All posts by James DeVol

A lazy day…

Well…after getting up and feeling so lousy…I really expected to do only one ride downstairs but Man U stunk the place up so I went down for ride two and still had time to do a third one before the Lions game started…and I got the last item that I ordered…a nice black leather ratchet belt to replace the 20 year old one that I had been drilling new holes in as I’ve lost weight…for 12 bucks I think that’s a pretty good deal…not sure how durable it will be but I guess we’ll see…when I was talking to my daughter last week, she informed me that she changed jobs and now works for the University of Virginia doing the same job as she was doing for the “toxic” company that worked her 70-80 hours a week at the same pay…she interviewed for this job all the way in January and they held the job open for her for almost a year they wanted her so much…and now it’s a 40 hour a week or less job…I know she did nothing but work when she was here after my surgery and I was worried about her…and the school is closed between christmas and NYD so she’s already getting time off…pretty cool..

It’s a miracle…

Well…damn I just lost an entire post…did a miracle happen with the economy and no one told me? Before the election, the maga folks responded to every poll on the economy saying that it was the worst they had ever seen and their personal finances were terrible…and this pessimism helped get the idiot elected again…but now, in the weeks after the election, the economy has magically improved along with these folks personal finances and now they say they’re just doing fine…and they attribute it to the idiot taking over even though he has not a damn thing to do with it since he’s not in office yet…man, I really fear for this country with this much stupidity oozing from every pore of these morons…just wait til the idiot boy’s tariffs kick in and inflation takes off again and it all comes out of these stupid people’s pockets…you morons voted for this…geez…

December 22nd

Well…I don’t remember feeling this crappy in a long time and I’m going to pay for it this morning and for the rest of the day…I did sleep okay last night but I think life has caught up with me and I do need a rest…only 9 more days and I’ll have the full calendar year of riding every day in and I am in fear of gaining weight if I slack off….feel it already and I’ll need to not eat anything for days to get back on track…crap….okay, damn, it’s already 6:44 and I’m not on the bike yet and it looks like it will be 7:30 before I get going…it’s only 14 degrees out here right now but it is going to warm enough later in the week to ride outdoors but I don’t think the snow on the trails is going to cooperate…I do need to remember to reset the bike computers Sat to start the new year and I don’t know what the goals are going to be yet…do I need goals? I know I need more coffee…is that a goal? Not sure what I’m going to do today but I do know I hurt myself sleeping again and my abs hurt like crazy….along with my neck…does that mean I slept well? Who knows? I just want to curl up and lie on the couch for hours but in 31 minutes I’ll be down on the bike grinding out more miles….oh, well…more later…

Happy winter solstice…

Well…we hit the bottom of daylight today and now we start the climb back to some sort of sanity for those of us who are affected by the lack of sunlight…I’m still sitting here feeling guilty about spending 150 bucks over this past week…but damn, how long can you keep repairing a pair of 45 year old gloves or using pruning shears that has one of the handles broken off…or using used blades for my reciprocating saw…now, the grinder and coffee beans are just a luxury that I can’t justify other than to say that damn, if not now, when? I can afford them and I really do like coffee so I guess I’ll tamp down the guilt and just enjoy…I mean the belt that I am replacing I’ve had for more than 20 years and 35 pounds heavier and I got tired of drilling new holes in it..the new one is a fancy leather ratchet belt that will actually fit me…and it was only 12 bucks…and the new hangers for my shower curtain replaced hooks that were always falling off the bar…and the new magnetic weights replaced some door closer magnets that I took off the cabinets in the kitchen when I rebuilt it…okay, it’s almost 2pm and I want to read for a bit….

Finally, some fight out of the dems…

Well…finally, some dem pushback on the legacy media who has become a maga dominated shell of itself and it’s none too soon…and they are embracing the new media that includes left wing podcasts and sites like Meidas Touch that will not do the both sides crap that the billionaires force on their reporters…and even Joe Biden is getting into the act by granting sit down interviews with this new media infrastructure that ignores the legacy media…but more than that, we are finally realizing that billionaires have bought all of the legacy media and this has led to all of them like the NYT and Post losing half of their readership and that makes them not so important anymore…and the whining by the legacy media mavens shows that this change is hurting the billionaires as their influence wanes…and it had to happen…we need to build out a truthful non propaganda set of sources that will tell the truth but only the truth…I have had enough of the gotcha bullshit that seems to be the only thing that the legacy media is good for these days…geez…

December 21st

Well…damn, just tasted the ground coffee beans that I ran in my drip coffee maker today and I really am going to need to resist doing that every day…it tastes like coffee should…smooth and flavorful but I really do need to use that 45 ounce can that I bought this week so the beans will go into an airtight container and I’ll use them for treats…all of the 150 bucks worth of stuff except for the ratchet belt got here yesterday and I can’t believe how nice the Fiskars shrub shears are for only 10 bucks more than the cheap ones from HF…can’t wait to try out the new gloves on the outdoor bike this week when the temp is going to get up over 40…they are supposed to be good down to zero but they always lie about that..and they will replace the gloves I got when I was in my 20′s and I can’t believe that I’ve had them for almost 50 years and they are still the warmest gloves I’ve ever owned….might do one more order from amazon before the free trial of prime ends on the 2nd of January…it is really weird to buy things that I want instead of need…a luxury that I really do appreciate…bought 4 wooden fingernail brushes for 7 bucks so I can have one for every sink I have with one left over…not much to do today…just want to sit here for a bit and have a second cup of coffee before I get on the bike…after that, who knows? More later…

Everything done but one…

Well…another busy day so far today but I have everything done but the weight work and it’s just after 1pm…got three rides in and shoveled the snow and even got some lunch in there…don’t have a whole lot to do today after going the laundry yesterday and putting my new hooks on the shower curtain along with the 6 new weights on the bottom and it now hangs into the shower and doesn’t drip on the floor…going to grind up some beans and use them in the coffee maker just to see what it will taste like and that will probably take two loads in the grinder…I even took another container of the ham soup out of the freezer since the taste is growing on me and it’s easy to have for the second meal of the day…I might even get a chance to read this aft and finish up “The Mote in God’s Eye” but I think it will last til tomorrow…okay, need to get on the weight work…

Ha, ha…elon’s calling the shots..

Well…this is what happens when you let a billionaire buy you an election…the repubs are calling ole elon “mr. president” and you can be sure it’s pissing off the idiot trump…especially since elon is getting more press than idiot boy and trump hates it when anyone is getting more attention than he is…and with the news reporting that elon put the kibosh on the budget deal that trumps was crowing about…it just may be the truth…and I have a question…did anyone vote for elon? He is essentially running the government now and I don’t remember him being on the ballot…and with his ego, he won’t accept anything less than being a co-equal president with idiot boy…this is what you get when you have the embodiment of crony capitalism run by billionaires…do you think they are going to do anything for the regular citizens of this country…if you do, you are just as delusional as idiot boy is…geez…

December 20th

Well…just made my first cup of coffee with my new coffee grinder in the french press and I will say it’s damn good coffee…no bitterness and very smooth…reminds me of the first cup of coffee I had that my brother made when my mother was in the hospital…I was in my 40′s and was not a coffee drinker but damn, it tasted smooth and sure woke me up…this is what coffee should be…crap, I’m going to get spoiled…slept okay last night but feel pretty crappy today with having cocktails last night…watched the last “Yellowstone” last night and it was a bittersweet night…I hate it when a show I like ends…it’s like losing a friend and leaves a hole that can’t easily be filled…going to have to go out and shovel the snow today at some point but that will wait til later…it’s 6:45 and I am feeling the pull of taking a day off but I can’t…11 days more to ride for a full calendar year of riding and that’s my last goal for the year…not sure what I’m going to do today but I need to do something…can’t be a slug and just sit here…damn, the new coffee is smooth….I was really thinking of tossing the ham soup I made the other day but after it sat in the fridge overnight, it tastes okay and I am going to keep it…weird…more later…damn, should I grind more beans?

Got some swag…

Well…got a package this evening in the mail that had swag from my daughter’s trip to Peru…got the softest t-shirt I’ve ever felt, a cool embossed Macchu Picchu hat that is now my new favorite, and a fridge magnet like the ones she gets me whenever she travels…pretty cool stuff so then I had to call her and we talked for more than an hour to catch up sine I haven’t talked to her in a while…and I got my new little coffee bean grinder and a big bag of roasted Colombian coffee beans so the first two cups of coffee tomorrow are going to be made in the french press just to see what I’ve been missing…the grinder is small but it will only take two passes to grind enough for even my drip coffee maker…sure hope I don’t get spoiled with the taste after just opening the 45 ounce can of ground coffee yesterday…I guess we’ll see…oh, and we are going to Europe in 2026 and will be riding trains all over the place…hope we can take the TGV in France that goes over 200 mph…that would be cool…