Well…sitting here a little bored today so I decided to try to make a loaf of bread today but I only followed the recipe to a point…instead of using a cast iron crock pot, which I have, I mixed up the dough and then just poured it into my buttered 2 quart heavy glass casserole dish, put the lid on it, and set my air fryer to proof to get it to rise and then I’m going to just bake it in that dish after the dough rises…if that works, I’ll be making a lot of bread and not buying any anymore…even had some bread flour to use…it will be interesting to see if it works at all…I guess we’ll see…

Well…it’s been a busy morning until now and I’m happy to report I may be getting my sense of taste back a bit after switching to a simple toothpaste from the anti plaque one that I was using…I could taste the turkey soup I had for lunch when a few day ago when I made this batch I couldn’t…so that gives me some hope that it will continue to come back…I did get three rides in this morning and it felt okay and then got to three of these and a post out to Mastodon…and I don’t have to cook today with making the ham yesterday…I am going to make ham soup later in the week and I may even try my hand at baking some bread but I’ll have to learn how to knead it if I want it to rise at all and not be the flat, hard loaves that I normally make with the no knead method…still have to do the weight work this aft and look for bread recipes…and I want to get some reading time in…

Well…darn, another fitful night of sleep but an okay one with my week on no cocktails starting…just curious to see if cocktails are the major cause of my high BP but I’m not sure if just a week will make any difference but I guess we’ll see…got back on the bike for 24 miles yesterday and will do that for the rest of the year to see how many over 10K I can get in before the end of the year…it’s going to be above freezing until Saturday so the snow will be gone…and then into the twenties for two days and then a week above freezing to end up the year…then only two more months of winter to endure…I did check the coolant in the car while the ham was cooking yesterday an it was only down a half pint or so in a month so I can cripple it along until I buy a new car…and that is going to be my project for the winter…find one and buy one…and I really do need to paint the dining room and all the trim and just need to start and live in dust for a month as I fill and sand the windows and trim…not much to do today…just the rides to start things off and then I’ll figure out the rest of the day…I am going to make the first batch of ham soup Wed or Thur using the old ham bones…sure hope I can taste it….more later….

Well…just did a little math on the amount of calories I burned this year so far on the bike for the 10,032 miles I’ve done…assuming 600 calories burned for every 15 miles, which may be a little low, I burned 401,440 calories…and that converts to keeping 133.81 pounds off by riding…so now you know why I keep torturing myself by riding so much..

Well…have two rides in this morning and have the BAH on the grill, the potatoes peeled, and the trash put out…now it’s time to enjoy my last cup of coffee for the day as I wait for Man U to play at 11:30…the Lions don’t play until 4:25 so I think I’ll go back down for a third ride today so I won’t feel guilty about having two meals today…the second one is only going to be a bowl of soup so I don’t think that’s too much….it is nice to have a second and third streaming service to use downstairs on the tablet since I added netflix and got pluto working to go with freevee since I was running out of things to watch….I do need to clean the kitchen some today after I get done with the big meal for lunch but that will wait until after the third ride…I do need to figure out the goals for riding next year but it hasn’t even entered my head yet…just need to relax a bit for the next couple of weeks…I wonder if I could do two years in a row of riding every day?  Or maybe do my normal riding but do 10 100+ mile days? I’ve got a couple of weeks to think about it so no big hurry….more later….

Well…it’s pretty icy out on the street this morning with all of the freezing rain overnight but it’s going to warm up and melt it later this morning…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed til 6:30 or so and that only leaves me 40 minutes until I have to get back on the bike to get back to the routine of 3 rides a day…going to make another ham today so the third ride will be in the afternoon and I need to fit the Manchester Derby and the Lions game in starting at 11:30…so the ham will go on the grill at 10 or so and will be on it for a couple of hours…so maybe I’ll start it at 9:30 after two rides and then get the third one in while it’s warming…it’s going to get up to 47 tomorrow so most of the snow will be gone and I wonder how may birds I’ll have on the feeder after that….then the rest of the week will be in the 30′s for highs with no snow int he forecast for the rest of the year…and that leaves about two months of winter to cope with..I did get the bathroom cleaned yesterday and really should do the kitchen today but I’m cooking so I’m going to count that as enough work for the day…so I need to get going right now…more later..

Well…I really wish they’d stop reformulating toothpaste for a while…when I made the turkey soup a few days back, I couldn’t taste it at all and I realized that I had just opened a new tube of toothpaste that had all the germ fighters and whiteners and all that crap…and as many as 30% of people will lose their sense of taste with some ingredient that’s in there…so I went back to some regular stuff the dentist gave me and had soup for lunch and I could taste the whole peppercorns and turkey in the soup…I am curious if it will get better as I continue to use the basic toothpaste…I sure hope it does…I was really surprised how the same recipe of soup could taste so bland compared to the last time and that sucks….I can even taste the coffee I’m finishing up and couldn’t yesterday…and I even got the french press out to make more…I am trying to take it easier today with only one ride but I did give myself a haircut, and did laundry, and now I’m going to clean the bathroom…then I can take it easy….yeah, right…

Well…this is weird…knowing I only have one ride to do today, I just poured another cup of coffee and I’m going to sit here and watch a tv show until 9…then get on the bike…have been having problems with netflix lately and it wouldn’t run on my roku so I had to reset it back to factory settings and then I downloaded the app to my tablet to give me another option instead of freevee…will try that on the ride this morning…this is going to be hard to relax…I’m just not the relaxing sort I guess but I’ll try…wow, I haven’t sat here until 9am this year and I’m vibrating from the habit of getting going first and then taking it easy…oh, well…I think I’ll get to relaxing…cripes…I even have to plan my relaxation….

Well…up and running at 6:46 this morning and I’m having a bit of a problem with taking a light day on the bike today…I don’t think I’ve done a one ride day this year but after hitting the 10,000 mile goal yesterday, I think I’ve earned a light one…but that means I need to cut out at least 1,000 calories today so it will be a bowl of soup and two chicken thighs and nothing else for about 600 calories….it was another cold night last night with it getting down to 12 degrees but it’s going to warm up enough for freezing rain and snow tonight that is going to change over to rain for Sunday and Monday so we’ll lose a lot of the snow we have…and then stay in the 30′s until next Sat…need to get some cleaning done today but I don’t have to cook until tomorrow when I’m going to make another BAH (big assed ham) and that will feed me for another week…I put the ham bone from the last one in the freezer yesterday and it must have two pounds of ham on it so it would make a batch of ham soup by itself…still have three other bones in there that will make a batch next week…not much to do today…just the one ride that I don’t need to get to until more coffee and cleaning somewhere but I’m not sure where yet…more later…

Well…with the 24 miles I put in on the bike today, I hit the goal and went past it to 10,006 miles…I am a little surprised how well my body held up…I am an old guy, after all…not really any complaints at all for the year physically…just the normal aches and pains that come from overwork and I’ve even figured out the neck pain that was driving me nuts by using the stretching exercises the doctor gave me…the bike held up really well once I figured out the broken adjuster on the rear shifter and adjusted it manually and I think I only had a couple of flats and I consider that a successful year…so I’m going to just do one ride tomorrow as a little reward but I do still need to ride every day for the rest of the year to meet the last goal of riding every day during the calendar year…but will be back doing 24 miles a day after the rest day…the breakdown of indoor and outdoor miles is 3,414 indoors, and 6,592 outdoors….I’ll do a breakdown of the rest of it on December 31st as I always do…yay, me!