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Tuesday is a slow day. My visitor is trying to find his musical instrument that the airline lost and I'm tired from lack of sleep. We both look at Person W_HK's website and he wants to have it modernized. And I offer to help once he finds a suitable template. After noon we do some shopping. When we return home I go out and lift weights. It's a good workout and I'm sweating like crazy when I'm finished. I cool down with a shower. Later Person W_HK and I go have Japanese food for dinner and run more errands. And his musical instrument finally gets delivered - 24 hours after Person W_HK stepped off the plane.
On Wednesday I start my birthday ride - one mile on the bicycle for every year old. It's a good ride and though I slow at the end, I recover quickly and have energy throughout the rest of the day after a cool shower and some food. Person W_HK plays his pipa, an ancient Chinese musical instrument, and finds that it has not been damaged during its journey. And I enjoy hearing the live music in my house as I work away at some statistics scripts. Later we drive over and have pizza for dinner.
On Thursday I get out on the mountain bicycle for a recovery ride - the loop ride. Down the San Gabriel river trail another rider rides with me and he tells me he has just returned from some bicycle tours in France. And we talk about the tours and the countries that we want to go ride in. When I get home I decide that one week of the abdominal/lower back pain/discomfort/soreness (without reason) is enough and I make an appointment for a doctor at 3pm. After a two hour nap Person W_HK and I drive to one medical facility to see a doctor. I explain the situation and he has me drive to another facility for a series of blood tests and a CT scan of the abdominal region. This entire process starts with us driving to the first facility at about 2:30 and not getting out of the second facility until 7 pm. And I'm walking around with bandages on the left arm for the blood draws and the right arm for the iodine injection during the CT scan. I'm shocked to start getting email notices of blood test results and they are all looking normal - nothing out of the ordinary except the low red blood cell count and low hematocrit which has been plaguing me. Person W_HK and I have Mexican food for dinner and I'm getting down for sleep near 10 pm.
I start Friday slowly by trimming and watering the roses. More test results come in but I don't see a CT scan evaluation yet. I'm still in some pain/discomfort/soreness because I told the doctor that I didn't want to take any pain medication because it is hard on the liver and kidneys and they might be the problem to begin with. At mid mornign I lift weights - gingerly to start but there is no pain - and have a good session with the weights. After a cooling shower I catch up on the news as Person W_HK again plays the pipa to my enjoyment. Person W_HK and I go down to the beach area in Long Beach and walk around (because I don't hurt to walk). We stop in and have juice and then go back home. Later in the evening we each make food to eat for a light dinner. And I'm getting into bed for reading by 9:30 pm.
Saturday starts with a good road bicycle ride. I don't have pain and so I just keep on going and end up at another 60 miles. I grab a cooling shower and catch up on the news and eventually have vegetables and quinoa for lunch as I watch some of the track and field World Championhips and some of the PGA on television. I help Person W_HK with a website since his website is very old and unresponsive. Later Person W_HK and I go eat Thai food at a restaurant in Long Beach and, unfortunately, the waiters and waitresses do not fawn over me with my Thai language. And the food and service is only mediocre. Near midnight Person W_HK's friends from Irvine pick him up and I finally get down for sleep.
I start Sunday with a trip to the grocery store. When I return I watch an exciting, daredevil MotoGP race from Austria. After a short break I go lift weights and the abdominal pain and lower back pain do not interfere with the lifts at all. I cool down with a shower and slowly clean up the house a bit with the PGA golf tournament playing on the television in the background. It seems that the more that I move the less the abdominals, right side, and lower back hurts. Later in the day I watch a Moto3 race where the winner rides off into the distance but a super battle for the remaining positions keeps me entertained.
Monday starts with a mountain bicycle ride to the old yacht club and back home. I wanted to ride longer, but settled for the shorter ride since my left leg has been threatening to cramp over the last day. After a shower I get the car washed and put it away in the garage. There are phone calls trying to speak with a doctor and to get a quote for a new fence and gate. And later I watch the Moto2 race from Austria. The roses are not doing much right now, so I cut them all back by one third or one half, feed them, and water them to hopefully stimulate more blooms.
I'm awake early on Tuesday and catch up on the news, the markets, and a phone call or two. Then I ride the motorcycle to CSULA for the orientation for volunteers (that we have prior to school starting each year). When I get home I have a good session with the weights where the pain in the abdominals and lower back do not hinder my lifts. I try to stay comfortable throughout Tuesday night and wonder when the doctors will get back to me.
I wake up at 2:30 am on Wednesday morning and cannot sleep. I check my email and see an email from my primary care physician that says something like "We saw some things in the CT scan but we saw moderate to severe spinal arthiritis in the lower back". That's it? I want to know everything that they saw. So when I finally get back to sleep and then wake up, I go for a walk and buy grocery supplies and then start calling to find a doctor who will explian to me what is going on. I get a 9:30 appointment and have a detailed, paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of ym CT scan and I am relieved that there is nothing wrong with my liver, pancreas, and kidneys and only a minor (non-problem) gallstone that we will let stay there. There is a closing of the discs in the L4/L5/S1 region and that is the source of my pain. I'm still skeptical, but I ask the doctor for a very strong anti-inflammatory and an opioid (because that helped me out a lot when I ruptured my L4/L5 discs in early 2004) and that is what the doctor prescribes. I also get a referral for physical therapy and acupuncture and I can live with these explanations and course of action. I finally get home and start in on the medicine and try to relax throughout the afternoon. Near 5 pm I go for a long walk and note that the pain is greatly reduced and continuing to move and walk and exercise helps it out.
I'm out of bed at a normal time (for me) and out the door for a mountain bicycle loop ride at 6:25 am. I am strong today and crank along nicely and catch up to some road bicycle riders who are probably suprised where this old guy on a mountain bicycle came from. After a cool shower and starting the desktop computer to a backup rocess to an external hard disk, I ride the motorcycle down to Seal Beach to talk to Fidelity Investments about adminstering my living trust. But they say they don't do a pure trust adminstration and prefer to perform trust management prior to trust administration. So this is the first time in many years that Fidelity had disappointed me. (I've told my Fidelity financial advisor that I've had Fidelity mutual funds since Christopher Columbus arrived on our shores and that is a standing joke between us since his first name is also Chris.) So Chris and I have additional discussions about rebalancing my portfolio and I have things to think about and work on as I ride the motorcycle back home. I also note to my financial advisor Chris, who is very smart and has provided me good guidance in the past, that today happens to be the day from 30 years ago when I closed escrow on the purchase of the house that I still live in. When I get home I do some (online) Monte Carlo simulations of my financial status and try to find someone who will perform a pure trust distribution. Later I notice that the pain is slowly starting to recede in a last affected, first relieved path. So it will still be 4 or 5 more days of pain even with the medicines.
I start Friday slowly with a 35 minute walk but get in a good session with the weights. After a cooling shower I walk to a cofeehouse where I meet up with a CSULA student, Alex, who I've become friends with. We talk about school and work and bitcoin and all sorts of things. And I tell Alex, "I'm going to start asking, at every business that I go in to, if they take bitcoin". Later in the day I take it easy as the pain from recent weeks is slowly residing but not quick enough for me.
Saturday starts with a road bicycle ride where I feel strong despite some strong winds. But I cut off at 48 miles today rather than going for a longer ride. After getting clean up I run errands including a trip to the bicycle store for lubricant and Brian, the owner, says he sees me out riding all of the time. When I return home I work on a monthly statictics website and then catch up on a recording from the television that I made last Wednesday. I note that I've asked four business in the last two days if they take bitcoin or not and note that all of them have responded with a "what's that?" response. (The DRNK cofeehouse, Togo submarine sandwiches, the bicycle shop, and the Vons grocery store.)
On Sunday and Monday I have blah days. I do get out walking twice on Sunday and have a good session with the weights on Monday, but I'm just run down from the continuous abdominal and lwoer back pain. Yes, the pain is going away, but it is still a run down. I take time on Monday to watch the eclipse at various moments in its duration (using safe glasses, of course). And late on Monday I walk over to the police station for another meeting with about 60 people and the north division commander. I don't really learn much during this meeting but at least I make a presence.