Well…it’s been a really nice day today and started out good with getting out on the bike around 8am…it was still cold at 51 degrees but I know how to dress for it so no big deal…and, by the time I got back here after the first ride, it was warm enough for just a t-shirt and shorts and I had hit 1,000 miles for the year on the first ride…had Joe Walsh on the player all morning since I needed a little lift after being so exhausted yesterday…on the way back from the second ride, I was riding along the shore of Muskegon Lake and a stoat ran across the trail in front of me with a garter snake in it’s mouth…a stoat looks just like a ferret since they are both in the same family of weasels, but it has silky brown fur that looks cool…after it crossed the trail, he hid in the big granite rocks that protect the trail from the waves and kept popping his head out between them…while this was happening, a nodding acquaintance walked up and I told him about it…this is the guy who pointed out an eagle roosting in a tree above the trail a few years back and who I see almost every day…and this turned into a half hour conversation where I found out his name was Bruce and he lived over in Lakeside…pretty cool…and when I got back here my neighbor Dan was working in his yard and we stopped to talk for a nice conversation since I hadn’t seen him since winter…it’s funny that he took a stainless steel tub like they have on farms (3 feet deep) and turned it into a pool with a sand filter and everything sitting in their driveway…after that I went out to aldis to replace the moldy bread and get some chicken and asparagus to have later in the week…and I had a hoot in the car with the top down…and I’ve even had a couple of hours to read…just a good day…and my laptop just froze up and I remembered what the tech told me to do last time and I fixed it myself…yay!

Well…another month starts and I’m starting this without coffee as I wait for the pour over to finish…I did a little looking and last month was the most prolific I’ve been here since I started doing this years ago…does that have any significance? Nope…just had stuff to say last month that I’m not sure will continue in June…we’ll see…okay, I need to go pour coffee…that’s better…I did sleep okay last night and I had dreams about house fires and trying to save my house from it…weird…is dreaming worth it? Yep, it means I got into REM sleep that I very seldom accomplish anymore as I get older…it’s only 51 again here this morning so I will be waiting a while to go out on the bike and that still sucks no matter how many times it happens…I will get to the first 1,000 miles on the bike outdoors this morning and I feel like such a slug that it took so long..still over 1,000 miles behind where I was last year at this time and I’m still going to blame the crappy cold weather…I am still stressed out about having to renew my driver’s license in person tomorrow and take an eye test that I’m not sure I’m going to pass…my eyesight has gotten much better since I stopped drinking but it’s not what it used to be as is everything with this almost 73 year old body…and it doesn’t help that the inflammation in my eyelids has flared and I had to use the ointment on them…oh, well…the thing that pisses me off is the SOS lying and saying that I need to go there in person to get a “new photo” since the last one is 8 years old…no one really likes old people…not much to do today…just need to activate the new Capital One card if it comes…and hope my exhaustion doesn’t come back today…oh, and I need to run out to Aldis to get a loaf of bread to replace the one that went moldy…not having bread here is kind of strange…more later

Well…damn, just fell asleep reading a book and that just never happens…and all of a sudden I feel so exhausted that I just don’t know what happened to cause this…I mean all I did was get the two rides in today and that was about it…but, I didn’t make extra coffee this morning so I only had 3 cups and I guess that’s not enough…oh, well…after I saw that the Lavazza coffee beans I bought a couple of weeks ago for 21 bucks for 35 ozs has soared to almost 30 bucks, I decided to see if I could find any affordable beans anymore and laughed out loud when I came across some Hills Bros Arabica beans for 11 bucks for 32 ozs…and even though my mother drank that 65 years ago, I took the chance and bought a bag…I mean it’s a dark roast whole bean Arabica so how bad could it be? Still can’t taste the coffee much but I am used to what little taste I have of the whole bean stuff and how big of a risk is 11 bucks? One weird thing is it won’t be here for 2 weeks even using prime…oh, well…still have tons to use until then…

Well…at this rate, I’m not going to be able to go swimming until August this year if at all…it’s only 47 degrees right now and I can’t believe it’s this cold and tomorrow it’s June…and this sucks since I love the water…oh, well…up at 5am again today but it’s too damn cold to go out on the bike til about 9am and I’ll still have to have long pants and some layers on top…I really do think this is a record for these things for a month and I’m not sure why I did so many…hmmm…going to have to cook something today and I’m leaning toward making one of the 4 cheese pizzas I got for 1.29 since I didn’t thaw anything else and don’t feel like pasta…had a new loaf of bread go moldy on me yesterday so the squirrels are going to have a lot of treats out there for a few days…with all the power outages and the trip coming up, I bought a new power bank that will charge everything I have a few times over before it needs to be recharged itself…can’t have too much power…and I bought batteries for my watch for 3.99 for 10 of them and that is just strange when locally they are 4.99 each…and now I have a 40 year old cheap watch running again and I’m not sure when I’ll use it…getting the time from my phone has become such a habit that I’m not sure if I’ll break that…and I got this watch from my father in law 40 or 45 years ago so it does have a little sentimental value…not much to do today…got the door mats cleaned yesterday so I really don’t have a lot to do today but let the temp come up and get the rides in and cook…more later…

Well…right after I took off for the first bike ride this morning, the power went out again and lasted until about 5 minutes after I got back from the 2nd ride…and it was caused by another squirrel discovering electricity and I wonder how many more will do that? Sure hope it stops or they figure out why they’re doing it…the rides were brutal today with winds out of the east at almost 30 which made the way back pretty hard on each ride and I am going to feel it tomorrow…when I got back from the first ride, I saw a scraggly fox running through the neighbor’s yard next door and that made me wonder if it was skunks or the fox that tipped my animal water container over the other night…didn’t do much so far today other than the rides and scrubbing the front and back door mats that really needed it…still waiting for my new power unit to come and it will come in handy if these power outages continue…I can charge three things at once with it and multiple times so that’s cool…and it only cost 10 bucks so it’s worth it…and I bought batteries for my only watch just to see if it still works…haven’t worn a watch in 20 years so that will be weird to do…okay, back to reading…

Well…tossed and turned all night and was up twice but I feel okay so I guess I can live with it…my back has started to heal and at least I can move around without it hitching on me and causing spikes of pain…it was sure odd with the power outage yesterday and the sound when it went out was like an M-80 going off in my side yard…must have surprised the hell out of the squirrel that did it…it’s 57 out there right now so I’ll be out on the bike at sunrise and that is in about 20 minutes so I have to haul butt to be ready…yeah, old bodies to take a lot of prep work to get started in the morning and I miss the days when I just got up and got going…oh, well…as you can see, I did get over 100 of these for the month and I think I may be heading for a record if I do three more today and tomorrow…can’t remember having a 6 post day before yesterday but don’t expect that out of me more often…damn, my allergies are bad, bad, bad this morning and will probably get worse as the day goes on so I need to remember to use the spray before I get on the bike…not much to to do today…just the normal stuff and cleaning the front door mat to have the porch done…and I do need to figure out what to cook since all of the leftovers are gone…more later…

Well…sitting here reading around 5 and there was a huge bang and the power went out…I had settled in on the porch couch to read in the light for a while when I heard a chime from the living room and had to see what it was and the power was back on and the fire stick had chimed at me…so, of course, everything is back on the chargers and I even went out and bought a new power bank that will charge three things at once and it has usb and lightning plugs on it so everything I own can be charged from it…and it will give me a new aux battery to use with the mp3 player on the bike…it’s about the size of a phone and has a power indicator to tell you have much charge it has…oh, just got a text from Consumers with the one word cause of the outage…”animal” so it looks like we have one less squirrel out here…

Well…When I got out on the bike around 8 this morning, a couple of guys were already sitting on the wall in the vacant lot across the street and the only thought that hit me was that it was just another group starting that I was going to have to deal with…so an hour later when I got back here I’d had enough so I stopped to confront them and that turned into a screaming argument that lasted a few minutes but then a cool thing happened, after I explained why I was so pissed off, they agreed with me and said they hated the youngsters who have no respect for the rest of the people who live here…after that, we traded names and talked for a while and I apologized for going off on them but they understood why I did it after I explained…and now I have two new acquaintances named Ed and Terry who are really from this neighborhood and seem like pretty nice guys and I hope to see them again at some point…life is pretty strange…oh, and this is the 101’st post this month…not a record but close and I still have two more days to write…

Well…damn, it’s only 49 degrees here…at the end of May and I’ll say it again…that is just wrong and it’s never been this cold this late in the 5 years I’ve lived here…the heat should be coming on soon and that means I won’t be getting on the bike until after I go to the library at 9am…and that’s okay…I need to be more flexible when the weather throws me a curve ball…didn’t get out of bed til 5:39 today and there is nothing better than waking up and looking out my bedroom window to see light instead of stars…it happens so rarely but this one day gives me hope that I can do it on a regular basis and feel good after it…as I do this morning…I did get my appointment to have my driver’s license renewed next Tuesday and I really hope that I can pass the eye test and get my life back to normal and not worry about it anymore…my right lower back is still shouting at me with pain again today and I have no clue how I hurt it but it used to feel like this all the time so I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much…going to try to stretch it out after I have coffee and I am shaking my head that just washing and treating the front steps is enough work and bending to hurt it…oh, well…it won’t keep me off the bike so I guess it’s not too bad…not much to do today…I do need to clean the front door mat since it has green crap on it and I may put a second coat of Thompson’s on the flat surfaces since I have enough left over…but we’ll see…more later…oh, and I’m going to get to 100 of these for the month and that’s pretty cool…to me…more later…

Well…got a text from Capital One this morning asking if I made a charge to some random company and if I added it to an Amazon account…both answers were no so they cancelled my card and I have a new one on the way…and we went back through my statement and found a charge in Tokyo and but nothing else in my statement…so somehow there was a data breach somewhere…I appreciate that most card companies do this kind of thing but I’m loyal since they were the only company that would give me an unsecured card when I was building my credit so I could buy my house…luckily, nothing is attached to this card so I really have noting to do other than activate the new one when I get it…okay, normal stuff…got the rides in this morning early and then got right to treating the front porch and it only took about an hour and a half…I did schedule my driver’s license renewal for next Tuesday and I really hope I can pass the vision test…it will suck if I can’t but my eyes have been good lately…fingers crossed…