I start the day after Labor Day with a mountain bicycle ride and I am tired. Just everything is tired right now. After getting cleaned up I ride the motorcycle to CSULA to meet wth my team. We have a good meeting getting to know each other and talking about the groundrules for the class and for the project. By 2pm I am heading home and I notice significantly less traffic than rding home later or on riding home at this time on a Friday. So I hope our team meetings stay on Tuesday near noon. I have another hour long phone conversation with the child abuse expert and keep reminding myself that this effort isn't going to happen because the child abuse expert keeps changing his mind and even says a number of times, "I don't know what I want".
I'm very tired on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning from cycling and running, so I go to sleep early and sleep for an extra forty five minutes in the morning. I get up and continue working on the new version of the child abuse reporting tool. I get in a break near noon for a good session with the weights where I throw in an extra set for each muscle group. After a refreshing shower I do some more coding, stop for a late lunch and vegging in front of the television for a while, and then continue coding. By 9 pm I've completed all of the backedn programming and one Javascript routine which can be used as a template for he other forms. Its been a productive day if not active day.
Thursday's road bicycle ride isn't great. It takes a while to get going and I run out of steam midway through. It isn't a long ride, so I'm wondering what's going on. I relax for a bit and then go to the Long Beach Human Trafficking meeting. When I get home I start in on coding again and update the Fair Trade Long Beach website, work on the child abuse effort, and also put together a skeleton model for my friend is trying to decide whether to use a Python executable delivered to each customer or run over the Web for his business. I watch the first half of the first football game of the season and its very sloppy and boring so I go bck to coding and then to sleep.
I start Friday trimming and watering the roses. I have a good workout with the weights where I've increased the weights a bit and I try to determine if this is going to bother my shoulder. After the workout I ice the shoulder, clean up with a shower, ride down to the main Long Beach Public Library for four new books, and then ride up to CSULA. At the Mn Librabry I run into a Fair Trade person who is battling a skin cancer that is bothering his foot and I give him my number and offer any help that he needs. At CSULA we have a good meetng to try and get everone on the same page. One team member says that he is slightly sick and many other people have been sick also. Maybe this explains my recent sniffles, sore throat, and lethargy. As I ride home traffic is not as bad as a typial Friday and I relax a bit and then walk over to First Fridays. If nothing else, I walk for almost two hours and think that I will have good sleep.
I sleep horribly from Friday night into Saturday morning. I get up at 5:30 and there is thick fog, so I go for a 65 minute run/walk where the Achilles tendon feels good enough for me to run about half of the time. I'm enthused about the progress that I am making but I certainly ice the Achilles tendon after the run/walk. After a shower I run a few errands and come home to watch MotoGP and Moto2 qualifying and then I wash all of the hardwood floors and the kitchen floor.
Sunday and Monday are blah days. I do get in a good bicycle ride on Sunday morning and a good session lifting weights on Monday. And I do watch exciting MotoGP and Moto3 races from Italy. But other than some small web updates, I'm a bit lost in direction.
I start Tuesday with a good road bicycle ride in the cooler weather. After trimming the roses and getting a shower, I ride the motorcycle up to CSULA to meet with my team of senior design students. On the way home I stop in for a flu shot - the entire process takes three minutes! I then stop to pick up lunch and ride on home to watch the Moto2 race. By the time I've arrived at home CSULA has called and we have a meeting scheduled with the Port of Long Beach to talk about our projects. This is an exciting Moto2 race but unforutnately there is a ver unsportsmanlike, unforgiveable incident where one hot-headed rider reaches over and grabs the front brake handle of a fellow competitior and slams on his brakes. He is black flaged from the race and I read shortly afterwards that his team has fired him. I'ts completely dangerous, unsportsmanlike, and unthinkable.
I sleep well on Tuesday night but wake up with possibly a sore throat. I turn back and sleep another 40 minutes and finally get out of bed to start my day. I read the news and check the stock markets and then I work on the World Rally Car brakes. The Subaru dealer told me that the rear brakes are close to their wear limit, so I've purchased replacement pads and start in on replacing the old ones. The right rear corner takes about 50 minutes to complete as I have to pull the car out, get all of the tools, and slowly make my way through the replacement process. And then the left rear corner takes about 15 minutes to do. I clean up and realize I spent $35 and 1.5 hours instead of the $300 that the Subaru dealer wanted. I quickly clean and lube the garage door hinges and grab a shower and go to a coffeehouse to work on some new Python mapping work. I make good progress for about 2 hours and then go to the grocery store for supplies and return home to start the laundry and to continue the Python mapping work with data that I only have at home. Though I don't get in a real workout today, the brake job was a fair amount of moving around and standing up and getting down on my knees and moving around, so I'll just consider today my overall rest day.
I start Thursday with an intended run/walk but my left knee starts hurting during the run portions of the effort. So, unfortunately, I have to drop back to a pure walk for about an hour. I get cleaned up and start working on more Python mapping work and take a break at mid-morning to lift weights. The afternoon goes slowly until I ride the kotorcycle down to Irvine to have Thai food with Person Ch_C. I again get to practice some Thai language and the waitress insists that I have a Thai wife because my Thai language is pretty good. But I have to keep saying "mai mee fairn" (I don't have a wife) to her. I ask for extra extra spicy Thai yellow curry and it is delicious! And then after Person Ch_C have spent about 2.5 hours eating and talking, the restaurant is closing so I have a cool motorcycle ride back home.
On Friday it almost seems like fall as the air is cooler and a bit of dew can be seen. I have a good road bicycle ride and read some news sites until I drive to the Port of Long Beach offices to meet up with the Water Quality Manager along with a CSULA faculty member to tell the port what we are doing and to see if they can contribute time, space, or money to our efforts. (The CSULA faculty member, who I used to work with and for at Northrop Grumman, makes a bit of fun of my wearing a tie, but I tell him that I am semi-representing CSULA and I want to be professional and dignified.) I was expecting a bureaucrat at the port, but the man that we meet is enthused and excited about our project. We have a super discussion with him and he is very helpful about what we can and cannot (easily) do in the Port of Long Beach. The CSULA faculty member and I are impressed with the meeting and enthused to push forward (with a tour of the port for the students coming soon). I get home and trim the roses and write up a trip report for the port visit and then relax.
I start Saturday with a bit late road bicycle ride. Along Del Amo I pick up another rider who has just moed to the area and is looking for the entrance to the San Gabriel river trail. So I take him along and pull him down the trail as we converse at times. Along the way a bee flies underneath my cycling shades and stings me along the nose/eyebrow. It cntinues to hurt along the way but there isn't much to do. When we get to the end of the San Gabriel river trail my friend is going to turn around and go back so we say our farewells as I continue along the ocean and back up the Los Angeles river trail. When I get home I check the mirror and see the bee's stinger is still in my nose/eyebrow. So I yank it out and after a couple of hours it quits hurting (thogh is still sore to the touch). I watch a very close and exciting qualifying session for the F1 race in Singapore and see some surprise results, a STUNNING pole lap time, and disappointment for my favorite driver who was expected to get the pole.
When I wake up on Sunday I see that my left eye is swollen - as if there is a rea bad underneath the eye and some swelling in the surrounding areas. It doesn't hurt, but is noticeable. I watch a boring and disappointing Grand Prix of Singapore and then get on the mountain bicycle to have a recovery/fun ride. I ride for about two hours but still push the pace at times. After getting cleaned up I spend most of the afternoon relaxing and watching football (which I also find boring today).
I get out walking on Monday morning and then put my head down and work on more Python mapping. I'm working on merging geographic information with statistical information and custom mapping. I make a lot of progress and stop near noon to lift weights. Since I took anti-inflammatory the last two days to reduce the eye swelling, my shoulders do not hurt much when lifting weights today. I make more progress on the mapping and then go for another walk later in the afternoon to keep the blood pumping.