On Tuesday I start with a 75 minute walk and grab a shower. I'm supposed to have a Zoom appointment with a doctor, but it gets delayed and becomes a simple telephone call. After the call I drive to Torrance for my first radiation treatment. I learn the process of getting ready for the treatment and , except for the mouthguards, is fairly comfortable. Afterwards I see a speech therapist and she (and her intern) evaluate my speech patterns due to the nerve damage in the jaw from my surgery. But except for sometimes rushing my F's and S's, there isn't much to be improved on. And I also see a radiation nurse and she goes over all of the rules that I have to follow when having radiation in the head/neck region. I drive on home and relax for a bit by re-watching a Netflix series from a few years ago. Later I make some great progress on the LBHTTF website.
I'm out the door at 5:50 am for a good sixty kilometer road bicycle ride. Except for a short stretch where I'm mentally tired, I feel good throughout the ride and hope for a longer ride on Saturday morning where I don't have to worry about finishing before radiation treatment. After a shower I drive to the Torrance medical center and today's radiation seems to go past quicker and the machine seems to make more noises. I talk to the technician about this and she says it gets adjusted for temperature and pressure and other factors. I drive home and duplicate yesterday by finishing the re-watching of the Netflix series and just relax.
My legs are tired on Thursday morning but I have to get out and ride. I just take the mountain bicycle down to the old yacht club and back to home. At home I do some minor maintenance on the garage door. After a shower I read the news and then have my third (of 30) radiation treatment. It seems each treatment goes by faster than the previous ones. I also speak with a dietitian because radiation can play havoc on your hydration and eating patterns and I grab the literature and won't worry about it until I see some changes. I drive on home and finally eat lunch near 1pm and watch some videos. Then I work on a long-delayed, but long desired baseball algorithm project. Ive thought about it a lot but now just taking the first detailed steps to get different ideas running. Today is another very hot day in Long Beach and southern California so I take the day easy.
I start Friday with an eighty minute walk (and a few running steps thrown in at various intervals), mowing the lawn, and trimming the roses. I have just enough time to get cleaned up and get to Torrance for my radiation. On the way back home I stop in at the library for three new books and then buy supplies at the grocery store. In the afternoon I spend time working on the baseball batting lineup optimization program and get the game simulation to work and now I just have to work on "candidate" optimim batting lineups to evaluate. A request comes in for me to review a memo of understanding between two companies and it seems like a mess. The first sentence in the Introduction is 43 words long with many other long sentences throughout the document. In fact, there's one parapgraph that consists of a single 88 word sentence. Regardless of a person's skill level in English, this is not how to make a clear, crisp memo of understanding. A very exciting and strategic stage of the Tour de France occupies some of my viewing time.
Saturday starts with a seventy kilometer road bicycle ride during which I feel pretty good. WHen I get home I check my FitBit and see that I had more than seventy minutes in the red zone. So I'm pretty tired when I get home though the legs felt decent. After a cooling shower I cook some French fries (because I have the craving) and watch some golf. In the afternoon I feel bad about being so negative about yesterday's memo of understanding so I provide some clear, concise language for the Introduction and send it off for review. They can reject it, accept it, edit it, whatever - but at least I added something positive to point in the direction that I think it should go. Later I work more on the baseball lineup optimization algorithm and then watch a super fun stage of the Tour de France up the Col du Columbier and then check out the Dodger's game.
On Sunday I ride the mountain bicycle downn to the old yacht club and back to home. Today there is a triathlon going on and cyclists have to wait until guided across the triathlon running circuit. My legs are tired from yesterday's ride but I feel good. But on three occasions I hear plastic or metal pieces fly away as I'm riding but I cannot see if they came off the bicycle or I hit three different objects. At home the bicycle looks good with no missing pieces, so it must have been foreign object debris strikes. The IndyCar race is only on Peacock so I miss that. But there's an incredible wild and strategic mountain stage of the Tour de France and though my favored rider doesn't gain time, it was fun to watch.
Monday is a planned day off from cycling but I go walking for eighty minutes. At home I trim the roses and grab a shower before heading to the hospital for radiation treatment. At home I notice that my request for a brand new pueple recycling bin has been approved and distributed to me. The other one was of indeterminate age and I had tried to plastic weld it back together a few times. And a few of the neighbors were teasingly giving me a hard time about all of the wide open cracks in the old one. There's another multi-mountain stage of the Tour de France to enjoy and I also catch the Dodgers' game.
I sleep horribly on Monday into Tuesday according to my feel - but just a bit below usual according to FitBit. I get out on the mountain bicycle and add an extension to a typical ride. I get cleaned up and have my radiation treatment - which sure seems to be going quicker these days - and then I meet with the doctor for a weekly visit. We have a good discussion and he warns me of potential second week side effects to work through. At home I am tired and watch the Netflix movie Fanfic. I enjoy the movie. Later work on the baseball batting order lineup algorithm. I have a good plan to test some lineups and I generate all of the data to plot and think about and see what I've found. ANd later I watch the Dodgers' and see the same lineup again night after night. Are they using the best lineup? Or should they be changing it from game to game?
On Wednesday I get out of bed at 5:35 am, the usual time now, but I do not go cycling or walking/running. My legs need there first day off in ten days. I read the news and markets and get in a good session with the weights where I've increased the weights from where they were the last time. After a shower I get gasoline and groceries and have my radiation treatment. Back at home I see I've hit a limit on scraping statistics for this baseball lineup algorithm. I don't need to re-scrape so often, so I'll have to reprogram things a bit. Both the early Dodgers' game and the time trial stage of the Tour de France go against my desires. And later I re-watch the Filipino movie Kalel.
On Thursday I take the mountain biycle down to the old yacht club and have a good ride. I'm a bit down on strength from the radiation, but let's just keep pushing and see what happens. After a shower I have my radiation treatment and tell the very nice technicians, "I'm already bored: Drive 30 minutes, wait 10 minutes, get radiation for 10 minutes, drive 30 minutes home". And they understand. And they also know that I have a fun and enthusiastic attitude about this whole thing. I watch another disappointing (result) stage of the Tour de France and it looks like the race is pretty much over. And I finish with the baseball lineup algorithm generation of data and now I have to figure out how to present it and check the statistics to see if there is more to do. Thursday mtn ride to old yacht club, radiation, TdF, baseball lineup algorithm.
I start Friday with an eighty minute walk and get to play with two very large golden retrievers that a lady is walking. We exchange golden retriever stories as I play with the doggies. At home I edge and trim the lawn since it just needs tidying up but not a full mowing. After a shower I have my radiation treatment - session nine of thirty finished - and drive back home to watch a strange and mixed up FP2 for F1 from Hungary. With a new rule and the rainy FP1, nobody has consistent fuel loads so nobody knows whose times are representative or artificially fast or slow. I just relax and stay cool during Friday afternoon and watch a bit of the Dodgers' game. I note that the Dodgers' have been playing something like 0.700 baseball since I started watching the games about 4-6 weeks ago and vaulted from third to first place in their division.
I start out the door just after 6am for a long road bicycle ride. I get up to the EL Monte dam and continue on to remind myself of the route through the parking lot. At the parking lot I turn back for home and have a difficult 10 km stretch where the wind has shifted and is fighting me. And then I re-enter the marine layer boundary and the wind dies down and I crank along. I'm completely out of brain and blood sugar, but the pedals still keep going around to get me home. I wipe the road bicycle down and get a cooling shower. Today's F1 qualifying from Hungary and some special tire rules which I don't care for. But the result is a decent grid for Sunday's race. Later I watch some of the Dodgers' whipping of Texas and just rest after today's grat, but tiring, ride.
On Sunday morning I'm tired at the start of the mountain bicycle ride. And there's a wind against me going south on the Los ANgeles river trail and east along the ocean. But at the old yacht club I turn around and can enjoy tailwinds on the way home. After a refreshing shower I watch the endof the British Open golf tournament with the players playing in nasty wet windy conditions. And then watch the Hungarian F1 race. It's a slow day since I'm really still recovering from Saturday's ride.
I start Monday morning with an eighty minute walk. And then I trim the roses, grab a shower, and read the news and markets. At radiation they weigh me and see that I've lost 2.7 kilograms. When I see the number I try to hide it from the nurses, but I relent. I don't get yelled at as much as I expected and after my radiation treatment I admit to the doctor that there were two days where I just didn't feel like dinner and I'm still worn out from Saturday's long bicycle ride. THis doctor, substituting for my regular doctor who has taken his family camping, understands me because her husband is a cyclist and she sees his efforts. But I promise to do better and eat more. At home I watch a news documentary and the final mountain stage of the Tour de France (two days late) and don't even do the anticipated coding. My heart isn't in it today.