Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, April 10, 2023 8:02 PM

Spring Break


On Tuesday I don't feel like a long road bicycle ride, but I still get out the door near 7:30 am on the road bicycle. Just as I'm making the northern turn onto the San Gabriel river trail, I see my Philiipino marathoner friend Archie running and I slow to a crawl so we can talk. I explain to him why he hasn't seen me for a long time because of the accident and that I am recovering very quickly. Eventually we get to Studebaker where he has to head for home and I stop and...it just sneaks out...."I love you" in Tagalog, and we give each other a hug and I turn and yell back towards him, "Thanks for always giving me a smile". I ride north to the convenient turn-around point and go back to the ocean and along the ocean trail and then north on the Los Angeles river trail for a seventy kilometer ride. Only the last 10 kilometers or so were a bit tiring. I'm worn out - probably more from the two week flu then other health issues that I have going on. After a warm shower I watch an exciting Moto2 race where my favorite rider grabs the lead, runs a very fast consistent pace, and then, though the second place rider has held onto him, he puts in some extra special laps to get the win. It's surprising that the second place rider has not crashed out trying to run the rapid pace as he has done in the past, but it bodes for a fun Moto2 season! And I just have a slow day day with no non-profit or CSULA responsibilities to take care of today.

On Wednesday morning I have a pre-planned idea to turn off the alarm and lay in bed and listen to the rain. I can't go cycling or running, so I just listen to the rain and enjoy myself. Late in the morning I get in a good workout with the weights and later finally get to the MotoGP race from Portugal. Updating a couple of websites for the new month (starting on Saturday) gets me to the end of Wednesday.

It's raining on Thursday morning and I enjoy listening to the rain. Though I'm out of bed at 5:45am to read the news and take care of a few things. I notice that the rain should stop by 9 am, so I have some breakfast and then drive over to Liberty park. Though the track is very wet, I still get in eighty minutes of half running, half walking. Back at home I pull the mountain bicycle off and decide to re-pach the rear wheel bearings since I'm starting to hear noises again (though I just re-packed them back in December). Today I mess it up the first time and don't get the ball bearings seated into their races and there's a clunk-clunk sound as I spin the tire. But I realize the problem and get the ball bearings seated and it seems to be okay. I ride the bicycle up and down the street and we'll find out this weekend if I've fixed the noise problem. I update a recent minimum distance algorithm with new Long Beach city council districts. Fortunately Long Beach did not mess with the format and the new council districts are a pure drop in to my code. Later I have a Zoom meeting with my CSULA team - a Thursday Zoom meeting during spring break rather than a Friday in-person meeting.

I start Friday at 5:45am and wait until 7:30 am to get for a ride on the road bicycle. I have a decent seventy kilometer ride that had a "tired period" for eight kilometers near the two thirds distance. After a quick shower and half a piece of bread, I ride the motorcycle to the main Long Beach library and return two books and pick up four new ones. At home I watch FP2 for the F1 race from Australia, talk with a friend on the phone, and then go mow and trim the lawn. When I get back inside I have some real food with FP2 for both Moto2 and MotoGP. At 6pm I have yeaterday's delayed Zoom call with the CSULA team. The meeting starts out fine but at some point three members of the team are asking for specific task assignments for this week to push the design along. And oone other team member is getting in the way - as if he/she wants to "hoard" the design and maybe claim 100% of the credit. A shouting match ensues and I just stay silent - this is the first time I've been involved in a shouting match on Zoom or a shouting match between students. Fortunately the free version of Zoom times out and when everybody re-connects, the "hoarding" member does not come back online. I just try to suggest various task assignments for people to push the design forward and if they need information from the "hoarder", then they should either make an assumption or parametrically calculate for it. The Zoom meeting finally ends and I've got emails coming to me from each team member. And, fortunately, the "hoarder" sends an email to all of us apologizing for his entire behavior and promises to do better. Time will tell. But I need to report this to the head of senior design and I do and he says we should talk about it on Saturday or Sunday. It's been a productive day and I'm tired and want to forrget about the Zoom meeting and I look forward to good sleep and a fun Saturday.

I start Saturday with a mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home. There's a bit of click, but I'll ride the bike a few times and see if its just a dry spot in the ball bearing grease or they need to be re-packed again. After a shower I watch qualifying for the F1 race from Australia. In the afternoon I ride down to Long Beach City College for a southeast asian festival. I'm a bit disappointed that most of the singers choose to cover English pop songs rather than sing in their native language with their native music. Exxcept the Burmese man does sing in Burmese a pop song popular with the Karen people of which he comes from. After a while I check out all of the information booths and then ride home to do the laundry. And later I watch the Moot3/2/GP qualifying from Argentina.

Sunday's mountain bicycle ride starts a bit earlier than lately because the evening was a bit warmer and because I want to get finished to get to the Khmer new year's parade. The ball bearing click is only intermittent and is reduced in noise level, so maybe I can ride a few more times and it will be gone. I ride the motorcycle down and wait for the parade to start - it always starts at least thirty minutes late. I enjoy the parade and at one point as I'm yelling hppay new year in Khmer, this one family starts speaking to me in Khmer. I can barely get past "Hello" and "How are you" and "Thank you". But we switch to English and they're surprised that I've been to Cambodia a number of times and specifically to their home town of Battambang. I mention the "warrior with the stick" at the entrance to the city and the temple "Ek Phnom" and they know I've been there. Finally the parade ends and I rush home to cook pasta and watch a weird F1 race from Australia where the organizers trhrow a red flag and stop the race for every little thing. And they throw the red flag with one lap to go so that when the race restarts, the cars will just drive around the track without being allowed to pass, and the race will end. A weird race but it sees some of the lower teams do well. My legs are tired from all of the riding and running so Sunday is a slow day after the ride and parade.

On Monday morning I drive to Liberty park to run/walk. Even for the first kilometer of walking my legs are stiff from all of the recent cycling. But they get going and I have a run/walk of ninety minutes. After a shower I do some grocery shopping and watch the IndyCar race from yesterday. I also clean the hardwood floors and vacuum my bedroom carpeting. In the afternoon I get the courage to send off an email to the CSULA team that I inherited about the disastrous and contentious Zoom meeting that we had on Friday. I try to be compassionate as well as outlining what needs to get done. And later I relax with the MotoGP sprint race from Argentina.

Tuesday morning is very windy and cold so there is no cycling today. I pay some bills, read the news and markets, offer more direction to the CSULA team, and review a potential business partnership agreement. At mid morning I get out and lift weights and do some trimming of the roses. After a shower I watch the Moto3 race. Later I glue some cracks in doors that were created when planing them down last month (I wanted to let the weather dry out before gluing them) and just kinda pass the cold, windy day. We expect some nice warm weather later this week.

I'm out the door at 7:25 am for a road bicycle ride. Its a decent ride and consider adding to the seventy kilometers, but I decide not to this time. After a shower at home I touch up all of the doors that were planed-down to stop them from sticking. The planing process generated nicks and cracks and now they can only be seen if you specifically know where to look. I watch a wet and dun Moto2 race from Argentina where there are surprisingly few crashes considering how wet the track is. I take the time to put together a list of questions to ask the new doctor during my appointment in two weeks. And then I relax with some Netflix.

On Wednesday night into Thursday morning I wake up before 3am and cannot sleep. There are a number of good ideas that come into my head and for the ninety minutes that I do not sleep, I hope that I remember these good ideas when I wake up. I'm out of bed at 5:45am and out the door for cycling just after 7am. I just do the mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home - my typical recovery ride and/or ride when I'm tired. During the ride I realize that today is the fourth anniversary of my brother's sudden death and I try to remember both the good times, the bad times, and the distant times that we had. At home I mow the lawn and then realize it is getting ragged, so I edge the lawn the sweep up the trimmings. After a shower I do some grocery shopping and make notes of the good ideas for home, CSULA, and other efforts that I had during my sleepless night. I remember them all and capture them in my notes. When I get back home I start working off the list of good ideas as well as doing the laundry and chopping up vegetables for the coming days. I take the afternoon to watch the first round of the Masters golf tournament (because I like to see how the golfers escape or try to escape when they get into trouble). And then I have a slow late afternoon and evening. And I go back and read my diary entries from the events four years ago when my brother died.

I start Friday morning with a run/walk at Liberty Park. I was aiming for eighty minutes but I think I messed up the timing and probably only got in sixty minutes. After a shwoer I read the news and take care of little things around the house. And then ride up to CSULA to meet up with the team that I inherited from two MIA advisors. We make good progress and decide on the content for the Expo poster and presentation. I ride on home and by the time that I get home I'm having second thoughts about one of the analyses that we did for the intercooler. So I send an email to the CSULA students and I also ask the senior design professor in charge for a contact to get a model 3D printed.

I start Saturday with a super road bicycle ride. Where did this come from? I crank quite nicely up to the El Monte dam (past the El Monte airport) and turn around go crank on home. I'm up one full gear almost everywhere. Where did tis come from? When I get home I'm not that tired and have a nice shower and finally watch the MotoGP race from Argentina in the nasty rainy conditions. Later I meet up with Person W_Ca and we have a nice visit before he has to go home to do his laundry and clena his room. I hope we hang out again soon.

I start Easter Sunday early getting out the door at 6:25am for a recovery mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home. After yeterday's hard and fast ride, the legs still feel good. At home I handle a phone call for almost an hour and then mow and trim the backyard. The grass is growing rapidly now due to all of the rain that we've had. After a shower I try to buy OTC products online from my Medicare Supplement plan, but they are all out of stock. So I'll have to call them on Monday. And during today's ride I see the green cord of the mountain bicycle rear tire becoming visible - indicating it is near the end of its life. So I order a new one and two replacement inner tubes. This Schwalbe Marathon rear tire has lasted since 2014 - I'm completely sold on the Schwalbe Marathon line of products (and have been for quite a while). There might be an occassinal flat tire, but the lifespan of these tires is incredible. And it's not even the Schwalbe Marathon Plus. After reading the news I watch the final round of the Masters and have a fairly slow day.

Monday is a pre-planned day off from cycling and running. I've had five consecutive days of cycling or running and the legs need a break. I get up a bit late and read the news and have some phone calls and update the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force website and deal with some CSULA issues. At mid morning I get in a good session with the weights and it's probably time to increase the weights again - still tring to be careful of the torn rotator cuff muscles in the right shoulder. After lifting I a do a lot of weedwacking and trimming of the rose beds - though not as much as I intended. I intended to get down on my hands and knees and go from rose bush to rose bush and give it a thorough cleaning. But my heart isn't in it today. During lifting weights and trimming the roses with equipment from the garage, I notice a number of things disheveled and some liquid on the floor near the side door. There's definitely an animal in the garage or at least using my garage to sleep in. I poke around a bit and notice a pile of poop and realize that this cannot be a rat. It has to be a possum or maybe raccoon. I take some time to seal off the bottom of the garage side door from the inside out - hoping to give me a clue overnight as to whether the animal is inside trying to get out or possiblly outside coming in. I get to the liquor store and buy a bottle of wine and sip from it throughout the day while taking care of minor paperwork issues and cleaning issues. There is no motivation for serious activities from Ray today.