My phone alarm has been restored and I'm out of bed at 5:45 am. This includes, as always, taking my blood pressure and temperature first thing in the morning. I get out and have a very good 65 kilometer road bicycle ride feeling at times that I should push harder and at other times holding back to make sure I don't overstress hip flexures or knee tendons or ligaments. During the southbound ride on the San Gabriel river trail I look to my right and see the shadow (from the sun rising in the east) of a thin rider and I assume there's a rider that's sucking my wheel. Weird - because I didn't hear anything back there and you usually hear or feel a rider near you. I take a longer look over and there is no other rider. The shadow of the thin rider is me! I'm used to seeing a big old ox on a bicycle when cycling. Now I see a stick ox. After a shower I relax and check on the retired schoolteacher neighbor who is doing even better and is on the phone with her nephew - so maybe she can get some help other than me. I go to the A-train station (formerly blue line) and pick up a former student of mine from CSULA. We go have Italian food (his choice) for lunch and then to a coffee shop for tea or juice. We talk about all sorts of things until his friend comes by and picks him up to go look at a possible car to buy. At home I just relax with ice hockey playoff games and the news since Wednesday will be a busy day.
On Wednesday I'm out of control in productivity. I start with a recovery mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back towards home. On the homebound leg a road bike rider passes me but he's not going that much faster than me. I let him go for a bit because he's got music playing out loud and I don't want to listen to his music. But then I pick up my pace and follow at a barely non-sound distance. And then I put in a surge in the last kilometer to get within twenty meters of him before my turn onto Del Amo. I don't know if he knows that there is a rider sorta behind him and I don't know if he knows its the mountain bicycle rider that he passed five kilometers back, but I just take my turnoff and head for home. At home I mow the backyard and trim the roses and carnations. There are some nice carnation blooms that come into the house. After a short water break, I edge, mow and trim the front yard and sweep up the sidewalks and walkways. The neighbor across the street asks if I can weedwack her curbside grass since it is overgrown and her weedwacker won't get it. So I go weedwack her curbside grass overhang and I also scold her for not wearing safety glasses even though she is only sweeping up the debris that I'm causing. Now I'm getting tired, but all of my physical tasks are done and I have a quick shower, meditate, and then go check on the retired schoolteacher. I broach the subject of her requesting home healthcare from her primary care physician and she understands and will try. I go back home and get to the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force Zoom meeting a bit late, but I put my name on the attendance list (with an apology for being late) and listen to the panel discussion on grief and trauma informed practices near the Mother's day and Father's day holidays. It's now near 1pm and I haven't eaten yet and I skip food and watch parts of an early start Dodgers' game. I take the time to cancel my dental insurance because they have never paid a dime towards my claims - what the hell am I paying premiums for? And finally, near 3:15 pm I'm starting to cook lunch. Lunch? Well, I guess it's brunch. Brunch? Well, I guess it might be brunchinnner because it's probably going to be a combination of brunch and dinner. And later, among other little things such as two loads of laundry, I watch the two ice hockey playoff games.
I start Thursday with a good 62 minute run where I try to increase the running portion of the run/walk just a little bit. I'm taking my time building up to 100% running. After a shower I read the news and markets and then get a shopping list from the retired schoolteacher. I go purchase her things and mine and then return the articles to their respective requestor. At home I change my clothes and flush the tankless water heater - again this being easy to do with the better pump that I bought in January 2021. Thus I do it about evey six months now. I spend a bit of time working on the scraped data dashboard but still cannot get back into the Monte Carlo Tree Search implementation. Later I watch two ice hockey playoff games. The intensity of a playoff game is so much more than the regular season games - this explains why its hard to watch regular season games.
I sleep very wel on Thursday night into Friday morning. When the 5:30am alarm goes off I re-set it to my backup 6:15am alarm and even have trouble answering that alarm. I do take my blod pressure and body temperature and get out of bed and read the news and markets. There will no be the anticipated long bicycle ride today. Near 8am I get out and lift weights with a best effort results with some lifts a bit short and other better than usual. Then I trim the roses and bring new blooms into the house and then pull out the ladder and electric hedge trimmers to trim the neighbor's bush wish has overgrown my fence. I make good progress and if a branch falls into the neighbor's yard - tough luck - it's there branches and bushes that I'm trimming. It's a short duration trim but my side of the bush and fence boundary looks nice. After a shower, I'm still worn out, but I take the retired schoolteacher to the pharmacy for an anti-vertigo (or anti-dizziness) drug. And I interrupt the proceedings by asking, "My neighbor is twice as old as I am and we are both on Medicare. Yet you keep offerring to deliver my prescriptions and yet you don't offer this to my neighbor. Why?" I knw the answer will be either "I don't know" or "you are on different Medicare plans". I knw this last fact is true and I tell the neighbor, in front of the phamacist, "You have to call Medicare Advantage and tell them you are home-bound and need your prescriptions delvered". I know she won't make this call, but I have to suggest it. (And by the way, don't EVER EVER sign up for a Medicare Advtange plan because you are stuck with in-network doctors. Just pay a bit more and get the "Cadillac plan" as the Medicare cunselor has suggested.) At home I cook a ton of vegetables for use throughout the next few days and watch Fp2 for both MotoGP and Moto2 from LeMans France. Later I wathch more ice hokcey playoff games. I'm still completely worn out, but I lay out my cycling kit on Friday night as if I'm going to get in a long road bicycle ride on Saturday morning.
I start Saturday with a ride up the Los Angeles river trail to the El Monte dam and back again for 80 kilometers. During the ride north a rider passes me and I let him go ahead for a bit and then I realize he's not going that much faster than me. So Iput on a surge and get to within 50 meters of hime and then I just stay there for the ride until we have to climb the dam. I don't know what happens, but he slows way dowm and I just climb the dam and continue on. Nonetheless it is a very good ride. At home I weedwack the roses and then grab a quick shower and pick up a few supplies at the grocery store. Then I text a neighbor who has been in an automobile accident and now maybe I can help her and her family out. I offer to give her a blood transfusion because I heal really fast and various neighbors have been asking for a blood transfustion from me. (Silly as it is because a change in genetics would require more than just a few blood transfusions.) And I also work a donation out to another friends help with human trafficking victims in Gallup, New Mexico. Now I can relax with Moto3/2/GP qualifying from France and some golf. Later I watch most of the two ice hockey playoff games.Despite tired legs from yesterdays long and windy ride, I get out on the mountain bicycle on SUnday morning for a recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I trim the roses and bring more blooms into the house. After a shower I read the news and markets and then watch a fun Tissot Sprint race for the MotoGP bikes from France. Since I'm tired, I spend a majority of the day just flipping between golf and baseball and ice hockey playoff games. Good enugh I need these lazy days sometimes.
I'm motivated on Monday and I start the day with a twenty kilometer un/walk - this is, more or less, a half-marathon. After a shower I take the Yamaha R3 for a loop ride to make sure it runs every week and stop in at the liquor store. At home I go over and help the retired schoolteacher out by constantly saying, as she gets up out of a bed or chair, "Slow down, brace yourself with your arms, sit up halfway, when not dizzy, grab the can and stand up. When not dizzy, start walking to the bathroom or kitchen. And by the way, why are you sitting on the couch and neither of your phones are next to you?" I'm a pain in the bottom end, but I have to be. I take some time to fix her side garage door so that now, instead of falling off the hinges when you open it, it opens as smooth as glass. And then I go home and start wokring on an idea that I think can be a good computer science senior design project at CSULA (even though I'm from the mechanical engineering department). In a week or so I'll be ready to publicize it and start pushing for it as a good project with me as a volunteer advisor in conjunction with a faculty advisor. After lunch I watch the Moto3 race from France and then relax during the evening with a bit more work on the CSULA project description as well as two ice hockey playoff games. Despite running twenty kilometers today, I feel pretty darn good.
Good 65 kilometer ride, up a gear to lose a rider. Shower and grocery shopping. Wine and working on the proposed CSULA propject to get a basic code into readable shape. Cook a medley of cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, low sodium red kideny beans, and spicy red peppers, in a red wine sauce to last a few days. Touch up bathrooms. I want to clean the insides of windows, but I'm tired from 80 km cycling on Saturday, 50 km cycling on Sunday, 20 km running on Monday, and another 65 km cycling today. (The cleaning of the windows is a twice yearly event near Memrial day and Christmas but I've missed two years due to the bicycle accident and cancer.) Today is the last day of my half-dose of blood pressure medicine. Tomorrow we go to zero. My primary care physician and I discussed this and we both agreeed to go to half-dose for two weeks and zero dose and see what happens from there. He knows that I take my blood pressure and body temperature every morning so I'll be able to report back to him in a few months how this trial is going. Why take a medicine if you don't need it? Later I trim roses and watch ice hockey playoff games.
I am completely worn out and end up sleeping on Wedesday until 7:30am. I stil get dressed and go for a recovery mountain bicycle ride and though I am slow to start, I do some good cranking for the latter half. At home I mow the front and bck yards and grab a shower. I read the news and markets during lunch. At 1:40pm I take the retired schoolteacher to a doctor's appointment and I go shopping at Home Depot before returning to pick her up. She is still in with the doctor and I make a request to go in and talk with the doctor. I know this is a strange request, but it is granted after some discussion. I tell the primary care physician that the schoolteacher's walking gait is just completely gone and looks nothing like normal. And I also her tell the doctor about instances where the schoolteacher has forgotten words or states and/or just stated the wrong name. The doctor orders some tests including with a neurologist but says yur neighbor didn't have a stroke. And I tell her that I saw the MRI report and bloodwork but I think she had a mini-stroke. Well, I've done my due diligence in terms of helping diagnose the schoolteacher's rapid decline over the last two weeks. At home I have to go back over to the retired schoolteacher's house because she doesn't know who to call for her appointments. And I have to explain it to her three times. I'm sure I'll have to explain it again on Thursday. I finally watch a super close MotoGP race from France where the leaders are within g0.25 seconds of each other for the entire race - and other close battles going on. Then I get the idea to remove those door hinges that are unused (and for which I bought spackle from Home Depot among other things). At first I have trouble getting the many-times painted over screws out and I look it up online and find that I can get them out rather easily. I bang the painted-down door hinges off and fill them with a first layer of spackle. And then just relax sine I am still completely worn out.
Thursday is a day off from working the legs so I read the news and markets and then work the core muscle group along with the biceps. Then I go around to every window in the house and clean the inside of each window. All of the windows look nicer but will look super nice when I clean the outside next week. After lunch I clean the hardwood floors and kitchen floor and split time between watching ice hockey playoff games and Netflix. And finally I add more spackle to the door hinges that I just removed to even things out. It's been a productive day around the house wihout getting too tired for a long bicycle ride on Friday.
I'm out the door just after 6am on Friday and have a good ride up to the El Monte dam. Since I'm feeling good I continue up to the Santa Fe dam. There I stop for an energy gel and then continue back towards home. I don't feel super energetic but I'm not crawling either. I get off on Del Amo and head for home and feel a flat rear tire. I optimistically assume that I can ride on the front tire and get home. I do manage this task and finish with a 100 kilometer ride (though slow for the last five kilometers due to the deflated rear tire). I'm happy to be home and I can change out both the rear tire and rear tube since I just ordered new ones a few weeks ago. I go to Trader Joe's and purchase items on the retired schoolteacher's list and then stop somewhere else for some of my items. When I deliver the retired schoolteacher's items to her we have a discussion about ending one's life. And I reinforce that someone cannot end their life if they are bullied or in debt or dissatisfied. But they might be able to end their life if they pray to their god, spirit, or higher being because their quality of life is down towards zero. I tell the story of Nopey's life quality being near zero when I finally took him to the veterinarians and let them examine him. They say, "You know that every organ in his body has failed except his heart is as strong as possible". I know this because Nopey and I would run, skate, or cycle everywhere and I would even push him farther than he wanted to go. The retired schoolteacher understands my story and has some thinking to do. I buy her supplies from Trader Joe's and my supplies from another store and then I go home. I start the laundry, answer a ton of texts, and watch a very inconclusive FP2 from Imola, Italy for F1. But I cook pizza for both lunch and dinner in support of the Italian race weekend.
Though my legs are tired, mostly from the standing on the bicycle all the way across Del Amo yesterday, I get out on the mountain bicycle and get the legs armed up and have a decent ride to the old yacht club and back to home. Since I'm a bit earlier than usual, there are many homeless people just wandering around everywhere and they're not looking where they're going. So I stay alert on the ride. At home I weedwack the roses and then pump up the flat road bicycle tire/tube to see if I can find the hole. When I do this the valve stem pops off and maybe that is the problem. But I glue it back together and pump up the tire/tube and it still leaks. But at least I find the leak out the sidewall of the tire. For some reason the sidewalls of this set ot tires has really been beaten up. Thus I put on both a brand new tire and brand new tube and ride around a bit. Hours later I check and it's still holding air - so at least I didn't pinch the tube on installation (which happens to everybody sometimes). I keep the old tube because the hole might be fixable. After a shower I watch qualifying for the F1 Sunday race in Italy. And then I relax with some golf and ice hockey and not much else today. During my viewing of events I (again) spill a Coke on the table and hardwood floors. So I pull out the Windex to clean stuff up, pull out the Liquid Pledge to take care of the wood, and pull out the mop and pail to clean up the hardwood floors. This is the third time that this specific event and spill has occurred this year. So I need to start being a bit more careful. A sign of senility or carelessness?
On Sunday my legs are sore from the Del Amo standing ride, so I wake up and walk to the grocery store for some supplies. Back at home I trim the roses and carnations and bring new blooms into the house. Then I get in a good session with the weights - all joint soreness is down by a lot. But then, I haven't lifted in a week or so. After lifting I finsih sanding the door hinge areas that I replaced and I realize that on the opposite side of the door frame is the strike plate that I forgot to remove and repair. Thus after a shower I remove the strike plate, which comes off rather easily, clean up the area, and shovel spackle into the opening. It's only 10:30am and it's been a productive day so I sit back and watch the F1 race from Italy where the racing is close and there are super battles throughout the field. Later I flip back and forth between golf and the Dodgers' game. And do some planning of tasks for the upcoming week.
On Monday I'm out the door on the road bicycle with brand new rear tire and tube for an exploratory ride. I do the standard Tuesday ride (though this is Monday) and I get in 65 kilometers on a windy day. At home I grab a quick shower and go to work on that web scraping dashboard and make some good progress. The data is now in a perfect form to make whatever plots I can think of. Later I send off a proposed Fall 2024 Computer Science senior design project proposal to my Mechanical Engineering senior design professor as well as to the CS faculty member that I just met. It's a very weird project, but we'll see if the university wants to pursue it. My ME professor just says "The university will be lucky to have you on board again!" though he's probably disappinted that this is a CS/AI project rather than an ME project. I continue throughout the day, as I have recently, to take creative breaks to perform some shoulder exercises and I'm finally starting to see more strength, more mobility, and less joint/muscle soreness since the bicycle accident - provided I don't overdo it and tear the rotator cuff again. Later I watch game seven of the ice hockey playoff game.