Wednesday is a busy morning. I drive to Torrance for a contrast MRI. The Philippina nurse asks me about the bruising on my right arm and I have to explain that it's a combination of tree trimming bruises and last Friday's anesthesiologist having to hit me three times before he got a good insertion. She accepts that answer but after examining both arms, decides to still go after my right arm (with all of the bruises). But she does a great job and I have my standard MRI and then contrast MRI without any difficulty. On the drive back home I stop in to pick up supplies: two prescriptions, batteries for the scale, depositing a check at the ATM, and lots of food. Usually dead batteries on the scale would be ignored, but I've been watching my weight closely for the entire year and pounds keep dropping away despite how much I try to eat. When I get home and unload the car, I get in a decent session with the weights and rinse off quickly with a shower to enjoy a warm, sunny day - I take occassional breaks from indoor activities to just stand outside near the garage or fence with maximum reflections of the sun's warmth. The two prescriptions that I picked up weren't needed but I picked them up anyway and today my shoulder doesn't hurt at all. (Still rehabbing from the bicycle accident 14 months ago.) So maybe I'll use these prescriptions a bit. I let the day pass with some Netflix viewing and a debate between four Republican presidential candidates (minus the front runner).
Thursday and Friday are slow days though I have a good mountain bicycle ride on Thursday and an 82 minute run/walk on Friday. I'm at standstill for all of my efforts coding - some awaiting decisions, some awaiting next steps, some awaiting next use, and a few of my own needing direction. I take the time to watch some Netflix and I watch the Los Angeles Kings' games where they tie and subsequently break the NHL record for most consecutive road wins. There are little things to be done around the house, but they are mainly cleaning and stuff - nothing of significance. We're into that pre-Christmas period where nothing happens unless its related to Christmas or the New Year.
Since its a cold Saturday morning, I do not get out the door for cycling until about 7 am. I start north on the Los Angeles rver trail and immediately feel the headwind. Oopsie - the Santa Ana offshore winds, which would cause me a headwind, weren't supposed to kick up for a few more hours. I contnue up the river trail and think a time r two about when would be acceptable to bail on this ride and not lose self-respect. But I continue on and despite the headwind I'm cranking nicely in a decent gear. And I jsut keep on going until I'm at the El Monte dam (which is still over-washed from last year's rain). I turn around and head for home with my mouth watering at the prospect of a nice tailwind. The tailwind stays with me for about 12 kilometers when, across the Whittier Narow dam, it is now a westerly sidewind. I still feel a bit of a tailwind and make good progress and everything feels good. At home it was the easiest 80 kilmeter ride since before my surgery in May. I grab a quick shower and run errands to CVS pharmacy, the library (to return two books one of which is an 841 page tome that I got through and still do not understand), and to the eWaste recycling center. Accept that traffic is stopped on California Avenue at Spring which means the eWaste recycling center is very backed up and it will be a long wait. Thus I abandon the eWaste recycling for today and retun to home. These eWaste events happen one a month and last time there were 12 cars in line - not the estimated 80 today. So I put it on the January calendar to try again. At home I notice my weight has dropped again despite me having thought I had a decent week getting enough calories. After reading the news I veg out in front of the Army-Navy game and later the Kings' game. Durng the day I eat an entire medium pizza (with corn in Cambodian style). Along with the morning post-ride protein/milk shake, this should be enough calories. Shouldn't it? Late in the afternoon Frank and Jeanine come over to visit since they just recently heard of my travails over the last 14 months. We have a super visit.
I'm out the door before 7am on Sunday for a recovery mountain bicycle ride. I get down to the old yacht club and perhaps I get a bit tired fighting a nasty headwind going towards home on the Los Angeles river trail. At home I degrease the drivetrain of the mountain bicycle, trim the roses and bring some blooms inside the house, and get a warming shower. My house always stays cool so I have sweats on for the entire day watching football games and the Kings game. And I take some time to check out my current task list and re-prioritize and add/subtract as needed for the coming week. As I keep an eye on websites that I'm resposnible for, I see more potential bad activity on the Fair Trade Long Beach website and on the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force wbesite. So, as I did a few weeks ago, I just edit the corrupted files to put in gobeldy-gook but restore the important files. I don't have any idea how my gobeldy-gook edits impact what the hackers are doing, but I do it anyway.
I start Monday on another alternative route for the run/walk because I want to run into my neighbors from a street over on Terrace. When I could only walk, we would run into each other regularly. Since I started running at Liberty Park near Labor day and on the pavement more recently, I have not run into them. And they thoughtfully dropped a card in my mailbox saying "you're thought about". Today, after alternate routes the last three run/walks, I run into my neighbors (one street over) Ed and Wanetta. When I see them I give them big hugs and thank them for the card and turn back to walk with them. I explain I'm on to running and that's why we've missed each other. We have a nice walk/visit until they make the final turn for home and I better start running. I get in a good 72 minute run/walk and cut it a bit short since I've worked the legs pretty hard over the last five days. The warm shower feels good and I want to just stay under the warm running water for a long time. But I do not because we have a water shortage. I go back to the integrated Artificial Intelligence process that I built and re-write the error metrics so that they are consistent across all of the different methodologies. In between this work I take time to degrease the running train of my road bicycle and of the guest bicycle. (The guest bicycle is a mountain bicycle that doesn't really fit me, but I have for guests in case they want to go for any sort of ride.) I also keep trading off coding with physical activities such as raking leaves away from the fence to be picked up tomorrow and putting a new door slider at the bottom of the back door.
I start Tuesday off reading the news and markets since today is day off from working the legs. I drive to the radiologist and he's hppy to tell me that last week's contrast MRI shows no cancer. It's looking promising that the surgery and radiation have gotten rid of it. I drive on home and increase the weights a fair amount and lift. The repetitions are down to five for some lifts but I felt I needed to do this to try and make progress. After lifting I use the lawn mower to pick up the leaves from yesterday's "rake away from the fence" effort. The rest of the day is spent with some Netflix and ice hockey. Just like when I was told that I have cancer, I had no reaction. None. I didn't dry or laugh or punch a wall or anything. And today, when I'm told this mess of treatment has perhaps solved the problem, I have no reaction. Certainly I smile at the doctor when he tells me this and I thank him for his persistence. But I don't feel anything like crying (years of joy) or laughing or punch a wall. What does this mean?
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are sort of slow days, but productive days. Each day starts with a mountain bicycle ride or a very long run/walk (with running taking up more and more of the effort). After getting cleaned up I run errands as necessary and have Zoom meetings as necessary. And then the afternoon and evenings are slow. Except for Thursday where I visit the prosthodontist and we talk about plans to restore a moutfull of teeth for me. I've decided to drop any dental coverage after this mess is over with since they don't seem to cover anything. And I mean anything. I also spend some time doing little tasks around the house that I've put off as well as a bit of coding and watching some Netflix.
On Saturday morning I wimp out from a long road bicycle ride and just go down to the old yacht club and back to home. I'm just not mentally ready for a longer ride. At home I spend the days reading the news and markets, taking care of little things around the house, watching some football, and starting the hard prune of the roses. I get seven of the rose bushes hard pruned - the easier ones - and still have twelve to go in the next week or so. I usually do this right near new year's day, but who knows what my shcedule will look like or if we'll have the very wet December/January like we had last year. I also backup one external hard drive to another since some of this geographic data is getting very large and I don't want to have to rescrape it if one of the hard drives has a problem.
On Sunday I have a very good mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home where I feel strong throughout and even put in a couple of surges to work a bit harder. At home I get cleaned up, pick ip supplies at the grocery store, and then go hard prune three more of the rose bushes. Ten down and nine to go. I stop at three bushes today because I don't really have any room left in my trash receptacle for more trimmings. I turn on the football games and let them play in the background. It is supposed to rain this week so I make a priority list of things to be done indoors - such as renewing services from my web hosting provider and equalizing pressures in the car tires and other paperwork. But for the most part, Sunday afternoon and evening I'm a vegetable just watching football.
I get out Monday for the third day in a row of cycling and five of the last seven. My legs are tired but I spin and crank along. And on the two small hills at the park across the street from my house I just crawl p them at the end of the ride. I'm tired. I equalize the air pressures in all of the car's ties including the spare tire and do some maintenance on the trunk to get it to open with the inside handle (which has failed to work for a few months now). I get in a warm shower and take care of web hosting renewals and other paperwork before relaxing with lunch and Netflix.