Well…after the rides this morning and having more coffee, I decided to try to get one more swim in this summer and the beach and water were really nice so I got a swim in for the first time in weeks…going to try to go out there every day next week after I paint the trim on the garage door…got a call from my bank that the euros were in that I ordered Wed so I drove over there in my beach clothes that were still wet and I hope my seat will dry by the next time I drive the car…talked to my daughter and she is not getting any euros since she told me she already paid for everything we’re going to do so we’re not going to need much…I got 350 euros so I can cover the tips and taxi rides and then take the leftovers back to the bank..and found I had 30 euros left in the drawer so we’ll have plenty….I did see an eagle sitting in a tree along Muskegon Lake today and that was pretty cool along with 22 deer and that included the ones that stand on the trail and just watch me as I ride by and still think that’s pretty cool…I really had hoped that it was going to rain tonight and tomorrow but that has come out of the forecast so we’re going to stay really dry for the next week to go with the one rain in the last three weeks…ick…back to reading…

Well…damn, running late this morning with not getting out of bed til 5:31 and now it’s almost 6 and I’ve just poured the first cup of coffee…so I need to get hauling butt and have a bagel before I ride today to keep the legs from going flat…it feels good that I accomplished something yesterday but that means I can take the day off today…might even go out to the beach if it’s sunny this morning…think I’m going to have to make more coffee today before I get on the bike…just another task that I need to do to get my butt moving and ensure that I have enough to fill the contego cup for the 2nd ride…pretty darn sore today and my back and neck are howling at me from reaching over my head with the scrub brush for 2 hours… but I’ll get through it…finally got the hornets taken care of yesterday and I think I used enough bug spray to kill everything downstairs and won’t have to spray again this year…the house looks really white after cleaning it and I still marvel at how dirty it got after just 2 years…so, I think that will be moved up to a yearly thing…makes it much easier to stay on top of it than to let it get ugly…not much to do today…just need to get the rides in and then I can just wing it for the day….more later….

Well…after getting the rides in this morning, I decided to clean the remaining half house of siding and that only took about 2 hours even though I wasn’t working that hard at it since I’m getting old…it does look pretty good so maybe I’ll do that every year…the first time I did it it seemed like a lot more work than this time…and it’s been warm enough that it didn’t matter that I got soaked while I was doing it…I did get the laundry done today since I ran out of clothes to wear and I washed the new t-shirts for the first time and they look like they came through the laundry okay…I did find and buy a new pair of shoes for the Italy trip and only spent 29 bucks on them…very lightweight and they have memory foam insoles that felt pretty good when I put them on and walked around the house…and they are pretty stylish…black with brown accents and white soles that they call casual dress shoes…why, I don’t know but for the price they can call them whatever they want…and they have actual laces that you can tighten or loosen…not like a lot of the shoes I looked at where they are slip ins and the laces are just for show…that doesn’t work when you have two different size feet…I did kill off the hornet nest but had about 50 of them in the basement that were all dying with the poison I hit the nest with…going to fill the holes they were using with cement in a couple of days to make sure they don’t come back…okay…going to read a bit before I make a pork chop for dinner…

Well…running late this morning for some reason so this one is going to be short…didn’t sleep much again and I’m having a hell of a time getting moving…should be on the bike right now but I just poured the first cup of coffee and I need to have at least one in me before I head out…going to work on the siding again today since it’s going to be cloudy out there so the beach is out…I did get the new shoes I ordered for the Italy trip and I like them…very light and with memory foam insoles so I guess we’ll see how they are as I use them to break them in before we go…and they are a little stylish…black with brown leather trim…just couldn’t see spending 60-70 bucks for skechers…pretty damn stiff and sore after the third day in a row of working on the siding and I may just as well keep the pain going today…okay, it’s 6 am and I need to get on the bike right now…more later…

Well…another day and more work done..got the east side of the house cleaned and found some hornets trying to make a nest in my siding…filled it with bug spray and plugged the hole and it looks like that was taken care of…there were lots of the hornets around while I was cleaning the siding but none of them got near me so no stings which I’m happy about…it was a really busy morning with the rides, grocery run, and hitting the bank to order some checks and put the order in for the euros I need for the Italy trip…told my daughter I’d supply the cash for the things we need cash for and I’m still going to offer her a check for my end of the trip but we’ll see what she says…so now I only have the back and west side of the house to wash and I’m thinking I could do all that in one day but I really don’t need to push myself…the east side really does look pretty good washed as the front did the other day…I’m glad I decided to do it instead of waiting another year and letting the crud build up…so now it’s 6pm and I am done for the day…even finished the book I started yesterday and made a pork chop, mashed potatoes, and corn for dinner since I know I haven’t been eating enough with my legs going flat on the bike this morning…was out before 6am and man, was it dark…had to ride through town to the post office which was okay with the street lights but once on the trail I couldn’t see anything until the sun started to come up about 45 minutes later…I’m done…

Well…good sleep, bad sleep…that’s the alternating crap that’s going on right now and it’s such a pain…oh, well…man, it’s humid here right now and it looks like it’s going to stay that way all day…didn’t get below 72 last night and we’re heading into a couple of days of heat with Friday getting to almost 90 so that may be a beach day…the damn rain that looked like it was here yesterday didn’t happen and there is nothing in the forecast for the next 10 days…ick…going to be a busy one today with riding over to the post office to drop off my car insurance payment…yow…it’s not much more than last year but it still hurts having full coverage…and I’m doing that in the dark this morning…then the grocery run and over to the bank to order checks and euros for the trip then back here to decide if I continue to wash the house or try the beach…running out of time to swim and I’d like to get at least one more in before summer is over…and I really do need to find a couple of pair of new shorts since it’s going to be hot in Italy when we’re there…more later…

Well…could this be a trend? Got more work done today after I did the bike rides, picked up a prescription, hit aldis for some cukes to make more pickles, and then over to depot to pick up an extension pole for my scrub brush and I found a really cool expanding one that goes from 4 feet to 8 feet and makes it so damn easy to have exactly the length of pole I need…didn’t even know things like that existed and it will work great when I start back to painting here…and it made cleaning the siding so much easier since I didn’t have to move the ladder nearly as much as before…so two days in a row I got work done and even had enough time to read a bit…but tomorrow I may just do the grocery run and go to the beach to try to get one more swim in this summer…if the weather is crappy, though, I’ll be back out there doing the east side of the house after doing the front porch today…it does feel good to accomplish things and the house just looks so much better clean…so now back to reading for a bit…

Well…that was damn unusual…slept all the way through the night last night and it may have been exhaustion from working on the garage yesterday…hit the sack at 10pm and didn’t get up til 5:20 with very little tossing and turning and I’ll take that any day..going to continue working on the siding today and I need to sand and paint the trim on the door into the garage and then my outdoor painting will be done for the year…I do need to eat something today before I get on the bike since I can feel that I’m under on calories and don’t want to run out of energy before I get the bike rides in…I do like the t-shirts I bought and can’t wait to see how they stand up to the washer and dryer…if good, I am going to buy 5 more for Italy…it’s going to be hot there so I really do need to buy a couple more pairs of shorts to take…and I’ll take a couple of the new hats so I can sweat in them and not ruin my good hats…going to run errands this morning and hit the library to take the books back and maybe get a couple more of them…along with a depot run to get another extension pole for the scrub brush…not much to do today…just need to get going on the bike with it already almost 6am….more later….

Well…the day went pretty much as I planned today with getting the bike rides in and then washing the garage siding that only took me about an hour and a half since it was nowhere near as bad as the first time I cleaned it when it took me over 3 hours…it looks good so I am happy with it…going to start on the house tomorrow after I go to depot to get another extension pole to allow me to reach most of the siding from the ground…and I still had time to read today since I don’t think I need to work all day just part of it…I need to pick up a prescription tomorrow so I’ll probably hit aldis for more cukes since I’m halfway through the last jar of pickles I made…the espresso coffee beans work really well just grinding them and putting in the coffee maker and they have a good taste that I can even taste a little…so I’ll probably buy another kilo…I did get the t-shirts I ordered and they are pretty nice for 4 bucks a piece…100% cotton and the larges fit me perfectly so I’ll probably buy 5 more so I’ll have new ones to take to Italy…I do need to hit the bank to order my Euros I need for the trip so I may do that Wed when I do the grocery run…and I should order some more checks that I get for free since I have more than 25K in my checking account…okay, time to write a couple of checks to pay my car insurance and property taxes….oh, well…

Well…just poured a cup of coffee made with the espresso beans and it just tastes like coffee to me so I may buy another 2.2 pounds today…from what I can taste, that is…I wonder what it would taste like to someone who can taste? A storm rolled through here last night and it woke me up at 2am…kept raining until almost 5am but it’s over now but I’m going to drink coffee and wait to get on the bike til a little later this morning…would like it to dry up a bit before I go out…I did find some t-shirts and a polo to try for the Italy trip since most of my clothes are pretty worn out looking…got 5 t-shirts for 20 bucks and that’s a pretty good deal…and a polo for under 10 bucks…100% cotton for all of them…but I still have to find another pair of shoes to take and that’s more difficult than it looks…the skechers on amazon seem like a scam on prices when it’s one price when I’m looking at them but if I don’t buy them right then, when I come back to them later the price is 15 bucks more especially when I look for the normal size 9 that I wear…weird…so today I get back to working outside and will spend 3 hours or so washing the garage…might run out and pick up a prescription this afternoon and then I can hit depot and buy another extension handle that I can use to reach up the side of the house without climbing to the top of the ladder…so, I need to get going since I’m running late already and need to get on the bike….more later…