Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, August 12, 2019 8:02 PM

Birthday Time


I start Tuesday morning with an almost one hour run/walk. I'm slowly making progress. After a shower I go have my blood pressure checked at my healthcare facility and record a 99 over 69. On the way home I stop in at the grocery store for a few supplies. Back at home I start transferring the new web site over to its own domain. And I've finished the effort and announce it at a 6:30 meeting.

I come storming out of the gate on Wednesday with a good mountain bicycle ride, trimming the roses, and watering the roses. And then I collapse. I don't really collapse, but other than working on some statistical analysis, I don't know where the day goes.

I work on websites and algorithms on Thursday morning until I go to the monthly Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting. Afterwards I get in a decent session with the weights and receive a phone call from my Doctor's nurse indicating that they want me to hydrate better, re-check my blood pressure in a couple of weeks, and have a telephone appointment with my Doctor. Late in the afternoon I get on the motorcycle to ride down to Irvine to have dinner with Person Ch_C.

I again coming storming out of the barn on Friday morning with a strong 65 kilometer road bicycle ride. I follow this up with washing the Yamaha YZF-R1 and trimming two bushes that are overhanging my fence. After a cool shower I run a couple of errands and get home to work on little fixes to the website and to relax since today is again going to be a hot day. There's both F1 qualifying from Hungary and MotoGP/2/3 qualifying from the Czech Republic to watch. Late on Saturday, for no apparent reason, I start to feel very sad and almost feel like crying. I put on some music to cheer myself up and then it is time to read and go to sleep.

My legs are hungover on Sunday morning, so I get out and wax the rims of the Yamaha YZF-R1, clean up the carnations, feed and water the carnations, and watch the MotoGP race from the Czech Republic. Afterwards I find the last of the bugs and "slightly weird formatting" for this last website that has been bugging me. I had to dig into some arcane revslider code, but it just jumps right out at me and I have the site looking great on all sizes of devices. Later in the morning I get out and lift weights before the day gets too hot. I relax a bit and watch the Hungarian Grand Prix in blazing hot weather with tires not lasting as long as they should.

I start Monday with a run/walk over an hour long. It's getting to the point where I have confidence in my previously-injured left Achilles tendon and I'm hoping confidence in my claves (which tended to limit my running). After a very cool shower I watch a fun Moto3 race from the Czech Republic and throughout the day mix up reading, working on some statistical algorithms, and watching the stock market as it plunges almost 3% today.

Tuesday starts with a very good road bicycle ride of 65 kilometers. It takes me a while to get started, but then I'm cranking quite nicely. A cool shower feels good and then I start the laundry and watch a good Moto2 race from the Czech Republic. Today is a bit of a slow day but I play with some algorithm ideas and other experimental ideas that might or might not lead to something in the future. Late in the day when the weather is cool I go water the roses and relax for the evening.

On Wednesday I have one of my obsessions. Sometimes I get an idea in my mind, can't let it go, and end up spending a lot of time on it while ignoring almost everything else. Today it's the Traumatic Intervention System that I'm working on. Early in the morning I'm awake and working on the website to pitch to the state as well as the framework for the working app. Before I know it noon has passed. I get out and edge and mow the lawn, but don't lift weights as planned. I take a cool shower, get to the library for more books to read, and go to a coffeehouse to work on the trauma system and app and to meet up with a friend who I'm putting his website together for. We spend a fair amount of time throwing around ideas on how he can increase attendance at his event as opposed to working on the website. But he hadn't looked at the site for a few days and was surprised that it was pretty much ready to go (as soon as he gets his speakers, his program, and his location nailed down). Afterwards I drive home and have vegetables and rice and cheese for dinner while relaxing. No exercise today (except for the yardwork).

On Thursday I start out a day early for my traditional "one mile cycling for every year old" birthday ride. I start a bit slow and start cranking along nicely. Only for about 8 miles on the way back home do I feel a bit tired and feel a few aches and pains. And then they all go away. And I continue on to 62 miles and throw in another 1.5 miles since my brther would be about 63.5 years old now if he were still alive. As opposed to last year where I struggled the last 25 miles, today I finish strong and feel strong and even make an appointment with my third cousin to ride on Friday morning. Maybe the slow day without much exercise was good for today's birthday ride. I spend the rest of the day recovering from the ride, reading, working on a couple of websites (but without the obsession), and trimming the roses.

I ride the mountain bicycle down to the ocean trail and meet up with my third cousin and we ride for a bit, stop for juice or coffee, and ride some more before he has to go to work. It's mostly a recovery and social ride for me after yesterday's long birthday ride. At home I relax a bit and work on websites and have a generally slow day.

I've had a hankering to go out clubbing for a while since I haven't really gone out since I was in Vietnam at the end of 2017. Thus late on Friday, after Thursday's long bicycle ride and Friday's shorter ride and other activities, I'm driving up to West Hollywood to find clubs to have fun at. I hit three different clubs with the last one the best with great EDM/dance music. At the third club I run into a Burmese friend who I have not seen in many years and as we're hugging I'm speaking to him in Burmese and he's shocked that I can speak ANY Burmese. But I tell him that I've visited Myanmar (formerly Burma) twice. However, it is at the second club that I fall in love with Person X_XX even though he has a girlfriend. At first I think that I know Person X_XX from the CSULA campus, but he says he was not a student there and is an accountant (and his girlfriend is in the film/entertainment industry). Regardless I keep thinking about Person X_XX when I leave the second club for the third club and when I'm driving home at some ridiculous hour after two long days.

The alarm goes off at 5:55 on Saturday morning and I'm thinking of Person X_XX. I shut the alarm off and sleep for another 45 minutes and start my day. After regaining consciousness I go lift weights and have a great session. How can this be when I've had all of these bicycles rides lately and no sleep? After a cooling shower I load the car up with chemical and electronic waste to responsibly recycle. As usual, everyone at the recycling place wants to talk to me about my World Rally Car. But I deflect all of their questions with a "Is this the line to the Wonderland Rave?" I get back home and watch exciting qualifying for the Asurian MotoGP race. (F1 was in Austria last week and now MotoGP is there. Should I plan that sort of trip for next year?)

I start Sunday with a good 40 mile ride and I run into my runner friend Archie just as he is finishing his run. I stop and give him my contact information because he's a nice guy but I do't want to interrupt his workout and mine to talk - we can talk/chat/text while free. At home I watch a super exciting MotoGP from Austria where the race is decided in the last corner (again at Austria). Afterwards I start working on video editing. What? For this human trafficking related conference the organizer is in over his head so besides doing the website I tell him that I'll try to use a free video editing program to create a video with transitions and pictures and video cuts. After a false start on Saturday night, by 2 pm I have a 1 minute video with multiple clips and transitions to show the organizer as a sample of what can be done. Later Person C_Ch comes over and helps take my mind off Person X_XX.

On Monday I shut the alarm off, think about things, and go back to sleep until 7 am. I get moving and start laundry and trim the neighbor's side bush that is hanging over my fence and do other little things around the house to keep moving. I take a quick shower and run some errands. Back at home I go do a workout for the abdominals/core/lower back, play around with the tuning of the motorcycle, and then do a semi-hard prune of the roses. (I usually do this in September, but I want to jumpstart the rose blooms before I leave the country again.) I grab another shower and start another load of laundry and realize that I've been awake since 7 am and it is approaching noon and I have not sat down yet. This is good! I finally sit down to watch a tremendously exciting Moto2 race from Austria where my favorite team has two riders threatening to win and both get taken out throughout the race by mistakes from other riders. Later I continue work on websites that need work for rollouts.