On Tuesday I'm awake before 6 am and out the door for a ride near 6:20 am. (Remember, it is still dark so I've delayed my wake-up and cycling times until Daylight Savings Time disappears this weekend.) Last night I went to read and sleep near the end of the 7th inning of the Dodgers' game when they just tied the score. As I prepare for cycling, I'm shocked to learn the game went 18 innings and the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman hit another walk-off home run to centerfield tow in the game. I'll read about it later. I have a good 75 kilometer road bicycle ride though I tire in the last five kilometers. After a warming shower I read the news and markets and finally get to the MotoGP race from Malaysia. I chop vegetables and have more steamed vegetables and whole wheat bread for lunch and have a slow afternoon - I've got my plan laid out to get away on vacation on 24 November and I'm still a month away. Later I watch the Dodgers' game. I manage to get the appropriate Python modules installed and get a very old neural network to yield resoanable results. So now I'm ready to attack my friend's fourth code. (First was a Markov chain, second was correlation, third was Reinforcement Learning, and fourth was neural networks.)
I continue to have incredible sleep with great physical recovery and vivid dreams. It has been a few days since I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep and read instead. I start the day out the door at 6:15am for a recovery mountain bicycle ride and I feel strong and whatever temporary physical weakness or malaise is gone. Possibly due to some protein shakes. After a shower I ride the motorcycle to a CVS for a bottle of wine for the World Series game and there's a cutie that I make small conversation with as I checkout, Sensing no interest, I let it drop. Back at home I wipe down the dusty Yamaha YZF-R3, read the news and markets, and then clena the kitchen and bathroom floors. I don't know why, but these floors got extra dirty since I cleaned them (along wiht the hardwood floors) a week or so ago. I don't have the motivation to work on the neural network code, but I let my friend know that I resurrected it and it will take a bit of time to modify it for his intended use. After 12:15 I chop up vegetables and eventually have my first food of the day near 1pm. (It's a partial intermittent fast that I end up being on most days - not intentionally - but because I finish dinner early and end up cycling or running or doing errands in the morning and don't get to eat for 18 hours each day. Supposedly this partial-intermitent fast is as good for your health as a real 24 intermittent fast.) The Dodger's start Blake Snell and I've told my neighbors that they should start Clayton Kershaw - remembering the Yu Darvish start with Kershaw pitching six scoreless innings in relief. But no, Blake Snell starts and the Dodgers lose.
I sleep well and get out for a 13 kilometer run/walk where I'm pretty much back to where I was before I had some knee soreness. Though I have not tried a 20 kilometer run yet. I'm being patient and just don't want to have sore knees when I leave the country. But I still ice both knees multiple times a day - sometimes up to 50 minutes at a time. When I get home I pull out the ladder and corded hedge trimmer and trim the neighbor's bush which sometimes gets close to my Internet cable. The bush isn't that close yet, but I want it to be ready for me being gone for a few months. And though this is very early, I finish the hard pruning of the roses. This gives them a break during the winter and hopefully will bloom crazily in the spring. After a shower I ride the motorcycle to a CVS for a bottle of wine and start programming the neural network approach since I found one of my previous templates that I can work from. This should go quickly. But it doesn't because Python has all of these descriminators between array, series, and lists. But I plug away. I also take some cold water out to the wprkers working on our street and everyone is thankfull for them except one who refuses and says, "I already have to pee". Fair game.
When I wake up on Friday I am not feeling up to my typical Friday 100 kilometer or 110 kilometer rides. I take the mountain bicycle and go to the old yacht club and back for a typical recovery ride. At home I sharpen up the edge trimmers that I used yesterday for trimming the neighbor's bushes getting sorta close to my Interent cable. I grab a shower and ride the bicycle to the store for some supplies. They have our street all torn up to repair after 25 years of potholes, cracking, and neglect. I ride the bicycle on the sidewalk today to stay out of the worker's way. On the way back home a worker appraches me as I ride on the sidewalk as he wants to make sure that I am safe from backhoes tearing up our streets. When he pulls one ear plug out - I'm glad he's protecting his hearing - and I ask him, "Do you want me to go back to the store and buy you some tequila or cervezas for you?" And he starts to laugh with me and shakes a negative response. I go home and make super progress on the neural network code, updating websites for the end for month calendars, chop up and gather vegetables for lunch, and a few other little things. The neural network code needs a bit more work, but is showing very good promise. The afternoon passes along and I finally check out the Dodgers' potential elimination game from the World Series. As the Dodgers' elimination game is about to start, I've got various neural network architectures to converge. But I'm doing something silly and cannot show a direct caomparion between the neural network predictions and the testing or validation data. I know that I'm doing something silly, but I'll figuree it out tomorrow. Hopefully, im anticipation of a long road bicycle ride on Saturday morning, I have cheesy tomato, jalapaeno, and veggie burritos for dinner.
I start north in the fog along the Los Angeles river trail. The fog is still present past the Whittier Narrows dam and near the El Monte airport. I get over to the San Gabriel river trail via surface streets - my usual long distance route - and soon have to make a decision whether to stop in at Wilderness Park for an energy gel for an extra long ride or just continue on for a typical 100 kilometer ride. I stop in at the park and have a tasty apple cinnamon Hammer Nutrition gel and continue south. I pick up a few riders, but mainly I'm on my own. At the end of the trail I turn south and ride out to the peninusula and then along the ocean to get back to the Los Angeles river trail. Now, despite the long distance, I'm cranking nicely and have a crowd of eight riders that I'm towing along. Finally I get back to Del Amo and hand signal and yell to the crowd "Exiting at Del Amo". Each and every rider thanks me for the tow and I just flash each one a peace sign. I get in a good 120 kilometer ride and immediately ice my knees. But nothing feels sore or in pain. I get in a nice warming shower and start changing a lot of the clocks that won't be in use today, such as the car, sprinklers, and thermostat, for a return to Standard Time tonight. I get the neural network code to work very well and I even perturb the inputs with a Monte Carlo analysis on top of the results to see how sensitive the outputs are due to small perturbations in inputs. And I just relax with whatever is on the teelvision until game 7 of the Dodgers' pursuit of the World Series. The Dodgers are losing during the entire game and a solo homerun by Miguel Rojas ties the game at 4. I can't stand to watch so I turn the television off, go read, and go to sleep. Son a hear some cheering and look at my phone and see that the Dodgers have taken the lead in the 11th inning. I go back to reading and finally shut off the lights for sleep. Soo I hear a ton of fireworks going off and I know the Dodgers have won the game. I check my phone and though each and every top and bottom of extra innings was dangerous for both teams, the Dodgerss' 11th inning solo homerun holds up and they are World Series chapions again. (It won't be until late on Sunday morning that I see the incredible highlights of this game and how close both teams could have won with an inch or two of difference in glove positioning, ball hittig, or foot positions.)
We've switched our clocks over to Dayligth Standard Time and I save 45 minutes of it for myself by switching my alarm clock from 5:45am to 5:00am. Granted I snooze for ten minutes, but then get dressed and go for a recovery ride on the mountain bicycle. Everywhere I ride is o quiet - yes there are some other runners and cyclists out, but the total environment seems so quiet. My legs feel good and I immediately ice my knees as a precaution when I get gome. I trim the neighbor's roses impinging on my driveway (since I have no roses left after the hard pruning) and grab a shower. I ride the bicycle to the grocery store with a backpack and extra recyclable bag because I buy a few essentials but splurge on a bottle of wine and a deep dish, extra cheesy pizza for the day. Or maybehalf today and half tomorrow. At home I start the laundry, pay some bills, read of the extraordinary events by both teams in game 7 of a World Series, and then have the Detroit Lions' game playing in the background as I do a bit of neural network code verification before delivering it to my friend. There different ways of implementing and interpreting a Monte Carlo simulation (after the neural networks have converged), so I look at this again and may want o modify it. But I can start the writeup of the results which are very good for the neural networks themselves. (Neural networks, their implementation, and solution methods have changed a ton since I first played with neural networks in the late 1990s. Though I have used them as recently as a few years ago, I just marvel at the improvements in twenty years.) Later I just relax and eat pizza and watch football.
I start Monday slowly - reading the news and trying to finish off the Monte Carlo overwrap of the neural network code. I take a break to set up to lift weights and make one last change to the Monte Carlo code. The Monte Carlo analysis is finished but Python, with all of its quirks, has turned the list results into an array of arrays, so after I've lifted weights, taken a shower, and dropped off a book at the library, I try to fix this problem. I make a stop at CVS and there's a song from 30 years ago that I like and ask the cashier if she knows this song. She does not. So I turn the man, in his late 40s, what is the name of the song playing over the CVS audio system. He doesn't know but pulls out his phone and is able to give me an asnwer. I thank him and I'll give it a try on youtube at home. After unpacking everything I find that the song was December by Collective Soul. This is at least the fourth time that I've heard a song while shopping or banking that I didn't know and usually from the lyrics I can find it on youtube. THough at JP Morgan Chase bank and now at CVS I relied on customers when I asked them. At home I continue to struggle with that stupid Python array of arrays. Today I see some videos and they bring tears to my eyes: various Dodgers' 7th game video clips, various songs on youtube, and a few other things. Why have I been so emotional that tears well up in my eyes over the last month or so. Later I watch the Monday night football game and hope that the day off cycling or running yields a good ride tomorrow.
Today I hit the snooze button twice before going out cycling. I've taken 45 minutes of the 60 minute time change back, so giving back 20 minutes is not the end of the world today. I get out on the road bicycle as it is still dark and I still need lights on my bicycle. I head East on Del Amo, go up to Wilderness Park, and then turn south back towards the ocean. Today I run into the Saint John Bosco cross country team - both the coaches and runners recognizing me as I've spoken with them a number of times before - so I slow down and catch up. Their CIF meet is next Saturday at which they hope to qualify for the state championships in Fresno the Saturday after Thanksgiving. They missed state last year because all of their runners were sophomores and hopefully they have trained hard and learned what they need to get to state. As I finally I take off, I say to the runners, "You have a lot more capability in you than you know you have. So go get it. Fresno (where the state championships are held) is calling". I always try to be positive with the coaches and kids and once told them "There are 2028 and 2032 Olympic medals with your names on them. Go get them!" I'm being overly optimistic, but that's who I am towards younger kids. I have a good ride spanning 70 or 75 kilometers and immediately ice my knees. Today was chilly and damp, so a warm shower feels good and I read the news and markets and fix the little problems in the combined neural network/Monte Carlo code for my friend and am getting good results. I take the car out to buy heavy groceries and a wedding gift card (I don't know what the couple wants and they are not registered anywhere) and unpack everything. I grab a haircut from the Cambodian lady and leave her jealous that I found LAX to Ha Noi for $252. But since we have become regulars together and she has a 17 year old daughter finishing high school who wants to go into the medical field, I leave her an almost 50% tip. Back at home I continue to exercise the neural network code and make small changes to improve the display and then work on writing up the results. Later, after a full day, I just become a vegetable and see what I can watch on television or Netflix. Except that he neural network code with Monte Carlo add-on is working so well that I write up the results to give to my friend for his evaluation. I'll give it a re-read on Wednesday and send it out to him.
I get out on the mountain bicycle well before 6am with lights on the bicycle. I do the usual Wednesday recovery ride and feel good. At home I mow the back and front yards and pick up leaves and old rose branches as I prepare to be away for a while. There is a miscommunication with Emilio, the retired schoolteacher's gardener, but I clear it up with a photo that I took of the check. I also have to break the news to the retired schoolteacher's nephew and niece that there is still some confusion over Emilio's monthly charge and I want them to find the retired schoolteacher during a lucid moment and just ask the simple question of "How much did you usually give Emilio per month". We'll see how this turns out. At home I work on the final draft of the neural network code and as I write it I continue to discover new ideas that we could pursue - if my friend is interested. I take many breaks during the day to stretch out my legs and shoulder/neck muscles and give the writing a chance "to gel" before I send it off tonight. Somehow it gets to be 2:30pm and after cycling and mowing the lawn, I have not eaten yet. So I chop up and steam vegetables on a bed of whole wheat bread and sit back on the couch and relax.
Thursday starts with two snoozes and then I strap on my running gear. I get in an eighty minute run/walk and I feel good. Today I see two separate coyotes and as I've run a few kilometers I hear from a distance a lady yelling, "Help me! Help". I know the direction that it came from and I'll be there in a few minutes. (I'm not in a position to sprint right now.) When I get near where it seems like the yelling came from I see a man, maybe another walker or a neighbor, and asks me if I saw the coyote. I hold up two fingers and say, "I saw two". And he responds back with, "They tried to attack a lady". I don't have anything to say to this because I'm shocked that coyotes would go after a person. Maybe it was a smaller lady because coyotes usually go after small dogs or cats. At home a warm shower feels good because this morning was chilly. I meditate and read the new and markets and then put together a Python tournament simulation, like the NCAA college basketball tournament. I get the code to work based on one statistic (for now) and for only one division (for now). Before noon I cook pasta to carboload for a long Friday bicycle ride. I go expand the Python code to include all four divisions with the seeding number and name almost matched up prefectly. There's a little discrepance that I'll fix on Friday. And then I watch the football game along with some chocolate chip cookies that I baked and ice cold milk.
I've slept fairly well on Thursday into Friday and I'm out the door for a northbound Los Angeles river trail ride well before 6am. Today there is a nasty headwind the entire way north and I'm hoping for a southbound tailwind down the San Gabriel river trail. I fly down the San Gabriel river tail with the tailwind and see a rider at a far distance. I bump up a gear and push and catch the rider and fly past him. I ride for a number of kilometers and finally here an "On your left" comment. It is the same rider that I passed a while ago. I follow him and it appears that he starts to slow down so I go to pass and he says, "I know you". So I slow down and ride alongside and it is a rider from a few months ago that remembers my bicycle accident and cancer. We re-exchange names of Jesus and Ray and I tell him that I am getting off at Del Amo this and he says he is going farther south. We've each towed each other and had fun. Along Del Amo I catch up to another rider and we finally stop at a red light. I say to him, "I know you. You turn right on Downey to go home". And he assures me that I am correct and we ride together for a bit but I keep my distance because he is not wearing a helmet. (Prior to my 1994 small accident with concussion I never wore a bicycle helmet. My friends took me to a bicycle store shortly thereafter and made me buy a helmet as their birthday gift to me. I thank them everytime that I ride.) I get on home, grab a quick warming shower, return a book to the library, pick up a bottle of wine, read the news and markets, have a long call from Karlos about my coding results and what is lacking, and then watch the MotoGP FP2 session from Portugal. Later I watch the Moto2 session from Portugal, take a break to pay bills and coninually stretch and ice my legs, and finally watch FP2 from Brasil. By now I've only had a few chopped vegetables to eat so I have a bit of pasta and some of the chocolate chip cookies that I baked Yesterday with ice cold milk.
I start Saturday with the typical mountain bicycle recovery ride to the old yacht club and back to home. After a warming shower I have some steamed vegetables on wheat bread and watch sprint qualifying from Brasil and regular qualifying for MotoGP/2/3 from Portugal. I grab another shower, put on a suit, and head to Malyneath's wedding at the Maya hotel in Long Beach. Of course I get lost along the way, but still am among the first people to arrive. I forgot that Cmabodian 2pm means 2:20pm. I notice as I'm smiling at people and greeting them in English or Khmer, that my left arm is bleeding. And it has bled into a nice white shirt. I run into our city's 6th district councilperson who is Cambodian and a friend of Malyneath and mine. The ceremony starts and is done very nicely. As the ceremony breaks up I go talk to Malyneath and her new husband Doug and tell them that I have to go home because I am bleeding. They move me to the front of the picture line and I get my picture taken with them. I find the councilperson and tell her that I'm bleeding and need to go home. I take my time getting home and take my clothes off and immediately use cold water and rub the blood stains against each other and they surprisingly come out. I then park myself on the couch with pasta and cheese (rather than the good Cambodian food I could be having at the wedding). And I watch full qualifying for the F1 race from Brasil on Sunday.
I get out for another mountain bicycle recovery ride. When I get to the corner of my street and the main street there are two coyotes wandering around. I start chasing after them with my bicycle and yelling at them. And they run somewhere to look for smaller prey. I must have been pushing the pace during the ride because the time it takes for me to do the old yacht club ride is much quicker than usual. I grab a quick shower, meditate, get the car our for supplies (I'm craving cinnamon muffins), and get back home to unpack. I quickly shove a muffin and milk down my throat, load up the WOrld Rally Car, and drive to Frank Jeanine's house to help them install a cement pad to hold a solar battery as they will soon be pretty much off the grid. There's a lot of dragging around gravel backs and tamping the gravel down and measuring and cutting and measuring and evening everything out. We break for lunch annd talk about their recent trip to Egypt and then we go ack to work. Frank has made some mistakes on measurements and has to text his neighbor who knows all of this stuff. But we manage to recover and get the hole dug, gravel poured and smoothed in, sand poured in and wetted, and other activities so that Frank can mix and pour cement on Moday morning. I've told them that I'm tied up on mornings so I won'tbe helping on Monday, but I'll want to see the finished project. It's a full 10am until 4pm hard work day and my entire body will be very sore on Monday (or probably Tesday). I get home and watch a super exciting Tissot sprint race for MotoGP hoping my favorite rider is going to win his first race, but he comes up less than half a second short. And then I grab some dinner with the football game.
When I wake up on Monday morning I am not sore at all from Sunday's construction job. Monday is very foggy and the streets are damp. I get out for a 70 minute run/walk - not wanting to push it since my legs have not had a day off since last Monday. I take care of some paperwork and read the news and markets. Then I sit back for rhe F1 race from Brasil. After the race I have lunch of steamed vegetables on a whole wheat bread bed with mustard (rather than oil). I make a second check of the laptop and make sure I have the software that I want/need for the upcoming trip. And late in the day I watch the Monday night football game (since I missed all of the games on Sunday due to the construction.)