It's cold on Tuesday morning but I'm out f bed at 6:15am (after my usual practice of taking my blood presure and body temperature) and then I'm out the door for a run/walk a right near 6:40am. I have a good run/walk and feel strong. Last week during the rainy days and I could not safely go cycling, I ran four consecutive days and then the weather cleared and I cycled three consecutive days. But the legs feel strong today. After a quick shower I get on the Yamaha YZF-R3 and put some gasoline in it, get to the ATM, and get to a different grocery store. Back at home I continue to work on scraping statistics for NCAA basketball teams to try out the Monte Carlo Tree Search idea. I'm really close to be able to scrape all of the data but decide to take a break and, after stretching out the legs, sit back and finally watch Sunday's MotoGP race from Argentina.
I start Wednesday slowly - not wanting to go cycling in the cold. Thus I hold off for an hour and have a cinnamon muffin and read the news. Finally I get in a decent mountain bicycle ride though I originally wanted to ride long. At home I trim the roses, grab a shower, bake cookies for tonight's visitors, and have to go write checks for the retired schoolteacher. I tell her that she has to tell her primary care doctor (who she might or might notsee next week) and also tell her CPA who also has her living trust. She has to tell them that she cannot write out a check, loses things, cannot drive, and forgets what she is saying in the middle of her sentence. She's finally come to this realization and says she wants to go to the assisted living facility that Bee, her neighbor, went to many years ago (assuming it is still there). ANd I tell her that she has to tell her primary care physician, her CPA and trustholder, and her medical insurance that she has to go. She questions me about telling her mdecial insurance providers, but it's kinda their call. I grab lunch and then just wait for Joe an Elliott to show up. There's a cryptic text message about birthday attire and I don't know what it means and does that mean we are having many other people over for a birthday party at my house or we're going to a restaurabt to meet other people for a party or what? Joe and Elliott appear before 6pm and we're going to go to In'n'Out, but they have nothing that I can eat. When Elliott sees the Del Taco, that's where we go. It has been a long time since I ate here but the food is good. We hae a long conversation at home about many things and my light is going out for sleep near 10 am.
I'm out the door for a 73 minute run/walk near 6:30 am and I get cleaned up and work on webscraping, reorganizing, and getting ready for application to Monte Carlo Tree Search. After everyone is ready, we drive to the airport and I give Joe a big hug (as always) and after I give Elliott a hug, I shake his hand and pass him a $100 bill. (It is supposed to be for an emergency if he gets searated from Joe somehow, but I don't use those words to scare him.) I just pass him the $100 bill and say "For an emergency. Don't tell Joe until I have left the airport". After a while I'm at home and I get a text from Joe thanking me for the hospitality and the $100 for Elliott as he says, "That's the biggest dollar bill he's ever seen and wants to protect it with everything". I'm laughing but I'm glad they appreciate it and I hope they can spend it on something fun and not an emergency. At home I mow, edge, and trim the lawn and work on cleaning up the interior of Joe's car. As expected with a 10 year old, the car's cleanliness comes in fifth or sixth place. I've vacuumed all four seats and floors and it looks pretty good. I polish out a little scrape on the driver's side door. And I decide if I want to put in the effort to actually claybar his car. In parallel I'm making super progress on the scraping and fitness function for the Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm. And I'm tired. I'm finally having some pasta for a late lunch or early dinner at about 3:45pm.
I start out the door on the road bicycle in the dark near 6:40am. I get warmed up a bit and get moving and go past the El Monte airport and dam and up to the Santa Fe dam. As I'm pedalling south on the San Gabriel trail, though I feel good, I keep wondering why this is a bit more difficult today than usual. But I keep cranking away and when I make the turn on Del Amo I look down and realize that I've been up one gear the entire time. That will certainly make it a bit more difficult. But I finish with a good time for the 100 kilometer ride and I'm happy. After a shower I make a run to Aldi s to pick up the "giant, unbelievable" papayas that that hey have at Aldi's for the retired schoolteacher and I pick up a couple of ther things. But this trip to Aldis remindes me that their selection is not as good as a regular supermarket and one of the customers says to me, "Tey change the products that they carry regularly". So I'll go to Aldis from now on about once a year, but I'll bite the bullet and drive a few miles to "regular" supermarkets. The retired schoolteacher is hapy with her papaya and keeps me there for a few minutes wanting me to look at letters she's received from com-members from the Peace Crops from 50 years ago. But I wave as much off as I can and say, "That was a letter to you and it's personal" or words to that effect. At home I work on the final cleaning of the data before applying the Monte Carlo Tree Search Method to the data. (It turns out some datasets used '\&' for & and some ignore slashes, so I hand edit a dataset to make them consistent.) Approaching 1pm I take a break to watch FP2 from China for the F1 cars (and under additionally scrutiny from the FIA for impingements on flexible wing rules).
I get started for a mountain bicycle recovery ride near 6:40am. My legs are very tired to start from yesterday's long ride. But I get going and have a good recovery ride to the old yacht club and back. I grab a quick shower, ride the bicycle to the store for "craving spplies", then come home and flush the tankless water heater. I put this off since last week. But I've been diligently doing it with this relatively new, self-priming pump every dix months or so for five years. My code is so close to being ready for the Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm - it's just that different databases have slightly different names for things and I need to make them consistent. But I don't have it in me today. Instead I watch some golf and the F1 sprint race from China. As the tankless water heater fluch finishes - it takes about an hour to let it run - I put it back into an operational state and let the hoses, pump, and pail dry out in the sun before putting them back into the garage.
On SUnday I get out for a run/walk of more than 18 kilometers. Nothing hurts and I feel good. I get a warning from my left ankle and left him, but with these warnings I'll switch to running on the other side of the street for a while (to change the road crown angle), change my speed a bit, or even this is the time for a short walking period. These were mere warnings with no pain. After a shower I get to Vons in Joe's Kia to pick up the heavy items and note that there is very little gasoline left. So over the next few days, I add gasoline, completely clean the inside of the car, and then check the tire pressures (all of which are a bit low) and I pump them up to the recommended level. And I start preparing my speech to Joe about "You're carrying around your ten year old son on low tire pressures?" For the rest of the day I watch some golf, the IndyCar race from Thermal, California near Riverside, and qualifying for the Chinese F1 Grand Prix. (Again I spread out my enthusiasm by NOT watching the actual Grand Prix until Monday and staying away from any social media or new sites that might spoil the results.)
Monday is a productive day. Though I sleep late for an extra hour, I get right to final preparations for the function that will go into the Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm. After I have it working, I even expand out the number of features from about 25 to more than 100. I take a break near 10:30 and have a good workout with the weights. None of my joints hurt. Is it because I haven't lifted since 1 March or is it because of the Aleve that I took yesterday morning before the long run. After a shower I relax and eventually drive the retired schoolteacher to her primary care physician's office (who has already postponed this office visit many times with various excuses from the office). But the retired schoolteacher will not change her primary care physiciaan (even to mine who takes both my Medicare and the schoolteacher's insurance plan). God helps those who help themselves. And what can you do when somebody does not want to help themselves. After the visit I finally watch the F1 race from China and grab dinner. Hopefully today's day off from working the legs will lead to a good, long bicycle ride on Tuesday morning.
I start Tuesday with a 70 kilometer windy and fast ride. Fighting the wind gives this the feeling of a much longer ride. After a warming shower I read the news and markets, start in on a once-per-hour abdominal workout, and watch almost a complete eight episode series on Netflix with a lot of fun and weird, strange connections. Though I knew from the beginning how the ending would be (within 95%). Later I work on web scraping past statistics for ten years of something that I may want to use and it comes rather easily. (Plus or minus an ampersand sign which we'll fix tomorrow.)
I start Wednesday off with a mountain bicycle recovery ride, trim around the house for a plumber, grab a warming shower, and make a trip to the grocery store for some supplies. Back at home I start the laundry, work on some coding as I've discoveed the ampersand inconsistency, do a once-per-hour workout for the shoulders, and take a quick break. There is a problem with the published 2020 data due to a shortened season due to Covid, so I skip over it and continue on and will figure it out later. After the break I cook another batch of vegetables and rice for the next few days, use a Pumi stick on a couple of rust stains that always form on one toilet in one bathroom, send off an email to see if I need to have a visit with my oncologist and bone doctor, and finally schedule a visit with the maxillo-facial surgeon who I was supposed to see a couple of weeks ago. On Wednedesday night I try to start the dishwasher and it takes about nine tries and a screwdriver (in place of a finger on the touchscreen) to get it running. But it does get running and runs to the full one hour clean and heat cycle.
I have trouble sleeping on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. I've learned of the death by suicide of an acquaintance in Thailand. I met him on my first trip to Thailand when he was just short of his 18th bithday. We hung out a bit and I bought him some Coke and Sprite. His English was limited and I did not know THai at that point. I met him again two years later when it turned out he was also a friend-of-a-friend. At that point, my travel partner, my Thai friend, the young Thai man, and I went and had Pizza Hut (at the Thai request). It sounded very weird, very weird, that the young Thai man could now speak very good English but with a French accent. He had been in a relationship with a young French man for almost two years and they conversed in English so I see why he spoke with a French accent. But it was puzzling - a Thai man speaking good grammar English with a French accent!
I get up and out the door on Thursday morning after the difficult sleeping night and get in a 73 minute run/walk during which I see two coyotes. Now these runs are in regular neghborhoods and are not close to the Los Angeles river where one can see many coyotes. I have a good run, grab a warming shower, drive Joe's car to the distant Vons for heavy supplies, and try to find a Moneygram location or kiosk that works. I have to resort to a phone call to Moneygram (again) to get the money transfer completed - what a pain when their own kiosks do not work. I leave the CVS, flip the "open door" switch on the dongle for Joe's SUV, and open the driver side door of the white SUV. There's a lady sitting in the driver's seat! We both have shocked and surprised looks on our faces and she says, "You scared me!" She sees the look of surprise and the step back that I take and she says, "This is my car". I apologize profusely, say I'm driving someone else's white SUV, and hit the dongle again to hear the beep from the white SUV right next to her's. I apologize again and as I start to get into Joe's SUV I turn back to her car and smile and mouth "I apologize" to her. She smiles back and we both go our own ways. But it could have been a dangerous situation if she had mace or pepper spray or took defensive action as could be expected. At home I have a slow day reading the news, cleaning up Joe's car for him and preparing my "anger" speech at Joe for giving me his car with no gasoline, dirtier than a third world battlezone (as can be expcted with a ten year old child), and tires under-inflated. I lay down the law for Joe that the cleanliness does not matter, but the low tire pressures matter when you're regularly transporting your own ten year old son. Later I watch some episodes of a Korean Netflix commercial and then watch the Dodgers first home game of the season (for which the neighbors have bought tickets and are attending and are rubbing it in that they are there in person).
I expected to cycle long on Friday, but I've lost my will and just go to the old yacht club and back again on the mountain bicycle. Maybe I'm a bit "under the weather physically and mentally" with some of the things that are going on. I immediately pull out the lawnmower and rush through mowing the front and back yards. I grab a shower, ride the bicycle to the grocery store for a craving to be satisfied, and then get home to read the news nd markets and do the next step in the coding for the data that I've just scraped. It took a while to scrape the data and make sure that it was clean, but now I can apply a number of algorithms in my arsenal to see which one works best. I take some breaks to stretch the legs and neck today as I watch some golf and finally get to FP2 for MotoGP and Moto2. And the day ends early as I head for sleep halfway through the Dodgers' game.
I start Saturday north on the Los Angeles river and I'm cranking away quite nicely. I cut across over to the San Gabriel trail and face a nasty headwind all of the way back to Long Beach. But I don't let this bother me much and I even add on some kilometers down to the bridge to yield a total ride of 110 kilometers. I'm more mentally fatigued from the ride than physically. I grab a cinnamon muffin and milk and a warmshower and read the news. I relax with MotoGP/2/3 qualifying and some Neflix and other television news. And breaking tradition, I watch Saturday's MotoGP Tissot sprint race on Saturday. And later I watch a bit of the Dodgers' game as they have started the season with four wins and no losses.
Initially on Sunday I'm going to go for a recovery mountain bicycle ride and I put it outside and get ready to go. By the time I walk back outside it is drizzling. I check my phone for weather and it says drizzle for a couple of hours. So I put the bicycle back inside the house and change into running clothes. I get in good, if a little wet, 74 minute run/walk. At home, though the ground is wet but no more rain is coming down, I weedwack the rosebeds. The new weedwacker that I bought back in July with Lithium-Ion batteries just runs forever on one battery. I go over the rosebeds twice with heavier wet grass and weeds and the battery is still going strong. When I'm finished I put the battery on the charger and will use the other battery next time. (With everything that I have that is rechargebale, I like to always swap back and forth between thw two batteries that each tool came with to even out the wear and tear on them.) I get in a quick shower andp ick up some supplies at the grocery store. At home I do a load of laundry because a lot of stuff is wet from the run or been used for two bicycle rides or etc. And then I take the time to update, two days ahead of time, the end of month work for some websites that I keep current. It's been a productive morning, so late in the morning I switch my routine again and watch the Moto3 race on Sunday. (The real order at the tracks is usually the MotoGP Tissot sprint on Saturday followed by Moto3, Moto2, and the full length MotoGP race on Sunday.) I usually just watch them in whatever order I prefer, but this week I wacth the Tissot sprint (On Saturdays) (and into Sunday and Monday) I'll watch in the real order as I've already watched the Tissot sprint yesterday. The rest of Sunday is a bit slow but I watch some recorded news/documentaries. The Moto3 race is a wild race with a brand new rider, who has just passed the minimum allowed age limit, is now allowed to race and gets a fantastice race and result against the world's best (and much more experienced) riders.
I watch some of the golf tournament from Texas. I like to watch golf because I like to see how the players deal with some terrible shots that they make and how they try to recover. Near 2pm I watch the Moto2 race from Texas when the race is about to start as rain has started to fall and two-thirds of the grid go for rain tires and the remainder gamble on dry tires (which means they expect no more rain and a quick drying of the track). Don't you love racing! Don't you love uncertainty in life (golf, racing, football, etc) and see how players and teams deal with it? The teams who select the wet weather tires dominate the race (to the point of 20 seconds per lap at the start of the race) and it's an exciting race and I hope for my favvoties to do better next time. Later I watch a few other news/documentaries that I have recorded and have to make my choices, as other people do, whether the news/documentaries are factual or fake.
I close out the month of March with a slightly wet 68 minute run/walk. And after a shower and a muffin, I start hoping for the pavement to dry quickly because I need to go up to Century City for a doctor's examination and there's no way I want to drive. I'm on the bicycle and there's some drizzle getting on my helmet visor such that I have to wipe it off with my left glove/hand, but the ride up to the doctor's office goes without incident. I'm early and get to see the doctor before my scheduled appointment time. He checks the cap of the last of my implants - the only one left of three surgically implanted - and he says it is feeling squishy and we should probably remove it. So he removes it on the spot and shows it to me and just mutters, "Radiation really messes up implants". Now why didn't anybody tell me this beforehand because it could have saved me $16000 out-of-pocket (because Medicare and MediGap and even dental insurance do not cover replacement of teeth due to cancer.) I'm out the door of the ofice BEFORE my scheduled appointment time and rush on home to deal with the retired schoolteacher who's received a confusing paper notice. It says something to the effect of "Start Date: Nov 2010" and she asks why she should have to wait until November to start this medicine. I explain to her multiple times that this is just saying that you started "in your life" this medication, had three refills, and its on record. But she keeps coming back to why she should wait until November to start a drug that she needs. We move to the next drug and its for eye drops "Start Date: August 2020". "Why should I have to wait until August to start this drug?" And I tell her it means she was prescribed the eye drop drug to start in August 2020. She seems to recall this and says, "I didn't need it so I didn't take the eye drops". But she keeps coming back to "Why would they prescribe me to start a prescription in August?" I'm getting frustrated and forutnately her medicare advantage (note the all lowercase because that's what we should think of medicare advantage plans) representative calls and not even the rep can get through to her. And when a second medicare advantage counselor calls I manage to take leave - bringing both of her trash bins in from the street on my way back home. Today I am cold from the chilly, wet run and the chilly, wet, high-speed run to Century City and back again and resort to adjusting my home thermostat to get heat into the house and warm up. In the warmth I do some updated financial results for the month end as well as continue on the multi-modal analysis. Later I watch a bit of the Dodgers' game as they have started with five wins and no losses. Complete randomness as today's attempt to run the dishwasher only takes a cold start and a single restart to get it running through a complete cycle.