I start Tuesday by sleeping late and getting out riding near 6:50am. I have a decent mountain bicycle ride and will get tomorrow off from cycling or running and aim for an extra long Thursday ride. At home I degrease the entire running train of the mountain bicycle and its ready to roll again. After a shower I take care of some paperwork and read the news and markets. Later I do a bit of tifying up on the web scraping and try to get started on the Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm. (This is not a purely Monte Carlo analysis for parameter uncertainty since I've already done so many of those. This Tree Search algorithm was used in conjunction with neural networks to train a computer to beat the Go world champion. So there must be some merit to it.) And even later after having Thai food I watch some of the Dodgers' game and Kings' game - saving the new Netflix Thai series for soon.
I start Wednesday by reading the news and markets. At a fairly early time, I go lift weights- keeping one lift lighter than usual to prevent continuous straining of the inner elbow. It still hurts, but not as much. I quickly go and mow the lawn, grab a shower, and pick up supplies at the grocery store before the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force virtual meeting. This one is important because our biggest event is this coming Saturday. After the meeting, and having picked up no significant action items, I watch the Dodgers' game and relax for a bit. Later I keep doing the reading and poking through sample codes of the Monte Carlo Tree Search method which I'm about ready to try and implement with my own trial problem to understand the technique and the type of results it can generate.
I'm expecting an extra long bicycle ride on Thursday, but the morning is very foggy. Nnetheless I get on the road bicycle and go past the El Monte dam to the Santa Fe dam and stop for an energy gel. Then I continue down the San Gabriel river trail. The ride has been a bit more of an effort than I thought it was going to be, so I take the turn-off and end the ride at 100 kilometers (and not duplicating that previous 125 kilometer ride). Down the San Gabriel river trail I kinda realize that I'm up a gear and have been pushing a bigger gear than usual - perhaps contributing to the extra effort. I'm a bit surprised at my discovery, but I'll keep an eye on gears better next time. At home I wipe the road bicycle down again because it got all wet from the foggy ride and then grab a shower. I read the news and markets and dispute a health bill (where my primary care physician forgot to put in the proper blood test codes and is working to make it right). I have thinkgs lined up to work on and to learn. I've always been intrigued and puzzled by Google Analytics, and now that they've changed versions I've found a tutorial and to try and get through and see if it can help my websites. Later in the day I watch some Netflix series about the cold war and catch some of the Kings' ice hockey game as they try to clinch a layoff spot with four games to go.
On Friday I do a recovery mountain bicycle north on the Los Angeles river trail - avoiding the traffic and street closures of this week's Long Beach IndyCar race. I get home and weedwack and the rosebeds and de-weed the carnations and then go read the news and markets. I'm extra tired from yesterday's long ride, so I spend a fair amount of time resting on the couch with the Masters golf and jumping up and tidying something up. Rest and repeat.
It's supposed to rain on Saturday morning, but everything is dry so I get out for a 78 minute run/walk. Again I've increased the run-to-walk ratio a bit and it feels good. After a shower I read the news and watch a bit of golf before driving down to the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force's Youth Empowerment Safety Symposium 2024 event. This is the task force's flagship educational event and the first one I've been to since the Covid pandemic. This year they show the 2023 film Maya related to human trafficking. The film has been getting a lot of great reviews and buzz. After the event the rain has still not appearred and I make one stop on the way home and put the World Rally Car back into the garage. When I get home the back door of my house if half open - did I leave it open or did somebody break in? There is nothing amiss, so I must have left my back door open. And then my immediate thought is "did an animal like a possum or raccoon make it's way somewhere into my house?" By the time that I've started watching MotoGP/2/3 qualifying sessions the rain has started. And I don't mind since I can take Sunday to lift weights and not miss any cycling or running. Later in the evening I relax and flip between the Kings' and Dodgers' games. And despite all of these other activities, I solved the last web scraping issue that I had and can now scrape the targeted website to my delight (with only a shade of hand-editing at the end before the REAL use of the data).
I wake up twice on Saturday night into Sunday morning because I thought that I heard noises. Did an animal make it's way into my house and is now checking my house out? When I wake up I start slowly since there is no running or cycling and I eventually get a sem-satisfactory session with the weights in. I certainly give it my best effort but the repetitions are down on a couple of lifts. I probably didn't eat enough in the last two days to keep the strength up. After a shower I watch a fun Tissot MotoGP Sprint race and then settle in for a slow day of Masters golf. The Dodgers' game will be under threat due to the rain and I look for television coverage of the Long Beach Grand Prix and cannot find it. I check every channel about three times and just think it's blacked out or something. This doesn't sit right with me, so an hour later I search again and find that the race is next weekend. Thus I might make it down to the free Friday activities, though I've already shredded my free ticket since I thought it was two days ago. I'll have to try and find a free ticket again. I'm not motivated to do the hand-edits from the web scraping, minor that they are, so they will wait. And I'm not ready to re-tackle the Monte Carlo Tree Search effort or the implementation of the new Google Analytics (GA4) on any of my websites yet. They can wait.
I sleep a shade late and then get out the door for a good mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home. At home I trim the roses and grab a warming shower and check out the news and markets. Near lunch time I watch the Moto3 race with lots of action and penalties and non-injury crashes. And another rider who couldn't race on Sunday because he had to have an emergency appendectomy on Saturday night (like two weeks ago in F1). Today I visit the prosthodontist and tell him that I feel no pain or discomfort with these temporary teeth. But as he's putting them back on, because he wants to see a bit more healking and smoother healing of the gums, he has trouble attaching one of the three screws holding my implant teeth to the steel posts in my jaw. So he's going to talk with the doctor who did the surgeon and I have to go back in one month. But at least I still have the temporary implant teeth as opposed to five empty spaces in my mouth. And later I split time watching both the Dodgers and the Kings lose
I start Tuesday with an anticipated longer run and have no difficulty getting in ninety minutes as I continue to very slowly increase the run-to-walk ratio. I'm starting to approach the longest runs that I've done in 25 years (as I've already surpassed my longest bicycle rides in 25 years). After a shower I pick up some groceries and take a blood test to check on my thyroid levels and red blood cell count and formation. At home I polish the headlights of the World Rally Car and they look brighter thanthey did on the dhowroom floor twenty years ago. I relax with a fun Moto2 race and salad and bread. Later in the day I eFile IRS taxes after being told for the second time in a year thatthe IRS has rejected my written forms sine non-profits are now required to eFile. It takes a couple hours to run thorugh the filing process but they never ask me for a debit or credit card - so I'm assuming it's free for small non-profits. And then I just relax with a bit of ice hockey on the television.
On Tuesday night into Wednesday I twice hear noises within a few minutes of each other. And after lying still to see if I hear anything else, I get up, grab an ice hockey stick, and walk through the house to see if anything is amiss. I look out both the front and back yards and everything seems normal. I flip a light or two on and tap the ice hockey sticks on the floor a few times to see if these stimulations will drive a wild animal out of hiding (inside my house). But nothing happens so I go back to bed and stay awake for a while and don't end up hearing anything else. This little incident costed almost an hour of good sleep.
I sleep a bit late and start out for a mountain bicycle ride before 7 am. I crank along nicely and its a good ride though I have to slow a number of times along the Los Angeles river trail as the city has come to clean up the homeless encampments before this weekend's Long Bech Grand Prix. When I get home I try to sneak up on the Salvadoran gardener who does my neighbor's yard (and mine when I'm on vacation). But he saw me coming and was ready for me to jump out from behind his work van. At home I mow, edge, and trim the lawn and pick up tree branches from a neighbor's tree trimming. Then I hose down both the edger and lawn mower since they are pretty muddied up from the wet winter of use. I'm happy to be done because two hours of riding and almost two hours of yard work gets me tired. A warm shower lets me regain some energy and I read the news and markets before finally settling in for the MotoGP race from last Sunday to go along with lunch of fish and fries. During my activities I look at the dining room table and just happen to see my coupon for free entrance to the Long Beach Grand Prix on Friday - the one that I thought that I shredded when I messed up the dates. So I can go for free this Friday and its on my calendar, but I'm losing interest anyway once I saw the calendar of events - with the IndyCars only on track for one session in the afternoon. Later I get out and trim the roses and bring both rose and carnation blooms into the house. And later have trouble getting motivated to code the Mote Carlo Tree Searchalgorithm.
Thursday is quite a day! It starts off slow with a day off of cycling or running as planned. I get out and lift weights and find that some of my lifts are up or I can get an extra repetition out of them. This is great news despite the fact that I lost two pounds recently. After a shower I go get the World Rally Car washed (and decline a claybar job because I'm going to do it). Then I visit the Yamaha dealer across the dtreet from the car wash. Zach, the salesman, is patient with me and answers my questions and presents a price. I counter with a price and admit that I've gone up from what I thought that I had to pay. There are some quiet, bot not tense, moments as Zach presents my counter-offer to the "big boss". I'm ready to walk ut the door and say, "I gave you my number, so call me when you give me my price". Surprisingly, the "big boss" asks for only $100 more than my offer. I pretend to think about it for a few moments and then we agree to terms. I'm going to own a motorcycle again! I go to my bank and get a cashiers check fpr the proper amount, do some grocery shopping, and kill some time at home because it takes the dealer a bit of time to prepare the new motorcycle. I grab an Uber and run through the paperwork and now own a 2024 Yamaha TZF-R3 in Yamaha corporate blue colors. I'm excited. I can't explain how excited I am to ride only a few miles home, with a motorcycle significantly slower than my last motorcycle, and run through the gears and take corners! As the old saying goes, "It's more fun to ride a slow bike fast rather than a fast bike slow". And this bike isn't slow, but it's going to be a lot of fun. At home I try to contain my excitment and pull out my claybar kit and start claybarring the World Rally Car - knowing I'm not going to get far this late in the day and I haven't eaten anything yet. Later I just act like a vegetable on the couch with some ice hockey games or news or something.
Starting Friday I'm expecting a long road bicycle ride but I'm also skepticle of my energy levels. I get to the El Monte dam without a problem but then turn back for home. It's an eighty kilometer ride with a small struggle distance embedded in there somewhere. But I could have gone out to at least 100 kilometers. At home I weedwack the roses to keep the rosebeds clean, grab a shower, check on my recent blood tests which still show that I have no red blood cells and no hematocrit, and then sit back for an exciting FP1 for F1 from CHina. (The first time back in China for five years). After this break I continue to claybar the World Rally Car and then watch an exciting F1 sprint qualifying where a moderate rainfall completel jumbles the results. And later I do a bit more claybarring of the World Rally Car. (The carwash dealer quotes me about $120 for a wash, claybar, and wax job but I'd have to hang around for ninety minutes or so. I continue to hold to my believe that "one has to be one with their vehicles and do as much work, cleanliness, and maintenance as they can in order for the vehicle to serve you properly". Thus I took the washed car home yesterday and spend a lot of time claybarring the car.)
I am so tired from Friday on Saturday morning that I consider taking a day off from working out. Insted I take the mountain bicycle out Del AMo and north on the San Gabriel river trail to avoid all of the Long Beach Grand Prix street closures. Its a two hour ride but it gets my day started. I do a bit more claybarring of the World Rally car, grab a shower, take the brand new YZF-R1 with out without insurance - I don't know - for a 20 mile loop ride, and stop off for some supplies on the way home. It's weird, everything feels strange on this motorcycle but not because I haven't ridden for a while. It's because I rode the previous motorcycle for 21 years and everything was a habit. Now I have to make some new habits. I enjoy the ride and can see that I'm going to enjoy this motorcycle once I get past the 600 mile berak-in period. At home I watch the F1 Sprint race from China, do a bit more claybarring of the World Rally Car, deal with some phone calls, and then watch F1 qualfying from China for the F1 race on Sunday. Later I watch some ice hockey playoff games and try to plan the workout regiment for the upcoming week.
I'm so physically hungover on Sunday that I sleep very late - until 7:25 am. But I have a productive day from there. I walk to the grocery store for supplies, workout the abdominals and lower back, finish claybarring the World Rally Car (with only the gold wheels to be wiped and waxed), grab a quick shower, and then settle in for the first F1 race from CHina in five years. Today I split the race up by cleaning a portion of the hardwood floors, then watching part of the race, and repeating this process until both the race is over and the hardwood floors and kitchen floor are clean. During this effort I've put the laundry in to wash nd dry and separate and then I watch a bit of the ice hockey playoff games. I'll save te Long Beach IndyCar race for mondey.
I'm still physically hungoer on Monday so I just do a one hour run/walk. It feels good! After a shower I trim the roses and walk to the grocery store for things that I have a craving for and then go back to the web scraping procedure. The basic web scraping works, and I just work on hand-edits of the resulting data. And now I just need a dashboard or plotting facility to see trends in the data. I cook pasta for lunch and enjoy the pasta and garlic bread with no IndyCar race because it was either blacked out or it didn't record - though I've never had a program never record before. Later I watch some ice hockey playoff games and don't get to the web scraping dashboard to display results or waxing the gold rims of the World Rally Car.