I start Tuesday with the extended loop ride. At one point a see a rider in the far distance and start cranking like a maniac to catch him. He's going pretty fast, so he tags onto my rear wheel and when I leave the trail, he thanks me for the tow. It's a good, hard 70 kilometers today. At home I trim the roses and weedwack the rosebeds and areas around the fence and house for a lawn mowing tomorrow. After a shower I run an errand and have a fairly slow day - finally watching full length MotoGP race from Aragon, Spain and a bit of the Dodgers' game before reading and sleep.
On Tuesday I hit the snooze button twice and then get out the door for a mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. At home I mow, edge, and trim the front and backyards and look nice and tidy. They just need more water (in a state that had very little rain this past winter). After a shower I read the news and markets and participate in the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force Zoom meeting. The primary speaker is from DCFS - where Ruby worked for almost 30 years. So I want to hear the diferences between what these people say and what Ruby's experiences were. The Dodgers' game starts at 1pm so I sit back and watch it for a bit. I like "bullpen games" where the manager changes pitchers almost every inning or every other inning - rather than let a typical started try t get six innings done before going to the bullpen. Later I do a bit of object-oriented coding for my friend and then have a slow day with the Netflix documentary Cuba de Cuervas.
I sleep a bit late and try to get out running, but after warming up with a brisk walk, the left hamstring is hurting. Thus I do two laps of the subdivision walking for a 67 minute walk. It's the bext that I can do today. After a shower and reading the news and markets, I ride the mototrcycle to the prosthodontist and they take another mould of my bight. I'm glad that thay are diligent about getting the bite perefct, but it just keeps adding to the time that I have to visit the prosthodontist. At home I do some coding I figure out the last of my problems. Now I just have to clean up the code a bit, write it up, and send it off to my friend. And later I watch the ice hockey playoff game.
On Friday I ride the road bicycle up to the Santa Fe dam and back to home for 100 kilometers. I keep finding myself up a gear more and mre often on these rides with still enoug energy to try to sprint to make green and amber lights. After a shower I watch FP2 from Canada for the Formula One cars and watch some Netflix and other television. The coding for my friend is done. Now I just have to write it up for him.
On Saturday morning I take the mountain bicycle out for a recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. After a shower I read the news and then ride the motorcycle up to USC to meet up with a friend, Person Ji_Ph. I've taken the FastTrack lanes, as I'm allowed to, but I can't get out for Jefferson so I go all of the way t 9th street in downtown Los Angeles to get turned around and back to USC. As I'm approaching the 9th street off ramp there are at least ten LAPD SUVs with red and blue lights flashing and sirens going as they head for a "No Kings" protest (I assume) in downtown Los Angeles. My friend and I grab juice or coffee and have a nice visit before I ride on home (without getting lost). At home I watch qualifying for the F1 race rom Canada, the first few episodes of Humans on Netflix as suggested to me by my friend. Later I watch some of the ice hockey playoff game.
On Sunday I do another mountain bicycle recovery ride and today, somebody has tipped over a number of beach trash containers and spilled the contents on the bicycle trail. Otherwise IU have a god ride. I grab a quick shower and go to Vons to sotck up on food even though I cannot eat anything today since I'm prepping for Monday's colonoscopy. I try to rest and watch some gold and part of the Dodgers' game and the IndyCar race. I'll save the Canadian F1 raceo for Monday after the colonsoscopy.
On Monday morning Ruby has been called away so Joseph and Lisa pick me up at home and drive me to the gastrenterologist's office. We have a good chat on the way and I get signed in and soon I'm called for the procedure. Joseph and Lisa leave to grab breakfast. Of course the nurse takes two strikes to hit a vein for an intravenous solution and I tell everyone who will listen that I want to be awake during the procedure and be able to watch the same video that the doctor and technician are watching. Everyone keeps relaying the message and I finally see the anesthiesiologist and tell him I want to be awake and I tell him the reasons why. He says that he doesn't have to be there but they can give me miniscule amounts of an opioid and a benzo for comfort but I will still be conscious. I agree to this and soon we're under way. I keep asking the doctor questions as the colonoscopy is being performed as to what he is seeing and where he is and discoloration and surface texture. Before I know it the procedure is done and I'm cleaned up and ready to put my clothes on. The nurse, who prepped me and stayed with me for the whole procedure monitoring my vital signs and assisting, keeps saying, "You sure are strong". I'm not sure why she's saying it, but I accept it. And it turns out the technician currently plays ice hockey so we talk about ice hockey a bit just before the procedure and afterwards. Soon I'm being wheeled out in a wheelchair (hospital rules) and Joseph and Lisa drop me off at home. I finally get to enjoy some food and watch the Canadian F1 race. I relax in the afternoon and finally later I lift weights though I am not supposed to. But I lift a bit lighter than usual and have a good workout. And later watch some of the Dodgers' game.
I get in a decent 75 kilometer road bicycle ride on Tuesday morning. At one point a rider catches me and pulls out to pass and I say, "I don't have the energy to go any faster". He respnds with, "It's okay. I just wanted to chat as we ride". It turns out his name is Richard, the same as my brother's. I've met many Richards since my brother died. Are they advanced re-incaranations of my brother? It turns out Richard had a colonoscopy and endoscopy one week wearlier, so he understands my shortage of energy today. We have great conversation about retirement and travel and previous jobs and etc for the 5 kilometers at the end of th San Gabriel trail and another few kilometers as he heads for home and I continue on my way. He sure didn't look like retirement age and I told him so. Only the last few kilometers do I bump down a gear and spin home as I'm almost out of energy (from a complete fast on Sunday for Monday's colonoscopy and not eating enough on Monday). At home I trim the roses and neighbor's sidebush that threatens to impinge upon my driveway and grab a quick cooling shower. I read the news and markets and today I'm giving back all of my gains from yesterday. The retired schoolteacher calls and we talk about options for her future (after a diagnosis of dementia and Alzheimers) and we talk about them. At one point she talks about ending it all with the help of her primary care physician and I tell her that I'm nt a lawyer, but I don't think any traditional insurance company, medical group, or physician would assist that procedure. Her only real option left is an assisted living facility and I tell her that she has to tour a few different facilities, see which ones have openings, can she have her own private rooom, what are the costs, and her having to sell her house to pay for future care. She has a lot to think about though I already know she'll stress out about it, lose sleep, be "hungover" on Wednesday from lack of sleep, and call me again to come over. I have to leave and tell her, "You've given to everyone else through teaching and volunteer work and extra tutoring of disadvantaged students as well as other causes. She can be selfish for the remaining years of her life and what ever God, spirit, higher being she believes in, will fully understand. She has to be selfish for a few remaining years and think only about her own mental and physical health". I go home and read the news and markets and relax with an AI series I'm watching and finally replenish energy with lunch. Later in the day I watch the ice hockey playoff game and some of the Dodgers' game. For dinner, I am craving salt. So I steam some vegetables and eat them with heavily salted popcorn. I may pay for it with a high blood pressure reading on Wednesday morning. But hey, sometimes you just have to satisfy your cravings and ignore the consequences (as long as you don't do it too often). As I'm going to bed a pull out a Bible and put that on my reading stack. I will not get to it for a couple of weeks, but maybe I can learn to be a better person by reading the new testament again.
I start Wednesday with the typical mountain bicycle recovery ride and two climbs of the Junipero hill. I still feel a bit down on energy. At home I grab a quick shower, drive to the bank to close out my safety deposit box (JP Morgan Chase is eliminating safety deposit boxes and I really only have my will and living trust there.), get supplies from Target, and get more food supplies from Vons. At home everything is put away in its place and I start putting together some financial estimates for my retired schoolteacher neighbor who has been diagnosed with dementia/Alzheimers. She is trying to figure out what to do but her options are running out. I also update a couple of financial documents that I keep in my house for the trustee of my estate when I pass away. I want to make it a smooth tranistion for him/her after what I went through with my brother and what I'm going through with my retired schoolteacher neighbor. Today is a fairly hot day finally - most of the year has been much cooler than average - so I do things inside the house and continue watching an Amazon Prime series (until my subscription runs out tomorrow) and watch a part of the Dodgers' game. I also get the writeup of the coding for my friend 90% done and, as my usual practice, I like to let it sit for a day and possibly re-think parts of it before sending it out for evaluation.
On Thursday I get out for a walk/run and am able to do some running after straining my left hamstring during a very long run about two weeks ago. Granted my run-to-walk ratio is about 20% instead of the usual 75% (both dragged down by warm-up and cool down walking), but I am able to cautiously start running again for 73 minutes. When I go to trim the roses there are no blooms getting old and nothing to do, so I go inside a take a shower. The Internet service is down this morning, but I update the financial estimates for the retired schoolteacher (as I realized in the middle of the night that the final numbers didn't look right). Now they are right. And I re-read and finish off the report for my friend's code. But I can't send it to him because I have no Internet service. Using my phone I get an initial estimate of restoration of service at 10am. At 10:15am this changes to 3pm. So I lay back on the couch and do some reading. I get a lot of reading done and finally send off the report on the code to my friend. (I cannot watch television without the Internet since I have DirecTV on pause as I try out an IPTV box.) Later I watch some of the Dodgers' game as I carboload for an anticipated long road bicycle ride on Friday morning.