Tuesday starts with a 45 mile road bicycle ride past the Whitter Narrows dam and back home. I start a bit slowly but my legs feel stronger as I go. Today is another hot day, so I grab a couple new books from the library and read for a bit and keep plugging away in encryption. I keep running into stumbling blocks and hope to have strong encryption ready to go soon. At 6:30 in the evening I ride the motorcycle to downtown Long Beach again for another meeting about a homeless web/mobile-based application we are working on. We plug away at the homeless work and we'll meet again next Tuesday.
I start Wednesday with a 40 minute walk and then an abdominal/lower back workout. This new abdominal workout is good because it puts the abdominals muscles under more stress with less undue stress on the lower back. Near 1 pm I meet up with some people from Saint Joseph's Catholic church regarding some website work related to human trafficking. It turns out that Saint Joseph's is a big player in the anti-human trafficking movement in and around Long Beach. We have a good meeting and I know what to do before next week's Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting.
On Wednesday night and into Thursday meeting I have a nasty dream and wake up with a bad cramp on the inside of my left calf. (Typically cycling cramps are on the insides of the thighs and my previous running pain has been on the outside of my left calf.) When I wake up my left calf is still sore so I just take the mountain bicycle out to theold yacht club and back for about a two hour ride. It's a good ride because a couple of road bicycle riders pass me and I take up the challenge and keep up with them until our paths diverge. When I get home I clean up and water the roses, get a cool shower, and start answering the mail from the California Franchise Tax Board who wants more information about the activities of the non-profit corporation that I formed. This is completed before noon and I relax a bit, clean the house a bit, and then go back to working on yesterday's effort for the human trafficking task force. Late in the afternoon I meet Person H_CS nearby and we have a good conversation and ahng out for a few hours.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are a blur. I recall a meeting in downtown LoS angeles on Firday night, a 56 mile bicycle ride on Saturday morning, and a 45 mile ride on Sunday morning. Whereas on Saturday I was towing everyone along the ride, on SUnday I allow myself to be towed up the Los Angeles rivr trail until I've got my legs back. And then I tow people down the San Gabriel river trail. And I recall a lot of web programming and a Formula One race from Austria on Sunday. Otherwise the few days are a blur of activity and non-stop action. I also notice that whereas a few months ago the books that I checked out from the library were not living up to their expectations, the recent 6 books or so have been very good. I've recently had books from sports reporters, wall street historians, economists, sports betting "experts", and drug trafficking experts and these books have been very good and held my interest throughout. And they have stimulated my thoughts and interests.
I have a horrible time sleeping on Sunday night - and its not because of all of the illegal private fireworks going off nearby. My stomach is a bit upset, I can't figure out the last Javascript piece, maybe I didn't get enough exercise, AND there are illegal fireworks going off all over the place like a war zone. But on Monday morning I take the mountain bicycle out for a two hour ride where I see people already staking out their territory for tonights fireworks - 12 hours in advance. Are you going to stay here for 12 hours just for 20 minutes of fireworks? After the ride I solve my Javascript problems and continue with client-side error checking code for the child abuse process. I seem to be the only one doing any work, but sometimes you just have to go ahead and do the work of others in order to keep things moving forward.
I have a very quiet Tuesday after the 4th of July. The previous night, before I fell asleep near 11 pm, sounded like a war zone. Though fireworks of any sort are illegal in the city of Long Beach, this is by far the worst year for loud thundering fireworks by private parties and other annoying devices. But at least I sleep very well after 11 pm. On Tuesday I lift weights and work on a homeless database and the child abuse website. At mid-day I have not heard anything from the homeless people about tonight's meeting, so I decide to blow it off and open a bottle of wine and start cleaning. I'm cleaning the shelves in the kitchen which really haven't been cleaned since the remodel in 2009.
On Wednesday I have breakfast and then drive to Montebello for a Habitat for Humanity project. Today I use my brand new workboots with steel toes for the first time. I lace them and tie them tight and take two steps...two steps...and one of the eyelets/hooks falls off. I am able to lace up the boot fairly well, but thus is disappointing - the first time I tried them. We have a productive day at the build sight as we nail in cross-bracing, lag-bolt large beams to support a second story, and reinforce dorrways and windows. By the end of the day I am very tired and only have one blister (in addition to the failed boot eyelet/hook). Person H_CS comes over to visit a bit later and we relax a bit and enjoy talking about various things.
I sleep well on Wednesday night but wake up early on Thursday and cannot fall back asleep. I go walking, have an abdominal/lower back workout, and get cleaned up to go to the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting. By now people are starting to recognize me as the "tech geek" and I show them some things that I have developed. And I get some decent leads afterwards in splinter groups. After the meeting I continue down to the Long Beach main library on the motorcycle to return two books and get two new ones. Today the gate won't open when I stick my card in, so I just ride around the gate and kep the ticket in case Long Beach has cameras that will come after me for riding around the gates. At home I watch two stages of the Tour de France and then continue on with Javascript client-side error-checking programming, working on the roses, and the laundry.
I'm up early on Friday so I jump on the road bicycle and start cranking. On the Los Angeles river trail there is a small fire under one of the overpasses and I just ride by and try to hold my breath. What else can I do? As I go past the Whittier Narrows dam I see a dog standing by the side of the trailup ahead and as I get closer and closer I realize that it is not a dog but a coyote. The coyote does not run away as I ride past, instead it just yawns. On the way back home the coyote is gone and I finish with a good 48 mile ride and wishing that I had ridden longer. I catch up on some emails and then start composing an email to the Long Beach city councilman about engaging the Long Beach transit (i.e. bus) system with recognizing human trafficking and domestic violence victims and providing free rides and engaging the police at upcoming bus stops. I stay up to date on the Tour de France with a fun mountain stage and then do small things around the house. I'm trying to mix-up mental, web-programming efforts with physical efforts.
Saturday and Sunday are slow days. I do get out for two hour mountain bicycle rides on both days and get to the chemical/electrical recycling center on Saturday. Otherwise I watch some F1 qualifying and the race and stages of the Tour de France. Before Sunday's ride I possibly have a slight fever, but the best way to get rid of that is to go crank along on the bicycle. But I've fallen behind on some child abuse web programming tasks and will have to make up the time in the coming few days. As I have the two slow days I try to remember the last time that I was sick (or possibly sick). But it has been a long time since I've even remotely felt a bit under the weather (if that's even what I am feeling now).
Monday is a bit of a slow day though I get out walking in the morning, donate some old textbooks to a local used bookstore, do some web programming, get in a workout with the weights, and go hang out at a coffeehouse and try more web programming.