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On my day of transit for home I start with a good 68 minute run/walk. Today I notice the bright red fireball sunrise over the Mekong river. Absoultely stunning! I want to get tired out before the long trip. I grab a shower, breakfast, pack, and meet Tra in the lobby of my hotel before I go to the airport. Tra insisted that he see me before I go and, at least, it is on the way to his workplace. I use a Grab cab to the airport, have a good flight to Taipei, then settle in for the long flight to Los Angeles. My nose and throat have been feeling "off" since yesterday and it seems my nose gets worse by the hour. I'm sneezing and coughing a bit so I have a mask on. And it doesn't help that I get very little sleep. After getting through immigration in Los Angeles, baggage claim, and customs I go looking for the shutte bus. It's here! The doors are open and I make a last minute sprint to get on the shuttle bus before the doors close. Usually it takes a long time to catch this shuttle bus to the C Line train (frmerly Greenline). Two trains and an Uber get me home where I unpack, put clothes in the luandry, walk to Vons for temporary supplies, and check and start both the motorcycle and car to make sure they still start after seven weeks of no running. (Vons has empty shelves as it had during the pandemic as they are closing the store in February - which I read about in Hanoi.) In the middle of the night I get up to go to the bathroom, grab a mouth-wettening gulp of water, and look out the from windown to see a stunning red moon. The red moon brought about by the apocolyptic fires that Los Angeles county is having near the Malibu area.
I sleep horribly on Wednesday night and end up getting up at 4:25am to update some records, do a bit more unpacking, and get ready to go for a run. I'm out the door in the dark cold of a Thursday morning and feel very good - the first word that comes to mind is gazelle - as I get in a 78 miute run/walk. I could have gone much longer, but the combination of getting sick, bad air quality from the wildfires, and the mega-workouts in southeast Asia make me dial this workout back. And again, today, there is a bright red sunrise as the wildfire particulates in the atmosphere give us a fireworks show at sunrise. After a warming shower I relax a bit and read the news and then start errands. I start by picking up a prescription at CVS pharamcy, get a blood test for an annual physical, drive over to a different Vons supermarket as a replacement for my shuttering Vons, and then drive home to unload. I've run into one neighbor who says she has all of my held mail, so this saves me a trip to the post office. And later I run into the retired schoolteacher and as we chat, I realize that the public library will probably be closed today for former President Jimmy Carter's memorial. (Jimmy Carter was the first president that I was able to cast a vote for and though he crashed and burned as president, he certainly demonstrated true Christian and All-World values with his post-presidency work.) Ths I'll have nothing to read tonight and will pick up three reserved books on Friday. This frees me up to cut up vegetables and make my famous vegetable soup and to scrub the bathrooms and toilets. It seems the toilets want to form some rust on the porcelain bowl if they are not used for a long time. And this seven week absence of mine counts as a long time. But the Pumi stick works well and both toilet bowls and sinks look super. Later as I start to unwind this day, where I am supposed to be resting and overcoming the sniffles and sore throat, there is wine and other substances available for consumption and viewing of various recorded programs of relaively minor significance.
I'm out of bed at 5am for a day completely off the legs and the first day of weightlifting since late November. I have the expected "first lifting session in a while" workout and can expect soreness over the next few dyas. After a shower I get to the library to pick up three books that I reserved back from Phnom Penh. I have a slow remainder of Friday as I want to get rid of the sniffles for a long bicycle ride on Saturday. There's certainly some mail sorting and I discover that approximately 10% of the mail delivered to me belongs to somebody else. No wonder my income tax refund got stolen and cashed. I help the retired schoolteacher out with various credit card charges and banking information and medical information. She's starting to lose it. She claims five times that she has no credit card and then shows me a credit card bill where they are hounding her for money. Then she says four times that she can't find her check book. And I can see the canceled check images on a statement she shows me. Then later she says she can't find her checkbook. Thenlater again she says, "Wait, let me show you my checkbook" and proceeds to go into a desk drawer and produce her checkbook. I have to start drinking after this conversation because I'm not sure when to talk to her lawyers about the situation. In the afternon I clean up more paperwork and gather data and code snippets for my next coding project.
On Friday night into Saturday morning I sleep very well. So well that I cannot answer the alarm at 6:05am. I eventually get out of bed at 7:30 am and get out the door for a mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yacht club at 8am. After a warmup and regaining my legs, I crank along well and have a very fast time for this distance. Except for a couple of sniffles and a raw nose that can be taken care of with lotion, I think I've beaten the illness. After a warming shower I do a ton of paperworkand scheduling and get ready to watch football playoff games and eat a ton of food because my weight keeps dropping. I visit the retired schoolteacher again and get upset as, during the same conversation, she has her credit card, she doesn't know where her credit card, she hasher checkbook, she desn't know where her checkbook is, she can't cash a check, she can cash a check. When do I take action? And late at night I look for web templates for a new website I want to work on related to a Long Beach Innovates idea.
I sleep well on Saturday night into Sunday morning. I answer the 6:05am alarn and get out for another recovery mountain bicycle ride near 7am. I keep cranking along to warm up and make very good time for this ride. After a shower at home I water the roses, since we haven't had rain for months, and do and do a lot of paperwork clearing. For a majority of the day I watch NFL football games and relax and get up to stretch my legs and do other little things around the house.
I sleepvery well again from Sunday night into Monday morning. I cannot answer the 6:05am alam but get out of bed at 6:25 am. I'm out the door for a super run/walk of 80 minutes and there s nothig that hurts or is sore. I have a warming shower and get started on working on a new website along with a blueberry muffin. I make good progress though some auxiliary additives to the website get bogged down. Just after noon or so I get out and lift weights with still light weights and high repetitions to get back into the groove. Another warming shower keeps me reitalized and I've got Tuesday planned out with a trip to the bank, the Home Depot, ALbertsons, and the post office. I keep adding to the new website and will have it reayd to go live in a day or so.
I sleep well on Monday night int Tuesday, but cant answer the alarm for a long bicycle ride. Instead I sleep a bit late and get out for a run/walk before 7 am. Today again I feel good but do not want to overdo the running. After a shower I get to the post office (where there automated machine accepts my payment for postage but does not give me any stamps), to the grocery store, and to Home Depot. I rush on home and change into business clothes including a tie to go to Chase bank to try and transfer the non-profit bank acount over from another bank (since Chase is running a $400 offer). This takes a while but it gets done and I just have to transfer money over in the next month or so to qualify for the $400 bonus. At home I catch up on paperwork and think about building the gas valve gate and the old electrical gate (for which the Home Depot trip was made to get supplies). But I don't quite get to this effort.
I'm out of bed at 5:00 am but it is too cold to go cycling. Instead I work on a brand new website and catch the gardener to pay him for his work in my absence. Finally at 8:30 am I start north on the road bicycle along the Los Angeles river. I get to the El Monte dam and carry on. As I turn back south towards home my lower back feels tired. I just keep cranking along and changing gears regularly yochange up the cadence and hope the lower back discomfort goes away. It does not - it is more than 20 miles cranking along with an uncofortable lower back. This is probably because I haven't ridden this bicycle in seven weks and instead have ridden bicycle with more upright positions. When I reach Del Amo, regardless of the discomfort, I pop up a gear or two and sprint to make a number of lights. A warming shower feels good and I catch up on some web work and then work on the gates. But my back is still uncfortable, so I cut this effort short. And instead relax and somewhat regularly get down on the floor and try some stretching exercises for the lower back and core muscles.
I'm awak just after 5am on Thursday because I have things to do. I start by clearing out old non-profit banking statements and then look over the new website to take stock of what has to be done. Just after 8am I get out for a very cold mountain bicycle ride but I feel strong and not hungover from yesterday's long ride. After a shower I ride the bicycle to the grocery store for supplies. I spend a ton of time on eBay trying to sell stuff until I realize that my account has been frozen and I go through the process of unfreezing it. I take a creative break to continue to build up the gas gate and the electrical panel gate and them I am am really tired. My back is very tired, not painful or sore, but very tired from yesterday's long ride so I just do some computer backups as I prepare to get rid of this Dell laptop and backup all of my data.
I start Friday a bit before 5:30 am. I work on tne new website and then go run errands to Home Depot and Albertsons. I let the day warm up a bit before getting in a good session with light weights and then I work a bit on the gas gate and electrical gate. After a shower I work on a lot on the new website and other paperwork. Finally near 3pm I am eating pasta for the first time today to prepare for a long Saturday bicycle ride. I spend a ton of time backing up two laptps and my desktop as I get ready to donate the two laptops and buy a new one. Later I just relax and think about the new website a bit. ater I spill Coca Cola twice on the hardwood floors so I pull out the the mop and and clean the floors. Clumsy old ox!
I sleep well at the beginning of Friday night but then wake up after 3am. Sleep isn't coming, so I get up and work on websites, backup both of my laptop and desktop, and do some other web work. Today is cold and even though I waint until about 8:30 to go riding, it is still cold. Within 8-20 kilometers I'm getting warmed up and I start cranking like a wild man. Before I know it I'm up at the Santa Fe dam, then the El Monte dam, then the Santa Fe dam. I turn and head south and though it feels like a headwind, I'm up a gear and cranking.I pick up a rider and he sucks my wheel for 25 kilometers until I exit at Del Amo. At least he thanks me for the pull. I sprint for a couple of traffic lights and then warm down for another 100 kilometer ride. After a shower I clean the kitchen and bathroom floors, turn on the golf, and wait for the football playoffs to come on. I had big plans for today, but the ride took a lot out of me and I take a few pictures of a porch/overhang that I want to replace and then just be a vegetable with the games on television.
Despite Saturday's long ride, I still wake up near 5 am. I finally get out the door at 5:45am for a long run. Today I run/walk about 20 kilometers - almost a half marathon. And I feel good! At home I do some detail work on the natural gas gate that I am replacing and I am just taking my time to let the glue and paint dry. After a super warming shower I start in on the annual reporting for the non-profit agency. I get three of the forms ready to be mailed off and I only have US and California taxes to finish. After a productive physical and mental morning, I watch football games.
I'm awake a little after 5am and I start to work on a new website. I keep screwing the wite up because it has a preloader than I don't fully understand. A bit after a 6am I go for a walk a 75 minute run/walk on top of yesterday;s 20 kilometer run/walk and I feel good with no aches or pains. At home I do some painting on the gad dor frame and the gas door door itself. After a shower I start with the downloaded template all over again and make good progress. Byt 10am or so I have the nine subpages ready to be filled with cntent and pages and no indications of preloader errors. I do some painting of the gas door frame and gas door and then grab a warming shower. I go back to work on the website and andmake good rpogress. Just after noon I do some more painting of the natural gas door and then relax for a bit. I'm on a mission, so I start laying out the eight or nine detailed web pages that goes with this new website. By 1:30 pm aI have not eaten anything yet today so I have some cold left over pasta, pasta sauce and cheddar cheese. And then go lay out a single detailed web page to make sure I know what I am doing. The rest of the day I am vegetable and sit in front of the television but have no ideas what they are talking about.