I start the road bicycke ride earlier than usual on Tuesday and with lights on because I wake up after 5am and cannot sleep - I might as well go ride. I d the extneded loop ride and see Archie, my Phillippino runner friend, so I slow to a crawl and explain to hime why he hasn't seen me in almost two years. He's both shocked and encouraging and he laughs his head off when I tell him, in Tagalong, that I am no loner the "old ox" but now the "skinny ox". Regardless it was terrific to finally see him again and hear that he dropped his kids off to start school today. Then I continue cranking along and have a decent, if not spectacular, 65 kilometer ride. I trim the roses which are not producing any good blooms to bring into the house right now since the weather has been so hot. And then I grab a shower and try to make my permutation runs consistent with the out display runs (and the newly implemented input file format). I think by 12:30 they are consistent but I need to make a few more runs to be sure. Recall that this effort will probably not be picked up by CSULA as a senior design project, but I can continue to have fun with it. I was originally going to go for a short ride and then frop the Yamaha YZF-R3 off for its 600 mile checkup, but I shelve that until Thursday (I hope). I keep trying to use the government's new standardized login.gov process for accessing social security information, but it has failed five times for me on the two factor authentication. It's on their side - the error talks about their server. What did I expect from the social security adminstration. Contrarily, the standardized lgin.gov process works perfrectly for me for the nonprofit agency and has worked perfectly for at least three years. And finally I do some computer maintenance on my desktop computer by clearing the browsing history and cleaning up the hard drive and making sure it is defragmented. I need to do this on my laptop also. Late in the day I kinda watch the Dodgers' game.
I get out for a mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. The legs don't feel tired after yesterday's longer ride. At home I mow the lawn and trim the lawn and grab a shower. I'm feeling very low on blood sugar so I eat something quickly before the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting starts. I leave that meeting early to go to a coffee/tea/juice cafe and meet up with Ruby. I've brought apple turnovers and share them with Ruby, of course, but whenever somebody new sits down at a table next to us I offer them one also. (Should they be taking food from a stranger?) But Ruby and I have a good discussion and talk about many different things. Just before 5pm I'm leaving to stop in at Home Depot for LED lightbulbs for the kitchen fixturees and finally get home to have some sourdough bread and cheese and Coke for dinner - just something quick and easy to have during the Dodgers' game.
Thursday is a day off from cycling or running. I re-run some of the permutation runs and compile the data to try and tell a story. I also trim the roses, water the roses, and lift weights with all lifts being good except the bench press is a bit short. Near 10am I take the Yamaha YZF-R3 out for a little ride and then drop it off at the motorcycle dealer for a 600 mile checkup. When I get it back, I can start winding it up and have some real fun! At home I cook pasta to carbo-load for Friday's long ride and I watch the Dodgers' blow a late lead because their relief pitchers keep walking the batters. Later I finish off a series on Netflix and watch the first 15 minutes of a new Korean series which might be fun to watch. Being bored, I go out and pull up the wild grass which has grown in the carnation bed since it is in the shade now. (I have to do this for the roses, but its always inconvenient for me when the shade is there.)
On Friday I'm out the door just after 6am for a road bicycle ride up the Los Angeles river. I've vowed today that if I see my rider friend Ted, then I'll turn around and ride with him and just add kilometers as necessary. Sure enough I see Ted and yel at him, "Hold up a minute", and I slow down and turn around. But he hasn't slowed down so I chase him and catch him and then we have a good, if one-sided discussion, all of the way back to Del Amo where I entered the trail. Ted had moved to Texas to be with his daughter and grandchildren for a while, but is now back in a condominium right acrost the street from his previous house. But the conversation is very one-sided as Ted just keeps talking about Texas politics and Texas traffic and Texas low traffick and Texas weather. I don't think he even hears me when I talk about my bicycle accident and cancer. Nonetheless we ride back to Del Amo where Ted exits for home and I continue on a loop ride down to the ocean, across the ocean trail, and back up the San Gabriel trail. It ends up about 80 kilometers - perhaps 90 kilometers. But I won't bother interrupting my planned rides to turn around when I see Ted - we'll just wave and smile at each other and continue on. After a shower I go to the grocery store and when an extra checkout line opens up, my favorite cashier Lupe says, "Ray, you can't change lanes". To which I hold up both of my forearms with bloody scars on them and say, "Yes, I know. This is what you did to me the last time I left your checkout lane". We have that kind of teasing relationship. (On both of my forearms I just have red and blood-like scars even though I have not banged my forearms. It just seems like I get some bleeding under the skin for no reason. They do not hurt or anything, but I use them to my advantage as here with Lupe and I used them in a similar fashion against my radiation doctor. Fortunately everybody assumes - or knows - that I am joking and laugh with us.) At home I watch FP for both MotoGP and Moto2 while eating some fresh-garlic baked vegetables and potatoes and review the end of my permutation runs for final post-processing and story-telling....i.e., fact-telling, of what I've discovered. Later on on this warm Saturday I watch more of this new, twisted Korean Netflix series "A Killer Paradox".
For an untypical Saturday, I do not go for a recovery bicycle ride. Instead I start run/walking and just keep going and I'm feeling good and I get in twenty kilometers. At home I immediately stretch my legs, reload on protein, trim the roses (on a Saturday instead of Sunday), and then grab a cooling shower. After meditataing I can watch the Moto3/2/GP qualifying sessions and I look forward to the upcoming Sunday races from Austria. I'm low on blood sugar and brain blood sugar by 12:30pm, so I have a salad and bread and butter and Coke to try to regain some ability to perform logical tasks and reasoning. Later I watch some of the Dodgers' game and I skip a day of the final compilation of the permutation runs. If the pure permutation runs sorta match-up with the subroutine runs, then the process will be ready for either a combinatoric optimization implementation or one of the standard AI processes. And much later I watch another episode of the twisted and unpredictable Korean Netflix series "A Killer Paradox". Throughout the day I will get up off the couch and go stretch my legs after Friday's long bicycle ride and today's long run. That is my entire Saturday though I've always felt like it was Sunday.
Tired legs and all, I'm out the door near 6:15am for a muntain bicycle recovery ride. THough it is overcast, it is a warm overcast - not the typical cooler overcast days that we have. I have a decent ride and follow, at a short distance, another rider who has passed me going north on the Los Angeles river. I swear I should not ride again on Sunday because there were two separate groups going southbound of at least twenty riders each who nearly forced the rider ahead of me off the road. And I could see him hold his hand up and say something to them. I get in a cooling shower and ride te bicycle to the grocery store for supplies. As I'm turning the corner a big giant white truck almost hits me and is driving like a madman/woman. At the grocery store I run into a neighbor and she sees whats going on as the truck is now speeding west on San Antonio drive. And we have a brief conversation about the truck driver and about hos wild people are driving since the pandemic started and the lack of traffic officers to slow people down. At home I schedule a flu and first monkeypox vaccine in and do some digging on Terry, my realtor friend who passed away just after my brother did in 2019. Los Angeles county records show that his house was trasnferred or sold or changed hands in 2019 and it shows the assessment vallue. It also shows that the property taxes are delinquent as of 2023. And when I zoom in on google maps, Terry's boat is still in his rear-facing driveway with a google map date of June 2024. I wonder what's going on with his former house? Well before noon I watch the MotoGP race from Austria and then I watch some of the Dodgers' game and a bit of golf. And keep trying to stretch my legs regularly throughout the day. Today I seem to be on trash duty for the entire neighborhood, so I take out my trash bins, the retired schoolteacher's trashbins, and the acrost-street neighbors' trash bins. (The retired schoolteacher just can't handle the weight of half full or more trash bins so that is my permanent job. The acrost-street neighbors are just recreating for a short trip along the Kern river.)
I've reset the alarm to 6:15am for Monday morning and when I wake up I'm "happily sore" from the efforts of the last few days. Originally I planned on compiling all of the permutation data and telling a story. Instead I get down on my hands and knees and de-weed and de-grass the rose beds near the bottom of each bush. And then I run a weedwacker around to finish cleaning up the rosebaeds. I'll probably be sore on Tuesday or Wednesday because this effort involves a lot of stand up, move to the next rosebush, kneel down, reach and pull weeds and grass, and repeat. I do this early so that I can do it befoe the sun is shining on me and before the day is too hot. Afterwards I read the news and markets and have a decent session lifting weights. A cooling shower refreshes me and after getting the permutation compilation effort all set up, I stop to watch the Moto3 race from Austria - wanting to go back and look a second time after a break at the compilation effort. The Moto3 race is as hectic and fun as ever and the runaway championship leader consolidates his lead. Why does he not have a Moto2 ride for next year when other Moto3 riders already have them lined up? I never do go back for a second look at the permutation compilation and aim for a Tuesday effort at it.
I start Tuesday with my recent "typical Tuesday ride" of the extended loop. It's about 65 kilometers. I feel tired on the final leg northbound on the Los Angeles river towards home. I think that I did not eat enough yesterday. After a shower, during which I have no hot water and I have to reset the tankless water heater to get hot water, I meditate, and then go to the store for some vegetables. At home I am still tired and I'm happy to sit in front of the computer and read the news and markets for a while. And I get the permutation compilation effort all set up and we'll see if I get back to it today or not. The final race from Austria, the Moto2 race, is viewed and I'm again happy to sit comfortably on the couch and watch. (Though throughout the day, as is typical, I will pause what I am watching and stretch out my legs and shoulders and neck and back.)
On Wednesday I'm out the door for a recovery bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I feel good today and push both against the wind and with the wind. At home I trim the roses and trim a sidebush from the neighbors and then get in a cooling shower. After meditating I ride the bicycle slowly to the store and pick up a big bottle of wine. I put everything away and read the news and markets and start compiling the statistics of the various permutation runs. And I'm faced with a dilemma: Do I pick a solution which has a reasonably high score and the highest minimum score or do I just pick the solution with the highest absolute score (knowing that its minimum may fall very low))? It's a risk and reward dilemma which is difficult to quantify and even more difficult to describe for an AI algorithm. But I've finally compiled all of my permutation results and I can think about this dilemma. Later I do some digging about property ownership and business results for a friend of mine who passed away in 2019, just after my brother, and I'm disappointed with the ownership transfer and inconclusive about the business revenues. And finally, near 2pm, I am sitting down for the first meal of the day with salad and bread and butter. Later, as I watch some news and television, I keep pondering that AI dilemma and hope that a few potential solutions come to me during sleep or a workout as is usually the case.
Though being "blah", I have a number of web tabs open for flights between Los Angeles and Doha, Qatar (for the F1 race in early December), Abu Dhabi, UAE (for the F1 race in the middle of December), La Paz, Bolivia (for a new experience), and Santiago, Chile (for a new experience). All of these flights I've scheduled to leave after my last doctor's appointment (for a while) on November 13th. But I never push the button to make these things happen. I still have time.
Starting later on Wednesday and now into Thursday morning, I have no enthusiasm. I've done the final combination of permutation runs and face a dilemma: do you pick the highest minimum value of a maximum valued-run (indicating how bad things could be with choosing the maximum valued-run) or do you pick the highest absolute minimum run above the norm (indicating how bad things could be with choosing the best maximimum likelihood run). I'll have to think about this one. Just before 9am I get out and work the abdominals hard along with the lower back muscles and bicep muscles. It's a reasonable workout to rest the legs and not put undo stress on some of my joints. After a shower I grab a Lyft and pick up the Yamaha YZF-R3 after it's 600 mile checkup and now I can wind it up and see what it can really do (before some modifications). Instead, being a bit mentally drained, I just go home and somehow another bottle of wine ends up at home and I continue to ponder my dilemma (min of max or min of maximum likelihood), water the roses, do a few little tasks around the house, watch some Netflix, and then watch some of the Democratic National Convention. I know that I have not eaten enough for the past few days, so Friday's long road bicycle ride might be a struggle.
I start north on the Los Angeles river and run into Ted going the opppoiste direction and we wave at each other and I continue on. I ride up past the El Monte dam and ride along Arrow highway though I know a cyclist has been killed long this route (riding at night). I stop short of the Santa Fe Dam and have an energy gel and the continue at a good pace south down the San Gabriel river trail. At Washington I see another rider hanging out, but I continue. After a while that specific rider catches up to me me and says, "We sprinted all of the way across Del Amo to make traffic lights last week". I remember tne rider and we ride together and exchange names and stories as we head to Del Amo. Jesus cuts across Del Amo whereas I am intending long ride and continue down to the ocean. This is almost enough so I add some kilometers up to the Home Depot and turn back for home. I end up with 130 kilometers. At home I get in a quick cooling shower and a trip to the grocery store before quickly perusing the news and markets and then settling in for FP2 for F1 from the Netherlands. I don't really remember what happens for the rest of day.
I start Saturday with a mountain bicycle recovery ride and I feel stronger than I should. But I get in a good ride and then stop at the standard recovery distance of about 50 kilometers. After a quick shower I meditate and I run errands and get gasoline for the car, a bottle of wine from CVS, and return and pick up two books from a local library branch. Amongst qaulifying for the F1 race from the Netherlands I wash the hardwood floors because it seems like they have minor, temporary stains/scuffs on them. And I want to prolong the qualifying session across three sessions as long as possible. Later I expect to go to a street festival in downtown Long Beach but there is no way, after the wine, that I can get to the festival unless I use an Uber or Lyft and the blue line train. So later in the day I start to question my anti-social behavior. Is it just my lack of five teeth which will be inserted next week? Or is it something more? Nonetheless F1 qualifying is fun and I watch a bit of the Dodgers' game to finish out the day - getting up and stretching my legs and shoulders regularly. As directed by the owner's manual, I put some ice cubes through the garbage disposal even though I don't use it that often. The disposal doesn't want to run. I crawl under and use the tool to rotate the disposal by hand and it turns in both directions freely. But no action when I switch it on. I feel the disposal and it is warm to the touch. It almost feels like the motor has given up the ghost. Just like the recent ceiling failure, the garbage disposal is fifteen years old, but I don't really use it much.
I start Sunday with another mountain bicycle rcovery ride after Friday's long ride - and I feel better than I should. At home I trim the roses, grab a shower, pick up some supplies at the grocery store, read the news, and then watch the F1 race from the Netherlands with the laundry running in parallel. At the beginning it looks like it will be an exciting race, but slowly diverges to a "just hold your position" race. It's okay - it's F1! What could be better? I spend time tidying up the bathroom and later discover than my garbage disposal, which I rarely use anyway, does not want to work. I use the special tool to wind it arund a bit, but it still does not want to grind anything up. And today I had only tossed ice cubes into the disposal to run it and clear the blades as directed - not for real disposal. It looks like it could be easy to replace if I can find an exact duplicate of this disposal. As a sidenote, the kitchen remodel happened fifteen years ago and now things are starting to fail - the light fixture and now the garbage disposal. At least they are minor repairs. Is the $3000 refrigerator going to fail next? Later on Sunday I plan an interesting week. I have nothing scheduled. So I'm going to do a normal Monday and then Tuesday morning and then water fast for the next few days to try and clear toxins from the body. I don't know what this will do for a long Friday bicycle ride, but I'm going to give it a try.
On Monday morning I get out for a 65 minute run/walk - not wanting to overdo things from last week's 20 kilometer run or the last three days of cycling. After a shower I update some finances and pull this year's tax rates from websites and see if I'm on track. And the failed garbage disposal bothers me, so I pull out my 2 inch thick kitchen folder of paperwork from 15 years ago and look for the owner's manual (though it was the contractor who bought it). I surprisingly find the owner's manual and read the 28 steps of installation in case I have to buy a new one. And on the last page is what I'm looking for. "After installng, run water and check for leaks." Done. "Use provided tool to manually rotate the disposal from underneath to see that it turns smoothly." Done. "Gently depress the red reset button." Not done because its buried and I couldn't find one before. Now I crawl underneath with reading glasses and flashlight and find the reset button. When I depress it, it stays depressed. Is this a good sign? I turn on the water and switch on the disposal and it runs! Yay! Then I drop some ice cubes into the disposal and run in again and, as usual, it makes an awful racket but the cold ice cubes supposedly help remove the gunk on the blades and keep them sharp. Life is good - no new expensive repair/replacement yet. Is it possible that the garbage disposal kinda went into hold mode when I blew up the kitchen light a few months ago and needed to be reset? During the day I watch some Netflix and take care of many small little things around the house since there isn't really anything to watch on television and I'm still thinking aout the compiled permutation dta.