On Monday night into Tuesday morning I have incredibly deep sleep. Perhaps too deep. Because I wake up at 3:30am and
cannot fall back asleep. Before 6 am I wake up and see that it is very foggy and wet outside, so I will not be
riding today. I go to work and make the cellular automata code more modular for the upcoming hackathon. Near 8:30am I get in a super workout for the
abdominals, core muscles, and biceps. After a shower I run some errands including dropping off my vote at a voting station at a local library. I
continue to work away on the celllar automata code and I'm getting close enough for the hackathon. I watch a fun and confusing Moto2 race from
Japan where there are red flags and semi-wet conditions and different tires and a fun race. Don't we
LOVE Moto2/3/GP racing? I finally
grab pasta for lunch and watch some baseball playoffs - while keeping the hackathon code in my mind. Later in the day I continue to watch some
baseball playoff games and the Monday night football game while letting the last updates of the cellular automata code brew - in advance of
Saturday's Cerebral Beach Hackathon. And I handle some teammate requests on Discord based upon my proposed problem to solve.
I start Wednesday morning waiting for a few minutes for enough light to ride. I have a rear light on both bicycles bt I need a front light. Nonetheless I get in the extended loop ride with an additional extension to get to 70 or 75 kilometers. I come home and grab a quick shower and get to the grocery store for supplies (on the weekly specials that are announced each Wednesday morning). Back at home I transfer files to a memory stick and try to run the upcoming hackathon code so that everything can be transferred to a teammate without relying on Dropboc or Google drives. As expected, I've missed a few files, but quickly clear it up. Then I put together a summary list of itemized deductions from healthcare premiums and costs and charitable contributions for the next tax year. I wanted to do that while recent updates were fresh in my mind. And then I finally get down to watch the MotoGP race from Motegi, Japan last Sunday. In the afternoon, following a lunch of steamed vegetables and bread and butter, I watch some of the baseball playoffs and end up blowing off a community meeting regarding infrastructure. The city has found new money for infrastructure projects, but I'm sure they will start new ones rather than repair the roads which are worse than war-torn Myanmar right now.
On Thursday I take the mountain bicycle down to the old yacht club and back to home. As I'm apporaching the Junipero lifeguard station, I start hearing a click from the front tire. I ride a bit more and decide to check it out. There's a thumbtack in my front tire. When I pull it out I hear a little woosh of air, but the tire seems to be holding air pressure. Thus I continue on my way. By the time that I've got to the old yacht club I can tell that the front is going flat. And I just continue on - it seems like a very slow leak and maybe I can get home. If I scootch to the back of the saddle, putting most of my weight on the rear tire, then I can ride along. But I'm very careful around any turns because I have no control. I ride like this back along the ocean trail and up the Los Angeles river trail and manage to get home (without have to change to a spare tube). At home the front tire is very very soft, but I made it home. I then trim the roses and mow and trim the front and back yards and grab a shower. I sit down to read the news and markets and get a few requests from the LBHTTF for a website update and from CSULA to handle parking for Monday's visit with ABET representatives. I'm looking for some time to finish the preparation for Saturday's hackathon, but things are getting in the way. I take care of the requests and work on the hackathon code and do a bit of relaxing in the afternoon with the baseball playoff games.
On Friday I sleep a bit late and get up to read the news and markets and finish off some work before the hackathon. I lift weights and grab a shhower and run some errands. I get to the post office, Trader Joes, the pharmacy, and the library. Back at home I keep trying to find one last little bug and finally just say I'll fix it at the hackathon. Later I watch the Dodgers win the fifth game of their best of five series to advance to the National League championship series.
On Saturday I'm out of bed at 5:05am so that I can squeeze in a run before today's CerebralBeach Hackathon. I get in a good 65 minute run/walk where I gradually keep increasing the run periods. After a shower I pack everything up and ride the motorcycle to Santa Monica and park in parking structure 2. Since parking is $25 per day, I look for a way out on the motorcycle without paying. I register and go for breakfast and start talking with an asian man and woman. It turns out they are from Myanmar. So I shock them with a few phrases in Burmese and they ask me, "Are you Burmese?" I tell them I have been to Myanmar three times including an early time when US citizens were not allowed in the country and I had to bribe immigration officials to let me in. They are taken aback that a) a white guy has been to Myanmar three times; b) a white guy can speak some Burmese; and 3) this white guy bribed his way into the US when he was not allowed in by law. They are now my friends! I go off and find a quiet spot and start working on making my cellular automata model of homelessness efficient so that an artificial intelligence algorithm can be wrapped around it. I also talk with a gentleman who used to work at Amazon and is now trying to match geriatic patients with resources. So I menton that he needs to talk with my CPS friend Ruby about this. We sit across the table from each other and share thoughts at various times on Saturday. I keep plugging away and one-by-one I find more efficient ways to make the code run faster. But I have no teammate who can run the Kindo ai on a Python simulation. At lunch I'm very late and they are out of veggie submarine sandwiches. One of the Burmese friends talks with me and I explain that I'll just have water but I'll be first in line for dinner. A short time later, this Burmese college student has searched all three rooms of the hackathon to find me and gives me a veggie sub that she procured. I don't know where she got it since the organizers said that they were out of veggie subs, but I thank her. And I cannot believe how nice and thoughtful she is t a stranger that she just met a few hours ago. I continue working and generate some great cellular automata results for homeless police strategies. But there is no way I can pick up the Kinda AI ap or find a teammate to help at this point. Thus, with this being my first hackathon in five years, I'm happy with my personal accomplishments with the cellular automata code, but disappinted that the Kindo AI code will not talk with mine. I eventually give up and slip through an entrance gate with my small motorcycle to avoid the $25 parking fee and rush home to have a dinner of cold pasta. I feel that I accomplished a lot and I don't feel that I let anyone down because I have no teammates.
On Sunday I have difficulty sleeping near 1:30am so I turn on the light and read for a while. Regardless I take the road bicyle up the Los ANgeles river to the Whittier Narrows dam and across to the San Gabriel river trail. It's only 65kilometers or so, but it will have to do for today. At home I trim the roses, grab a shower, start the laundry, do maintenance on my PC, and fix the flat tire on the mountain bicycle. Then I relax with football and Dodgers' games with some intermittent transfer of data between my laptop and my home desktop PC.
Monday starts with a mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home on the new front tube. The bicycle feels good and during the ride and later there is no indication of a problem with the new tube. I trim the roses, grab a shower, meditate, and read the news and markets. Then I ride the motorcycle up to CSULA to meet with faculty members and the ABET accreditation team. There are just two members of the Industrial Advistory Board (me and another man) and we have a good discussion with an ABET accreditor who is a faculty member at Michgan State University. Lunch is also served and a number of us have a good discussion and proceed from there. Hopefully CSULA will retain their accreditation (which passed with flying colors before the Covid-19 pandemic) and we can move on. At home I watch the Dodgers spot the Mets a seven run lead and they slowly chip away, but cannot get there. Later I watch the Monday Night Football game. I have a few things lined up this week and next to work on before I have a series of doctors appointments and then will start booking my travel plans for December and January.
I start Tuesday by sleeping until 6:05am and then getting out the door for the third bicycle ride in three days. I feel strong until the very end and can look forward to a day off of cycling or running on Wednesday. At home I trim the roses, grab a shower, meditate, get out to the post office on the bicycle, and then to the grocery store on the bicycle. At home I fix another Python error that my web hosting company is causing. (Is it time to find another web hosting company and go through the pain of moving all of my websites over?) I then do some introspection and deep thought for my future as I play a number emotional (for me) songs via youtube. Adding to my introspection, I watch the first hour of the movie "Limitless". And I keep thinking that should be me. I'm almost committed to making it happen. I know how to do it - I'm just not sure I can be fully committed to the strenuousness of it. I'll think about it for a day or two before any other requests of my time come up. Later in the day I'm just a vegetable but enjoy relaxing (for once). But I replay my playlist and dance to it and get another good workout in as I stretch also to keep my legs and shoulders flexible.
After some deep sleep on Tuesday into Wednesday, I'm awake and tossing and turning. Finally I turn on the light and read for a while. What's going on here - in the last few months I've had a number of these days of difficult sleep. I'm getting plenty of exercise and my diet is good. Eventually I fall back asleep and get out of bed at 5:45am to start the day. Since today is a day off from cycling or running, I walk to the grocery store for supplies, update a website, read the news and markets, and then lift weights. Today I get more repetitions for each lift - this is good. After a shower I delete my entire browsing history and re-login to all of my accounts, chop up the vegetables that I bought this morning, read more news, and the work on a bit of backend website development. The afernoon and evening gets taken up with a Thai film on Netflix and the Dodgers' playoff game.
I start out the door near 6:15am on Tuesday after a night of deep sleep. I'm on the road bicycle and do the extended loop ride. While I'm stopped at the traffic light near PCH and 2nd street, two riders come up behind me and says, "Hi Ray". It's Aaron, who I've run into a number of times as both of us are getting started on our rides. Except that usually he's on a road bicycle and I'm on a mountain bicycle. Today I'm on the road bicycle. When the light changes I go ahead and climb a little hill and look back and cannot see Aaron and his riding partner. I continue on and , while they take the shortcut, I take the long way around and catch up to them and we chat a bit more. Until I ride down the peninsula and they skip this saying, "We have to go to work". And I just say, "After this ride, I have to go to retirement". They laugh and they understand becuase they are both just two years away from retiring. At home I trim the roses, grab a quick shower, run errands to the bank ATM, CVS, and the library. Then I get back home and read the news and markets. And somehow the afternoon slips away with a Netflix show and the Dodgers' game.
It's cold on Thursday night into Friday morning with a sheet and blanket on the bed, so I go grab the dwn comforter for the last couple hours of sleep. I'm out the door at about 6:15am for a chilly 19 kilometer run - a good long run where I feel strong throughout. At home I pull out the equipment and climb up on the ladder to trim the neighbor's bush/tree which tends to get close to my Internet cable. Though I do not clean up the trimmings - maybe later today. At least the cable should be clear of branches until spring of 2025. After a shower I pick up some supplies at the grocery store and read the news and markets. I should do sme LBHTTF coding, but today is a busy day of sports with FP2 for MotoGP/2 in Australia, FP2 for F1 at the Circuit of the Americas, and the Dodgers' game as they try to clnch a spot into the World Series.
On Friday night into Saturday I again wake up and cannot sleep and have to read for a while. And a bit later I have to go grab the down comforter because it is cold. I start a mountain bicycle ride near 6:15am in the dark and it is cold - 53F. But I try to warm up by riding faster and I eventually fiish the ride to the old yacht club in a very fast time. I take a warming shower, meditate, ride the bicycle to the grocery store for some supplies, and then come home and put sweats on because I am cold. (I go to the grocery store regularly because I get a craving for a certain food which I may not have at home.) I read the news and then watch MotoGP/2/3 qualifying, the Formula One sprint race, and later the MotoGp Tissot Sprint race. In between these events I sharpen the blades of the hedge trimmer and cook a ton of food - chocolate chip cookies, baked potatos, pasta, and other things so that they can be easily prepared over the next few days by simply warming them up. And later the day slips away with some college footbal (which doesn't really matter to me but occupies my time). Late in the day I fix some bugs and the LBHTTF site is almost working - it should be an easy fix from here on out.
I'm feeling a bit under the weather, maybe from last weeks hackathon or maybe from overdoing life, so I ust get out for one my my recovery rides on the mountain bicycle to the old yacht club and back to home. As I make my way north on the Los Angeles river towards home, there is a black feral cat who is confused. There are forty riders coming south on the Los Angeles river trail as I turn north. The cat sprints north and keeps making faking moves to cross the river trail in front of the southbound riders. These southbound riders slow down and avoid the cat and almost hit me, but the don't slow down enough. The black cat makes one final move across the bicycle trail and one rider, near the back of their pack, goes down. It is slow enough that he is not seriously injured. Thus I keep heading towards home. I grab a shower and read the news and then work on google maps which have deprecated the old mapping methodologies and I have to catch up on the new ones. And then I aimlessly watch some college football and the Dogers' game. Saturday mtn bike ride, cat causes accident, qual for MotoGP/2/3 and qual for F1 sprint race.
On Sunday morning I am more under the weather, so I walk to the grocery store in the drak morning and read the news and later lift weigths. Despite being under the weather, my abdominal/lower back/bicep workout is good. After a quick shower I relax the MotoGP Tissot sprint race and a very important win for MY Detroit Lions against a previously undefeated team.
On Monday I'm tired of being under the weather, so I get in a 90 kilometer bicycle ride at good pace to metabolize and burn up the bug, bacteria, or virus that I have picked up. I grab a relaxing shower and read the news and markets and work on the google deprecated maps. And later I watch a fun F1 race from the Circuit of the Americas and then a wild Moto3 race from Australia. And to rest, I become a vegetable in front of the Monday Night football game.
After Monday's long bicycle ride, I sleep a bit late and get out the door for a mountain bicycle recovery ride starting near 6:40am. I get down to the old yacht club and back to home with no events such as feral cats run into my path. At home I trim the roses, grab a warming shower, and ride the bicycle to the grocery store for a bottle of wine. I read the news and markets and then watch a fun Moto2 race from Australia. After the Moto2 race and some good progress on the deprecated google maps syntax and processes, I get excited and end up watching the MotoGp race (though I had that scheduled for Wednesday). The rest of the day is slow with watching the news and some Netflix.
I'm out the door on Wednesday near5:20am for a run/walk. Today I just run for a bit over an hour and get back home for a warm shower. After meditating, I update errors in my eVisa application to enter Vietnam and make progress on the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force website - temporarily switching over to additional self-serve processes for the user rather than updating the google maps. The old maps still work with very old markers, but I'll have to move to the new markers soon. It's a slow day today, so I watch some Netflix and some news.