Well…you know I have been doing kind of a countdown to 4,500 miles on the bike for the past month or so and yesterday I finally made it! That’s a hell of a lot of miles for an old guy like me and with all of the time that I spent working on this place…and that kind of makes me feel good that I can still do that much physical exertion at my age…and that I still like doing it…I look forward to getting on the bike every day and I hope that continues until I get too old to ride…but, I think I am going to need a new bike in the spring if I can’t figure out how to replace the sprockets…so I need to start saving for that soon…but, I’m not going to think about that now…just going to try to run up another 35 miles so I will have beaten the old record by at least 200 miles…6,000 for a goal for next year? We’ll see….
All posts by James DeVol
December 24th
Well…as you can see, the site was down until just a couple of minutes ago when my son got it running again…yay! So, let’s get to it…have felt like crap most of the day with the coughing and just feeling bad most of the day and I just can’t get warm after the bike ride…so, it’s a bug but it doesn’t feel like a bad one, just a cold of some sort….my head is plugged up, too but I really can’t tell if that is any different than normal for me….will take something for that later this evening so I can breathe when I try to sleep…cripes..this is weird doing this so late…have to remember how this normally goes…slept pretty crappy last night and even went to bed really late to try to tire out more than normal but that didn’t help…I’m sure that’s part of why I’ve felt crappy today…okay, just noticed that I am freezing but feel warm, too so that is not good…had to go back to full thermasuit on the bike today since it never got warm like it was supposed to…it was forecast to be in the 40’s but never got there and I wasn’t going to wait all day for it to warm up….I am hoping that it does get to 50 tomorrow and Thursday…and that will give me my second day of the month with the top down on the car…might have to take a cruise tomorrow since I don’t celebrate anything and it is just going to be Wednesday to me…I am going to make another ham since I got it cheap and I need another set of leftovers to make ham soup later in the winter…okay, that’s enough for now…I may come back for another one later but I’m not sure yet…I do have a milestone to talk about that happened yesterday so maybe that will do it….more later?
“I never understood wind…”
Well…just got back from running errands that have finished up everything I have to do before the holiday, and as I wait for the temp to come up so I can ride without a stocking hat, I just had to comment on the idiot in chief’s comments at another of his damn rallies that you and I are paying for. As we all know from the idiot’s speeches and actions on renewable energy, he just hates wind and solar with a passion that is just not understandable…okay, it is when you know that repubs everywhere hate it, too…and it has been a platform plank of theirs forever…but just yesterday, the idiot was just jaw droppingly stupid when he went off on a rant where he said he “never understood wind…but I know windmills very much…I have studied it better than anybody…when they are manufactured, tremendous fumes and gasses are spewing into the atmosphere…you know we have a world, right?” Okay…first, this idiot has never studied anything in his life except his daughter’s body…and knows absolutely nothing about “windmills”….especially since a windmill is a wind powered machine that is used to mill grain…hence the word “windmill” and it is not a wind powered generator that is used to produce electricity. Second, almost every damn manufacturing process emits some gasses to the atmosphere…but in the lifecycle of wind generators, even with manufacturing factored in their pollution is less than .1% of a coal fired plant for the same amount of generation capacity…so it is painfully obvious that he hasn’t studied this or anything else. Then, moron boy went on to dredge up his old rant about “windmills” are going to kill all the birds but especially bald eagles, like they are bald eagle seeking robots that stride the land looking for eagles to mash with their blades….and yes, I will admit that there are birds killed by wind turbines, but the numbers are no more than against any other building that is built where birds fly…and to put the deaths in context, even it’s a million birds, cats kill billions of birds every year and no one is saying to kill all of the cats to protect the birds…or to tear down every city where birds fly. If anyone else had given this disjointed rant, they would have been referred to a psychiatrist to get them some help…but the repubs just keep on saying this level of stupidity/delusion is just peachy with them…
December 23rd
Well…running a little late this morning and I just can’t get started…stayed up a little late last night and didn’t sleep well so today is going to be a bit of a chore…at least this morning is so I’m going to ease into it…again…that seems to be happening a lot lately and I’m wondering if I have a bug of some sort…have been coughing a lot and feeling slow so maybe that’s it…who knows? I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and got my top down run in for December when it got to over 50 yesterday could have gone out in shorts if I had waited until later in the day but I wanted to get it done and not get too cold…only have 10 more miles to do on the bike to get to the goal so that will happen today…after I get out to do the grocery run this morning…need to get some stuff to make on Wed and don’t want to be in the stores tomorrow…way too damn busy and I don’t need the crowds…I sure do like not having to go out and buy any presents anymore or do anything to celebrate….not much to do today…after finishing up the dining area yesterday, I need to start on the last room by emptying it out and putting the stuff up in the attic….more later….
December 22nd
Well…it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood….yep, that one just popped into my head after seeing a picture of Mister Rogers in the paper….I remember watching his show with my kids when they were little and still marvel at his gentleness…hmmmm….I had an okay day yesterday and got a few things done and I’m hoping that I can keep that up today but don’t want to take on any big jobs…want to take a day off and just watch soccer and clean but I do have the cold air register to paint to complete the dining area and I think I’ll get to that this morning…and I want to wash the car after it warms up some…it’s supposed to be over 40 again today but I think I’ll wait until the afternoon to do that…probably after a bike ride…I miscalculated how many miles I need to do to get to 4500 so I still need about 30 miles and that will take me until Tuesday but I will get there outside and that is cool…I am seriously thinking about getting a new bike if I can’t get the sprockets off and turning the current one into an inside bike permanently on the trainer…..and I am going to make sure that the sprockets on any new one are replaceable…no more Sun Tour crap on a new one….more later….
Okay, no politics today…
Well….just a little burned out on politics right now so I’m not going to talk about that…maybe later, but not now…it’s been a pretty productive day today even though I didn’t plan it….when I was sitting here with my morning coffee about 8:30 this morning, I suddenly got the urge to get the rest of the painting done in the dining area…having to go over a bunch of parts where the pink bled through even after two coats…just couldn’t sit here with something to be done to finish it up…so, I painted it and just finished up putting the trim back on it so now the dining area is finished…except for the window that overlooks the street but that frame needs to be stripped and sanded before I can paint it and the strip really stinks the place up so I may wait until I can open the windows in the spring…I did get a bike ride in today but there was so much snow on the trail that it took quite a bit of work and paying way too much attention…and I only got it out of 5th a couple of times…but, I did get it done and I hope that the snow melts some today so I can really ride tomorrow…only have about 13 left to go to get to my 4,500 mile goal so that will happen tomorrow or Monday…so, after all that, I think I’ll take the rest of the day off and just find some sports to watch…
December 21st
Well….to start, happy winter solstice….from today on, the daylight starts to increase and that will be welcome to those of us that need the light to keep depression at bay…but it also means that it will be starting to get dark around 4 and that is depressing…slept okay last night but feel a little slow this morning with having cocktails last night and I wonder why I did that…I mean it’s not much fun anymore and I prefer to just feel old in the morning…I did get a few things done yesterday but it was a rest day after doing the painting thursday…I did get the trim for the dining area sanded and painted and I needn to paint the pink that soaked through before I can re-install them…and I think I’ll do that this morning…but, after coffee and soccer…I am hoping to get out on the trails today for a full ride but I think they will still be covered in snow and ice…went out yesterday but only got to the old dump before turning around since there was no clear parts of the trail…so I rode 5 miles on the streets and that is just way too scary with the narrow streets around here…way too many close calls, snow and ice to make it fun….not much to do today….just going to watch soccer and veg this morning and the ride after lunch but that is about it…more later….
Found a french press…
Well…as I get settled in here, I have started to look through the cupboards and storage that I haven’t really thought about before…and today, after getting a short ride in with the trail being covered with ice and snow still, I got back here and thought I’d look through the high cupboards above the fridge just to see if there was anything there…and I found some stuff that might be interesting…my son left behind an all in one bread maker that I remember him getting back in ’99 and I plugged it in and it appears to still work so I will be trying that at some time over the winter…and half of that cupboard has all kinds of booze in it, but weird stuff and cheap tequila…so I’m going to ignore that…but what I did find was a Bodum french coffee press that I also remember him using all the time when he was still living at home…and I always wanted to try one…so I cleaned it up, put some coffee in it, added water and made coffee….and I will say this, the coffee is much better than what comes out of my Mr. Coffee drip maker…it actually tastes like something and now I’m torn about using it instead of my coffee maker…but, it is too small to replace it so I think it may be for those times when I want just a couple of cups…I used the same coffee as I normally do and it appears the grind is okay for the press…and now, I’m all caffeined up in the middle of the afternoon and that is not going to be a good thing for later in the day…oh, well…
They found their spine….
Well….as you know I’m not a religious person and I have railed at the hypocrisy of the evangelical movement…wholeheartedly supporting the amoral idiot trump just to get judges who would enshrine their hate for a generation…but, just yesterday, the evangelical magazine Christianity Today, a magazine started by Billy Graham, published a scathing editorial calling for trump’s removal from office for his amorality and criminality…but he goes on to say that trump needs to go so that “they” can be saved…that the damage they are doing to their faith by supporting this waste of a human being will resonate for a generation or more and will do more damage than any secular attacks…and he goes on to remind them who they really serve…and it’s not supposed to be this amoral piece of shit trump but the god they profess to follow and love. But, this is only one publication and only one voice and my take is “what took you so long?” It has been clear for three years now…and even longer…who trump is and it hasn’t mattered at all to these folks who are still comparing trump to Jesus as recently as Wednesday during the impeachment debate. So, as the old saying goes “actions speak louder than words” so what are you folks in that community going to do about it? Are you still going to support the criminal trump or are you going to live by the principles that trump craps on every day? I’m not holding my breath…
December 20th
Well…I’m just sitting here shaking my head at how much just doing little things hurt as I get older…I mean just painting the small dining area yesterday has left me sore everywhere and that is a little amusing to me…yeah, pain makes me smile but you know I’m a little weird…I did sleep okay last night and feel pretty good today and part of that is I’m going to take the day off from working around here other than getting the trim ready to put back in the dining area…I am going to get a bike ride in this afternoon as it warms up some…and it looks like I’ll be able to ride every day til New Years with the little warm up that is starting today…it is going to be in the 40’s almost every day til then so I will get to my goal…will have to be careful today, though since I don’t think the ice will have melted off the trail….I’m going to make the first of the venison steaks for dinner today and I can’t wait to saute it in butter and garlic…I think I can eat out of the freezer for the rest of the year but I may get one more ham for my holiday dinner so I’ll have another ham bone to make ham soup….we’ll see….not much to do today…going to just ease into the day with coffee and some news and then get to work after a while….more later….