Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, Febraury 3 2025 8:02 PM

Info February


I'm expecting to go for a long ride on Tuesday. But it does not happen. Instead I work on a new website and then ride the notorcycle in very cold weather to the grocery store. Reacall that my grocery store one half mile away is closing. I pick up supplies, bring the natural gas gate and ekectrical panels gate into the house, and give it a coat of paint. I then get in a good session of lifting weights and warm up with a shower. I continue working on the new website with sone creative breaks to cut the natural gas gate down to size, It is ready to install. Later I work on some non-profit paperwork and continute to build-out the new website. My kitchen is a mess because I brought work inside the house rather tha work in the cold garage. But I carefully spread plastic everywhere to not make a mess. By 2pm I have not eaten anything yet today so I warm up some vegetables and find some bread and soft cheese. I'm not sure where the rest of the day goes though I do make progress on the nine Website referrals though they need some edits on Wednesday,

On Wednesday I'm out of bed at 5:20 am and the house is cold. Regardless I finish up the non-profit SAM.gov registration and I soon get an email indicating it is ready until January 2026. I paint the gas gate and electrical panel gate (inside the house on the kitchen floor where it is warm) and then get out for a very windy mountain bicycle ride down to the old yacht club and back home. During these last few rides I take the time t climb the steep hill up to Ocean boulevard along the way. At home I grab a warming shower, ride the bicycle to the grocery store for supplies, and install the natural gas gate. It needs another eye-hook support, but I'll get to this later. I'm worn out and I just move everything out of the kitchen back into the garage and plan to finish the electrical panel gate on Thursday. I've let everyone know that my maxillo-facial surgeon, dentist, prothodontist, primary care physician, radiologist, bone surgeon, and oncologist are going to be so mad at me for losing 7 kiloerams (i.e. 15 lbs) in the seven week trip to Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. Funny - I only remember being hungry twice during the trip. I've bought frozen pizza today and I'm going to pig out n it throughout the day. I continue to add content and pictures to the new website. This new website has nine topics which each need their own photos and text, and I'm only finished with two so far. Late in the day I watch some of the Los Angeles Kings' ice hockey game. I've had a productive day with a good, solid windy bicycle ride, working on the natural gas gate, and a ew other things. But I am worn out - maybe frm my idea of "metabolizing the BLANK out of cancer" - so I' getting into bed near 7:30pm to read and drop off to sleep. Maybe it was pigging out on the pizza?

I sleep well and get out of bed at 5:30 am to prepare to run. I wanted to go for a long bicycle ride, but its cold now and I have errands to run. I get in a god 65 minute run/walk during which I chase two coyotes away from small dogs twice. I just ran towards the coyotes and yell and scream as the dow watchers look on and thank me afterwards. After a shower I relax and gather all of my paperwork. There's a stop at Home Depot for one last supply on the gates, a purchase of an International Drivers License, the closeout of the old non-profit bank account (for transfer to a new bank which promises me a $400 bonus), and a trip to Ralph's grocery store. Back at home I dress a wound on the retired schoolteacher who has cut herself on a nail or staple, clean up the paperwork, shred old paperwork, and then relax for a bit before working on the new website.

At 3pm on Thursday and I have not eaten anything yet. I finally take a break from website development and have a nourishing lettuce, tomato, cheese, mayonaise, and sourdough bread sandwich and hope to eat a bit more later for a long Friday bicycle ride.

Except the long bicycle ride doesn't come. I'm worn out. When I wake up I get out for a good mountain bicycle ride and push until the very end. At home I grab a shower, ride the bicycle to the grocery store, and then finish the electrical panel gate. Well, it fits welll and its painted, but it needs to have the paint dry and a few bolts drilled into it. I'll let the paint dry in the warm sunshine for a few hours and finish it off before the weekend's rain. I finally get to sit down and start up my brand new Lenovo gaming laptop. I bought a gaming laptop because they come with very fast GPUs and I'm hoping this will help with my work. I also get an unsolicitied question from the Netherlands about some work I did a while ago. And after I dig around I respond back with three different emails confirming a typo in my report, the actual analysis that I did, and offerring to help out if he/she explains a bit of what they are trying to do. For the last two days I've been worn out and I recall a notice that I received from CVS about my thyroid medicine possibly being inferior or substandard. Is this the problem?

I continue Friday setting up the new computer with a few bugs. It take a break at times to finish off installing the electrical panel gate which is dry from painting because it is a warm and dry day. But I continue to run into a few problems setting up the new computer even though I have not even tried to installed Python, its IDE,a nd executable yet. And here's another day where it is 3:30pm and I have not eaten a thing yet - just drank some water and lemon gatorade during cycling.

It is supposed to give us light rain on Saturday morning, so I get out for a godo 78 minute run/walk. THhre is no rain at all during the entire day. But at least I had a good run. After a shower I run some errands and than continue building my new computer of software where it runs as I want it to. I also call my web hosting company where the domain files have disappeared twice on me in two two weeks. I'm wondering if the owner sold it without telling me. I continue to work through my list of things to do on the new computer as wellas around the house. (As an anaecdote, my boss used to look for me late at night. Since I was a morning person, he would always miss me. But I noticed on my reviews the next few years words to the effect of "Ray always has a list of things to do on his desk so that he can hit the ground running each morning") I'm still like that. Between the boxes for the new computer, boxes for new cycling shoes, golves, and tools, and boxes from a new backpack, my recycling bin is pretty full this week. At noon I start doing situps and leg lifts once per hour for six hours to work the core muscles. It seems like Sunday and Monday will be rainy days and I'll have to lift weights extra heavy and then try to run to get in good workouts.

Sunday starts will slightly wet pavement so I walk to the grocery store for supplies. At home I have three laptops that I'm trying to cleanup or reconfigure. Two laptops to cleanup to safely give away without providing personal information. And the brand new laptop I'm configuring for my work. I again do an abdominal workout every hour or so and this first oen gets e warmed up to lift weights. After my long seven week trip I see my lifts rising up. I grab a shower, continue the cmputer work and regular abdominal work and et ready for the football playoffs. Today I am extra cold and turn the thermostart up to an unheard of 69F for a while. By noon two of the older laptops are as ready as they will be, so I poke around for some non-profit agencies to donate the laptops to that claim that hey will wipe the laptops of personal information before giving to underpriviliged kids. As the first game starts I babysit my new laptopas I contiue to install the woftware that I need and I run a defragmenter to keep the machine clean to start. It takes forever to run a malware scanner and a defragmenter since I've installed so many Python modules that I need. I continue the adbominal workouts throughtout the first and second games and expect to be very sore on Monday - after the rain has potentially subsided.

Late on Sunday I fins myself on the floor of the living room. I don't knw how I got there. But I just lay there for a few minutes and take stock of anything that hurts. Nothing hurts - I played ice hockey for twenty years. But IU find blood on my noce and check, the front door, the hallway, and various parts of the floor. Ice is the universal healer so ice packs gg on anything that might be bleeding. I cean up the front door, the hallway, and the floors and take a second stok and nothing really hurts. Eventually I get down for sleep and though my nose keeps bleeeding, I fight it off. On Monday I feel decent and do some code and wait for the weather to warm up before I take my brand new cycling shows for an interval ride. An interval ride is where you warm up, go as hard as you can for a few minutes, and then slow down to recover. And repeat. Though I only ride a bit over an hour, I am so beaten up by the intervals. After a shower I deal with the retired schoolteacher who can't make a deicision and then go back to coding. Today I've brought dumbells into the house to work my biceps once per hour and it is approaching 4pm befre I have eaten anything. After some tasty, spicy pasta I watch some of the Kings' game and have finally figured out a good template for this new website. And all of the files that disappeared from a previous website, are back in a slightly different location and we plan on how to enhance the website. A weird Monday!

Tuesday is a good day. Though it is cold, I get in an 80 minute run/walk with no aches or pains. I was worried after yesterday's interval session that my left Achilles tendon woud cause problems. After a shower I get to the ATM, CVS pharamcy, Harbor Freight, and Target. The last two stops looking to buy a battery for an old Casio G-Shock watch since I've thrown that cheap Tinwoo smart watch into the trash. But none are to be found. Amazon has them I order one. I send time at the retired schoolteacher's house pumping up her cr tires and dealing with two credit reporting agencis who have failed to acknowledge that she is claiming fradulent charges. Back at home I work on a website, trim the roses, and work the shoulders once per hour for the entire day. BY 2:15 pm I have not eaten anyhting except a banana. So I cook some pasta (i.e., warm up) and have it for a very late lunch.

I start Thurdsday with a decnet mountian bcycle ride. I push when desidered and climb the Junipiero at maximmum pace. After a shower at home I give my "geat recovery" cane to the neighbors who have had had a hip surgery lately. And then I ride the bicycle to the grocery store for some supplies. At home I work on websites and get my brand new computer to play racing vidoes over my HDMI television connection. From there I have lost motivation and jst becomea vegetable in front of the television and catch up on new and old Netflix.

I sleep well but start Thursday lazy. I workon websites and plan my days. By 8am it has warmed up and I get out for a 65 minute run/walk. After a shower I despooit mnoth into a non-profit agency, do some grocery shopping, and return home. By now there are phone calls from the retired school teach and I go over adn make some phone calls for her and then write out a check and envelope fr her to catch u with bills. (She certainly signs the check.) And as I walkhome across the street I get extra-worried about her because it doesn't seem like she can write a check anynore. At home I work more on the new website and am almost finished and continue to do my hourly bicepts exercises. (Its a different exercise each day - one day it is abdominals, one day it is biceps, and one day it is shoulders'. I need to add triceps into the mix. But by the end of each day I've done about eight sets of exercises for each muscle group as I try to gain some strength.)

I start Saturday a bit tentetively in the cold weather at 7am on the road bicycle. After a few kilometers I'm starting to warm up with a double face mask on today - one in blue from Habitat for Humanity and one in pink from a Habtat for Humanity Ladies day (which I accidentally signed up for but attended and contributed anyway. I get moving along and I notice thatmy quadricep are still tired from Tuesday's intervals. I keep on moving past El Monte Airport and Emerald Island and up to the base of the Santa Fe dam. Now I turn south and crank along quite nicely. I notice a ride join the trail who almost runs into me TWICE - once while entering and once as I pass him and he says, "There was glass in the trail". I just crank along anot enote that he is sucking my wheel. For more than 10 kilometers he sucks my wheel. Whatever. And then he goes up a gear and makes a sprint and tries to get away from me. I go up a gear and hang onto his read wheel and he holds his hand up after 300 meters as he leaves the path. Really? He joust wanted to show he could outsprint me for 300 meters after 10 kilometers of sucking my wheel? I get off on Del Amo because I'm tired and just do three sprints to make green lights and then just cut back to spinning home. A super 100 kilometer ride and I'm mentally hungover afterwards. I get in a good warming shower and work on some websites, watch some telelvision, prepare an eBay package for sale, and then become a vegetable for the rest of the day.

On Sunday I wake up near 2pm and cannot sleep. So I put together a list of accounts and items that the retired schoolteacher has to fill in to make my job as her Executor easier and to allow her to continue living indepdently easier. I finally get back to sleep and stay in bed until the alarm goes off at 6:05am. The pavement is barely wet, but when it is light enough I take off on the mountain bicycle. My legs are so tired from yesterday's long ride! But I ride nonetheless and try to remove the lactic acid from the leg muscles. At home I get in a good warming shower and then relist eight Ben is Dead magazines n enBay because a seller though he was buying the entire eight issue lot for $20 and then got kinda mad at me. I let it go and relist each one individually in the morning and I lower the price of my 1972 Ben Hogan APex 3 golf clubs on eBay to try to get them to sell. They've sat in the garage since I played with them last in the 2002 timeframe. After this work I can work on a subscription form for a website and then relax. The entire organism is just blasted and tired from all of this cycling and running (and extra hourly lifting).

After the frst few hours of deep sleep on Sunday night, sleep is not coming. I toss and turn and finally read a book and finish it. Near 4 am I am getting dressed to go run. today's run very slowly since the pavement is both wet and dark - I don't need to fall now. But I take the outher loop and let's say its 18 kilometers that I get in. Possibly a bit less. I have a good warming shower and work on some websites and start my hourly workout for the bicepts near 11am. Except today I am restless and soon a shovel and mawl and hammer and other equipment are being pulled out to down a fence. The original fence separated a clothesline and fruit trees from the rest of the backyard. I dug the fruit trees out and it became known as the dog run. Except that it was too small for a golden retriever, so as Nopey grew up and learned the rules of the house and yard, I planted patent roses. I enjoyed the roses for many yeas and brought many bloms into the house and gave away many beauftiful blooms. By now metal vertical posts are very loose and I've decided to figure out how to pull out the cement footings and metal posts. Today's first day of concerted effort does not go great, but I can tell that the cement footings are loosening. (Nevermind how to get rid of the entire fence and concrete footings when they are gone.) I work for more than an hour and that's enough for the day. I wet the soil around the footings hoping that will help tomorrow. And I still get in my hourly biceps workout about fifteen minutes late. Now I'm really tired and hungry and eventually have bean and cheese burritos for dinner and later bake soem chocolate chip cookies so that I can have eneryg to cycle despite possibly wet weather. I also spend a lot of time doing final cleanup of the older laptops and trasnferring bookmarks and data to my new laptop. It's only 14:30 and it's been a very productive day!

<

After the frst few hours of deep sleep on Sunday night, sleep is not coming. I toss and turn and finally read a book and finish it. Near 4 am I am getting dressed to go run. today's run very slowly since the pavement is both wet and dark - I don't need to fall now. But I take the outher loop and let's say its 18 kilometers that I get in. Possibly a bit less. I have a good warming shower and work on some websites and start my hourly workout for the bicepts near 11am. Except today I am restless and soon a shovel and mawl and hammer and other equipment are being pulled out to down a fence. The original fence separated a clothesline and fruit trees from the rest of the backyard. I dug the fruit trees out and it became known as the dog run. Except that it was too small for a golden retriever, so as Nopey grew up and learned the rules of the house and yard, I planted patent roses. I enjoyed the roses for many yeas and brought many bloms into the house and gave away many beauftiful blooms. By now metal vertical posts are very loose and I've decided to figure out how to pull out the cement footings and metal posts. Today's first day of concerted effort does not go great, but I can tell that the cement footings are loosening. (Nevermind how to get rid of the entire fence and concrete footings when they are gone.) I work for more than an hour and that's enough for the day. I wet the soil around the footings hoping that will help tomorrow. And I still get in my hourly biceps workout about fifteen minutes late. Now I'm really tired and hungry and eventually have bean and cheese burritos for dinner and later bake soem chocolate chip cookies so that I can have eneryg to cycle despite possibly wet weather. I also spend a lot of time doing final cleanup of the older laptops and transferring bookmarks and data to my new laptop. It's only 14:30 and it's been a very productive day!