On Tuesday I walk to Vons again and return home with a backpack filled with food. From there I start my physical therapy exercises and watch an exciting Moto2 race where my favorite rider crashes out on the last lap as he tries to get first place - thus throwing the overall championship lead to his rival for the last race of the season in two weeks. Today I open up my Spyder IDE and do some coding to get back into the swing of things. I had been avoiding this because my vision was a bit blurry after the accident but I knew it would come back. And it did. Today I put together a rudimentary code to get back into the swing of things and it feels good.
Wednesday and Thursday are occupied with walking and physical therapy exercises and some Netflix. On Thursday I get a Lyft ride to the doctor's office and ask the doctor for limited driving privlieges. We talk about the physical and mental aspects of driving and decide to give it a try. And later the physical therapist comes and check on my progress and watches my gait as I walk. I'm making good progress and the PT gives me more difficult exercises to do.
Thus on Friday I get out for a 55 minute walk and grab a quick shower. And then I open up the garage and pull the car out for an initial driving trial. I make stops at the ATM (to deposit the lottery money), CVS pharmacy, Target, and the grocery store. I go home and unload everything that I've purchased and then I drive to the library to return my ballot for the upcoming election, return two books, and get four new ones. The driving was easy and uncomplicated though I'm not going to set off on a roadtrip anytime soon. At home I start the motorcycle up and sit on it as I warm it up and recharge the battery and move the fluids around. I want to get back on a bicycle and motorcycle soon! I watch some Netflix and FP2 for the F1 race from Mexico City and kinda kill the day off with some of the World Series.
Saturday is a productive morning. I'm starting to wake up earlier and earlier as the healing is taking a bit lest energy and rest as I go. I start the day with an 84 minute walk (barely using the cane). I overdid it a bit and I'll be a bit stiff until noon as a result. At home after the walk, I do some shoulder exercises and leg stretching. After a shower I update some websites as the end of the month approaches, do some financial calculations, and take care of some paperwork. Since I've accomplished so much in the morning I watch some college football games, the F1 qualifying from Mexico City, and some of the World Series.
I have horrible sleep on Saturday night into Sunday morning and I even read for an hour in the middle of the night because I can't sleep. Thus I turn off the alarm and sleep for about another hour on Sunday morning. When I get up I do my physcal therapy exercises and throw some shoulder exercises in (where I have partially torn rotator cuff muscles). It's been five weeks since the accident and the partial tears should be close to healed by now. Today I delcare a cane-free day. Except for getting out of the shower, I do not use the cane at all. I keep it close by, but not even after I've been sitting for a while do I need the cane. IU get the laundry done and watch football and watch a very strategic F1 race from Mexico City. Late in the afternoon I order a bicycle helmet online since its going to be time soon to take baby steps on a bicycle.
I sleep well on Sunday night and get out the door at 6:38 am to go walk. I get in a 65 minute walk (only using the cane at curbs or where the pavement is very uneven). At home I do some shoulder exercises and grab a shower. The morning is spent doing paperwork and making appointments and getting a clarification of what I owe the ambulance company. I just started on Medicare in August of this year and I already have abig medical expense. It turns, everything added up, my little accident cost $82000 for the 13 days in the hospital and all of the related ambulance, imaging, and other costs. Of this $82000, I owe a Medicare coinsurance (really a deductible) of $233. And I even called to understand that charge (but not dispute it after it was explained to me). Later in the day I accept the dates proposed to me for jury duty. When was the last time I got called for jury duty? September 2015. And later in the day I switch back and forth between the football game and the World Series. Well, I wanted to check out the World Series but its postponed due to rain.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I have good days of physical therapy exercises, coding, Netflix, and the World Series. I get in four full sets of the harder PT exercises and though I'm stiff afterwards, each morning I feel better. And I've decided to rewrite a prediction tool that I wrote a few years ago to read directly from Excel so that there are not two different file formats being used between Excel and Python. Wednesday is a chilly day and I've been awake since very early because there was a light rain coming down and I wanted to listen to it.
After an hour walk and a shower on Thursday morning, I run erands. I get to the library to return two books, buy lottery tickets, mail a letter, buy postage stamps, do some grocery shopping, get to the hand doctor, and finally get a haircut. At the hand doctor appointment, I tell the doctor, "The skin grows so fast". He says that I am making super progress but I'm healing too fast. Its better if it goes a bit slower. So he suggests I change the dressing everyday (rather than every other day) to accomodate my rapid healing. Later in the day I watch some Netflix and the World Series game.
Thursday night into Friday morning is very cold - down to 45F in Long Beach. I still have windows in the house open. So when I wake up, the house is very cold. Thus I start the morning slow and take my time warming up by reading the news. Late in the morning I do my physical therapy exercises, mow the backyard, take a shower, and start he laundry. Free Practice 2 for MotoGP and Moto2 from Valencia are on the calendar as both championships have come down to the last race this year. At mid afternoon a new bicycle helmet arrives and I try it on and adjust it and declare it ready to wear. And then I spend the day watching the news and Netflix.
On Saturday I'm out the door at 7:09 to go walking. Since I haven't been using the cane for any of these walks, I don't even bring it with me today. I end p with a 68 minute walk and a quick warm shower to warm up since the morning is cold. I rep;enish the blood sugar with a blueberry muffin and then drive to the Long Beach Convention Center for the robotics xprize competition (https://www.xprize.org/prizes/avatar/finals-testing). I check out the battlefield and then wander around the tech area where the teams are wokring on their robots. I end up spending a lot of time talking with UCLA students - telling them how jealous I am that they have these neat sesnrs, actuators, and processors that we didn't have in my time. And I end up butting into a conversation where I've overheard some students talking about optimal path planning and I contribute to the discussion. The students end up getting my contact information because I've given them some good ideas and they may want to follow up. After all of this walking I drive to the main branch of the Long Beach Public Library and get four new books. And then drive home. I'm going to be stiff and sore on Sunday from all of the walking and standing. At home I grab lunch and watch the final qualifying of the year for MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3 from Valencia. And after a break, I watch the 6th game of the World Series.
On Sunday I use the extra hour of the daylight savings time reversal to work on a little problem that the UCLA students reminded me of. I did a collision detection problem forty years ago and now I'm resurrecting it in Python. At 8:18 am I am climbing on the mountain bicycle to do an exploratory bicycle ride. This is the first time I've been on a bicycle since the accident six weeks and one day ago. I've had this ride planned for a week as an exploratory ride to see if any bodyparts hurt or are weak. It is a great ride of 46 minutes and I discover that the right shoulder blade area is a bit weak and my hands are weak. After a shower I watch a bit of football and then watch the title deciding MotoGP race from Valencia Spain. And then go back to the collision problem for a while before watching a bit more football. There are no aftereffects from the bicycle ride (yet).
I start Monday very early. I walk tothe AM/PM market to buy lottery tickets - what the heck? - and then I stop in at the grocery store for supplies. Back at home I work through my PT exercises for the shoulders and the legs and grab a nice warming shower. I pick up the collision detection problem and have it working by mid-morning. At least this specific case but not a generic case. Good enough. It is threatening rain, but it looks like it will all hold off until tonight and all day tomorrow. I watch both the Moto3 race and the title-deciding Moto3 race from Valencia Spain. Later in the day I watch the football game.