Well…okay, doesn’t it seem weird that I’ve woken up for the past week between 4:45 and 4:57? I mean, how do you get that consistency without an alarm clock? I know I did that when I was working…always waking up between 6 and 6:12am but why now? I have no reason to get up and it is a little frustrating that 6 hours has become the new normal…oh, well…I did have some dreams last night that involved Ferraris and guns for some reason and that is weird in itself…but having dreams is okay…still waiting for the coffee to finish and I’m already running out of steam at 5:54am….I did get quite a bit done outside yesterday but today looks like an inside work day after I try to get some groceries after a while….Aldi’s has pork butt on sale for 1.69 a pound and that could be good for some shredded pork tacos and lots of other things but who knows what today’s restrictions are going to look like out at the grocery stores? I did get out the other day to try out the new tires on the e-way and got all the way up to 80 without any vibration and that is cool…and they do ride a lot better than the old ones…can’t wait to try them in the rain this morning…the old ones were just terrible…but I guess that happens when they are bald….not much to do today…I am going to get to the bathroom today and I need to do laundry and a bunch of other inside stuff so I do have something to do….not sure how much I’m GOING to do but I can do enough to keep the boredom at bay…but, coffee and news first…damn….it’s only 6 and I’m already bored….more later…

Well…have been trying to get outraged about something to write about today and have had a little luck but I don’t really want to talk about politics right now…and I think I’ve done enough today to earn a little downtime…I did get over a thousand miles on the bike today and that met the first goal for the year of getting there before the end of April….but the computer on the bike has gone wonky so I may have to do a hard reset and go back to the start and enter all the information again…but, I’ll do that tomorrow with the forecast rain keeping me off the bike til Friday maybe…so I’ll have all day to screw with that…after the first ride this morning, that I got in early since it got warm early, I went after finishing up getting sod put in to level out around the fence…after I got that done, I decided to finish up chopping the sod out of what was a little rose garden when the in-laws lived here…but that had been left to overgrow with weeds and grass over the past 18 years or so….I got that done without much injury, although I won’t know how much for a day or so, and got it leveled out and got the idea to make it another garden but one less organized…will just load everything into it and just see how it works….it appears to have about 6-7 hours of sun a day so it may just work….and it will give me overflow room to put in more stuff to give away after I harvest…then I got the second ride in and that makes 4 days in a row with doubles and I could feel it on the way back…I did get the windows open today and it feels nice to have a breeze blowing through the house for the first time…and it changes how the house feels, too which is kind of weird but I do like the smells and sounds of spring that are out there…my allergies won’t thank me but I don’t care…it’s worth it to have some fresh air…and the breeze is in here even without having the screens in the doors…and that will give me some time to have them replaced once everything is open again…so, I think I did enough today…

Well…back to the 4:50’s again this morning but I went to bed 15 minutes early last night so that makes it about 6 hours and these days that seems like a miracle…I was almost not good last night but I resisted having cocktails from boredom and feel okay this morning other than I’m still a little sore from the garden work and from re-seeding parts of the lawn yesterday…oh, and the two rides I did, too…only have 7 more miles to go to get to 1K before the end of the month so that will happen this morning and it might be fun to get out early since there is supposed to be thick fog and I like riding in it…can’t wait to get my garden planted but it looks like it will be another week or so to get past the 40 degree low that is necessary to make sure the tomatoes won’t die…I even planted 4 more of the better boys yesterday since the ones downstairs are looking a little wilty….I do need to get started on the paint prep for the garage trim in the next couple of days and then get paint to cover it…and that is a pain with all of the restrictions at depot…but I think I’ll only need one more gallon of the brown and then one of a cream color to cover the siding on the dormer…and I do need to get out to HF to get the new air compressor and some more fap discs later this week or next week…not much to do today…going to ease into it today and might just have to make some french press coffee since there is not too much leftover in the coffee maker….and I do need to set some more sod along the fence after I fill it to make it level…then I need to figure out how to plant my sunflowers in the area I just re sodded….didn’t think about that when I started on it…oh, well…more later…

Well…on the bike ride the past week or so, I’ve seen what I thought was a female bald eagle sitting in the trees across the pond from the male that I’ve seen quite a bit this spring…and today, that thought was confirmed when I saw the nest that they’ve built only about 20 yards from the trail and with the female on the nest….so we have a nesting pair and I am a little excited about that…when I was a kid, there were no bald eagles in this part of the country and now I get to watch as a pair raises some eaglets over the summer…I just hope that people will stay the hell away from the nest and leave them in peace…but, with the morons I’ve seen on the trail lately, that is pretty unlikely…

Well…made it all the way to coffee o’clock this morning but went to bed late so I’m not sure how much of a success that is…at least it’s not 4:50 so I guess that’s something….and the soreness from cutting out the sod for the garden is subsiding and I can use my right arm again without much pain…and that is good since I need to get out and get potting soil, top soil, and grass seed this morning and re-seed the front yard to take advantage of the rain that is coming in tomorrow….and I need to re pot the tomatoes downstairs since the plants are up to 18 inches tall and I have 4 of them in each small pot…can’t wait to get them out in the garden…and I do need to try to get another double ride in today to make it to 1K before Thurs…only need 30 more miles so that goal looks attainable….still haven’t gotten my 1200 bucks and I am starting to get annoyed about that…but I haven’t checked this morning and I think this was supposed to be the week it gets deposited…we’ll see…not much to do today…just going to do the yard stuff today and might finish leveling off the back yard but that can wait…don’t want to aggravate the damage from cutting out the last sod so maybe I’ll wait a few days….more later….

Well….was sitting here getting ready to get out for the first bike ride this morning and my oldest son and his fiance called to causally let me know that they got married back last November but just decided that they shoud probably let people know…I laughed at that one since it is just so him…so some good news today made it a good day….and I got some work done, too…took the copper downspout down and took my little grinder to it there was so much peeling paint…got most of that off and I think I may be able to take the rest of the paint off with stripper now…it does look pretty cool with the shiny copper showing through…and I was going to paint it but I just couldn’t….so I put it back up and fixed the straps that hold it so now it is nice and sturdy and I can continue to try to get the rest of the paint off…used my grinder so much that the fap disk I had is used up so I had to stop….so I did get some work done this weekend…and now on to the yard tomorrow…..

Well…I sure hope this is not the new normal…woke for the second day in a row at 4:50 and tried to go back to sleep for a while but no such luck…with very little sleep the past couple of days, and all of the work I’ve been doing, you would think sleep would be easy…but I guess that’s just not me….and the two day rule has reared it ugly head with the pain from chopping out the garden sod Friday landing on my right arm…can barely move it this morning but that’s not unexpected…but it’s going to be a few days before I can abuse it again…will probably need ibuprofen again this morning just to get on the bike…and I am going to do a double today to get to the 1K goal by the end of the month…supposed to be in the 60’s this aft so just shorts and a t-shirt for the afternoon ride will be cool and I can even go out in shorts for the morning ride….I may take the last copper downspout off to be able to try to get the paint off it…will probably have to paint it since I’m not sure if it is in good enough shape to just leave it…we’ll see after I get at the paint removal… I do know that I have to rework the straps that secure it so it won’t bang around in the wind as it does now….but, at least they are there and I don’t have to get new ones….not much to do today…okay, that’s not true…have plenty to do but I may choose to not do much…I’m already pretty worn out with the lack of sleep so I’m going to ease into it this morning and not really think about too much….more later….

Well…I still have to remind myself when I get depressed about how little progress I’m making on the house that I am still making progress…and today, the project was to clean up and repaint the downspout I found buried behind the garage…wasn’t even going to try to hang it today but it was dry when I got back from the second ride and I decided to just finish it and hang it….and it was pretty easy…only took about 10 minutes from start to finish and it looks pretty good and completes that side of the house…I’ve always hated the hole that was there without it and the water running off the roof left an algae streak down the side of the house…had to clean that off with a wire brush before I hung the spout and that  got rid of one more dingy thing that should have been taken care of….so, when I sit down and think about it, I did get a lot done today…I did get the lawn mowed first thing…then on the bike for the first ride, then painted the downspout… swept out the garage, then made lunch and then back on the bike for another 15 that damn near killed me on the last climb but I survived it…then hung the downspout, cleaned up everything, and now back here for this one…so maybe I won’t get to a political one today…I did get to 950 miles for the year so far so it looks like I may be able to get to 1,000 before the end of April….man, I’m sore…