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The week is a blur of activity and programming. I get in good bicycle rides on Tuesday and Thursday and good workouts with the weights on Wednesday and Friday. I run a number of errands related to getting discounts for insurance and get a couple more books from the library for reading. There is also a fair amount of programming related to non-profits, some baseball statistics work, some pyroshock work (related to mechanical and aerospace engineering), and some child abuse work. On Thursday I ride the motorcycle up to San Gabriel for another meeting with the 211 people and it is obvious that some of my teammates haven't the faintest idea what is going on. In fact, they've made decisions and not told the team about the decisions until someone else springs the surprise on us. I try to relay to everyone that is doesn't matter what decision is made, just make sure you let everyone know so that we can all pull in the same direction and present a unified front when we have external meetings.
Thursday and Friday see exciting mountain stages in the Tour de France and though I wish I could be in France (or the surrounding regions) climbing big tall mountains, I am not. I am in Long Beach and mountain climbing, though fun, is hard work. And at my size, extra hard work. I need to become a small little mountain goat (rather than an old ox) in order to climb mountains.
I have a bit of difficulty sleeping on Friday night, so I just take the mountain bicycle out for the two hour loop ride. I'll have to go long on Sunday. After cleanign the roses and a shower I watch a relativly boring qualifying from England and then start converting/transferring from a Samsung S6 Edge mobile phone on Verizon's network to a Google Pixel on the Project Fi network. Copying the files and apps takes longer than the estimate, but it eventually completes. It appears that the transfer from an older Samsung 6 Edge phone on the Verizon network to the Google Pixel phone on the Project Fi network has completed.
What is wrong with me? On Sunday morning I get up and walk to the grocery store for supplies and do not go cycling. Instead I watch a relatively boring British F1 race (except for the last two laps) and then get in a good workout for the abdominals and lower back. After a shower I return a Long Beach heritage society newsletter and classical music CD to a neighbor and then call my Internet provider to find out why my speeds are so slow (after the big fiber optic outage from last week). I also cook some food and prepare healthy items for the upcming week. The new phone seems to be happy to on either the WiFi network at home or on the Project Fi network. Well after noon I fast forward through an Indy car race from Toronto as I relax in today's cooler temperatures.
I intend to go cycling on Monday morning, but instead I grab a book and walk it back to the library. This is almost an hour walk and I stop in at the grocery store on the way home to top up supplies. I spend the morning finishing up the conversion of a database from one format to another and getting some additional food resources online to be able to demo for people. I also sign up for two classes again at LBCC. Early in the afternoon I work on census tract conversion and displaying demographic data per census tract. Finally late in the afternoon I get in a good session with the weights and a cool shower afterwards.
Tuesday starts with a good, strong 48 mile road bicycle ride. I guess the extra day off of riding helped the legs feel strong. My Internet connection is displaying speed again, so I cancel the service call that was supposed to occur this afternoon with my provider. Before noon I get on the motorcycle and ride down to a co-work space to hear a lawyer discuss business contracts (for future reference). But I also use the opportunity to find out how much he charges to do a trademark application and I ask if there are digital marketers present (for Danny who is trying to get his business going).
Wednesday is an enthusiastic day. I've received an email for help on a website and I work diligently on the site on Wednesday morning to generate a positive outcome. But now I have to wait because I typically only receive an email from this person about once a month. I watch an exciting mountain stage up the Col du'Galibier and cannot sit still as the race unfolds. Late in the morning I lift weights with slightly increased weights and find it a good struggle to complete. I try to stay cool during the afternoon heat and then meet up with Person T_U and Danny for a nearby park concert. And later I ride the mountain bicycle home in the dark.
Thursday starts with a good and strong two hour mountain bicycle loop ride. There are a couple of very fast road bicycle riders who pass me, but otherwise I have a good solid ride. After a cooling shower I watch an exciting Tour de France stage up the Col d'Izoard...excuse me...up the MYTHICAL Col d'Izoard. This is the first time that there has been a mountain top finish on the MYTHICAL Col d'Izoard and it produces a surprise winner and serious and entertaining racing throughout. Throughout the remainder of the day I just relax, do some reading, and try to calm down after the TdF stage.
I get up on Friday and fix a website geolocation process that I have been putting off. It is an easy fix that came to me in my sleep. I have conversations with people in other countries and than run errands. When I get back home I clean the kitchen bench, lift weights heavy again (though it was more of a struggle than on Wednesday), and then I clean my bathroom floor before a cool shower. I check results for the Tour de France and the British Open (golf) and then relax for a bit with lunch (at 2:15 pm) and see what is on the television. Throughout the rest of the day I finish another little niggling problem with a website, do some reading, and do some financial work at home.
I get up on Saturday and get out the door near 6:20 am for a long ride. I ride all of the way to the Santa Fe dam and back to my home for a total of about 56 miles. There area a couple of periods that I struggle through and a couple of periods where I am on top of the world. I note that all the way back from the Santa Fe dam to home nobody cycles past me - rather I ride pasts cyclists and they dont keep up or decide not to keep up. It is a good strong ride for me. After a very cool shower I watch some of the British open (golf) and then watch the final time trail in the TdF where Chris Fromme (probably) cements his win. Afterwards I have a relaxing Saturday with some reading of websites, reading of books, and watering the roses. The roses have not produced many blooms in the last couple of weeks so I will feed them next week when I water them again after today's watering.
I'm so hungover from Saturday's long ride but I still get in about two hours on the mountain bicycle on Sunday morning. When I get home I cleanup the roses though there are no real blooms to bring into the house. How uncivilized - the house has no freshcut flowers in it right now. I grab a cool shower and catch up on Tour de France and the British Open gold tournament and then relax for most of the day.
I'm so hungover from cycling on the weekend that I get out for a long walk on Monday morning and then do a few things around the house. Near 11 o'clock I take the motorcycle for gasoline and ride to a Thai restaurant to meet up with a former (and now retured) co-worker. I start talking Thai with the restaurant waitress, as usual. Pretty soon, one at a time, each and every waiter/waitress in the restaurant comes over to speak Thai with the strange white guy. My co-worker friend is shocked that I can speak Thai. Finally the last waiter comes over and says I look like Ian McKellen, the actor, and insists on pictures with me. (I didn't know who this was and had to look him up.) I keep offering autographs, but he doesn't take them. But he does take a number of pictures with me and your waitress does the picture taking. We spend 2.5 hours at lunch (because the place is not packed). On the way out, I give my number to a stickboy waiter and tell him to call me so I can practice Thai. And the first waitress, sees me in the padded motorcycle jacket on the way out, and is really confused and thinks I AM Ian McKellen of Lord of the Rings. But I tell her (in Thai) that I'm on a motorcycle. When I get home I drop the weights some and have a good workout with the weights and then take a cool shower. When I go to start working on websites I cannot get into my server. After trying for a while I later get an email indicating that they have changed the IP address and server and I have to edit and change quite a few things to get all of my websites back to operational mode. It takes me two phone calls to customer service but this hosting company always provides me with good service (even if they changed these configurations without a prior notice). By 9 pm I have two of the websites back up. And two more are partially running for now. I guess this will be my Tuesday task after cycling and some financial matters that I need to take care of. What a mess!