Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, June 8, 2020 8:02 PM

Into June


I get out for two long walks on Tuesday and stay busy cleaning things up and working on the roses. I manage to find time to watch a couple of movies. I'm certainly catching up on movies during the Covid-19 stay at home orders.

I get a good 60 kilometer road bicycle ride in first thing on Wednesday morning. Back at home I water the vegetables and roses and carnations for what is expected to be a fairly warm day. After getting cleaned up I watch a fairly harsh Netflix movie "Uncut Gems". After working on the Cat Blaster a bit I watch "The Half of It" on Netflix which just came out. These two films could not be more different - the first being very harsh and nasty in New York City and the second being very innocent in a small town in Washington state.

I start Thursday a bit slowly by paying some bills, reading the news, and updating a website. Near 9 am I get out on the mountain bicycle for a good ride to the end of the oceantrail and back home. At home I clean the roses, cut some blooms to bring in the house, and use the weedwacker (with new batteries) to get rid of weeds and grass in the rosebeds and along the side of the house. A cooling shower feels good! Durin the day I discover the Netlfix series Control Z and I watch three episodes to get started. During the day I get email from a former co-worker who is retiring after 30 years with the company (and she'll let her husband keep working because he wants to) and from the chair of the Brown University department where my brother worked that she is retiring. The Brown chair sends this email on what would have been my brother's birthday and she makes a note of it because they had worked together for so long. Later there's a Zoom meeting where, again, I just sit through it because either I don't have anything to contribute or I know that my advice will not be taken anyway (which has been occuring a lot lately for this project).

A typical Friday. I get to the ATM to deposit a check and to the grocery store for early shopping. I'm at the grocery store just before 7 am and a lady at the door stops me and asks if I'm over 60 years old. I guess the 6 am until 7 am shopping slot is reserved for seniors. So I get in and do my shopping and do some miscellaneous coding. At mid morning I have a good session with the weights and it is time to increase the weights again. After the lifting I mow the lawn and grab a shower. I watch more episodes of Control Z throughout the day and then get out for a 40 minute walk in the afternoon. I again see the football players and coaches at the park doing drills with no regard to social distancing and not a single mask in sight. Maybe people are looking at me weird for wearing a mask during walks, but I don't really care because I'm being extra cautious (and dreading a second wave of Covid-19 infections).

I start Saturday with a breezy 80 kilometer road bicycle ride. At one point I'm heading beyond he Whitter Narrows dam and come up to my turn around point and stop. ANd I get a few "thanks for the pull" yelled at me - there were 8 or so cyclists that I was dragging along that I didn't realize. By the time I get home I'm wiped out. I trim the roses and grab a shower and get on the motorcycle to get some miles on it and to pick up lunch. I spend a lot of time today lying on the couch watching telelvision shows and coverage of the "disturbances" going on throughout Los Angeles in response to the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis at the hands of police.

Sunday starts with another road bicycle ride. I get to the San Gabriel river trail and see a rider up ahead so I speed up to catch him and go around him. I hear him go up a gear and now I pull him for seven miles down to the end of the trail. At least he thanks me for the pull. But as soon as I turn right (and he turns left) I'm out of gas. I go through the motions of riding against the wind all along the ocean and then with a sidewind up the Los Angeles river trail, but my legs are gone from yesterday's long ride. I crawl the last couple of miles for home. At home I cool off with a shower and cook the yellow squash that the neighbors gave me - it's delicious! (And I think the first time I've cooked squash.) I'm worn out so the rest of the day is spent watching television and cleaning bathrooms and working on the Cat Blaster.

Monday is a typically slow day. I get out for a walk in the morning and then another walk in the afternoon so that I can finish just before a 4pm curfew put in place by the city of Long Beach (in response to the looting and fires and violence). But the curfew is a day too late as the protests and susequent looting/violence has moved to another part of Los Angeles county. Throughout the day I trim the roses and water the vegetables and do some coding and work on the Cat Blaster. At 4:30 pm there is a Zoom videoconference for the Cal State Los Angeles grads today and I make an appearance in solidarity with the new grads.

I cannot answer the bell to go cycling on Tuesday morning. Instead I energize with a Red Bull/Mountain Dew cocktail and take care of some coding tasks that I have. At mid morning I take the motorcycle out for a ride to get some miles on it and to keep the battery charged and pick up lunch for later in the day. Back at home I have a great session with the weights though I did not increase the weights as I intended. I spend some time gardening and then scrubbing the shower of soap scum as I clean myself after the mid morning activities. The afternoon is a bit slow and then I go walking for 45 minutes and take a cooling shower to adhere to the 6 pm Long Beach curfew. As I watch the protest news on televison, I can see that the protestors (and attendant looters and arsonists) continue to target various parts of Los Angeles county. Evenetually I get down for reading and sleep.

I get to the grocery store on Wednesday at 6:30 am for "senior shpppoing" only to discover that the store does not open for another hour due to some looting that occurred on Sunday night. I go back home and get on the mountain bicycle for a good ride to the end of the ocean trail and back home. After a shower I go to the grocery store and get my shopping done and continue to have fun and joking conversations with my favorite cashier. Back at home I get out and trim the roses and bring some nice blooms into the house to enliven my world in these difficult times. I take care of some banking and read the news and continue to shake my head in disgust about the state of my country, my state, and my city.

Thursday and Friday are blah days. I do have another hearing test and a visit with the ear doctor on Thursday, but they just show even more loss of hearing at very high frequencies in the left ear but improved look and response of the ear drum. Thus the doctor suggests an MRI to see if there is an aural neuroma on the left side. Surprisingly I get the MRI scheduled for just ten days away. Over the two days I do take care of the roses and vegetables and mow the lawn and get in a session with the weights and some walking. But I'm mentally unmotivated - definitely due to the grind of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions as well as the protest/looting/arson curfews and behaviors. There is nothing I can do about either situation except to keep myself safe from Covid-19 and try not to get upset about looting/arson opportunists.

I start Saturday with an okay mountain bicycle ride and run a few errands. And Sunday? Just a total blah day. I get in a walk and work on the roses and vegetables a bit, but the entire day is gone.

Monday starts with a windy road bicycle ride. But halfway through the ride the wind dies down. I get in 60 kilometers today and I feel very good and strong. When I get home I feel happy for getting in a good ride. I take time to finish cleaning up a bathroom and just relax - hoping to rest enough for another good road bicycle ride on Tuesday.