I start Wednesday with a full mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. I have no soreness in the knees and a bit above the knees where the quadriceps tie into the knees. I've chased the problem from the complex bone/tendon/cartiliage/ligament/muscle of the knee up into the the simpler quadriceps muscles. I certainly immediately ice the area the instant I get home from the ride. After starting up the computer and wasting time, I get in a shower and ride the bicycle to the post office (to forward mail to the retired schoolteacher) and to pick up supplies from the grocery store. I get in a good meditation session and then debug the Markov chain software. I plug through it and get it working so that any number of "breakpoints" can be used as delimiters for categories of efficiency. I still have to implement the simple reinforcement learning portion of the code that I dreamt of the other day, but I'm happy to make progress. I also resurrect a very old city cervices code that I had used to write a Medium article. I did this becuse the city of Long Beach is launching a new City services Provision grant that I can write a proposal for (from the Medium article) and hope to get noticed and funded. Later I put ice packs again on both knees and surrounding areas (I'm glad I have very large ice packs and long, stretchable Ace bandages) and I chop up vegetables for lunch. I decide to save Monday's Mod Pizza leftovers for dinner tonight and I keep thinking of this throughout the day. Later I watch some of the Dodgers' game with the Mod Pizza and relax since I've made a lot of ptogress today.
There is a Starbucks on a corner about a half mile from my house. I think I've been there six times in the twenty years that it has been there. And only to meet up with people because it is easy to find. This Thursday morning I want something sweet so I walk to the Starbucks and buy two blueberry muffins and enjoy them with a Red Bull/Mountain Dew cocktail. And the combined energy, caffeine, and sugar gets me attentively coding and adding enhancements to the final optimization version of the Markov chain code. Then I convert it over to a Reinforcement Learning version (replacing the optimization routine). Finally I get into the garage and lift weights, trim the roses, and perform some garage door maintenance with all of this energy. And grab a cooling shower to start cooking pasta for lunch and working on the LB Smart Cities proposal. (Pasta to carboload for the usual long Friday bicycle ride.)
Here's another Thursday night into Friday morning when I wake up with tentative thoughts about the long Friday ride. But the alarm goes off at 5:30am and I'm out the door near 6am for a very good 100 kilometer road bicycle ride to the Santa Fe dam and back to home (and with some high gear sprints trying to make green lights). It's a good ride, so why do I always wake up before the rides being tentative about them? The ice packs go on my knees immediately after the ride as a preventative because they felt great throughout the ride. At home, after a shower, I read the news and markets and see I'll be giving back a fair amount of my gains from yesterday in the stock market. Before noon, since I have not eaten anything since 7pm last night, I chop up some vegetables for later use and watch the FP2 session for F1 cars from Monza, Italy. Since I rode long and don't have enough brain or blood sugar, I don't do any coding but it's okay because I made a lot of progress yesterday. And I don't work on the LB Smart Cities proposal. Later I watch FP2 for MotoGP and Moto2 from Catalonia (Catalunya) and check out some of the Dodgers' game. And then go back and study the LB Smart Cities proposal to see how I can tailor our capabilities with their desires.
Saturday is the slightly shortened version of the recovery mountain bicycle ride to the end of the ocean trail and back to home. At home I trim the roses, grab a shower, meditate, and drive to the grocery store for heavy items. At home I read the news for a bit and start in on my once-per-hour workout for the abdominals/core muscles. And in between I watch qualifying for F1 from Italy as well as qualifying for MotoGP/2/3 from Catalonia. Throughout the day I look at the Smart Cities proposal request and put together a matrix of whether we've done something similar before or not. And who potential partners would be. I get this to my teammates later in the day after watching a dit of college football and a bit of the Dodgers' game and allowing me give the matrix a final sanity check.
I start Sunday with another mountain bicycle recovery ride but this time all of the way t the old yacht club and back to home. Everything feels good and, provided I keep icing my knees, it seems like I've beaten any knee injuries. At home I flip the mountain bicycle upside down on the grass and degrease all of the gears and running train. Then I pull the road bicycle out and degrease all of its running gear. The road bicycle has a very slow leak in the rear tire, so I switch both the slow leaking tire/tube with an extra tire/tube that I have in the garage. I'm a mess after all of this work, so I scrub extra hard when I take a shower. I thought that the Detroit Lions' game was supposed to start at 10:25 PDT, but it is 1:15 PDT. So, after reading the ews, I watch the MotoGP Tissot sprint race from Saturday at Catalonia. I've, of course, heard no response from my Smart Cities analysis, so I think about the upcoming proposal but cannot quite put words to paper (digitally). I have steamed vegetables and bread for lunch and finally get to watch MY Detroit Lions play their opening game. And much later I watch the F1 race from Italy (because it always starts late in the afternoon in Italy). game.
Monday is one of my typically blah days. I get out for a bit more running on Monday morning as I try to increase the run/walk ratio. At home I immediately ice both knees. After a shower I read the news and markets and watch the Moto3 race from Catalonia. I watch some Netflix in the afternoon and then I watch the Moto2 race. I don't really work on the Smart Cities proposal and instead just watch a Monday night football game which I don't really care about.
I start Tuesday tentatively on a repaired tire and tube (since the old tube was very slowly losing tire pressure over the matter of days and I don't know the heritage of this tire). I ride north on the Los Angeles river to the bridge and turn back to the ocean. I'm cranking along nicely against a little headwind. I ride along the ocean and then up the San Gabriel river trail. About a kilometer from Del Amo I run into my running friend Archie from the Phillippines, who I have not stopped/slowed to speak with lately. So I slow way down and we catch up as he finishes the last couple of kilometers of his run. Then I turn back to Del Amo and crank like a maniac (at times) to make green/amber lights. It's a super fast and hard 75 kilometers for today. I immediately ice the knees, trim the roses, grab a shower, and go to CVS to look without success for coconut oil lip balm because my lips are so dry after the radiation. They don't have it. Instead I buy a bottle of wine and ride home, read the news and markets, chop up vegetables for lunch, and start the laundry. I've got the the pre-race show for the MotoGP race from Catalonia playing as I do some of these tasks and then watch a very fun, intriguing, and strategic race where my favorite rider finishes fourth (despite being the only rider on a soft rear tire) and a big celebration as the riders born nearby celebrate their first and second places in the race. I've had a second shot with the icepacks on my knees for almost the enitrety of the race and it feels good to have my knees near 32F while the air temperature is 78F! I finally get to my lunch of steamed vegetables and bread near 2pm, answer some emails, and just relax. I order two new bicycle tires, another pair of cycling shorts, and some coconut oil balm for my lips during the day. It's time to get rid of all of the old bicycle tires and tubes and start afresh (unless they are already brand new). And since I've been riding so much my cycling shorts are starting to show scuff marks and maybe less padding than usual. It was a very hard bicycle ride and I work on the Smart Cities effort a bit before the planned 9/11 Zoom discussion about what the city is actually trying to achieve.
I get in the extended mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yacht club and back and feel good. After I grab a shower I get on the mountain bicycle to go to the store but pass out cold water to the two gardeners who take care of my yard (when I'm gone) and always the retired schoolteacher's yard. At home I play a bit with the Markov chain analysis but it's come to a dead end. Later I have the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force meeting which is undergoing a big change and then I watch three different Netflix movies or series and end the day with a cheesy veggie burrito.
Thursday's are usually blah days. And it feels like it will be one. I re-do a state-mandated form for nonprofit agencies and write them a letter about a simple typo. This ends up taking an hour or so since I have to look up some financial numbers and get the records straight. I go to lift weights and today it is a struggle as the reps are down on a number of lifts. I quickly edge and mow the front and backyards and then drive to the nearest store for heavy supplies (including a bottle of wine). The wine is open before 11am and I read the news and markets and the go back to work on the Markov chain. I add a Gaussian distribution between the the breakpoints, rather than a uniform distribution, and now the optimizer is doing a great job of predicting future value. I don't quite understand this and I keep running simulations with a varying number of different breakpoints and switching between the uniform and Gaussian distribution. Whereas the uniform distribuion produces blah results, the Gaussian distribution (within a bin) produces some almost great results. I cannot explain it, but I'm happy. I'll write this up and send it to my friend and we can discuss it. As per my usual Thursday routine, I cook pasta to carboload for an anticipated long bicycle ride on Friday morning as the weather begins to cool. Later I spend time with Netflix and then watch a bit of the football game.
I get out on Friday for an intended long road bicycle ride. I get up to the El Monte airport and Santa Fe dam and head back southward. I pick up a number of riders and, since I want to go extra long, I mention, "I want to stop at the park for an energy gel". And I hear a very loud group, "NO! YOUR ARE PULLING US ALONG VERY FAST AND YOU CANNOT STOP". Thus I keep on going without an energy gel today and get down to the ocean after fighting a bit of a headwind. I make my turn along the ocean and head for home. I end up at 120 kilometers. Usually if I ride more than 100 kilometers I take a quick break for an energy gel, but today I do not. I grab a very quick shower, read a bit of news and the markets, chop up vegetables for lunch, and watch FP2 for MotoGP from Misano, Italy. When this ends I take the two brand new Continental Hardshell tires which just arrived today, and mount them to older rims that I have laying around. (The Conti Hardshells are very puncture-resistant, but a shade small and difficult to get onto rims. So I like to take the brand new ones and mount them to extra rims to stretch them out a bit.) Then I watch FP2 for Moto2 from Misano, Italy. By now it is late in the afternoon and I watch the news coverage of another gunman who has killed a politician. Later I have a very cheesy bean and cheese burrito where I've added tomatos, jalapenos, and extra cheese. And then I relax and try to catch some of the Dodgers' game.
I start Saturday with a mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yach club and back to home. And immediate icing of the knees as a preventative measure. I trim the roses, pack up the electronics for recycling, and grab a shower. My errands atsart at the ATM and then to the electronics waste recycling center. I stop at the Home Depot for more fill dirt (to top up th fenceposts that I dug up quite a while ago) and for two more rat traps. Something keeps setting off those old rat traps and so I buy some newer design rat traps and we'll see what I get. I also stop off at the grocery store for a double cheese pizza (that I am craving) and a couple of other supplies. After a long telephone conversation I watch the MotoGP qualifying and mix it up with some college football and the Moto3/2 qualifying sessions. And later in the day I mess around with some coding and watch a bit of the Dodgers' game.
I start SUnday with a 68 minute run/walk where the total time and the run/walk ratio have both increased. I have no weird feelings from the knees or surrounding areas but ice them immediately afterwards anyway. Then I use the fill dirt that I bought from Home Depot yesterday to level out the holes where I dug out the chain link fence cement footings. After a shower I meditate, fill up the Yamaha YZF-R3 with gasoline for this week's doctors appointments, buy a bottle f wine, and watch MY Detroit Lions play like they did the last two years and destroy the Bears. I also start work on a second coding project for a fund and make good progress. And I finally watch Saturday's Tissot sprint race from Italy.
The typical Tuesday 75 kilometer bicycle ride occurs this week on Monday to accommodate a number of doctor's appointments this week. I have a decent ride but I feel tired throughout. I grab a cooling shower and read the news and markets and watch the Moto3 race from Italy wth an incredible last lap. I ride the motorcycle to the prosthodontist where I get my permanent bridge of teeth (finally) and have to return tomorrow so the doctor can inspect the area and see how I'm doing with them. After the appointment I go home and have some pasta and watch some football. I work a bit n the second coding project and write up some of the assumptions and conclusions I've made or found so far. And I send the draft off to my friend for feedback.