Between the cycling and the painting (reaching, twisting, up and down the ladder, etc) I was thinking that I would sleep well on Monday night. I don't. Twice I wake up and cannot sleep. The first due to a small 3.3 earthquake and the second for no reason. Between no sleep and it being foggy, I do not get out for the planned morning bicycle ride. Instead I continue pounding away on Karl's website. I take a late morning break to lift weights, walk to the grocery store, light clean the bathrooms, and grab a shower. At 1pm I have a telelcon with one of Karl's workers and we can't quite figure out how to access this one library that we're counting on. We both agree to keep trying to figure it out and talk again on Thursday. After dinner I work on the website more and finish up any enhancements. The only thing left is to access the library and talk with it.
I sleep well on Tuesday night and get up at 6 am on Wednesday morning. Today I work on updating the crime statistics (since the Long Beach Police Department just released the end of January crime statistics). At a convenient stopping point I go out for an okay road bicycle ride - I push when necessary but I'm not into today's ride. After a shower I finish off the Python statistical crime analysis and display and post it to a website. And then work a bit on tidying up Javascript files for Karl's website (i.e., removing old code because the project was de-scoped). I also take some time to watch day 2 of the final 4 Formula One test days before the season really starts.
I'm up just after 6 am on Thursday morning but the ground is wet, there's the threat of rain, and I'm lazy. So I do my stretching exercises for the back and shoulder region to alleviate the possible shoulder arthritis pain, and then start working on websites. I make some good progress and then feel dulled. So I ride the road bicycle over to the professional bicycle shop and ask Brian to tune it up. We both agree that I need a new chain as well as a rear cluster and chainrings. I start the walk for home and stop at the ATM and the grocery store. When I get home I mow and trim the front and back yards. I look over the roses and carnations and decide that their attention can wait a day or so after the upcoming rain. Early in the afternoon I speak with Karl and he's happy with our progress on his data viewing website. I take a break to cook vegetables for a few days and tidy up the kitchen. There's a mid afternoon lull and then just ride it into the evening. I eventually watch some youtube music videos and before I know it the time is after midnight. Better go read and get some sleep.
I get out for a 50 minute run/walk and the pack up the backpack with engineering supplies for the team at CSULA. Since some of the supplies are up to 36 inches long, they extend out beyond the top of the backpack with tubes and wires hanging off. I'm wondering if I'm going to get pulled over for being a terrorist motorcyclist. But I make it to CSULA and we have a decent meeting and build a couple of small things and then I rush home to update Karl's website based upon incoming comments. We're getting close to letting some customers play with it.
Saturday and Sunday are slow days due to the more rain. I get a lot of web programming done. And on Sunday I get out for a mountain bicycle ride when it looks like the rain is gone but it starts raining during the ride. It starts raining hard enough that I contemplate turning back for home. But I get down near the aquarium where it is dry and then turn back for home. But I have to go through the band of heavy rain again to get back home. As I'm riding I catch up to another rider who is planning on about 60 miles today - even in the rain. Later on Sunday Person M_Fl comes to visit since he's in the area for a baby shower and we hang out for a bit.
Monday is dry even if my cycling shoes are still wet. Regardless I get out for almost a two hour ride on the mountain bicycle. After a shower I pickup cupcakes for the financial planners that I'll be meeting with, drop off a library book, and finally meet with the financial planners. We talk about many things and we both agree that I should probably sell my Northrop Grumman stock and also I should spend more money and enjoy what I have. But that's a different line of thinking than the way that I was brought up. I pick up some milk and other essential supplies at the grocery store and revise a non-profit tax return that was rejected by the IRS because it was incomplete. And then I have a slow day.
I start Tuesday with about a two hour mountain bicycle ride to try and beat any possible early rains (though the weather forceast says that it will not arrive until mid afternoon). After a shower I go to the post office to send a certified mail tax return for the non-profit. I'm standing in line for 5 minutes - a trivial amount of time - but none of the cashiers are smiling. They just say "Next" and deal with the next customer. I do my transaction and thank the lady and say, "Keep smiling". She doesn't know how to respond since she hasn't smiled yet. Not my problem! I go on home and re-do my personal taxes and they are a mess with various transactions that I've made and finally I just throw up my hands and say, "This is good enough and I'll let the IRS tell me that I did something wrong later". So on Wedensday I'lll probably make another trip to the post office and see if any of the postal cashiers are smiling. In the afternoon I lay out the tasks that I have to get done (with priorities) and then take a break to relax. I realize that Wednesday is the first day of Lent so I decide to give up any alcohol for Lent.
Wednesday is a nasty, heavy rainy day. I stay in bed until 7:20 just listening to the rain pound down. When I get up I aim to finish my taxes. And they're a mess this year because I sold two assets that I had been dollar cost averaging for 20 years. So figuring out the cost basis was a pain. But eventually I get to a satisfactory number and declare them finished. I then make the final push on Karl's website and get there (plus or minus the web socket connection which I don't have the hardware to test). Near noon I lift heavier weights and it feels good. But I immediately ice the left shoulder when I'm finished and it feels better after the icing. Late in the afernoon I get back to the demographics study where I have to overlap and intersect polygons between city council boundaries and census district boundaries. By the time I'm ready to go read and sleep I've figured it out. It's been a productive day though I've spent most of the time in front of computr screens due to the nasty rain.
On Thursday I wake up at 4 am and have a great idea for the crime/demographic work that I've been doing. So I stay in bed for a while because the house is cold, but I eventually get up well before the alarm and start working on the idea. It's really just a correction for a little problem that's been bugging me. Shortly I have the issue resolved. Near 7 am I get out for a brisk walk (since the pavement is still too wet to ride). I grab some food and mail off my taxes, return a library book, and get to the monthyl Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting. When I get home I relax a bit and cosider going for a bicycle ride, but its pretty windy. So instead I work the abdominals and lower back muscles. And then get back to websites and census tracts.
On Friday I get out walking in the morning and then ride up to CSULA to meat with the teams. One team is not getting the right priorities, so I take my primary team aside and we develop a contingency plan so that they can show that they did their work properly and pass the class in the event the other team doesn't "get there". The team that is doing a motorcycle analysis, which I'm not involved with, is present and so I go talk to them. I tell them that I'm the guy that gave their real advisor a lot of background information on helmet design and flow patterns. They happen to have a demo helmet there, so they give it to me to test out for a week and see how I like it. On the ride home I use the new helmet but don't like it. I'll see if the dislike stays with me over the next week. WHen I get home I lift weights and then ice the shoulders. The shoulders seem to feel better if I lift weights even if the bench press hurts like crap to perform.
I sleep very late on Saturday. Why? I get out for a good if windy bicycle ride and then watch MotoGP qualifying from Qatar while the laundry gets done. Afterwards I go edge, trim, and mow the lawn and then relax for a bit with some free movie channel previews that I have this weekend.
I start Sunday slow after the time change and a good night of sleep. My nights of sleep have been very good since the start of Lent and no alcohol. Correlation? I make a walk to the grocery store for supplies and work on the last touches of the demographic code. Right now it seems to be double counting some statistics and I find the double counting and correct it. At a convenient stopping point I get on the bicycle and ride for about two hours. It's still a bit chilly even if bright and sunny out. When I get home I'm excited and enthused to watch the opening MotoGP race of the year from Qatar. It's a close and strategic race as the riders try to preserve their tires for the final few laps. And then ride the motorcycle down to Seal Beach to meet up with the team members for the startup as we get ready for a pitch on Wednesday to get to the finals.