Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, September 4, 2023 8:02 PM

Labor Day


Tuesday starts with a good mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I chose this ride to check out and see if there are any after-effects from the tropical storm. Except for some fallen palm fronds, there are none. At home I trim the roses and get cleaned up. Today's lunch hour features the Moto2 race from Austria. And a fairly slow day of some database effort, recorded shows, and the Dodgers' game. I think it was a letdown day after the full course of radiation treatment finally finishing.

Wednesday begins with a 70 minute walk. Later in the morning I get new library books, do some grocery shopping, and watch the MotoGP race from Austria. The day passes with some Netflix, the Dodgers' game, and the Republican presidential primary debate.

Thursday and Friday are continued recovery days from radiation so I try to beat myself up. Thursday sees a good bicyle ride and the drivetrain continues to worsen as teeth are being skipped/jumped during pedaling. That after a shower and lunch I ride the bicycle over to the nicycle shop and see a note on the door that they are closed today for an appointment. So I ride on home with a stop at the ATM. Since Long Beach Cyclery closed, which was a mile from my house and had the best service ever, it has been difficult to find a good bicycle store. I let this nearby store do work on the mountain bicycle though the owner is a bit flaky. Later on Thursday I see parts of both Didgers' games (the first game being a continuation of weather-supened play). Friday starts with a 77 minute walk and I immediately trim the roses, mow the lawn, and weedwack weeds until these lousy batteries die. It seems like I have to charge them the day before I use them because they lose a lot of charge just sitting full for a week. ANd they aren't that old. I'm tired now, so I have a slow day on Friday with some golf, F1 FP2 from the Netherlands, and a Dodgers' game.

There's a good 60 kilometer road bicycle ride that starts Saturday where I only tire a little bit towards the end. I do some weedwacking and trimming of things before I take a cool shower. After the shower I'm feeling a bit weird, so I lay down on the floor and sretch my back and neck and end up dropping off for a few minutes (out of the 30 minutes that I'm on the floor). It's warm and I have a slow day of golf, F1 qualifying (wet than drying) from the Netherlands, parts of a Dodgers' game, and some other trivial stuff.

On Sunday morning, probably stil fatigued from Saturday's bicycle ride and heat, I turn off the alarm and sleep for an extra hour. EVentually I get up and read the news and then have a decent workout with the weights. AFter the workout I start building a storage box for some supplies in the garage. It will take a couple of days to finish as I allow glue to dry on the storage box joints. Later I watch a fun Dutch F1 race where the first lap s dry and then heavy rain sees drivers pitting on the second and third laps for intermediate wet tires. The remainder of the race is just as unpredictable with good battles, some minor crashes, and a red flag when a rain deluge hits the track with ten laps to go. A fun race! THe Dodgers' pick up another close win on the road. And later in the evening I just rest - maybe today's heat taking more out of me.

Monday is supposed to be a very hot day and so I get out for an old yacht club early in the morning. It's a good strong ride. At home I trim the roses and glue some more of the storage box together. After a shower I drive to my primary care physician's office for an appointment. We take care of the business of my radiation recovery. At the end of the visit I ask the doctor to take a look at a bumpy scar on my left hamstring. He gets out a light and magnifying glass and says, "You have a metal staple under your skin". This had to have happened during the bicycle accident when I'm rolling around in the gravel. So the doctor gets his nurse to come in and dig and yank the staple out. And I'm on my way home for lunch, the IndyCar race, and the Dpdgers' game.

As hot as Monday was, Tuesday is supposed to be hotter. I get in an 80 minute walk and arrive back at home as the electricity people are arriving to put in a new electrical power pole. I manage to get a warm shower in before they turn off the electricity to the neighborhood. The pole is in my neighbor's yard, so all of the truck are right in front of my house blocking the street. I see them pull up the old wood power pole and drop in the new fiberglass power pole. They are moving along well. When almost everything is back together, the entire crew takes their lunch break and I take the car to the library for new books and to Del Taco for the 8 layer veggie burrito. A craving that I've had for a few days. And I'm enjoying it because I can actually sorta taste the ingredients. When I'm eating I get ane mail saying that my power is restored. At home, during the hottest day of the year, I can turn on the air conditioning. But I see that the Internet cable, which was attached to the power pole, is now resting on the neighbor's bushes that I will typically climb up on a ladder to make space for. So now I'll have to call the Internet provider for them to correct the electrical people's mistake. Later, after having spent most of the morning reading, I watch the Dodgers' game.

I start Wednesday morning reading the news and markets before driving to a radiolgist appointment. I'm doing better and I don't have to return for a month. On the way home I stop in at Del Taco again and today have two veggie burritos. It's a bit much, but it tastes good. At home I clean the kitchen, take care of paperwork, gather together more old electronics for an upcoming eWaste recycling effort, update websites for the end of the month, and watch some Netflix and Dodgers'. During the day I see that the oldest of my three computer monitors is dying, so I start shopping for a replacement and end up disabling it from Windows. This is somewhat of a square monitor and is very old - I think it was purchased at a Circuit City. I don't end up lifting weights and by the end of the evening I'm feeling disappointed.

I get ut for a good bicycle ride on Thursday morning. There's a pretty decent onshore flow which I have to fight for half of the ride. But then get it pushing me back home. During the ride I run into the Thai couple that I have not seen for a long time. I tell them I had a bicycle accident, went cycling in THailand and Cambodia, and then had cancer surgery and radiation treatment. They tell me how the lady had to go back to Thailand for eight months to help her mother rehabilitate from a nasty automobile accident. We all encourage each other to keep being positive and do our best. At home I do some weedwacking, organize the eWaste for disposal, and finish up the wodden storage box. DUring these post-cycling activities I am lightheaded throughout and have to take breaks to lower my head betwen my knees and get blood to my head. AFter a shower I cook vegetables for the week, read the news and markets, do some end of month finianical updates, and finally check out the Dodgers' game.

I was going to wait a bit longer, but starting on Thursday night I get the hankering to start running again. Thus on Friday morning I drive to the rubberized Liberty park track and do some running. I walk to warm up for a kilometer, run/walk for five kilometers, and then cool down with another kilometer of walking. It's a good start! Back at home I trim the roses, fill up the handmade wooden storage box and put it in its spot, take a cooling shower, and do some grocery shopping. I have a hankering (another hankering?) for lemonade so I buy some. After putting groceris away, I drive to Del Taco (Del Taco again?) and note that the radiation blisters that have prevented me from eating are down to just one left. After eating i drive to Best Buy and get computer monitor that I bought online and open the box in the store with the attendant watching to make sure the cable is right. It isn't, so I buy a new cable and open that box to make sure it's right. At home the installation of the new monitor is easy and I rearrange my three monitors for highest efficiency. Later I catch the FP2 session for F1 from Italy and the FP2 sessions for MotoGP and Moto2 from Spain. These are practice sessions but the chatter among the announcers allows me to catch up on team's technical updates, driver moves, and other things in the paddocks. Later I slowly ride the mountain bicycle over to the local First Fridays street festival and wander around for an hour before returning home to hydrate and get lost in the Dodgers' game.

There's drizzle on Saturday monring. Drizzle/rain in September in southern California? Yes. Thus there is no bicycle ride today. Instead I work for three hours on getting a sendmail process to work in Python and I only have one step to go. I have a workout for the abdominals and lower back and that will have to do it for today. Later I have a slow day but with qualifying for F1 from Italy, qualifying for MotoGP/2/3 from SPain, and a Dodgers' game.

On Sunday I start north on the Los Angeles river bicycle trail and get past the Whittier Narrows dam. WHen I turn around I realize there's an onshore flow and this fights me for the 30 kilomeers home. But I finish with good strength in the legs and just a little bit of overall organism fatigue. In addition to a good bicycle ride, I'm starting to see the side effects from the radiation disappear and it puts me in a better mental state. After a shower there's a fun F1 race from Italy, the DOdgers' game, and then the MotoGP Tissot Sprint race from Spain.

I stay in bed an extra ten minutes on Monday, Labor Day, morning to enjoy the cooler night. Then I'm out the door for a mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I don't feel tired at all after yesterday's longer ride and even put in a couple of surges near the end of the ride. At home I trim the roses, weedwack the roses, and then wash and degrease the mountain bicycle. When I'm done I admit that the 20 year old mountain bicycle looks good and runs great (except for skipping teeth that I need to take care of). But I also vow that this drivetrain replacement to fix the skipping teeth will be the last major repair/maintenance that I do on this bicycle. Next time I'll but a new one. After a shower I ride the mountain bicycle to the grocery store for supplies and then read the news. Near noon I do feel suddenly tired so I turn on Sunday's recorded IndyCar race. Later in the day I watchthe Moto3 race from Spain and just relax for a busy Tuesday.