The first full week in May passes as a generic pandemic week. There are some good bicycle rides, some good progress on website and other analysis coding, some CSULA zoom meetings, some yardwork, and some Netflix.
On Thursday I apply for pilot programs for a Smart Cities effort from the City of Long Beach as they try to help distribute resources to homeless people and to automate some field work for the police department. The concepts are relatively simple, so I figure I can give it a shot. I download a very simple, clean HTML template and start working away.
Friday is the final CSULA presentations and I just keep my mouth shut as the year ends. I'm a bit disappointed this year. Was it the pandemic? Was it me? I can only hope that future years volunteering at CSULA bring times of me helping students thrive and students rising to the occasion to thrill me. In between Zoom meetings I make good progress on the Smart Cities efforts.
I'm out of bed at 5:50 am on Saturday morning and out the door at 6:15 am for a good road bicycle ride. After the first five miles I start cranking along quite nicely and I feel strong throughout the entire 65 kilometer ride. Maybe its time for more distance. After a shower I do some grocery shopping and get to the library to return two books and pick up a new one. From there I watch a letdown F1 qualifying from Spain and I relax a bit with some ice hockey. After the good week of coding, I'm a bit unmotivated and don't make any serious progress.
I'm out of bed again at 5:50 am on SUnday morning and soon riding north on the Los Angeles river to meet up with Derrick. We meet up and ride to the aquarium aquarium and have a good conversation. When I get home I'm sort of tired since that's two good rides in two days. I relax with a relatively boring F1 race from Barcelona and lose the day. Except I start making progress again on the Smart Cities efforts and I can see the framework that I want to propose.
I'm out of bed at 6:00 am on Monday and walk to the grocery store for some supplies. Back at home I start in on the Smart Cities efforts and I've decided to change the framework a bit. By the middle of the morning I have most of the front end work that I'm going to propose complete. I keep working along with a break for less-than-average workout with the weights. But at least I struggled through it with a "best effort" workout. In the afternoon I keep plugging away on the Smart Cities work and I've come to a place where there are details to be worked out and I just don't have the mental energy to do it today. Instead I watch some Netflix by continuing a series "Start Ups" about a twsited set of events for a start up company in SOuth Florida. (Not to be confused with the Netflix series "Start Ups" which is in Korean that I've been also watching.) Finally I get to bed for reading and sleep.
I'm still tired on Tuesday morning but I get in a decent ride to the old yacht club and back home - the legs feeling better and better as the miles pass. After a shower I run some errands - stuffing items into the pockets of my motorcycle jacket as well as in the main body against my chest as I run the errands and didn't want to carry a backpack. At home I start in on domestic chores such as laundry and baking potatoes for the coming couple of weeks. I do a bit of Smart Cities coding, but nothing serious today - I'm not mentally into it. But later at night as I'm ready to start preparing for sleep, I keep coming up with the ideas and tasks that need to be completed for the Smart Cities effort. So I'll walk back over to my office, write down the task, and then prepare for sleep. Except that this happends four or five times as I keep thinking of things that need to get done. At least they are written down and ready to be worked on.
I'm a bit tired on Wednesday morning and stay in bed until 6:15am. And then I'm out of bed in a mad rush to start the day. I get in a long one hour walk, trim the roses including bringing new blooms into the house, and then mow the lawn. I'm mowing the lawn near 8:00 am which is past the 7:00 am city-imposed "no start" curfew. After a shower I get to the grocery store and Trader Joe's and then, after putting the groceries away, I do some maintenance on the garage door and put the car away. Now I'm tired from the physical activities and work on coding the Smart Cities effort for the police. I haven't even started the Smart Cities homeless efoort, but I keep convincing myself that that effort will go rather quickly. By 1pm, after not having eaten anything all day, I'm starting to drag. But I finish up a bit more of the police effort and get a good start on a PowerPoint presentation of the effort. Now I can collapse and be a vegetable laying on the couch for a while.
I sleep until almost 7 am on Thursday. I think about skipping today's ride, but I get out to the end of the ocean trail and back home - a bit shorter than usual. I get cleaned up and keep making good progress on the Smart Cities police app. The afternoon is lost to Netflix and then an hour before bedtime I start working on one of the last features of the app. And I get it done in time to read and go to sleep.
I start Friday a shade late but today I take everything I've put together for the Smart Cities police app and convert it to the homeless effort that Long Beach wants. By the end of the morning it is finished (plus or minus some minor Javascript error checking). I also start on on the homeless PowerPoint. After noon I get in a good session with the weights and trim the roses - bringing both rose and carnation blooms into the house. And then do some minor trimming of the neighbor's violet bush that overhangs my fence. After a shower I look in the mirror and notice that the entire white part of my left eye is red - as if there is no white at all. The eye doesn't hurt and I can see fine, but the white part is all red. I'm starting to wonder if something neurological is going on since everything on the left side is giving me trouble: my hearing and ear ringing, the white spot on the gums, and now the left eye. What's going on here?
I'm out the door on Saturday morning at 6:15 am for a bicycle ride. Today I feel strong throughout and think about adding to the 65 kilometers, but I don't. I get home and grab a shower and then just relaxs with MotoGP and Moto2 qualifyiong from France where the rain keeps starting and stopping. And then I watch the Preakness STakes just because of the recent drug-poisitive horse that won the Kentucky Derby. The train of that horse has had five drug violations in the last thirteen months. And he's still allowed anywhere near a horse or track?
I'm lazy on Sunday morning and go walking for an hour. Back at home I trim the roses and bring blooms inside the house. After a shower I watch a dry but raining MotoGP race which is full of excitement and, unofrtunately, the rider I like the least of any riders wins the race. I take some time to update a couple of websites for the Smart Cities bid and then grab lunch as I page through the ice hockey playoffs and some golf. I like watching the golf when players hit bad shots and have to be creative and find ways out of trouble.
I have a slow day on Monday. I start with finishing up the Smart Cities apps. I just need to put together the story that goes with them. I try to take the motorcycle for a ride but it doesn't want to start. So I put it on the battery tender and then lift weights. Its a below average session with the weights. After a shower I watch another wild, wet Moto3 race with a surprise podium. Then I go out and the motorcycle starts up. Maybe the battery is getting weaker and weaker and needs to be put on the tender more often. And then I just relax and try to rally energy for a Tuesday morning bicycle ride.