All posts by James DeVol

September 8th

Well…damn, it’s a little comforting when the heat comes on all by itself when it hasn’t run since April…it got down to 44 degrees overnight but it’s nice an comfortable in here…and the combo of heat and brewing coffee is all I need right now…had another night of okay sleep last night and feel okay today and will be getting on the indoor bike by 8am but I’ll be outside for the second one by 9 since it will be 55 by then…the cold weather will be over for a week or so with the lows around 60 and highs in the 80′s but I do need to get ready for the cold that is coming later in the month…the Hispanic festival was so damn loud yesterday and it is a relief that it is over…or it might not be…there could be a second day today…hope not…then the Irish music festival starts…oh, well…didn’t get much done yesterday so I need to get some cleaning done today…just eating leftovers so that will make it a little easier but I still need to plan meals for the week….have more chicken in the fridge that needs to be cooked so that will be one of the daily meals for 4 more days…not much to do today…just need to read the news and have more coffee right now and then get off my butt and get going…more later…

Mariachis in my living room…

Well…it’s been an easy day today after the rides but, with the Hispanic festival going on at Hackley Park, I’ve had a Mariachi band in my living room all day…oh, well…I have been having my feet slipping around on the bike pedals for a couple of weeks now and I figured out why…the 12 year old running shoes I have been using for bike shoes for more than a decade have no treads left on the bottom of them for the spikes on the pedals to grip…tried my walking shoes today and now my feet feel like they are glued to the pedals like clips…the 12 year old shoes were falling apart anyway and the walking shoes are really comfortable on the bike so that’s cool…I did get three rides in today but the first one was indoors since it was only 48 when I got up…I did go out when it was 52 and that is too damn cold…my fingers turned numb and it took me a long time to get warmed up when I got back here…it has never gotten over 66 in here today so the heat will come on tonight since 66 is what I have set on the thermostat…okay, time to go read for a while…

2,800 traitors..

Well…with the arrests of a couple of Russians running a payoff and propaganda ring pushing right wing talking points, it was revealed today by the FBI that over 2,800 maga assholes are being paid by Russia to push disinformation to try to cheat in the 2024 election and get the idiot trump installed again by Russia…let that sink in for a minute…2,800 traitors who hate this country…and every damn one of them is a repub and there is even one senator at least in the group…Johnson from Wisconsin has been pushing Russian talking points for years and has made many trips there before the sanctions were put on Russia for invading Ukraine…so the modern repub party is run by traitors who are perfectly fine with working for our enemy…so the next time you hear them spout that they love our country, you know they love money and Russia more…geez…

September 7th

Well…damn, it’s only 48 degrees out there right now so it looks like the first ride will be indoors today…but not for a while, just poured the first cup of coffee and need to sit for a bit…I am really confused about how well I’ve been sleeping for the past few weeks…I mean no tossing and turning and no two hours to get to sleep…and the sheet and blanket are still on the bed  and I think it all comes down to being able to sleep on my back again…no painful shoulders waking me up all night and this morning I woke up at 6 and then just laid there and fell back to sleep until almost 7…cool….I did get the kitchen sink cleaned yesterday and did some cooking so today will be a leftover day and I won’t have to cook again until next week sometime….I did have to repair my earbuds that I use on the bike yesterday so I think I’ll order a new pair with the bike driveline parts I’m buying soon…have to make a list of all the things I need so I can get it all with free shipping and with the cash back I have on my capitol one card so all of it will be free….these buds have lasted almost 5 years and that isn’t bad for 19 bucks…thinking about winter riding already and I am going to buy a set of rechargeable heated gloves and maybe even socks, too…as I get older, I get more sensitive to cold and need to deal with it…more later…

Broke a pedal…

Well…after talking about how reliable the bike has been this year, today a pedal broke on the way back from the third ride…just seized up and started screeching and I wonder how? These pedals have sealed bearings so there shouldn’t have been any way that grit could have gotten in them…only had about 8,000 miles on that set but I did have another new set that I bought for the black bike and swapped them for the bad ones…still going to see if I can take it apart and look at it…maybe to salvage them for the black bike…I did get three rides in today and felt pretty good doing it but the wind almost got me off the bike after ride two…it was blowing 20-25 out of the NE so that meant straight into it on the way back…I did get the tacos made today so I’ll have leftovers until next week…okay, have some cleaning to do before the France/Italy soccer match…

Vance really is awful…

Well…the awfulness oozing from ever pore of JD Vance ratcheted up a notch yesterday when, after 4 people died in another school shooting, he called it a “fact of life” and limiting guns won’t do anything to stop it…and then proposed hardening schools to keep shooters out…and went on and on saying that states without gun laws have fewer mass shootings…yeah, no JD or whatever you’re calling yourself today…when there was an actual ban on assault weapons in the 90′s, you never saw these kind of mass shootings happening every day like you do now…and this moron wants kids to be scared all the time since fear is what they use to keep their followers coming back to their strongman acts…I’ve had enough of this crap coming out of every repub…the “thoughts and prayers” bullshit that happens after every one of these shootings…so get out and vote and lets take all parts of the government so something will be done about this crap…geez…

September 6th

Well…I feel like I’m running late today since I didn’t get out of bed til 6:30 or so and need to get back on the bike by 8 or so…it’s not as cold as forecast but tonight is going to be in the 40′s…but next week is back into the 80′s so I may get one more trip out to the beach…it was nice to get a swim in yesterday and I would like one more…slept okay last night but I still feel worn out today…with taking an easy day yesterday, I was hoping I’d get some relief from the pain and I did get a little, but I’m going to hurt myself again today…25 or 38 miles? Not sure yet….I did get errands done yesterday so today is just a normal day with more cleaning and cooking in it…going to make soft tacos but I do need to control my calorie intake if I’m not going to do three rides…darn, making the goal on the bike has taken away the motivating factor for dragging my butt out and getting on the bike so I guess I’ll have to switch to  calorie counting again…not much to do today…it rained for a whole 10 minutes last night but that won’t help my lawn much…oh, well…it’s getting light and I need to get moving….more later…

A few stats…

Well…earlier I promised a few stats on getting to the goal on the bike today so here they are…first, the bike has been pretty darn reliable with how many miles it has on it…nothing mechanical broke but I did have 3 flats on the rear and replaced 2 tires so that needed 3 tubes and I had to replace the front tire, too…rode 4,803 miles out doors and divided by the 12.5 miles in each loop makes it 384 laps around the loop…and I rode 2302 miles on the indoor bike at 8 miles a ride and that means I climbed on that thing 288 times since the start of the year and tomorrow I go back on 38 miles a day…maybe…who knows? I am going to order the new driveline for the bike this week so I can replace it all in a couple of weeks…will probably install the used stuff on the black bike sine I won’t ride that one much…

Of course they were…

Well…I wonder what’s behind the surprise when two Russians were arrested for funneling 10 million dollars into the pockets of right wing influencers through a company called Tenet Media? After all, Russia has bought the repub party from top to bottom and you just have to listen to them to know when they are spouting Russia supplied talking points..which is all the time…and these people, like tucker carlson knew exactly what was happening so that makes them traitors who should be tried for treason…and of course all of the people who took the money are now saying they were duped into taking the money and had no clue the millions had come from Russia,,,they are “victims” not collaborators…yeah, that’s a frickin laugh…when more comes out, I think it will be a surprise how deep the corruption goes in the repub party…this is just the start…geez..

I made it!

Well…with the first and only ride in this morning, I hit the goal of riding 100 miles for each year of my age…7,105 miles so far and I still have almost 4 more months to ride…still have the goal of riding every day to meet and if I can get 1,500 more miles in, I will have ridden 20,000 miles in the last three years…lots more than I’ve driven my car…I’ll come back later for some stats on the year but I need to make lunch and go to the beach…more later…