Well…damn, it’s really humid here again at 96% and it never got under 71 degrees overnight so that is going to make for soaking rides again since I’m already sweating just sitting here doing this…oh, well…up at a little after 5 again today and I would say I’m running late but I don’t plan on getting on the bike til almost 7am today since it’s the only thing I have to do other than cook…do I make potato soup today to use up the celery I have in the fridge? Maybe…it would be nice to have one meal of the day just heat and eat but this is definitely not soup weather so I guess we’ll see…I did get the weed walk in yesterday and, with the rain we’ve had my lawn looks half green and I should plan on feeding it with winter feed when I get back from Italy…and I need to schedule my flu and covid shots and I may even do that before I go…will get online this morning to see if I can get it done tomorrow…covid is on the rise again heading toward a fall peak before the winter one…going to do the weight work here in a minute so I don’t have to do it later but I want another cup of coffee and a bagel first…didn’t eat much yesterday and I don’t want my legs to go flat today…more later….

Well…when I got up this morning and got ready to get out on the bike…early…6am, I noticed that it never got under 77 degrees last night and the humidity was at 100%…so when I got on the bike, I was soaked through before I got out 2 miles and by the time I was done with both rides, I had even sweated through my shoes and that hasn’t happened this year…it’s still over 80 with 70% humidity so I’m still sitting with the fan on trying to beat the heat…but really, it’s okay…I’m used to it and have always loved the heat…I did get the grocery run done today and bought some chicken from aldis and the breasts are just huge…I mean 11 bucks for 4 of them at 2.19 a pound…they look like turkey breasts they are so big…going to try a new recipe tomorrow with them…a creamy garlic sauce skillet recipe that doesn’t look too hard but it has half and half and butter in it along with a whole head of garlic…that’s a hell of a lot of garlic so I think I change that…going to make some mashed potatoes to go with it and spoon some of the sauce over them…it was pretty cool on the way back on the 2nd ride that the big blue cruise ship was coming into the dock for the first time this year…that thing is twice the size of the regular ones this summer…pretty cool to see…okay, I need to put more letters on my keyboard since I can no longer see the c,s,l, or b…will do that tomorrow but I need to clean them with alcohol first…time for tv…

Well…damn, it didn’t get under 75 last night and it’s supposed to stay warm for a few days yet…I guess it’s the last gasp of summer and I should enjoy it…need to get on the bike in the dark to get 2 rides in before the grocery run…getting a little tired of racing around in the morning to get things done and I may just do one ride before I go and that would mean I don’t have to get on the bike before 6:30 or 7…going out in the dark is starting to lose it’s allure after not being able to see at all in the tunnel of trees yesterday…but we’ll see…didn’t get anything done yesterday but go to the beach but I am going to need to cook today…thinking of making a creamy garlic chicken recipe I’ve never made before and I need to remember to get bread crumbs this morning or that won’t work…or maybe I’ll just cook some chicken to make sandwiches…have lot of potatoes to use up so I may make some mashed potatoes with the chicken…I did take some bacon out of the freezer so I’ll use up the eggs to go with it…not much to do today…just need to get moving but I just don’t feel like it right now…I think the heat is wearing me out and not sleeping is not helping…more later…

Well…okay, it was warm enough and humid enough that I made today the last beach day of the summer…and to get there, I had to drive the car with the new transmission oil in it and it feels better…easier to get in all gears even cold which is a big improvement…and from the comments on amazon, it takes about 500 miles for the full amount of difference to show up…but I can live with it the way it is so it was worth the 65 bucks the oil cost…but the biggest thing I noticed was that the slight whine that I could hear in 5th gear is now gone and that matches what a few people commented…so far, so good…the water was a little chilly but warm enough for me to spend a half hour swimming…and I went out without sunscreen to get a little more color one last time…not burned at all but just a little pink since I went out at 10am and was back here before noon…it is a little bittersweet that another summer is gone but I know that I’ll have the rest of my life to enjoy the beach and water…hope it’s not only a year..but we’ll see…

Well…another month starts and it starts late since I didn’t get out of bed til 5:50 and now I’m running late already…my ribs are sore from trying to get the drain plug out before I used the impact wrench and crawling under the car…and I don’t know why I’m still doing that at 73 but I really can’t pay someone to do something I can still do…and it does feel good to do things and not give in to age….not sure how buying coffee beans got away from me but, with the bag that is coming today, I’ll have over 11 pounds of them here and that’s enough to cover any more shocks in the market…but how could I resist getting a kilo for 13.47? That’s only a buck and change over the price when I bought the first bags a year ago and these deals are going away…I’m sure the next time these come up they will be well into the 20’s for a kilo…even though I can’t taste much, I can taste the difference between the cheap ground coffee I bought and grinding my own beans…and I have whole bean this morning so I’ll probably drink the whole 12 cups…it did rain here yesterday while I was working on the car and we had a little storm come through in the afternoon and that is how it should be instead of the damn drought we’ve had all year…going to wait to get my flu and covid vaccines until I get back from Italy and I hope that will keep me healthy this winter…I think I’ll take a look and see if I can get it done this week for protection as I travel…but that will be later…right now I need a bagel and more coffee and to get on the bike…more later…

Well…after I worked on the car, did the weight work, and got the 2nd ride in, I just realized something…when I was pouring the old oil back into the bottles that the new stuff came in, it didn’t fill two bottles all the way…and it’s supposed to have 2.5 quarts in it…and there are no leaks so either they changed it and didn’t put enough into it, or over 18 years some of the oil just dissipated into the air…whatever the reason, it probably wasn’t good to have it so low on oil and I’m glad I serviced it to fix it…and now I have the rest of the day to read and take it easy and it’s only 11:50am…one problem with the old oil was that it smelled and no matter how much I scrub, I still smell that old oil and probably will for a few days…nothing smells like old gear oil…time for a break…100 of these for the month is not bad…

Well…it worked out well when the rain started just as I was pulling up to the garage after the first ride today…so I jumped right into changing the gear oil in the transmission and it took about an hour with my transfer pump falling apart and spilling a bunch of oil on the floor…but I still had plenty and now it’s done…the oil that came out was regular dino oil and not synthetic since it smelled like every gear lube I’ve every used…the fill plug came out easily but I needed my impact wrench to get the drain plug loose…one little zap by the wrench and it was out so that was cool…and I checked the magnet on the drain plug and there were no metal shavings on it so that means no wear for me to worry about…if I do this again, I think I’m going to buy a little electric transfer pump since I can get one for about 20 bucks and that would be a lot easier…but I’ll never need it on this car so maybe not…damn, it feels good to have this done…and now I can sit here and have more coffee and read some news…I think it took more time to clean up my tools than to actually change the oil…but they are clean now and drying downstairs…yay!

Well…damn, I’m running late already this morning even with getting up at 5:11 so I won’t have time to have a bagel before I get on the bike to get a ride in before the rain comes in at 7:30…so then I’ll work on the car while it’s raining and then go back out for ride 2…I do have to remember to write the checks for the taxes and water bill and get them paid this week and then I won’t have to think about bills until I get back from Italy…didn’t sleep for crap last night but I’m going to stop thinking about that and deal with it by just making more coffee in the morning…only have a little over 6 cups leftover in the carafe today so I’ll be making more after I get the bike ride in and car done…the car stuff has been hanging over me for weeks now and I just want it done…I can taste the difference between the cheap ground coffee I made yesterday and the whole bean I’m making later…I wonder how that difference would taste if I could taste like a normal person? I still have 8.8 pounds of beans in storage that I hope will get me through the rest of the year…the espresso beans I was getting for 15 bucks are now 25 so it looks like I won’t be buying any any time soon…not much to do today…okay, that’s not true, have lots to do and I need to get off my butt right now and get started….more later….okay, just went out to look for beans on amazon and found another type of espresso beans by Lavazza for only 13.49 a kilo so now I’ll have 11 pounds of beans on hand…and that will surely be enough to get me to spring…and if they are good, I may buy one more…who knows?

Well…the last piece of the puzzle of changing the oil in the transmission of the car just showed up so I’ll be ready to go tomorrow morning after I get the rides in…got a 6 point 24mm socket and a bunch of adapters so I could even use my electric impact wrench if I want…don’t think I’ll need that since the fill and drain plug are bathed in oil all the time so how can they be corroded and stuck?…if it all goes well, it shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes and then I’ll be done with everything I want to do to the car but wash and wax it and I may do that tomorrow, too…I think I’m done with the beach for the year so I can vacuum the sand out of it, too…the shifting is already a lot better with getting the air out of the clutch line but I just want it to shift when it’s cold…I did get out for 2 rides today but not until about 9 when the rain stopped and I still got done before Man U played at 11:30…and they won convincingly so maybe this will be a good season…it it rains in the morning, I’ll jump right on the car before the rides and get that done…didn’t get anything else done today but that’s okay, oh, I did give myself a haircut while I was waiting for the rain to stop…does that count for getting something done? Does to me…need to go down and charge the battery for the impact wrench…

Well…I don’t know how to act…got up at 5:10 today to a small thunderstorm that is supposed to last until noon or so I’m sitting here trying to figure out what the hell to do with not being able to get out on the bike…and it looks like I won’t be able to until noon or so and I think that will make this the elusive one ride day my legs have been needing for the entire summer…I wonder if I need to skip the bagel to make sure I don’t have too many calories today? Not sure yet but it sure is weird to not be out on the bike in the dark…oh, well…so that gives me the weirdest of mornings…don’t know what to do so I think I’ll just drink coffee and watch MotoGP in the background…for some reason both thumbs hurt today and I think it’s probably from trying to get the damn oil filter off…now that I know there is enough room around the filter to get a strap wrench on it, I’ll think about buying one but that doesn’t have to happen for a year since I won’t change the oil again for 18 months or so…and if the socket comes this morning, I may change the trans oil out today to take advantage of the rain keeping me off the bike…I really need to get cleaning since I want to have this place clean before I head to Italy and do need to start getting the packing started..still have stuff from the UK trip in my suitcase that needs to come out and I need to clean it before I start packing…and I have to remember to pack some compression socks for sitting on the plane for 7 hours across the Atlantic…it has finally hit me that I’m going to Europe in a couple of weeks and that is going to be so cool…and we are taking trains between the cities we’re visiting and I just love how nice the trains are outside of the US…okay, need more coffee and to figure out how to just sit here…that’s going to be hard..more later…