Tuesday starts with a run/walk just a few minutes after 6am. The last two nights have been chilly and, in fact, last night I got up in the middle of the night to put a shirt on. I get in a good twelve-to-thirteen kilometer run/walk where I'm keeping the running portion at a high level. And am almost daring myself to increase - but be patient. At home I trim the roses and grab a cooling shower. I work on the end of month changes or a couple of websites that I take care of and have a phone call with my radiologist. In an initial contrast PT-CT scan, they saw nodules in my lungs and didn't know what they were. So I did a non-contrast CT scan and the nodules are not moving or growing. They think they are the result of an infection in the past that I may or may not have known about. I suggest they might have been from bleeding in the lungs that I had from my September 2022 bicycle accident, but this reason gets softly dismissed. Nonetheless they do not believe that this is a cancer in the lungs and we'll reconfirm with MRIs and CT scans in a few months. I work on a web scraping project where one of the Python modules was updated and now my webscraper does not work. So I spend a fair amount of time bringing that back up to speed. And, as I expected, the CS department at CSULA has my proposed project listed "under the line". Which means that they will focus on the projects that they have funding for. I understand this completely. But wehn I've sat in on CS project presentations, rather than ME or EE presentations, I always note thatthe teams are very large. As if the students are stumbling over each other and there's more students assigned than they really need. It's not a problem. I've been making progress on the project and, as I mentioned before, I'll just work on it on my own.
Wednesday and Thursday are blah days. I certainly get out cycling one day and lifting weights on Thursday. And I make it to the main Long Beach library for four new books. Otherwise I'm just waiting for decent Olympic events to occur. I spend time working details of the permutation problem.
On Friday I'm out the door on the road bicycle a few minutes after 6am. I'm expecting to see Ted, the Polish rider on the Colnago, who I haven't spoken with since before the pandemic. The last couple of Friday rides I've seen him going in the opposite direction. To day I expect to stop and turn around and ride with him and catch up with him before continue elsewhere. But I don't see Ted today. I ride up past the El Monte dam and take the Live Oak cutoff and then crank for home. It's just short of 100 kilometers - my legs were not going to do anymore today. During the ride I see a family of four coyotes running on the bike path - Mama, Papa, and two younger coyotes. I'm not sure what to do so I just yell "Rider" at the top of my lungs and Mama looks back at me and makes a run for the bushes. Followed by Papa. The two younger coyotes continue running along the bike path for a bit as I yell "Rider" another time or two and finally the last of them leave the trail. I wasn't sure what I was going to do if Mama decided to stand her ground and try to protect the younger coyotes. And you can bet both Mama and Papa coyote are yelling at the two kids to "run for the bushes when you hear load noises or screams". I had never seen a family of coyotes on my rides - just individual coyotes who run run for the bushes as I approach. At home, after a shower I drop off my old phone at UPS, buy some groceries, read the news and markets, and get ready for a fairly hot day. BUt I have MotoGP and Moto2 practices to watch and, I think, some of the Olympics track events. And at natural breaks, such as when the MotoGP and Moto2 bikes are changing from race simulations to qualifyinng simulations, I wash the hard wood floors. And later, after dinner, I wash the kitchen floor.
On Saturday, with tired legs, I get in the typical recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. As has been valid in recent weeks, there are many people not paying attention to any rules and I have to avoid accidents including one bimbo whose walking her dog and I have to yell "Rider" at her three times and I still barely miss her. At home I grab a shower, meditate, and buy some vitamins and supplies at Trader Joe's. THe Moto3/2/GP qualifying sessions are fun and unpredictable from England - so Sunday's races should be unpredictable. Then I start watching the recorded men's cycling road race. It's just moving along and along and there are attacks and counter-attacks and as the race approaches the last few kilometers, the recording ends. What the fu$%? I added in the extra thirty minute extension and still missed the end. I'm livid because later I see some youtube highlights and the winner gets a flat tire in the last few kilometers but gets a quick enough bike change to still win. I'm just so livid at NBC. Later I just relax as today is a ery hot day. But surprisingly not so hot that I need the AC running. The retired schoolteacher calls me over about her medical problems and I tell her what I've done in the past and what she could possibly do. After all, it's my (or her ) health and we can't just listen to the doctors. We need to be more proactive. But I'm sure she won't do it and we'll have this same conversation in another month or so.
I have a very upset stomach and have to run to the bathroom on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Thus I reset my usual 5:30am alarm for my backup 8:10 alarm and get a bit of extra sleep. When I wake up I feel okay and get on the mountain bicycle for a second recovery ride after Friday's long ride. At home I trim the roses, grab a shower, ride the bicycle to the grocery store for a few supplies, read the news, and then watch the MotoGP Tissot sprint trace from Saturday. It's an exciting and close race and I enjoy every moment - my favorite rider holding onto fifth place despite all of his front aerodynamics being knocked off in a collision. As the bikes do their cooldown laps, two of them run out of gasoline and need to be pushed back to the pits or podium by other riders. (You let the pushing rider put his/her foot on your footpeg and push you slowly to where you need to go.) Afterwards I watch the Olympics women's road race and wonder when NBC will cut off the coverage. But they don't. Later I catch a bit of thhe Beatles Revolution being played, so I go to youtube and have a "classic rock" or "oldies" evening with the Beatles and Alice Cooper and Deep Purple and other such bands. Somehow some Thai pop and Burmese pop songs get thrown into my mix also, but that's perfectly fine.
I'm up extra early on Monday morning and get out for a 15 kilometer run. I take a shower I give the Yamaha YZF-R3 a little ride on the freeways in order to get mileage on it. When I get to 600 miles I can take it in for a checkup and then start winding it up. Back at home I read the news and markets and watch a wild, fairing-beating Moto3 race from England. After lunch of vegetables and bread and cheese, I watch a CNN series on 1968. TO me, 1968 was a formative year, even if I was only 11 years old, because it had a war in VietNam, a political election, a third party candidate, riots in the streets, protests, and assassinations. Later in the day I plan out the rest of the week and try to figure out how to get Python data inserted directly into a Word table. All of the instructions on the Internet fail because there are so many different versions of Word (and maybe Excel which you have to use as an intermediate step).
On Tuesday I'm awake early again. Last week my body kept saying to sleep later. This week it is saying to get out of bed earlier. Thus I'm out the door for a road bicycle ride near 6am with lights on because it is not light, but not dark. And it's a weird ride because along the ocean the weather is foggy and wet and inland five kilometers is it sunny and warm. Nnetheless It is a good 65 kilometer road bicycle ride. But because of of the beach fog, the bicycle is sandy. Thus I spend time wiping down the road bicycle though I just did this last week. On my list is to do is a "dig out rosebush" for one rosebush which has never really produced any great blooms. And it, itself, was a replacement for another rosebush. Thus I'm digging with the shovel and swinging my axe (really a maul) and get the rosebush out. I'll just fill it in with dirt later and be down one rosebush. After a shower I get out to the grocery store for supplies using my car. At home I read the news and markets and spend more time trying to get Python to write something compatible with Word - or really, getting Word to recognize a Python-written column of numbers into a table. It doesn't seem like it's going to happen. I spend time icing down my right shoulder and right common extensor tendon after the digging up of the unproductive rodebush. {These are both areas of my body that require regular icing.) Thus at 12:15pm I boot my laptop and watch the MotoGP race from this past Sunday at Silverstone, England. And its not until after 2pm that I am finally eating something for the first time today - veggies and bread and cheese again. Later, after finishing a Netfliux series, I turn on youtube and spend some time dancing to some very old and very new music of all different genres.
I keep going to bed to read and sleep just a bit earlier every week. Tonight the lights go off after reading at about 9:45pm. I wake up before the 5:30am alarm but stay in bed for fifteen more minutes and get out of bed at 5:45am on Wednesday. I do my hygiene routine and get out the door on the mountain bicycle a bit after 6am. I have a good ride fighting a slight breeze down the Los Angeles river and across to the old yacht club. And then I can pop up a gear and crank along the ocean and back up the Los Angeles river. It's a fast time for the ride - not that it matters as it is a recovery ride. At home I grab a shower, ride the bicycle to the grocery store for supplies, and return home to check some things off my "to do" list. After I meditate I make good progress on the "to do" list as I consolidate all of my recent permutation results and will paste them into Word to be able to tell a good story. I take a break to re-watch the last ten laps of the MotoGP race from this past Sunday (which I watched yesterday) and then I watch the Moto2 race from this past Sunday at Silverstone, England. I double and triple check my recording settings for the men's and women's marathon in the Olympics and they seem ready. Provided NBC does does not screw me up again. I also note that the entire track/running events are really messed up in order as the 10000 meter races are held the day or so before the marathons. Really? The 10000 meter races should have been first on the schedule almost two weeks ago in case anyone wanted to double up (10000 meter and marathon) or even triple up (10000 meters, 5000 meters, and marathon). Who in the fu#& is setting these schedules? And I will be beyond livid if the marathon coverages from both genders are not exactly as listed as I missed critical moments of each race. Late in the afternoon I just watch the news, keep consolidating the permutation runs, and watch part of the Dodgers' game.
Thursday is a blahish day. I wake up and read the news and markets, grab a shower, and drive down to the prosothodontist. I was assuming that there was the possibility that I might get a set of temporary teeth to wear, but that quickly becomes obvious that it will be another three weeks. They take impressions and measurements and that's that. Except that I signed up for a "regular dental hygiene checkup" which I have not had since January 2022 (due to my dentist retiring, a bicycle acident, a detnist saying that I need to see a maxillo-facial surgson first, a trip to Thailand and Cambodia to recover from the bicycle acident, a cancer dagnosis, a cancer surgery, recovery, six weeks of radiation, recovery, and an infection in the implamnts that were supposed to support a permament implant off teeth). I can see in the mirror my teeth are tremendously dirty, but the hygenist is professinal and I check off all the boxes when she asks, "Regular or electric toothbrush?", "Floss everyday?", "Waterpik everyday?", "Fluroide gel everyday?". So we go through the proces and she's digging away, but afterwards my natural teeth look very nice. And she says that my natural teeth all feel very solid and sturdy with no cracks. So this is, finally, some good news. At home I work the abdominals and lower back karder than usual and just have a slow Thursday.
When I wake up today on Friday I don't know what's going to happen, but I start north on the Los Angeles river trail on the road bicycle. I fel very good today and get to Arrow highway and the Santa Fe dam where I stop for an energy gel. Then I continue south on the San Gabriel river trail - happily cranking away and passing other riders - until I get down to the ocean. I ride along the ocean and back up to home (with a tailwind on the last ten kilometers) and end with a 120 kilometer ride. THis 120 kilometers turns out to be exactly one mile mile for every year old that I am PLUS a 10 percent bonus. Thus, today on my 67th birthday, I've overachieved and feel good. I take a quick cooling shower, make a trip to the grocery store for wine and other supplies, and read the news and markets. I check the recording schedule and see that NBC has threatened to screw me over again by NOT showing a marathon in lieu of a vollyballl game. But I manage to fine LIVE coverage of both marathons. Thus one marathon I'll have the live version and a backup NBC version and the other marathon I'll only have the LIVE version. Unless the sister television channel USA decides to over-ride their LIVE marathon schedule with a tiddly-winks competitions or something other trivial sport. Needless to say I'm running out of steam near 2pm due to the long bicycle ride and that darn wine bottle that got opened and half drained, so I finally prepare a salad and sourdough bread and butter and sit on the couch and see if I can find anything interesting to watch.
On Saturday I start the day with a mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. Except that my legs don't feel tired from yesterday's long ride so I push at times and spin at others. At home I water the roses in advance of the next two projected very hot days, grab a quick shower, meditate, and ride the bicycle to the grocery store for supplies. When in line I tell the lady in front of me "I'm just buying the necessities" as I put wine and cheese on the conveyor belt. She turns to me and it turns out its my neighbor from the down the street, who I did not recognize from the back, and we have a quick discussion and move on. I'm tickled to death to see the recorded live version of the men's marathon of the Olympics and it results in a strategic race yet a new a Olympic record. I can only hope for the same for the women's marathon tonight. It's a slow day for me and I can't hink of anything of significance that I accomplished.
I am so exhausted on Sunday morning and don't know what to do. So I get on the mountain bicycle and do another recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. My legs don't feel tired, but my organism does. I very quickly trim the roses, grab a cooling shower, and take a ride on the Yamaha YZF-R3 so that it can be taken into the shop for a 600 mile checkup after a short ride next time. Somehow a bottle of wine ended up in my backpack and it gets opened to watch the women marathon from Olympics. This is an incredible race with, more or less, a five woman sprint for the finish at the end. The bronze medalist frm the 5000 meter race and the 10000 meter race outsprints everyone for the gold and a new Olympic marathon record on her debut at the distance. A super race! It's hot on Sunday, almost 90F in Long Beach, so I turn on the air conditioning and relax and watch a bit of the Dodgers' game and lose myself in the bottle of wine.
I'm out the door at 6:20am on Monday for a run/walk. Today I just go for sixty minutes so that I don't overdo things with my legs. After a shower I work on a standardized inout setup for the various permutation processes and before noon it is running well. I also can my Peacock account (which I only bought for the Tour de France and the Olympics) and I look into what my neighbor called "a universal box" which allows you to get many television channels via your Internet connection and no television provider such as DirecTV. It looks very good for a one-time price of $3000 an no monthly fees. But I hesitate. It does not have a recorder and I do not know if you can interface one with it. It probably has Dodgers' and Kings' games because there are a lot of regional sports networks listed. So I'll just ponder this to see if I can live without recording. Though I think I still have a DVD recorder whataver a DVD is) that maybe can work with it. I'll have to ponder this a bit. As I'm standardizing the post-porcessing program a 4.7 earthquake hits about twenty miles away. It's a bit of a jolt but then the rolling motion goes on for quite a while. This adds to the rwo earthquakes that we had in the last week that were much farther away but I could still feel.