Content-type: text/html
Though I can barely walk due to the left calf, I get on the mountain bicycle first thing in the morning and hope that it will be okay. Since most of the pain during walking is under weight bearing and during pushoff, it turns out the calf does not bother cycling at all (unless I stand up to climb a hill). So I have a good ride to theold yacht club and back with no difficulty. I get cleaned up and work on things until I run errands. I get to the library to return two books (one I just skimmed and the other I quit at 3/4 distance) and get two new ones, get to Home Depot for spider mite spray, meet a JP Morgan/Chase financial advisor, drop some food off at the Subaru dealer for their fod drive, and then buy groceries. Today is very hot and I finally break down and turn on the air conditioning at home later in the afternoon as the house gets warm and stuffy. I watch an exciting and wild Moto3 race from Assen and then lose track of the evening.
I start Wednesday a bit slowly with cleaning the rosing and bringing new fresh-cut roses into the house. The rose plants are producing a good number of blooms right now. After a while of web surfing I get in an okay session with the weights - not sure why it is such a struggle. Afterwards I mow the lawn and then I clean the outside of the garage door. It has been a long time since I cleaned the outside of the garage door and when I am finished, it looks brand new. I just need to tidy up the inside of the door where the regular lubrication that I do has dripped down in places. I grab a shower and rinse my ears and relax as the heat wave that we had for almost two weeks has broken and today's high will be a comfortable 74 degrees F. In the afternoon I take a senior discount online program to allow me to save about $200 on my car and motorcycle insurance for each year. It turns out this is available for those 55 and older, but at least I passed the exam now and will start receiving my discounts.
Thursday is a very slow day. I get up a bit late and do a two hour mountain bicycle loop ride. At one point I pass another rider and he asks me if I've been to the Czech Repblic (because I'm wearing my Czech Republic national cycling team jersey). So I slow down and we talk about travels and bicycle touring and stuff until he turns off after about two miles of riding together. After a shower I walk to the grocery store and cook veegtables for the week. And though I wanted to work on websites and other things, they don't get done today. Hopefully tomorrow. Late on Thursday I get an email from CSULA indicating that they might want to take on my ocean cleanup concept as both a senior design effort with multiple teams as well as a business project. I'm excited about the thought and have difficulty getting to sleep.
I hit the snooze button on Friday at 6 am and sleep until 6:45 am. I talk with friends in the asian countries (since it is conveniently their Friday night) and then I go trim the roses and bring new fresh-cut roses into the house. I read the news and get prepared for some work, but decide to move around first. I get in a good session with the weights, trim two bushes (minor trims), and then try to cut out the red areas of my junipers that appear to be infested with spider mites. I spray again with my remaining spider mite spray and know that I need to get more spray this weekend to prevent the spider mites from eating the entire juniper bush as they did a few years ago. (In that instance, I had to dig the infested junipers out and start new ones - which are finally catching up to the growth of the very old ones.) I grab a quick shower and go back to working on the chatbot. I need to work on two things: 1) Direct responses back to the requestor, and 2) Matching chatbot requested that may not be spelled correctly with the expected response. The latter is easier so I work on that and have it completed in the afternoon. Now I need to figure out the JSON API for the direct responses.
I start Saturday with a good 48 mile road bicycle ride. I don't want to get extreme today because I have other activities that have to get done. After getting cleane dup I work on the chatbot and get it working! The chatbot frameworkhas some restrictions thatI have to work around, but it is presentable and usefull. Near 1 pm there is supposed to be a telecon and it keeps getting delayed until 2pm. What does this say about the business person leading this charge? We have a one hour telecon at 2 pm and it goes for an hour and then people want to talk beyond that. But I cut them off and say that I have to go - their lack of planning and coordination should not run my life. I run errands to Home Depot and the groery store and then start north on the 710 freeway to pick up a CSULA friend to go to the 626 Market. We do a lot of walking and eat weird-flavored potatoes and have fun. And finally I I drop my friend off on the way way home and rush home (without much traffic ) to have an orange soda before bed.
I am slow getting out of bed on Sunday moring but et going at 6:15 am for a two hour mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back with a few extra miles thrown in. I'm tired throughout the ride and am happy to be finished. After a conversation from Thailand and a shower, i go trim the roses and bring new fresh-cut roses into the house. And then watch a very exciting MotoGP race from Germany (where the threat of rain is persistent rhoghout the race but does not materialize). After the fun and exciting MotoGP race from Germany I do not know where the day goes, but I do not spend anytime at all sitting behind a computer coding.
Monday is a slow day. I start updating the stock market matching/prediction algorithm for another month end. As it is running I get in a session with the weights and spray the junipers again with water and a chemical that will hopefully rid the juniper of the spider mites. I'm assuming I'll need to spray once more. Early in the afternoon Person T_U calls about Person D_V's business and I ask all of the questions that I've learned to ask: Where's the business plan? What is the target market? Who are the competitiors and why are your products better? What are the income projections? What are the cost projections? Where is the 10 chart "pitch deck" that Person D_V should carry with him EVERYWHERE and have memorized? (Because you never know who or where you might run into an investor.) I'm sure Person D_V has been so focused on the product design and fabrication that none of the above questions have been answered. So how can he expect investors to come on board? Later I watch a good Moto3 race from Germany and then continue with some algorithm work and some financial work.
I start 4th of July with a two hour loop ride on the mountain bicycle. I wanted to ride long on the road bicycle, but my heart isn't in it today. When I get home I make some phone calls to other countries and grab a shower and relax and then ride slowly over to the 4th of July picnic that Person T_U has invited me to. It's a very small parade and a boring picnic, but I put up with it for 90 minutes and then ride home. Back at home I start some laundry and watch a Moto2 race from Germany that is decided on the last lap. And then I finally grab some lunch for cooked vegetables and quinoa. It's a slow day and I just hope to get though all of the illegal fireworks going off in the city of Long Beach. I remember how terrified Nopey was on the 4th of July and new year's eve from all of the fireworks and gunshots.
On Friday I get out for 48 mile road bicycle ride and I feel strong throught despite the heat. I guess the extreme walking on Wednesday and the Thursday session of lifting weights for the upper body hase given my legs an extra day of rest. Friday is almost 90F in Long Beach so after the ride I celann up and trim roses and then stay inside the air-conditioned house for a majority of the day. Today theere are notes that my ISP has had a fiber optic cable cut, so I watch television and do reading an catch up on paperwork and do things that do not require the Internet. It is the first time in 15 years with this ISP that I have had a significant outage.
On Saturday I get up a bit early and take the mountain bicycle out for the loop ride in the cooler weather. There are many people out running along the beach trail at this early hour and quite a few cyclists going in the opposite direction along the Los Angeles river as I am heading for home. When I get home I make a phone call to Thailand to apologize for Thursday's Internet outage in Long Beach, grab a cooling shower, and cook vegetables for the week. Finally I sit down and watch an exciting but anti-climactic qualifying session for the F1 race in Austria. After qualifying I start catching up on the things that I missd over the Internet during the previous day's outage. And finally near 2pm I turn on the air conditioning for the third time this year as the house is getting a bit uncofortable. (Typically I use the air conditioning between 10 and 12 days per year but usually in July, August and September.)
I'm lazy on Sunday and get up early to trim the roses and bring fresh-cut roses into the house. I get in an abdominal and lower back workout and then cool down with a shower. An exciting, then boring, then exciting Austrian Grand Prix follows from the Red Bull Ring in Austria (formerly the Oustereichring or A1 ring) and I do some cooking and other little tasks as the day heats up. By 11:30 am I am working on some more algorithms and deciding if I need to turn on the air conditioning as the day is pretty warm but not yet excessively hot.
It is also hot on Monday but I get in a good workout with the weights and drop off a ring for appraisal and run a few other errands.