Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, April 24, 2023 8:02 PM

The First Verdict


On Tuesday morning I go through my normal cycling process of putting the road bicycle outside and then opening up the main door of the garage to pull out the tire pump. I carefully open up the main door in case a wild animal will come running out. I notice that the blockage of the sidedoor from yesterday is twisted and somewhat moved but still intact, so the wild animal must be inside the garage trying to get out at night. After I pump up the bicycle tires I go back inside to fill a water bottle, get dressed, and load up on water before the ride. As I look outside I see two possums - one large one and a second half-size one - walking out of the garage. I go out and try to scare them away and they kinda go into my backyard and roam around. It's getting light now, so they're probably having a hard time seeing. Judging from the sizes, it's probably Mom plus a half-grown youngster. Not a baby possum as they are small enough to fit in your hand. I make sure all of the doors to the house are closed and the garage main door is closed so that they cannot get back in. After my morning wildlife experience I have a good road bicycle ride. At times I keep thinking there are a number of points where I can take cutoffs and shorten the ride, but I keep getting stronger as I go and persist for about seventy kilometers. At home I use WD-40 to degrease the rear gears (i.e., clusters) on both the road bicycle and the mountain bicycle and go grab a nice warm shower. I've also placed a couple of wooden boards on the outside of the garage side door to try and confirm that the possums are now out of the garage and may try to get back in. The only question remains as to whether Mom had another baby possum or two or three that might still be in the garage. The rest of the day is rather slow with some laundry, no CSULA work, and no Zoom call for non-profits as we had potentially discussed.

I start Wednesday driving to Liberty park and going for an eighty minute run/walk. Though these run/walk efforts are around a track which is semi-rubberized, and is good for rehabbing, it is quite boring and I'm feeling ready to get out running on the street again. After the run/walk I get home and mow the front lawn. A warm shwer prepares me for some grocery shopping and a trip to Trader Joes. As I'm pulling into the driveway I see the larger possum coming down the driveway to get out of the backyard. I try to reverse but the possum is spooked and runs (as fast as possum can run) back to the end of the backyard. At least I know where the larger possum is though I don't know where the half-size possum is. I unload the groceries and start my computer and start reading the news. When I look out the backdoor I see the possum agan making an effort to leave my backyard through the intentionally opened gate. But just as the possum is about to leave, the mailperson comes by and delivers mail and spooks the possum back to the depths of the backyard. I keep an eye on the possum from the backdoor and it doesn't seem to be bothered too much that it is daylight and possum are typically nocturnal creatures. The gate is still open and about thrity minutes later I look out the backdoor and see the possum making another attempt to walk alongside the house and out the gate. I try to follow its progress through the windows, but I lose it. Where is it? I go back to some other work and after about thirty minutes I assume that the possum is either gone or spooked back into my backyard, so I close the gates. I'll make the assumption that the possum has left my property for greener pastures. But where is the smaller possum? Before noon I join the Loong Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting a bit late due to the possum antics and enjoy listening to the Vice President Director of Law Enforcement and Training Services for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation-NCOSE. I've noticed that in the last six monthly meetings that I'm usually the only male in the meetings. Sometimes there is one other male in the meeting or maybe the Long Beach Prosecuting Attorney, who is male, is present also. From there it is a slow day though I find some interesting artificial intelligence challenges to play in and do some research on these efforts. Today, though I've cooked up a medium sized pot of vegetables, I eat the pizza that I bought earlier to satisfy my cravings.

Late on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning I hear rain falling. And I think I may have to re-arrange my cycling and lifting schedule. But when I get out of bed at 5:45am the streets are dry. Thus I go through my usual morning routine and eat some bread and get out the door for cycling at 7:15am. Some of the roads are still a bit wet, but I have a good strong ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I've seen the larger possum hanging out by the garage side door, so when I go to trim the roses after cycling I carry a shovel with me. Not to harm the possum, but to possibly steer it out of my yard and towards the street where it can take up residence somewhere else. I also read that the possums don't like ammonia, so I spray glass cleaner near the garage side door (though it doesn't have a pure ammonia smell, it might be good enough). After a shower I go to CSV pharmacy and they don't have ammonia but I pick up a few other supplies. And then I start in on an unsupervised machine learning process where the algorithm is supposed to learn how to play a game in an optimal way. I'm interrupted by a phone call from Person Ha_KY who has announced that his elderly father has passed away and I spend many hours over two phone calls with him talking about his father and life and philosophy and some of our experiemves together and whatever he needs to talk about during this difficult time. The rest of the day is relatively slow though I continue to make incremental learning progress on the unsupervised machine learning process.

I start Friday with planned day off from cycling and running and I read the news and the markets. At mid morning I go out to lift weights and when I open the main garage door I inspect the garage for any "unexplained movements" such as tipped over bottles or cans. There a re none. When I go to plug in the the motorcycle battery tender I see a baby possum at the bottom of a cleaning bucket. This is probably why Mama possum has been so interested in getting back into the garage. I take the the bucket with the baby possum out into the street and drop it off and wish it well. Today I've increased the weights for all lifts and carefully lift with reduced repetitions and get in a good workout. After a shower I ride on up to CSULA and meet with the team. During the meeting, after all that has happened, I see some members of the team dismissing the others (i.e., no tlistening to their questions or their suggestions). It's just a disaster. I try my best to get the team over the finish line for the 5 May Expo and the Final Report - there is nothing else that I can do at this point as I've inherited this dysfunctional team from two "missing in action" advisors.

On Saturday morning, despite thinking I might ride shorter, I take the road bicycle and ride up to the El Monte dam which has been completely overcome by water for the last six weeks. I used to ride across the El Monte dam and add miles to this ride, but it is no longer possible anymore. I turn back and crank along nicely and feel strong as I finish almost eighty kilometers. After a shower I pick up some supplies at the grocery story including ammonia which I can spread around the garage to repel possums who don't like the strong smell. I get out and trim the roses and should start bringing in rose blooms, but I'll do that on Monday. And then I watch the Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP QP2 sessions to determine the grid for upcoming races. And a bottle of wine that just happened to make it into my grocery shopping cart is empty by the end of the day.

I start Sunday with a typical recovery mountain bicycle ride, though today I go north on the Los Angeles river for a timed ride to avoid the street closures for the Long Beach IndyCar race. After the ride I mow the backyard which has overgrown tremendously because of all of our rain this year. I have to keep emptying the lawnmower collection bag regularly or the lawnmower will get clogged up and stop running. I then do some trimming around the edges of the lawn. Hopefully I'll stay on top of the lawn a bit better. After a shower I watch Saturday's MotoGP sprint race and one of my favorite riders gets second place. All of the MotoGP classes - MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3 - have become so competitive in the last couple of years that they are completely unpredictable. Which adds to the fun! I take an easy day from here and later watch the recorded Long Beach IndyCar race so that I can fast forward past advertisements in the coverage. And I'm happy with the results as a younger driver puts in a storming, flawless race to win for the first time.

I start Monday at the Libery park track at 6:28 am. I run/walk for 85 minutes and call it quits. During these runs I feel good and there are no typical leg running pains. I'm a bit leary of running on the street (rather than the semi-rubberized Liberty park track) but I have to do that soon. At home I trim the roses, grab a shower, top off some grocery supplies, and work on the machine learning game player. I make good progress with the classifier portion of the effort. Now to determine optimumal strategies. Throughout the day I stretch my legs from the last few days of cycling and running, watch the Moto3 race, ad watch two other documentaries on Netflix related to physical conditioning. Today is a "holding pattern" in advance of tomorrow's long-awaited doctor apointment.

Tuesday was going to be a road bicycle day, but instead I just take the mountain bicycle to the old yacht club and back to home. Then I mow, edge, and trim the lawn. Since the weather is drying out, I'll probably only have to mow the lawn once a week from now on (as is standard practice). I watch a very close and exciting Moto2 race where the two leaders are glued together for the entire race and the winner only emerges on the last lap. Very early I start riding the motorcycle up to Cedars Sinai Medical Center for my appointment. I start early just in case traffic is extra nasty and I need to find the place to park and the office. I take with me my recent medical notes, my schedule of exercise, and the tooth that popped out in December so that the doctors have a complete picture of my situation.

I meet wih two oral pathologists who are both nice and friendly (along with a medical scribe). We talk about my situation and I start to realize what I hoped was a short procedure with little recovery is actually a big deal. The procedure will take twelve hours by itself and involves reconstructing part of the jawbone with a portion of bone removed from the lower leg (fibula) and then removing nearby lymph nodes. And they expect patients to be in the hospital for two weeks afterwards. And then, to make sure that they have captured all of the carcinogenic cells that may have leaked into the jaw bone marrow and lymph nodes from the gums, is a six week radiation treatment. After our long discussion they suggest that I rush over to a dentist/periodentist/etcdentist in Century City for consultation and imaging of my current teeth so that during the twelve hour surgery, the Cedars Sinai surgeons can put in dental implants to replace the five teeth (one currently missing and two on either side) that will be missing. This entire day has been overwhelming but I am calm and just keep saying that this is the hand of cards that God has dealt me and I have to play them to the best of my ability. After leaving the dentist/periodentist/etcdentists office, I ride on the sidewalk out of the medical center to avoid paying the parking fees and then have a relatively easy ride down the 405 freeway to get home - somewhat duplicating my afternoon commute home from work for more than 28 years. (I was not clued in on how to avoid the Cedars Sinai parking fees, so I just bit the bullet and paid the $14 for a motorcycle.)

I feel like I slept decent on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. FitBit gives me an 86 score but when I look at the details there isn't much deep sleep. So how could the score be so high? Regularly I agree on my opinion of sleep with FitBit's "science", but more often than it should happen, I disagree. I drive to Liberty park and do a 75 minute run/walk to ponder my situation. At home I grab a nice warming shower and then run errnads to the ATM, CVS, and the grocery store. Back at home I change the rear tire of the mountain bicycle with the newly purchased one (but keep the old inner tube) and trim the roses. Later in the day I see that the tire has no pressure left, so I must have pinched the tube when I put on the new tire. So add "replace rear mountain bicycle tube" to the task list. I read the news and markets and just take the day to add upcoming doctor appointments to my schedule and, again, ponder my situation. I work on the machine learning game software and tidy up the clustering portion. This is the best that I can do today. There are a flurry of text messages trying to get my pre-surgery tests done sooner than the middle of May and it is still not clear when the tests are.

I get out the door at 6:15am on Thursday for a good seventy kilometer road bicycle ride. After a shower I call Cedars Sinai and we manage to schedule two of my scans, an MRI and a CT leg scan, for today. And a CT angio scan for next Tuesday. Thus at 12:15 on Thursday I'm on the motorcycle riding up to Cedars Sinai. When I get to the parking structure I can't set the sensor off with my motorcycle. So I roll back, ride on the sidewalk past the parking gates, and start to look for a parking space. A policeman sees me do this and walks over to me and before he is three feet away I just say, "I can't set the sensor off to give me a parking stub. Can you give me a parking stub?" And the officer knows I can't set the sensor off and says he only came over because other people saw me riding on the sidewalk and he says to talk to the main parking attendant - that way it looks like I yelled at you for riding on the sidewalk. I ride over to the main parking attendant and he's smiling and just says, "I know you can't set the sensor off. Just go park anywhere you want. And when you leave, just ride again on the sidewalk. I can't get you a parking stub". Okay - free parking! I have both a contrat CT scan of my leg and a contrast MRI. I'm not leaving Cedars Sinai until almost 5:30pm and traffic is a nightmare. I'm sure glad I moved to Long Beach and didn't somehow try to stay on the westside of Los Angeles. And my final scan, a PET CT scan, is scheduled for Tuesday and they are talking about a surgery date in the middle of May.

On Friday I shut the alarm at 5:40am off and sleep until about 6:50am. I've ridden or cycled six days in a row and today was a planned day off from working the legs. I read the news and markets and get in a good session with the weights. I've increased the weights and have to ice the right shoulder afterwards - all due to ice hockey injuries, overding weight lifting in the past, and torn rotator cuff muscles from the bicycle accident. I need to increase the range of motion of my right shoulder with stretching exercises - I'll put that on my task list. After lifting weights I trim the roses and then change out the mountain bicycle rear inner tube (which I probably pinched during this past week's installation because I was too rough with it or because it was very old) with a brand new one. Today's CSULA meeting has been changed to a Zoom meeting, so I work on my machine learning game playing algorithm. Somewhere I messed up the classifier, so I have to go back and fix that. Surprisingly I find this error very rapidly and can move to next steps. And then I have a slow evening in advance of an anticipated long road bicycle ride on Saturday morning.

I sleep reasonably well on Friday night and get out the door for cycling at 6:10 am on the road bicycle. I head north on the Los Angeles rier trail and keep aying that I can turn back anytime that I need to. But I feel decent and keep going and get up to the flooded El Monte dam and stop for a water break. I have a one minute conversation with a walker and we both agress that it will be man months before the crossover path at the El Monte dam is dry enough to walk or cycle across. I start back for home and finish about eighty kilometers. After a quick shower I go to the grocery stopre and read every label to check and see if it is consistent with the dietary restrictions for Tuesday's PETCT scan. And back at home I start the laundry and relax the day away - I really don't have things that need to get done except the PETCT scan and taking care of my health. Later on Saturday afternoon the neighbors have some tree trimmers come and clean up their trees. Just as I'm going out to to talk with the tree trimmers I see that they have trimmed the neighbor's side of the trees that could interfere with my Internet cable in the future. I check everything out and realize that now the onus is on me to trim back a juniper tree to stay away from the Internet cable. Is this a coincidence or what - as I had scheduled an Internet cable trimming effort for tomorrow on Sunday. Thus I sit back and relax and know that I have to trim my Juniper tree on Sunday and don't have to think about paying the tree trimmers. Their tree/bush trimming is not as far down as I would have liked, but its down enough that I can deal with it on a standard six foot ladder.

I start Sunday with a mountain bicycle ride on a very windy day. The wind is against me all of the way down the Los Angeles river and across the ocean trail to the old yacht club. But then I get a tailwind on the way home. I trim the roses and decide not to trim the Juniper tree today because it's windy and getting up on the ladder in the wind and the tree in the wind might be a bit sketchy. After a shower I just relax, go over my notes on how to prepare for Tuesday's PETCT scan, and watch some ice hockey playoff games. Certainly preparing for the PETCT scan is not as elaborate as preparing for a colonoscopy, but you need a zero carb diet for last 24 hours before the Tueday exam (which technically starts Monday at 1:30pm).

On Monday I go walking in the neighborhood for eighty minutes. Both today and tomorrow I'm supposed to avoid strenuous exercise and eat almost zero carbs prior to my PETCT scan. Thus after the walk I read the news and markets and try to get a head start on web calendar updates for the entire year for two websites that I'm taking care of. And I just relax and watch Netflix and stick to zero carbs wand lots of water.