I wake up on Tuesday morning with a 0.5 degree fever and both upper arms are sore (not just the one where I received the Covid booster injection). The upper arms are probably sore from Saturday's tree trimming on the ladder and using the long sawpole. Where's the fever from? Nonetheless I get out for a good 65 kilometer road bicycle ride and I run into the typical Tuesday group so I slow down and talk with them for a mile or two before pushing on. After the warmup, I crank along nicely. Ai home I trim the roses, grab a shower, and sign up to receive social security and Medicare when I turn 65 in August. I still have some choices to be made for Medicare, but the process is moving forward now. There's an exciting Moto2 race where another first time winner stands atop the podium. And later I do some extra financial planning and Netflix binging and help the CSULA students as they push to their final precentation on Thursday.
I'm out the door on Wednesday at 6:30 am for a ride to the old yacht club and back to home. At home I trim and mow the lawn and get cleaned up. There are some things to do for the CSULA students and we have a final trial presentation run near 6pm before tmorrow's in-person presentation. Otherwise today is a slow day.
I'm out of bedt at 5:35 am to go run/walk before cSULA activities. It's a 65 minute run/walk where nothing threatens to hurt and the amount of running is creeping up again. After a shower I ride the motorcycle up to CSULA for the all day Expo - where the student design teams make presentations and have poster session of their projects. I've been roped into being a joint aerospace/automotive session modeerator and I keep things moving and on schedule from 9:30 am until almost 2pm. I pull a question or two out of the bag for various teams when the question and answer sessions stalls out. My session was the longest one and I think I'm the last person to pick up a boxed lunch and walk over to the eating area. I sit with some CSULA faculty and staff and talk about things before re-uniting with my team at their poster. The team does something that no team has done to me before - they give me a handwritten thank you card from each member and an Amazon gift card. And whether it is appropriate or not in this Covid era, I give each of myy students a hug (I'm masked up) to show my appreciation and say to each one as I hug them "You shouldn't have done that". But it is appreciated. And finally I ride the motorcycle back home. It's been a long day and I'm exhasuted and I'm glad I went running before the Expo because it probably wouldn't have happened now. And I relax and eat my second boxed lunch for dinner and watch Netflix or television.
Friday is a bit slow but I run some errands and clean up some CSULA work and get in a good session with the weights. I just veg out for a while watching television and ride the mountain bicycle over to the First Fridays event. This is the first First Fridays event that I've gone since well before the Covid pandemic started. I wander around and start back towards home. I run into one of the workers from Vons who I usually talk with and he introduces me to his family and we share travel and pandemic and the usual stories. ANd I get down for very deep sleep tonight.
I start Saturday on the road bicycle north on the Los Angeles river trail. It takes a while to find my legs, but I get up to a good turnaround point and head south on the San Gabriel trail. I pick up three riders and drag them along at a good pace for fourteen kilometers until I have to turn off on Del Amo to head for home. The three riders thank me for the long pull. Back at home I tired and get a cooling shower and eventually get lunch while watching an old movie. Later I catch F1 qualifying from the inaugural Grand Prix of Miami and just have a slow day.
Sunday starts with me getting on the mountain bicycle at 6:20 am. Today there is a southeasterly wind, so both of the legs down to the old yacht club are into the wind. So despite my legs being tired from yesterday, I push to the old yacht club and then with a tailwind coming home I just ride a normal pace. I trim the roses and read the news before setting up the Python script to update the Long Beach crime statistics and later watch the F1 race from Miami. Only a safety car towards the end, from an accident between two of my favorite drivers, puts the overall results in doubt. Late at night, after an urging during a telephone call, I work on a web scraper for a little project that my friend is working on. But I finish the scraping part before it is even time for reading and sleep.
I'm out of bed at 5:50 am on Monday morning. I upload the completed Long Beach crime maps and statistics to the web and read the news and markets. Today I walk to the grocery store and pick up a few supplies that have been dwindling. Near mid-morning I get out and lift weights and then do some maintenance on the road bicycle brakes and steering head. After a shower I work on the next step for the web scraper and just have a slow Monday.
I start out Tuesday on the road bicycle rather tentatively after the maintenance that I did on it yesterday. I keep checking the steering head bolts to see if they've moved or loosened and I've brought the appropriate sized wrenches with me. But the steering is good and the bolts don't moe and I get in a good 65 kilometer ride. AT home I check the tightness of the bolts and they are still good. I get in a warm shower and read the news and markets and get on the motorcycle before noon to ride down to the main Long Beach library for more books. On the way home I stop in at the CVS pharamcy for more bandaids (for running blisters) and a bottle of wine. I try to watch a movie through the Long Beach Public Library (which I have done before) but it doesn't seem to work now. I can login and select a movie, but it doesn't play. Weird! Later I watch some of the Los Angeles Kings' playoff game.
I'm out the door to run/walk at 6:10 am and am greeted by two raccoons a few houses down from mine. The first raccoon crosses the street in front of me and the second one, a bit tentative, waits for me to pass and then follows me for a couple of houses before crossing the street. Today's seventy minute run/walk goes very well - nothing hurts or threatens to hurt. Is it the few pounds that I've lost recently? At home I cool down and wait a short period of time before mowing the lawn, trimming along fences, and trimming the roses. Now I'm tired and I get in a warm shower and start laundry. I Zoom into the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting and continue to try and learn and see where I can help. By the time that the LBHTTF meeting has ended adnd I've finished a long phonecall (predominatly on hold) with the socialsecurity adminstration, it is 2pm and I haven't eaten a thing yet today. Thus I cook some vegetables and burritos and relax with some Netflix. From there the day is relatively slow.
I snooze the alarm a few times on Thursday and finally get out the door at 6:32 am for cycling on the mountain bicycle. Today I enjoy the ride (almost as always) more than usual. I know this is a recovery ride and I just take the windy conditions in stride and push at times and settle back a bit. At home I get in a shower and go to the grocery store for suuplies (as well as to buy non-persihable items for the typical mid-May USPS food drive on Saturday). I do some maintenance on the garage and read the news and markets and do minor cleans of the bathrooms. (I do not get on my hands and knees to clean the floors this time.) Later in the day I watch the Los Angeles Kings' playoff game.
I get a few extra minutes of sleep in on Friday and don't get out of bed until 6am. I read the news and the markets and eat a muffin before starting my activities. I trim the roses and loosen up the rear brakes on the road bicycle. It turns out the brake mechanism was just dirty and dropping some lubricant into the joint and working it back and forth (off the bicycle) frees it up. At mid-morning I get in a good session with the weights. In the afternoon I watch FP2 for MotoGP and Moto2 from France and then watch a movie and the ice hockey playoffs. I want to continue the conversion of a website backend from Perl to Python, but it doesn't happen today.
I'm out the door on the road bicycle at 6:17am on Saturday morning. Today, for whatever reason, I decide to just ride 65 kilometers instead of the usual Saturday 80 or 90 kilometers. I feel strong throughout the ride and perhaps wish that I would have a done a longer ride. At home I take a cooling shower and go for a quick trip to the grocery store for supplies. Back at home I feel a bit "out of it" or "spacey", but not dizzy. I read the news of the world and watch qualifying for the Moto3/2/GP, in that order, from Le Mans, France. I'm still a bit "out of it" throughout the day, so I spend a fair amount of time on the couch watching the IndyCar race and the ice hockey playoffs (where there are 3 7th game deciders on Saturday and 2 7th game deciders on Sunday). Today is very hot for May - approaching 90F in Long Beach - so laying on the couch isn't such a bad option.
Just before getting out for cycling at 6:21 am on Sunday I see that the Los Angeles Kings have lost game seven of their playoff series and have been eliminated. Today's ride is sunny at the beginning and end but with a dense layer of fog along the ocean. Still it is a good recovery ride. I trim the roses and bring both rose and carnation blooms into the house before taking a shower and going back to the grocery store for items that I forgot yesterday (or items that I feel in the mood to eat today). During the day I watch the IndyCar roadrace from Saturday. And despite the Kings being out of the playoffs, I watch some of the two 7th games in the first round of the ice hockey playoffs. At one point I get up off the couch quickly, get dizzy, and fall to the floor - banging my hip on the floor and knee on the table. (I've been trying to lose some of the Covid weight gained and sometimes if I get up quickly, I get a bit dizzy.) Instead of immediately jumping up off the floor, I just lay there for a few minutes - taking stock of what hurts. Finally I get up and put an ice pack on my knee and expect soreness at various bodyparts for the next few days. Later in the evening I get out to watch the lunar eclipse and blood moon, though it is not as large nor as bright as some previous blood moons.
Monday is a slow day. I'm out of bed at 6:05 am and I read the news and markets and continue converting a website from a Perl backend to Python. I've made great progress by 11am and I take a break to work the abdominals, lower back, and core muscles. I grab a quick shower and watch the fun Moto3 race from France - which has to be stopped and restarted because of rain. But good action throughout the field. I go back to the Python conversion and by 5 pm four of the five processes are finished and the most difficult one is left for Tuesday or so. I take a break to watch some Netflix and then spend another ninety minutes later at night to make good progress on the last Python process. That last difficult one is more than halfway complete before I get down for reading and sleep.