Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, November 30, 2020 8:02 PM

More Cool Weather II


Throughout the week I have some difficulty sleeping though there is no good reason for it. I get in a couple of good bicycle rides, a very heavy session with the weights, long walks, and yardwork. But still trouble getting good sleep. Maybe I'm disppointed with the difficulty in getting suitable convergence for the child abuse neural networks. Or Covid-19 fatigue?

On Friday I walk for 75 minutes before getting cleaned up and starting on a series of Zoom meetings for CSULA students. After two Zoom meetings I go lift weights faily heavy and skip the triceps exercises since my left tricep is killing me. And I finally have the last Zoom meeting and when the team sends me their drone control software with image processing I clean it up and add some features to it and say that I'll get back to them in a day or so when I've had more time to think about it.

I'm out the door for a good 60 kilometer road bicycle ride on Saturday morning. The first few miles are a struggle and then I find a good pace. Before the ride I noticed that my left elbow is very red and I'm concerned that there is internal bleeding near the left tricep. After the ride the left elbow seems the same color and affected area so after a shower I ice both the left and right triceps/elbow regions as good practice. MotoGP and Moto2 qualifying are as topsy turvy as this entire year has been and both will feature interesting races on Sunday. Throughout the afternoon I just relax, ice the triceps/elbows, and watch some telelvision and Netflix. And late in the afternoon I go back and look through the drone image processing algorithm to see what enhancements we can add as we really need to run a test on the drone itself. And I continute to keep an eye on the left eblow "red spot" to see if it is expanding, staying the same size, or decreasing.

On Sunday morning the left elbow red spot seems a bit smaller and I get out for and early and vigorous 75 minute walk. Back at home after a shwoer I do some grocery shopping and start icing the left elbow and tricep muscle. The final MotoGP race of the season is on from Portugal and it is an unpredictable as the entire season has been - the only Portuguese rider in the race on a non-factory bike runs away and wins convincingly. Hopefully there will be in-person viewing/attendance at races at the latter part of 2021. There's more ice on the left elbow/tricep throughout the day as I alternate standing out in the sun to warm up, waching fooball games, and thinking about the child abuse nueral network detection program. I put together a list of the algorithms that show promise (i.e., convolutional neural networks, primary coordinate systems, and k-means algorithms) to work on in the next few days. I've used each of these algorithms before and now I should make a generic template for each so that I can easily attack various problems as they come up.

I'm lazy on Monday morning but start coding more neural networks for the child abuse detection effort. Before I know it, it's 11am and I've been coding for more than four hours. I take the Yamaha YZF-R1 out for a ride to keep the battery charged lubricants moving around, pull the mountain bicycle out and lubricate various pieces to try and remove a "clicking" sound, and then work the abdominals, lower back, and core muscles. It's a good workout and I follow that up with the Moto3 World Championship decider and it does not go my way. Later I watch an Italian movie and then go back to coding in the evening.

I start Tuesday with a chilly road bicycle ride and I call it quits a 60 kilometers. After getting cleaned up I go to the grocery store in order to avoid the Wednesday (i.e., day before Thanksgiving) rush. When I walk up to the grocery store there are eight police SUVs and many police officers hanging out near the entrance. I walk into the store and see a police officer take off running towards the back of the store. Shortly thereafter a man, yelling and swearing and screaming, is being escorted out of the grocery store (without a mask). I don't know the charges, but I continue with my shopping. At checkout, I tease my favorite cashier, "Hey, did you call the police on me?" And she and a few other employees start busting up. Back at home I watch a tense Moto2 race where the points leader needs to finish 6th to win the World CHampionship and he manages fifth, buut with great difficulty. The rest of the day is fairly slow with some Netflix and relaxing.

I start Wednesday working oon software for a CSULA drone poject after having a horrible night of sleep. Near 11am I get in a good session lifting heavy weights and than I spend time trimming a juniper tree. I keep having to tahe the chainsaw up the ladder and then back down to change out with hedge trimmers to match the trimming tool with the tree branch thicknesses. It's not a perfect job, but the top of the juniper tree is a bit lower now and it will be easier to maintain in the future. And despite cool weather, I've drenched my shirt in sweat from the effort. After getting cleaned up the rest of the day is fairly slow. I don't even get back to the CSULA drone project or the child abuse neural networks from a couple days ago.

Thanksgiving is a blah day. I'm tired from climbing up and down the ladder so much during yesterday's tree trimming effort, so I don't go cycling and instead go for a good walk of 85 minutes. After getting cleaned up and reading the news I fast forward through another disappointing Detroit Lions game that looked so promising in the first quarter. And most of the remaining hours of the day are spent watching the free promotional HBO channels that I have on television for a few days.

I start a cold Friday morning with a deccent 60 kilometers on the road bicycle - not my best effort but not my worst. After getting cleaned up I run some errands and return home. I was thinking of washing the windows today, but maybe that will wait for a day or so. The weather should be warm and dry for the next few days. And the rest of Friday disappears with no significance.

I'm lazy on a cold Saturday morning and go shopping for food. Near 10:30 am as the sun is warming things up I get out and wash every window in the house. Wet the window, climb the ladder, soap it up and scrub, get off the ladder, climb back up to dry the window and frame off, get off the ladder, and climb baack up to windex the window. I just keep moving around the house making great progress. When I finish I rake some leaves in the corner of the yard where its hard to pick them up with the lawnmower. And then I go inside the house and windex the inside of half of the windows in the house. I've run out of steam after about 2.5 hours of work, so I take a shower and relax for the rest of the day.

The Sunday morning low temperature is 43F but I'm out the door on the road bicycle a bit after 6:30 am. Today is another ride similar to Friday's ride - not my best effort and not my worst. I get cleaned up and have a long viewing of the Formula One race from Bahrain since there's a red flag and a later yellow flag for two nasty accidents. One where the car is torn in half and bursts into flames and the second with one car ending up upside down. Fortunately neither driver is hurt and the rest of the race is decent. And then I relax for the rest of the day.