After the lazy Monday I feel better and get out for a sixty kilometer road bicycle ride on Tuesday. It's chilly, but a good ride. And I spend a lot of time getting paperwork for the non-profit finished as well as working on a gerrymandering idea that just kinda popped into my head. And I have a lot of the Python infrastructure built, so I make good progress.
I sleep horribly on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning and I feel sick again (but this time worse than Monday). But I have an appointments, so I go get blood drawn, return a book to the library, get to the post office to mail the non-profit tax returns and other paperwork off, and stop in at the grocery store. On the way home I consider putting on the running clothes and going run/walking (probably with more walking than usual). One of the neighbors across the street says I should just hunker down and rest today. And I'm reminded of being sick last March where I'd feel better and overdo something and then be sick again and that went on for a week or more. So I do take Wednesday off from anything serious except I continue working on the gerrymandering optimization idea.
I get down for normal sleep on Wednesday with all electronic devices turned off and read for an hour. I do fall asleep when I turn out the light, but keep waking up every fifteen minutes and I'm cold. I have my standard bed clothes on and standard bedding - sheet, Mexican blanket, and down comforter. But everything is cold. So I run to the drawers and pull out a hoodie, sweat bottoms, a warm Thai hat, and then I run to the living room closet and put on winter ski gloves. I'm covered with everything in the house now and finally I'm able to sleep. I wake up a time r two throughout the night but not because I'm cold and I fall right back asleep.
Following Wednesday's arctic sleep, I get up and I have the slight fever still. But I don't feel cold. I work on the gerrymandering project and eat pasta for breakfast. (Heck, I usually just get on the bicycle ride. Breakfast? What's that?) But just before 11am I'm all bundled up in my cold weather riding gear and get down to the old yacht club and back to home. It's a warm sunny day and I'm sweating and pushing when feeling like it. During the ride, as typically happens, I think of a good idea as to why my gerrymandering project just stays stuck at the initial precinct boundaries and won't change. This would always happen at work when I'd be stuck on something I'd go walk for thirty minutes and good trial ideas would come to me. Back at home I weedwack the roses and take a warm shower and bundle up again though the house is warm today. The trial idea is not correct, but it leads me to a possibility and I pursue that path. IU get an email from the web hosting company about the problem I've been having and though its gives me a hint where to look, they are completely clueless. I guess they don't want to support Python. The rest of the day is spent relaxing and hopefully no arctic sleep time.
I've bundled up again overnight, including gloves and hat, and slept fairly well. I sleep late to let the day warm a bit. At 8am I'm out the house for a run/walk. In the first two minutes something doesn't feel right with my right outer quadricep, but it goes away as I walk. And since I'm still a bit, I'm ready to stop and head for home with no regrets at anytime. But after getting warmed up its a completely normal seventy minute run/walk and I cannot even tell I'm sick. I weedwack the rosesbeds of weeds and grass and get inside for a warm shower. Except for my nose continuing to run, I don't feel sick. But I take the rest of the day slowly and just do some financial and tax planning for next year.
It's supposed to rain on Saturday and when I wake up the skies are gray and cloudy. I work on the gerrymandering effort and step outside occassionally - maybe I could go for a mountain bicycle ride in the neighborhood, like when I was rehabbing from the accident and cancer, and at least ride. And I'd be close to home if it started raining. I give this an hour of thought with no rain coming down. And as I'm going to put on cycling gear, it starts to rain. If I acted when first thhinking about it, I could have ridden for an hour anyway. Instead I go into the garage and lift weights. And I also blast the biceps throughout the day with the "one set of curls every hour" routine with a timer set. My arms are getting tired by the end of the afternoon. I've watched both football games and hope to find a window of no rain to run on Sunday morning.
There should be a block of no rain on Sunday morning and when I wake up, everything is wet but it is not raining. Thus I put on the run/walk clothes and get out for seventy minutes. I grab a shower and relax a bit before Frank comes over to watch the Detroit Lions' playoff game. We catch up on many missed years and there are periods of nervousness and joy late in the 4th quarter. But almost tears of happiness when the Lions intercept the ball and run out the clock to go to the championship game. With Frank over we've caught up on a ton of things and I've missed the details of the game, but it's okay. Frank leaves near halftime of the second football game and I finish off the pizza from the first game as I watch the second half of the second game. And then just tidy up for Monday.
There is a world class rain storm on Sunday night into Monday morning. I keep waking up and hearing the hard rain coming down. It's not world class in terms of extreme intensity, but in terms of a high intensity for a long period of time. I wake up and read the news and markets and try to work with my web hosting company to solve a problem. When stuck, I go lift weights and have a good workout. Then I grab a warming shower and drive to the prosthodontist for the first trial fitting of a first model (in wax) of what my replacement teeth will be like. I toss away the evening with some news and a Netflx movie.
On Monday night into Tuesday morning I'm actually feeling a bit warm while all bundled up, so I remove some clothes and continue with some great sleep. Maybe I've broken this little cold/flu/whatever illness. On Tuesday morning it is very foggy and the streets are not dry yet, so I do my grocery shopping at 7am and go back home to read the news and markets. I also find one of our websites has been compromised and I tell the owner of the website how to fix the problem. I remind her that she did it three years ago while on the phone with the hosting company, and I hope she can do it again. At 10am I get out for a mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home - as much to survey the damage from the recent rains as to overcome the despair of four seemingly-endless days OFF the bicycle. It's a good ride though I tire abit - but still have energy to push to try and chase another cyclist near the end of the ride. I don't catch him. But the time for the ride is very good. At home I do some tasks related to cleaning up after the rains, get a warming shower, and open a bottle of wine to accompany me as I help fix the website, cleanup my harddrive (which has been backed up just in case), and to read the news and markets. My plan is to be a bit typsy when election returns for a primary contectstart coming in.
I start Wendesday by letting the day warm up a bit and then going for a mountain bicycle ride down to the old yacht club and back to home. I like riding down near the ocean after heavy rains to se what damage, destruction, and debris are left over. Back at home I edge and mow the lawn. Since the grass is a bit wet, the lawnmower keeps getting clogged and I have to turn it on its side and use a three foot long piece of wood to scrape out the compressed grass along the lawnmower bottom. (A three foot long board so that my bodyparts never get close to the blade.) After a show I read the news and markets and, maybe since I've pushed the heavy, grass-laden mower around the lawn, I'm tired. So the day disappears with some Netflix and I don't know what else.
I wake up on Thursday just after 3am and hear the rain coming down. There will be no bicycle ride as planned. I let the daywarm up and get in a good session with the weights. I rush on down to the main public library in downtown Long Beach and scan the new book section. I keep finding books that sound interesting, so I end up lugging seven new books back to the top level of the Long Beach parking structure. I don't use the elevator - I don't want to be in a confined space and I can easily get up the stairs with the extra book weight. On the way home I stop in at CVS for waterproff first aid tape (to be used to prevent foot blisters when running), cotton swaps (to apply the flouride treatment to teeth for post-radiation patients), and a bottle of wine. My new running shoes have arrived in the mail and I need to transfer the orthotics into the new shoes for a first trial on Friday morning. It's approaching market close at 1pm and I've only had a protein shake so far, so I prepare some steamed vegetables, cheese, and salsa over flat bread for late lunch. And then the day moves slowly with Netflix and stuff. I'm letting all of my projects simmer for some good ideas to pursue - or to abandon the ideas.
WHen I wake up on Friday I realize that I've left the heating system running. So the house is fairly warm. I usually turn the heat off and enjoy a chillier sleep. But today's sleep has been good. Today I strap on a brand new pair of Asic gel-nimbus 25 running shoes that just happen to be in a Detroit Lion blue color. That was a coincidence. I wore the shoes for a few hours yesterday around the house to break them in but today I'm running in them and they feel like I'm running in supported pillows. The support is good, the fit with my orthotics is good, and the cushioning is super. I don't want to overdo it the first time in new shoes so I stop at seventy minutes. After the run I go weedwack the roses to stay on top of wild grasses and weeds - I'm going to stay on top of the roses this year unlike last year when I was out of the country for this first month of growth. After a shower I lay out my personal schedule and my doctor's appointments schedules and print them for easy, one page referral. I do the laundry and by noon I'm running out of things to do. In advance of (hopefully) Saturday's long bicycle ride I cook a pound of pasta and keep dipping into it throughout the afternoon to carbo-load for the ride. I do notice my legs feel a bit different after running in the new shoes, so I keep walking around and stretching my legs out. And then watch some Netflix and some of the Kings' game.
On Saturday I get up to the EL Monte dam on the road bicycle but I don't mentally feel like there is anything more in me. So I turn around and finish strong for 80 kilometers. The body felt good throughout, just mentally I wasn't ready for another thirty minutes or so of riding. I get in a refreshing shower, do some grocery shopping, but I'm mentally wiped out and am just a vegetable for the rest of the day.
Sunday starts with the mountain bicycle ride recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I feel good throughout. After the ride I rake the roses beds and some areas near the fences where leaves gather and the lawnmower won't reach. Now I'm tired and get a refreshing shower and I take care of some paperwork before the AFC championship game. Then drive to Frank and Jeanine to watch MYDetroit Lions break out to a 24-7 lead at halftime. Then a series of weird plays and questionable plays sees the 49ers come back and win by 3 points. With the Lions only losing at the end by not recovering an onside kick. It's a disappointing end considering the halftime position. It's also a good visit with Frank and Jeanine as we try to re-establish our friendship which has been languishing for a while.
On Monday morning I get out in the new running shoes for their second run. I get in 8.8 kilometers as I want to slowly break in the new shoes. The warm shower feels good. I do small things around the house before an appontment with my primary care physician. On the way home I stop in at the ATM and grocery store for supplies and relax at home.