Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, March 16, 2020 8:02 PM

Did I Make It?


On Tuesday night I have to sleep on my left side or on my back to avoid the right eye resting on the pillow. Sound familiar? A few months ago when I broke my ribs it was staying on my right side and back. But I have a decent night of sleep and just hang out to start the day. At mid morning I get down and paint the last run of the baseboards. I'm happy to have this finished and they look beautiful. I put all of the painting materials and supplies into the garage in order to take some time off. I have to either start on the interior walls or the interior doors. I'll procrastinate on this for a while. The eye scar is not bleeding and I ice the area and rub it down with rubbing alcohol and put neosporin on it. But I keep it uncovered to let it air out since it is not threatening to bleed again. I'm bored today because I can't ride the bicycle, shouldn't lift weights (and because my right shoulder hurts from the fall), probably shouldn't go walking, and not feeling quite motivated to work on the neural networks (they need to simmer a bit) or the "generic template" for a web-based database/artificial intelligence process that could be useful in the future.

I wake up earlier again on Thursday and mill around until my ear appointmnt. Nobody expects to see blood and a black eye, so everytone that I see I say, "This is what Dr Cohen did to me when I didn't follow his orders". Of course they know that I am joking, but some of them play along and promise "to get back at Dr Cohen" regarding his treatment of patients. When I see the doctor he makes a comment and I just say something like "You didn't have to hit me if I didn't perfectly follow your oders". He laughs and I continue to like this doctor. He vacuums out more junk from the ear and says that we things are looking good with the ear and that I should come back in a few weeks. He also goes through a brief head trauma protocol but as we do this I explain everything that I have done and he se sees that there probably is no serious damage. I like this doctor! At the end of the appointment I give him a hug, and I'm near tears, and thank him for being agggressive at trying to restore my hearing. Back at home I wash the motorcycle and polish the windscreeen and then relax for a fair amount of the afternoon.

On Friday morning I have a serious though about going out for a bicycle ride. But when I removed he sleeping bandage, to prevent accidental itching and re-opening of the wound throughtout the night, there is a bit of bleeding. So I bypass the ride. At mid morning I take my time and wax the Yamaha YZF-R1 and it looks beautiful. Not like new, but beautiful considering it's age of 18 years. After a short break, I edge, trim, and mow the lawn and do some other cleaning up around the yard. It feels good to move around and sweat for an hour during this activity. After a shower I ice my eye and re-apply the Neosporin to promote healing and reduce infection chances. After the disappointment of NOT cycling this morning, I vow to take extra care today and tonight so that I can ride on Saturday morning. Throughout the data I try a number of neural network training datasets and am still not satisfied. Tere MUST be a way to optimally select a training set that covers the entire subspace. Throughout the day I go from room to room and look to see what has been used or not used in each room for a long time. I find quite a few things that have not been used for a very long time and I set those aside for next week's recycling event or for a delivery to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Late in the afternoon I get down on my hands and knees and wax the wheels of the Yamaha YZF-R1 and declae its cleanup and waxing complete.

It's a bit wet on Saturday morning and I don't want to ake any risks at this point, so I don't try to get out cycling. Near mid morning I get in a struggling session with the weights. The lifts a real struggle both from the prednisone and the head impact. After a shower I get to the library - giving up on two books that were not working for me and picking up two new ones. Throughout the day I work on my income taxes and relax and do some reading. I finally overcome my withdrawal symptoms as Moto3 and Moto2 qualifying from Qatar are available. (MotoGP being cancelled sinc many of the participants are from Italy and that is a current hot spot now for the coronavirus. It's a slow day and I'm hoping for a bicycle ride on Sunday morning.

On Sunday I feel a bit lazy and the pavement is wet, but I cannot stop anymore. Thus I bandage up the head/forehead wounds, put on my cycling clothes, and get out for a decent ride. I take my time a bit today but also push for a fair amount of the way back. It feels good to be back on the bicycle and when I get home there is no blood on the bandages. I continue the day by tidying things up and putting together two piles: one pile for electrical/chemical recycling on Saturday and another pile for Goodwill probably on Monday. I keep finding small things and trinkets that I've had laying around for 40 years or more that perhaps had sentimental value. But now I'm just going to dispose of them and simplify my life. In the afternoon I work a bit on the heural networks since I'm just a bit stuck on the covariance method for selecting a rich training set. I'll figure it out soon.

I start Monday a bit lazy but finally get out of bed at 7:20 am and get on the bicycle. I want to get a couple of rides in before the rains on Tuesday and Wendesday. I feel good for most of the ride and then lose it towards the three-quarters point. So I just take my time and get on home. After a shower I run errands including mailing off my tax returns, picking up supplies atTarget, picking up lunch for later, dropping off things at Goodwill, and then some grocery shopping. At the Goodwill as I am unloading stuff, a guy sees some very old drafting equipment and templates and asks if he can have them. Of course he can! But I tell him that he should download FreeCAD and start using software because it is easy to learn. Back at home I watch an exciting and fun season opening Moto3 race from Qatar and then I relax a bit because I am tired. Since the running accident I have not slept well - is it related? I make progress on deriving good training data and utilize an idea that came to me in the middle of last night to make it work. This effort is complete for now but I'll still keep pursuing some other covariant and cross-variant ideas.

I start Tuesday because it is raining. I pick up the work on the Python/mySQL database template and make good progress. At mid morning I go lift weights and add a set to each exercise to really kick my behind. I'm sure I'll be sore on Thursday. I also do some electrical power supply studies on a small experimental device that I've been working on and have one failure and one success. (Though the success uses a higher voltage than desired and may cause a shortened motor life.) After a shower I walk to the store for supplies and watch an exciting Moto2 race from Qatar. In the afternoon I have a hard time picking up the Python mySQL work so I relax and just watch a lot of news. But later I pick it up and it starts going easier than I expected. I kept dreading doing this set of tasks, but by the time for reading and sleep I'm almost halfway done with the subroutines that need to get written.

Wenedsay, Thursday, and Friday are a bit blah because there's the treat or real rain to prevent cycling, I'm afraid to go run again for now, and I just do my best with weight lifting workouts. I make progress on the Python/mySQL process. On Friday we have a teleconference with the CSULA team since CSULA has advised a "self quarantine" as much as possible and next week's classes will all be held via alternave means such as webinars and videos.

There's a threat of rain on Saturday, but I don't really care. I get out cycling and get rained on for a few miles on the way to the old yach club. Along the ocean and beached of Long Beach there is no rain and a good headwind going out and a good headwind coming in. And then back up the Los Angeles river trail and there's more rain right near home. I enjoyed this ride! I rinse off my cycling clothes with the garden hose and vow to clean up the bicycle later. The warm shower feels great and I get to the library for two more books, get "stoned" at the electrical/chemical recycling waste center as they are closed (Couldn't they have announced this on their website?), pick up lunch for later, and patiently wait in long lines at the grocery store as people are panic buying. Back at home I continue work on the Cat Blaster with more components glued in place and ready for a first trial tomorrow. And I do wash down the bicycle and even pull out some steel wool to buff away some rust on the derailleurs. It's already beeen a productive day so I watch some documentaries and then grab lunch during other videos.

I wanted to go cycling on Sunday with the new road bicycle rear tire, but I cannot answer the bell. Instead I get gasoline for the car, go to the grocery store and see that there are long lines and the shelves are empty, pick up lunch for later from Subway, and pick up a few minor supplies at CVS and 7-11. Back at home I mow the lawn which has grown nice and green since the recent rains. And then I make a few trial runs of the CatBlaster Model 0. It's able to shoot water six feet away easily and even at twelve feet it can hit a target though the spray is diverse by then. I try a higher voltage battery from a weed wacker and it really wants to shoot, but then quits. I hope that I did not fry the pumping motor.

On Monday I'm lazy and work on websites, formatting, backend programming, and other processes. Blah day! I visit one of my financial advisers and we make a move or two to reduce volatility and to wait things out until the entire covid-19 blows over.