finish near noon. At that point the team starts disappearing, so I say my goodbyes, promise a report, and head for home. When I get home I walk to the grocery store for supplies, lift weights heavier, trim the roses, rake leaves in the backyard, and water the grass. For the rest of the day I work on the test report and relax a bit as life will now get back to normal.
On Saturday night and into SUnday morning I have the best sleep I've had for a while. Is it because the stress of the JPL is test is over, I'm getting a bit sick from other people at JPL being sick, cathcing up on sleep, or I lifted heavy on Saturday? Nonetheless I get out for a windy and wet road bicycle ride of 48 miles. Because it is windy it knocks me around a bit and I'm sure my legs will be a bit sore on Monday or Tuesday. After the ride and getting cleaned up I do some grocery shopping and buying cloths - warm socks for cold nights and another travel shirt that drys quickly. On the way home it starts to rain, so I put the car back into the garage and dry it off for safekeeping. Throughout the afternoon I watch football games and just relax and try to prioritize what has to get done during the upcoming week.