On Tuesday I start the day with a good, chilly 65 kilometer ride. I consider going longer, but decide to stop at 65 kilometers. After a shower I pick up supplies from the grocery store and catch up on the the Olympics - cross country skiiing, long track speed skating, and short trak speed skating. Before I now it the the day is dark and it is time to catch up with overseas people and then head for reading and sleep.
I cannot answer the alarm on Wednesday morning and end up sleeping until 7 am. I get up and read the news and late in the morning go for a 65 minute walk in the warm sunshine and then mow the front and back yards. I'm pretty tired all day so I don't get much coding done but catch up on Olympic short track speed skating and some cross country skiing.
After Wednesday's lousy feeling and lousy energy day, I start Thursday with a decent ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I spot-water a few parts of the front yard that are lagging behind, get a shower, pick up supplies at the grocery store, and then start working on the non-profit tax return. It takes a few tries to get the newly required efile to work, but I think that I am on track. After noon I wash all of the hardwood floors and now realize, near 1:30pm, that I have not eaten anything yet today. So I prepare some modified macaroni and cheese and finally sit down to catch up on the Olympics that I have recorded overnight.
I'm on a mission on Friday and I'm at my desk working on a Python GUI by 6:10am. Before I know it I've had a cinnamon muffin and it is already 1pm. I'm making great progress. I take the time to go lift heavy weights again and they are still a big struggle. And after checking out the roses and grabbing a shower, I watch some Olympics cross country skiing and short track speed skating. And later I have a Zoom meeting with my CSULA team. I share the Python GUI "look and feel" with the CSULA team and say that it is a low priority for our project, but if we need it, we can do it.
It's going to be another warm day and I'm out the door at 6:19 am for a good road bicycle ride. I again go up to the Whittier Narrows dam and past to a convenient turn-around point. I just keep cranking away smoothly on the way home and wish I would have gone longer up to the Santa Fe dam. But I end up at 80 kilometers. The schoolteacher comes over for more computer help and we talk about all sorts of things for an hour. In the afternoon I watch more of the Olympics with 90F in Long Beach and snow in the surroundings for the Beijing Olympics.
After a reasoanble night of sleep I'm out the door on the mountain bicycle for a recovery ride at 6:30am down to the old yacht club. It's a decent ride where I feel like pushing at certain times and feel slow at certan times. Back at home I trim the roses, grab a quick shower, run an errand on the bicycle again, and then sit in and start some GUI coding. The original GUI coding that I sent over to the CSULA students is a bit clunky and I work on making it more compact and less clunky. I soon notice it is 1pm and I have not eaten anything, so I cut up some vegetables and potatoes and finally normalize the blood sugar. Later in the day I watch a very bland SUper Bowl with advertisements that should get grades of -1 or -2 on a scale of 0 to 5. And after the Super Bowl I just relax and start counting down the nineteen days left to the MotoGP racing from Qatar in early March. (A race that I recently tried to arrange travel plans to attend and non-sensically decided to abort.)
I'm out of bed at 5:45 am on Monday and start work on the Python GUI - there has to be a way to make it more compact code. I figure out how to do this rather quickly and walk to the grocery store for veegtables and cinnamom muffins. I get out and have a good session with the weights where I've dropped the weights a bit since the previous weights were just a bit of a stretch for now. After a shower I walk to the post office and send out certified mail for the non-profit and then come home and relax with lunch and some Netflix.
I'm out the door in semi-darkness at 6:17am on Tuesday morning. Withing the first few miles there are some spots of rain. This on and off pattern of spots of rain will contrinue for the entire 65 kilometers. The rain was never heavy enough to become dangerous, just the smallest bit of a nuisance. After I clean up the bicycle from rainy ride, I get a shower and take Yamaha YZF-R1 motorcycle out for a ride since the skies look blue. But, again, there are nuisance spots of rain throughout the ride. I make one stop on this ride for some supplies that get stuffed into my backpack and I return home. Hopefully not jinxing myself, the Yamaha YZF-R1 is running fantastic ater the new battery (and rear brake pads which hardly get any use). At home I put on sweats since today is a bit chilly compared to our past weeks of unseasonably warm weather.I read the news and markets and cut up vegetablesa for lunch and stay diligent with performing five minutes of stretching throughout the day for tight muscles that I have. I end up not doing any coding and just wathcing Netflix and even checking out some beginning/senior yoga classes offerred in the area to work on some of my tight muscles.
I'm climbing out of bed at 5:30 am on Wednesday and out the door for a walk/run at 6:20 am. It's backto the cold weather so it took me some time to get the motivation going. I get in 70 minutes of a run/walk where nothing hurts or gives me an indication of a problem. So maybe slowly start to increase the time soon. The warming shower feels good and then I start laundry and read the news and markets. Late in the morning I start working on a new web dashboard (for a future project) and then go visit the dentist at 3pm. This is the last visit with this dentist since she will be retiring but she'll forward suggestions for new dentists. Today she keeps saying that I'm doing a good job but it sure seems like my teeth are a bit more sore than usual. Back at home I watch some of the Olympics and some Netflix and that ends the day before reading in bed and sleep.
I'm out the dor at 6:28 am on Thursday morning for a mountain bicycle ride down to the old yach club and back again. The weather has returned to typical winter weather and feels extra cold after the last week of warm weather. I have a good strong ride. At home I water some troublesomefrontyard grass spots, spray the junipers for spider mites, and then do some deweeding in the rose beds with a weed wacker. It isn't as thorough as spending all of the time effort of being on my hands and knees to deweeding by hand, but I'll save that until I have more motivation. I finally get a nice warming shower and read the news and markets. And make a blood test appointment for Friday.
Friday is a blah day. I'm not sure where the morning goes, but after noon I'm riding the motorcycle down for a blood test and to give other bodily fluid samples. The blood test comes back negative within 60 seconds, so life is good. And I just have to wait for other test results. WHen I get home I want to lift weights, but end up just doing a core and lower back workout. And though my CSULA students have made decent progress on the project, the things that I prioritized for the week fell by the wayside and we end up putting them together during the Zoom meeting.
I'm out the door near 6:20 am for a long road bicycle ride. Today I'm going to judge how I'm feeling and see whether to go all of the way up to the Santa Fe dam. Past the Whittier Narrows dam I'm feeling good so I make it to the Santa Fe dam. I don't stop for an energy gel, but rather turn around and head back towards home. I keep expecting an energy crash, but it doesn't come. It's more mental fatigue that slows me down a bit on today's 90 kilometer ride. After a quick shower I buy grocery supplies and, of course, there's some guy not wearing a mask. And as the store personnel keep telling hime, "We won't serve you if you don't wear your mask properly", he does pull the mask up a bit from around his neck and keeps repeating "I didn't vote for Joe Biden". When I get to the cashier, who I know, I thank her for being vigorous about enforcing the indoor mask policy. She's told me before that she has a bit of asthma, so it's both store policy and personal thing for her. And she and the bagger are appreciative of my gratititude for her thankless job of having to enforce the mask policy.
For most of the remainder of Saturday I just relax with the last bits of the Olympics and check out MotoGP pre-season testing results. I notice some swelling above the bridge of my nose and on my forehead and remember that during today's long ride, a bee found it's way inside my cycling helmet and stung me on the forehead. So I keep an eye on the swelling.
I have more swelling on Sunday morning around my forehead, nose, and eyes, so I take an Aleve and get out for the mountain bicycle recovery ride down to the old yacht club and back to home. Considering yesterday's long ride and bee sting, I don't feel bad at all. I pull out the garden equipment and edge, mow, and trim the lawn and then get a nice warming shower. I jump back on the mountain bicycle to ride to the neraby CVS pharmacy. They know me at this pharmacy so they let me park my bicycle inside the store. The main cashier looks at me and asks, despite me having a mask on, "What happened to you?" And I have to explain the bee sting and response and ask to be directed to the antihistamines since that is the suggested remedy. I eat two of the antihistamines before I"ve even left the store to get things moving along. Back at home I take the time to change the rear road bicycle tire from an old one that is pretty beaten up to a brand new one that I had ordered six months ago. Now I'm ready for more long rides. And I just take it easy on Sunday with Olympics remnants, watching some golf from nearby Riviera Country Club, and Netflix. I want to look at my face on Monday morning and see the bee sting swelling greatly reduced.
The bee sting swelling is somewhat reduced on Monday morning but it is is still a blah day as I take the OTC antihistamines. For some reason, I don't do well with any OTC medicine axcept Aleve. Just before noon I get in a good sesssion with the weights, slightly reduced from the maximums of two weeks ago, and I have a good workout. And I swear that this workout with the weights has reduced my facial swelling more than anything else. I get in a warming shower and just kinda pass the day along as the antihistamines induce drowsiness and I'm lacking motivation.