I sleep well on Monday night and get out the door for a run/walk near 6:15am. Coincidentally I had planned to take today off from cycling andf the morning is very foggy with wet pavement. So a run is a luck option. I get in a seventy five minute run. After a shower I run errands to CVS pharmacy, Target, Home Depot, the library, and Subway. The library is closed this early but I'm just returning books in the dropbox. I unload the car and start laundry and catch up on the news and markets. I expect this to be a slow day for the final day of November.
Wednesday is nasty foggy, so after I've been up and about for a while, I turn around and go back to bed. Eventually I get up and it is still very foggy. I read the news and the markets and finally get out cycling at 10:30am. It's turning clear near home but is very foggy still down along the ocean. But I get in a good ride. Afterwards I trim the roses and do some grocery shopping and watch a couple of movies on Netflix.
Thursday is a blah day. When I wake up it it very foggy and the pavement is wet. So I work on updating a website from the legacy hosting SQL database interface to the new SQL interface (which is actually a step DOWN in Python). I just plug away and make good progress. Near noon I get out and have a good core workout for the abdominals and lower back and take a shower to warm up. THe rest of the day is spent continuing to update the SQL interface, catching up on the world chess championship, and watching the football game.
I start Friday in the dark and get in a good 65 kilometer road bicycle ride. After the first few kilometers getting started, I don't have any bad periods of cycling. But today there is the highest tide I've ever seen and I have to take a detour where the high tide has flooded some of the cycling trail. This is the highest tide that I can remember. After completing the ride I trim the roses, get in a warming shower, take the motorcycle down to the library for more new books to read, and then catch up on the news and markets at home. There are only two Formula One races left and though I've closed out my web browser tabs and given up on getting to Abu Dhabi for the last race, there is still good interest in the first ever F1 race from Saudi Arabia and the Friday practice sessions. The rest of the day passes without incident except for a CSULA Zoom meeting where the team, as they should be, are panicked over the upcoming presentation that they are not ready for.
I have incredible sleep on Friday night into Saturday morning. But I'm out the door before 6:30am for a timed mountain bicycle ride up the Los Angeles river. It takes some time to get going, but I have a good ride. AFter a shower I run errrands to the post office, the ATM, and the grocery store for supplies. A wild qualifying sesion from the inaugural Formula One race from Saudi Arabia sets Sunday's race to be interesting. During the afternoon I just veg out with some football.
I get out for the standard Sunday morning recovery ride down to the old yacht club and back to home. The day threatens to be very foggy, but it doesn't delay my ride. But as I'm finishing the ride there is moisture in the air and the pavement is starting to get wet. So perfect timing for today's ride! I clean up the roses and tidy up paperwork and watch the F1 race and some football games.
I'm in bed reading and then dropping for sleep very early on Sunday night. Thus I'm out of bed at 5:20am on Monday after a good night of sleep. It's still dark outside, but today is a planned day off from cycling or running/walking either way. I start coding the Python mySQL database routines - rather, I update them to use the newer libraries because my web hosting company decided the other ones were obsolete. I make good progress and I also make naming conventions more consistent throughout various websites so that I can use them as "models" if I need to start a new website. At mid-morning I see that there is another set of monthly crime statistics from the Long Beach Police Department so I start that Python script to aggregate, analyze, and predict crime. Before noon I get out and have a good session lifting weights. It seems that I need more than two days off between lifting sessions. After lifting I patch the (hopefully) last stucco crack since I'm almost out of stucco repair compound. After a shower I set up and flush the tankless water heater and let that run for 45 minutes. It sure helps to have a self-priming pump to make the job quicker. And late in the day my CSULA team and I have a Zoom practice session for their design presentation tomorrow.
It's drizzling and wet and chilly on Tuesday so I turn over in bed and sleep very late. I get up and read the news and markets and finally go for a 75 minute walk. When I get home I paint over yesterday's repaired stucco cracks and grab a shower. I get up to CSULA and the team gives their presentation. It's a disaster! It's obvious that they are behind and under-prepared. So after the presentation we have a serious chat about it. And we'll meet again on Friday and plan a course of action. On the way home I stop for gasoline and the Yamaha YZF-R1 decides that it doesn't want to start. I'm wondering if I'll have to push it a mile home. But I think if it cools down a bit it will start. And sure enough, after I don't know how long of waiting - maybe twenty minutes - it starts up and I get home. I have salad for dinner while watching games six and seven of the world chess championship. Game six is decisive - the longest chess game played in a world championship match. And a win for the current champion.
I start out Wednesday with a chilly road bicycle ride. It again takes me a few miles to get going but then I crank along quite nicely - stopping at 65 kilometers just because I have other things to do today. At home I trim the roses and mow and trim the lawn. And rush off to lunch for Thai food with Person J_Ph. The food is great - this being the first Thai fod I've had in two years except for my own Thai cooking. (Their Thai curry is better than mine is!) But the company is somewhat of a bust. On the way home I stock up on groceries and catch up on the chess world championship match from Dubai.
It's supposed to rain on Wednesday night into Thursday morning and I keep listening for its arrival. But upon awakening the rain will not come until mid-morning. I work on making a few websites consistent in their use of Python and mySQL and have a good session with increased weights just before the rain starts coming down. The rain fizzles out and we don't get much accumulation at all. There's a Zoom Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting that I attend virtually and then have a slow Thursday in advance of a busy Friday.
What a disaster Friday threatens to become! I'm out the door in 45F weather at 6:00am for a good run/walk. Today I run/walk for 84 minutes since I'm going to be sitting in meetings at CSULA all day. Of course, the motorcycle won't start. I keep trying to start it and re-charging the battery but it doesn't want to go. So I let the CSULA people know I'll be on Zoom (which is a poor substitute for being anywhere in-person). And then, the room where the CSULA presentations were going to be held is closed because it is under construction. Thus everything is delayed and the Zoom link doesn't work for quite a while. There's nothing for me to do except to order a new battery for the Yamaha YZF-R1 despite me swearing I would never sink anymore money into it. Though I can be happy because I believe that this battery last an unheard of eight years! After two full hours of charging the battery the motorcycle starts up and the charging system is producing 14 Volts. I measure the battery when I remove it at 13 Volts and a couple hours later it is down to XX Volts. So definitely the battery is a majority of the problem. Besides removing the battery from the motorcycle for recycling, I backup my computer and do other little maintenance tasks as I wait for a CSULA Zoom session to begin. It turns out the presentations are going on without a Zoom session - so there's another little disaster.
It's a chilly morning on Saturday at 44F. But I get out on the road bicycle. And though it takes a fair amount of time to warm up and there is a nasty headwind up the San Gabriel river trail, I have a good ride of 65 kilometers. At home I pack things up, get a nice warming shower, and start my errands. I drop two books off at the library, recycle wome old electronics and paint, pick up the new battery for the motorcycle, and pick up some groceries. At home I measure the voltage of the new battery and it is 12.92 Volts - not much different than the old battery. But when installed, it is peppy and the motorcycle starts right up. I'll use the battery tender for a while and see if the new, stronger battery is really my problem. Inside the house I watch an exciting and close qualifying for the Formula One race in Abu Dhabi where they have re-purposed the track and eliminated the turns that I liked the most. Nonetheless it is a nip and tuck qualifying session with different tire strategies and Sunday's race, to decide the world champion, should be interesting. I review the world chess championship programs and there are no new results. The rest of the day is fairly slow.
I start Monday with a very cold mountain bicycle ride at 42F. Today the cold effects me more than yesterday. But I get down to the old yacht club and back to home. I trim the roses and hard-prune a few of the rose bushes which have pretty much decided to go dormant for the year. I'll hard-prune the rest of the rose bushes in the next week. A bit earlier than the start of the new year that I usually do. After a shower the final F1 race of the year from Abu Dhabi is available. For the entire race my favorite driver on my favorite team does not have the pace and is going to have to settle for second in the world championship again. But a yellow flag allows some pit stops and a weird sequence of events allows him to switch to new soft tires and wins the race with a daring pass on the only racing lap left after the yellow flag ends. It's a controversial finish but I'm happy with the results. And then I relax and entertain Person Ch_C as he visits and I watch football games.
I start Monday at 46F with a decent mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I'm tired both physically and mentally after this third ride in three days, but I keep cranking along and I'm glad to finish. Just as I end the ride a few drops of rain start falling (in advance of Tuesday's big storm) so the timing of today's bicycle ride was perfect but I won't be able to take the motorcycle out for running errands. I take the car out for a few errands and then return home for a fairly slow day. I re-watch a bit of the Formula One race from ABu Dhabi and catch up on the chess world championship match.