I start Tuesday with an uneventful bicycle ride - no coyotes, no raccoons, no possum, and no close calls with other cyclists or cars. I get out and have my radiation treatment and meet with the doctor afterwards. He's happy that I've stabilized my weight and that I'm not having severe side effects and that I'm very active. On the way home I do some grocery shopping and then catch a fun and close Moto2 race from England as I have lunch. Later I watch the IndyCar race from Nashville and some of the Dodgers' game.
Wednesday is my day off from cycling or walking/running so I trim the roses and read the news and markets and grab a shower before radiation. During lunch I watch a very exciting MotoGP race from ENgland where there are spots of rain in the middle of the race and some riders (mistakenly) come in and switch to their wet bikes thinking that the rain will get worse. It doesn't. In the afternoon I spend many hours working on the generic database process in Html, Javascript, Python, and mySQL that I've wanted to have "in my pocket" for quite some time. I certainly do not finish the effort, but I've made good progress. I take a break to stretch the legs and water the roses and later watch some of the Dodgers' game.
On Thursday the alarm goes off at 5:30 am but I cannot answer it - I turn it off and go back to sleep. I eventually get out of bed at 6:45am and I'm a bit sad that I've wimped out of cycling. But as I check the morning out I see wet pavement from a monsoonal flow weather pattern. It's not wet enough to be dangerous, but wet enough to make cycling less enjoyable. I get off to radiation and pick up cash on the way back home. I watch some golf during lunch. After a while I get out and lift weights, mow the lawn, and remove the mower blade for sharpening. This lawnmower is 6 or 7 years old and I can't remember when I sharpened it last. Later I watch some of the Dodgers' game but, as usual, go to bed for reading and sleep before the end of the game.
Friday starts with a good 75 minute walk. I lost track of the time a bit when I ran into two neighbors and we walked together for a while. At home I trim the roses and later head off for radiation. There is a delay in my treatment today because the machine has run into a problem and the radiation operators work with the manufacturer to fix it. It turns out its only a fifteen minute delay. But when you're counting dwn the last days of radiation treatment, every second counts. On the way home I stop in and get the lawn mower blade sharpened and get some gasoline. At home I have lunch while watching the golf and an FX series that I'm watching. At miod-afternoon I pull the shop vac into the house and go around the house and vaccum up the dust off everything: the baseboards, the windows, the three panel doors, etc. When I'm done, all of the white trim looks like I just painted it. (Which I did just paint a couple years ago during the pandemic.) I've worked up a good sweat so I cool down with a quick shower and relax with a Netflix series, the news, and some of the Dodgers' game.
I want to ride long on the road bicycle on Saturday but when I take it outside to pump up the tires the front tire is very soft. I could change the tire and go, but I switch to the mountain bicycle and have a good ride to he old yacht club and back to home. After a shower I grab some food and watch some of the golf. Now I'm restless so I do some more cleaning and only have bathroom drawers to go through and sort old stuff out and clean up the drawers. After the cleaning I pull the road bicycle out and change the front tire. The front tube which has gone flat has one patch on it, so it gets disposed and I finally switch t the brand new tire that has been sitting around for about a year. Now I'm ready for a long Sunday ride. I take another shower and then watch the IndyCar race. And later I try to get more food inside me for the morning ride.
On Sunday the road bicycle front tire is holding air so I pump up both tires to the standard pressure that I ride at and set off north on the Los Angeles river trail. Today I go past the WHittiers Narrows dam to a convenient turn-around point and head for home. I'm out of energy, which I knew would happen, so I crawl the last ten kilometers home. But, interestingly enough, there aren't any riders who blow past me. Maybe my crawl wasn't so slow. After a shower I just relax because I am tired. I flip around the television between golf and the Dodgers' and by the end of the day, I'm not sure where it went.
I start Monday with a 78 minute walk, cleaning the roses, a shower, and reading the news and markets. Radiation goes smoothly and I meet with a speech therapst aftwerwards. Though my speech is very clear, her measurements show that my jaw opening has closed down some. So I need to get back to the jaw exercises. (Really? Yes, really.) After relaxing a casually ride the bicycle to the shopping center where they've replaced our Concert in the Park series with a few smaller Concert in the Park(ing) Lot. I run into a couple of walkers from the morning and we laugh at it and check out the music. It's old 1970s music - mostly soul music - and the musicians aren't very good, but it gets me out of the house and I take my leave when the musicians take a break an hour into the concert.
I start Tuesday with a good mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I'm worn out now, but I have to keep going though I'm happy Wednesday is a day off for the legs. The Internet at home is out, so no reading of the news and markets for now. I go have radiation and have the last visit with this doctor during radiation. I've lost more weight and I think he's going to yell at me, but he say, "You've lost 10 or 12 pounds but you're doing great". I'm a bit surprised because the radiation blisters and loss of taste are hampering me. But he says that I'm doing much better than anyone else on such a long duration radiation treatment. He says, "You're cycling and walking and taking care of the lawn when most people just want to lie on the couch". And now I don't feel so bad about my current state. At home the Internet is still down for a while until I flip through television channels for a bit and then watch Netflix. Wait - how can Netflix work if the Internet is down? SUre enough, it's back. And I check the news and markets and other things. In the afternoon I finish the cycle of cleaning by sorting and cleaning bathroom doors and cleaning up the freezer. This round of cleaning is done. Later I do some hacking and watch some Netflix and than watch the Dodgers' game.
Wednesday and Thursday are fairly slow days. I give the legs a day off on Wednesday and lift weights before radiation. And on Thursday I ride to the old yacht club and back to home before radiation. After the treatments I grab lunch, rest with some Netflix or television, and do some work in the yard late in the afternoon before the Dodgers' game starts.
Friday and Saturday are kinda blah days though they have their moments. I walk for 75 minutes early on Friday morning and have a 60 km road bicycle ride to the Whittier Narrows dam and back on Saturday. It's the bets that I can do right now. The radiation has taken its toll on the last couple of days with skin blisters on the neck and jaw as well as loss of taste and no desire to eat. Monday is my last radiation day and a weigh-in day. I'm already afraid I'll be yelled at again because I've lost five pounds this week. On both Friday and Saturday I prepare things in the yard for southern California's first hurrice/tropical storm in more than 100 years. And then I relax with MotoGP/2/3 sessions and Dodgers' games.
I start Sunday by turning off the alarm and sleeping for an extra hour. It's starting to rain in advance of the tropical storm. When I get out of bed I work on the generic database effort. I work for more than three hours before I go lift weights and get cleaned up. A lot of the day is spent just hanging out, checking out the rain, and watching some golf. And, of course, as I'm lieing on the couch watching the golf the couch starts to shake. That seems like a distant earthquake. Sure enough, I see a news alert indicating a strong 5.0 magnitude earthquake up near Ventura. Too bad it didn't occur right at the peak of the tropical storm to give conspiracy theorists an idea that tropical storms cause earthquakes or vice versa. Later I watch the MotoGP sprint race from Austria and continue working on the database process.
Monday morning is a bit wet, so I don't go cycling or walking - promising to lift weights later. I get to the last day of radiation treatment and hope for a quick recovery from the side effects. On the way home from radiation I stop in at Frank's original apartment that he rented when he moved to California since it's on the way home. How do I remember the street address of his apartment from 43 years ago? I take a picture or two and then drive home. A fun Moto3 race from Austria is on the schedule during lunch. ANd then I have a very slow day - not having the weight lifting session that I hoped for.