Well…you know, I was going to take the day off and just try to heal my self abused body for a day…it sure needs it but I just couldn’t do it… after getting to 10 am with only doing some work downstairs, I kept looking out at the lawn and the weird growth that had sprouted after the rain so I just had to cut it for the first time to even it out…and that lead to walking around and picking up sticks and part of the tar overlay on the cement driveway that I had shoveled up over the winter…and I am trying to get the 12 coats of paint off the copper downspout with some paint stripper that I put on and am just going to leave it on for a week and see how it works…I could buy new ones for about 60 bucks each and that may be a possibility if they are in too poor of shape when the strip is done…they look like they have been repaired a few times so replacing them may be easier….I did skip the bike ride today with the wind blowing over 20 and a high of 42 degrees…and the soreness, did I mention that? Everything still frickin hurts and it hasn’t been this bad in quite a while…I do feel better about how the front of the house looks but it still needs more work but it doesn’t seem so overwhelming….I can’t wait til I can get the outside projects started but it’s too big of a pain int he ass to try to get any supplies right now with lines waiting to get in and stores limiting everything…I guess I can prep and get ready for when things open up again…
All posts by James DeVol
They’re not even faking it anymore…
Well…it’s harder than I thought it was going to be to take the day off and want to get out to mow the lawn for the first time but using an electric mower when it’s sprinkling doesn’t seem like too good of an idea…so, I thought I’d come here and do this instead. Okay, it looks like the idiot in chief with the attention span of a gnat has gotten tired of this whole virus thing and has decided to not even fake caring about it anymore…just this morning, the WH announced that they are going to stop funding and running all testing for the virus across the country and are leaving it the states to pick up the slack if they want to…now it does seem a little stupid to unilaterally stop the one thing that would allow us to get a handle on the spread of the virus and to help apply resources where it would do the most good but that would take an understanding of science…something that not one of trump’s cronies has at all…and they’ve run out of PPE in the federal stockpiles so what’s the point of testing if you don’t have the material to help at all? This is just another instance where trump and his moron brigade are treating the supplies that were purchased by all of us as if they paid for it out of their own pockets and are trying mightily to figure out how they can make money off of these supplies for themselves and their business buddies. And now, the first trial balloons are being floated by these morons that they want to start “opening” the country back up and sending people back to work May 1st even though the pandemic still rages across the country…and this says that these assholes never took the federal response seriously but more as just a “PR” problem that could be solved by lies and propaganda…no matter how many people will die, these assholes are tired of having to work at all and want to take the easy (to them) way out…murderers all…
April 9th
Well…I really do need to take the day off today…everything from the neck down hurts and I think the only way to help that is to rest…I think the double rides every day for the past week may not have been such a good idea…and along with the beating that chopping out stumps did, I can’t even sit here without something hurting…I did get the power washer out yesterday and it took off the loose paint from the gutters but didn’t do anything to the paint that hasn’t started peeling…but, it still looks better so I can just wait out the rest of the paint…it was kind of a weird night last night with starting to fall asleep on the couch at 8 and forcing myself to stay awake until 11…and you would think that I would sleep then when I went to bed…but no, and I am worn out today from it…just noticed that my hands really look beat up from all the work lately and maybe the rest day will help them heal…they are really stiff and have cuts all over them and the blister still hasn’t healed all the way….oh, well….I did get some flower seeds from Meijers yesterday so I can plant them in a few weeks to add a little color to the front of the house…and I took my first shot at getting the shrubs trimmed up but they have been let go so long I’m not sure what I can do other than even them up some and make them look less shaggy…I did talk to discount yesterday and the new tires are being shipped in and should be here in a couple of days…so, I’ll have new ones by next week… and the car really needs them…more later…
Thanks, Bernie…
Well…with the news today the Bernie Sanders is dropping out of the race for the dem nomination, all I have to say is thanks Bernie….look, I’ve been a fan of Bernie’s for a long time with his core being always trying to look out for the little guy and trying to rein in the corporations who are sucking this country dry. Bernie was not my choice in the primary, I voted for Liz Warren since I think she has the best combination of empathy, tact and steel and would make a great president…but, she didn’t win and am I sitting here pouting and saying that I’ll vote for trump if Liz is not the nominee? I’m looking at you Joe Rogan…you pea-brained idiot…you’d give us 4 more years of trump just because your fee fees are hurt that your guy didn’t get enough votes to win…I’ve got news for you, moron…that’s how it works…Joe got more votes so he is the nominee…with no rigging of the primaries or any other bullshit conspiracy theories that you and the rest of the “Bernie Bros” have been spouting….okay Bernie, now is the time to tell your followers in no uncertain terms that you will back Joe completely and you expect your followers to do the same…to do anything else is to be collaborators in the destruction of this country…and no, destruction is not necessary for the country to be rebuilt…it makes it so much damn harder to get the society you say you want….so, swallow your pride and understand that Joe Biden, with Bernie, Liz, Kamala, Amy, and Pete working together can start that repair process…and get us all to the country we can be if we just shoulder the repubs aside…
April 8th
Well…yeah, I was right…I hurt everywhere this morning but it’s tolerable so I’m going to wait to take anything for it for a while…and I’ve been up for a time but just couldn’t get my brain started to do this…and it appears to be stuck in 2nd gear right now so who knows how this is going to go? It does feel good to make progress on the outside of the house and that should continue today since it is going to be the last nice day for the rest of the month…going to get the power washer out and try to get some of the paint off the gutters where it is peeling and at least stake out the garden outlines…I’m going to have to try to hide the stumps that I removed in the garbage since they don’t take yard waste but I don’t have anything else to do with them…I don’t think today will be a double ride day since my legs were so flat on the second ride yesterday….it looks like I’ll get to 800 miles by the 16th which is when I got outside last year with 600 miles ridden indoors…but, the weather is going crappy and cold so I’ll be back in thermasuit tomorrow…oh, well….I did get to sit on the front porch and watch some storms last night and that was cool but I need to get my folding rocking camp chair up in the front closet so it will be handy when the next ones come….not much to do today…going to do a grocery run and try to get some cuke seeds and some flower seeds at Meijers along with the few things I need for groceries…after that, I really don’t need to go to the store for a month and I think I’ll do just that….I did thaw too much food for the next week so some of it will go back in the freezer if it’s still frozen…needed to make room to put the rest of the ham in and wanted to change up the diet for a while…more later…
There will be ibuprofen tonight….
Well…I don’t know how these busy days keep happening…I know I haven’t been planning them but I look up and I’ve been working on something all day…today started out with the idea that it was going to be an easy one with the only thing I was going to do was run an errand this morning to make a little cash and then come back here for a bike ride….but that bike ride turned into two after lunch and I was pretty used up after the second ride so I was going to just take it easy the rest of the day….but that lasted about an hour when I saw that it was 70 outside so I decided to get back at digging and chopping the rest of the stumps out of the front of the house…there were five of them and I figured out that if I sharpen my hatchet in between every one, it goes much easier but it was still a lot of work…and then I got after the ugly ground cover that had infested the entire plot and ripped all that out and by the time I was done I had 2 1/2 hours in working on the area that is 12 feet by 4 feet…even got a little sunburned so I’ll have to remember that the next time I’m out in the yard….I was sore after just doing the bike rides today and throwing all of the chopping, digging, and bending in there, there will be ibuprofen tonight after avoiding it last night…and it’s supposed to be a no cocktail night tonight but damn, don’t I deserve a reward for all that work? We’ll see….don’t have any shows to watch so maybe not….
Murder and a supreme court seat…
Well….repubs across this country continue to show that they will stop at nothing to steal supreme court seats even if it results in the murder of their people. There is an election today in Wisconsin that the repubs there have been doing everything they can to make sure that the people of Milwaukee (who are predominately African American) don’t get to vote for a dem SC justice candidate since she will win if they can….there are normally 155 polling places in Milwaukee and the repubs in control of the state congress have cut that down to only 5…making up every damn excuse in the book to disenfranchise the people who they know won’t vote for them…and when the dem governor tried to get them to agree to expanded vote by mail for everyone during the pandemic, the repubs said no and took it all the way to the SC where Kavanaugh and Gorsuch delivered what they were installed for…to make sure that the repubs can continue to steal elections. But, during this pandemic, it is even worse because the repubs in Wisconsin are essentially sentencing voters there to choose between voting and death…and the repubs will be responsible for murdering hundreds of their people…but, this doesn’t matter to them at all…the corrupt repub party doesn’t give a damn about anyone but themselves…and they are going to get away with it….
RIP Al Kaline
Well…you know when a sports figure that has been there for your entire life dies, it makes a difference…especially one as special as Al Kaline who played his entire career with the Tigers and was part of the team from the time I started to love baseball when I was about 5 years old….Mr. Kaline died yesterday at the age of 85 after a short illness and for once, there is nothing but good to say about one of my heroes…he was one of my role models growing up with his innate goodness that he showed every day of his long life…I actually met him once and got his autograph when I was about 10 when my father took me to see some of the Tigers that were traveling around the state before the season started…I know there were others there but I don’t remember any of them…but I do remember Al….There will never be another one like “Mr. Tiger”….RIP Al….
April 7th
Well…4:14…that sucks…but to be expected with how things have been going lately….going to be exhausted later today but I don’t think I’ll be doing a double on the bike today…went without ibuprofen last night and I am sore this morning but nothing that is too bad so I can live with it…my earbuds quit working on the bike yesterday and it was the second set of skull candy ones that quit so I ordered a different brand from Amazon yesterday for 15 bucks that got good ratings and look pretty cool but it is going to take 2 weeks to get them with all the traffic through Amazon…and I had to order a new eIectric toothbrush and a spare tube for the bike to get to 25 bucks for free shipping but I needed that stuff anyway and saved about 9 bucks getting them on line….did find the ones that came with my walkman and I can live with those for a couple of weeks….still didn’t hear back from Discount on the new tires but should hear from them today… the old one on the car have hardened up so they are like rocks and I can’t wait to get them replaced….not much to do today…I do need to run an errand this morning and I may have to plant more pepper seeds since none of them have come up yet…all of the tomatoes have come up and they should be pretty big with having to wait a month to put them outside…I might get to starting on the garden plot since it will take some time to get the sod out…but the grass is so bad in the back yard it may not be too much work…more later…oh, one thing I forgot…my daughter was worried about me and ordered a washable face mask for me to use when I go out….was just going to use the dust masks I have here for that but I’ll give this a try….
Another busy day…
Well…I really wasn’t planning on having a busy day today but it’s funny how that works out sometimes….have been running since about 7:30 this morning starting with getting the mailbox cleaned up and painted…then I had to wash the bike since it was just so gross and making noise from all of the dirt and sand in it…then out on it for a 15 miler and then as soon as I got back here, I got started on removing the grass and the stump from the other side of the porch…that one came out pretty easily since it didn’t have an 8 inch tap root like the last one but it had a bunch of inch thick spider roots that I had to dig and chop out…and some of them were 3 feet out under the lawn and I had to dig those up so I could reset the block edging…only have 4 more of those to go and I’ll have all of the big stumps out of the shrubs….after that, I washed the car, then I got back on the bike for a second ride and just got back here a few minutes ago…so, I haven’t had time to even read the news to get a topic for the day…but, I am going to do that right now but I can’t promise that I’ll be back soon…pretty worn out and I need to take a break….