Well…as you know, I’ve been fighting some pretty severe back pain from riding the bike outdoors in the high winds we get out here and using my heating pad on it three times a day to just be able to move at all…but did that stop me from going out into the wind today? Of course not…but the pleasant surprise from it is that, while I still have some pain, it’s nowhere near as bad as it has been and I haven’t even had to heat it yet…will probably do that later just to stay ahead of the pain…I did take an ibuprofen before I got on the bike this morning since I’ve been searching for a solution to this pain I’ve had for more than a month now and I’ll try anything to be able to get up off the couch without wincing…so I’ll take any little progress I can get…and hope the progress holds…go USA!

Well…boy, that was a hard night and I think I got about 4 hours of sleep with being good last night…took about two hours to get to sleep and then up at 2:24 then struggled to get back to sleep for another couple of hours and tossed and turned until I got out of bed at 7…but, I feel okay this morning so I’ll take it….my back still hurts and I am going to hurt it again here in a little while with riding outdoors twice today…the wind is up to around 9 so it may be a chore but will be my last chance to ride outdoors this year so I want to take it…we have gale warnings out here for tonight through Thursday with the wind forecast to be 30-40 out of the west with the cold front coming in and then the temps crash down to the 30’s for highs and I just don’t want to get that cold…and it will be pretty windy and I won’t go out in that again since it keeps hurting my back doing that…didn’t get a lot done yesterday and today is going to be just riding the bike and then watching the US play Iran at 2 this afternoon…and the US needs to win or they are out of the world cup…not much to do today…don’t need to cook today with finishing up the leftovers and having the new soup I made which will keep me going for a couple of days….then I will be done with turkey for the year…sure hope they have ham on sale for the holidays…haven’t had one of those since early in the year and I could use one about now….more later….

Well…not sure what is going on but I feel pretty crappy and worn out today…and I only did an indoor ride today when I could be out there doing a second one right now…just don’t feel like it even with taking the day off the bike yesterday with the rain we got out here…okay, that’s what I used for my excuse but I hurt so badly that I needed to rest my abs and back to see if they would recover some overnight…and they have to some extent but I’m going to put heat on my back again here in a minute…and I even skipped running the errand I planned for today since it wasn’t really necessary…I wonder if I’m feeling crappy from not being able to use the flonase I had been using for my allergies? I know the allergies are much worse than they have been for years so I guess that could be it…oh, well….

Well…I know some of you long term readers have noticed a change in content here with less on the political side lately…and I have, too…have never had the problem of finding something to write about in the many years and almost 11,000 posts I’ve done here but for the past few weeks the ideas just haven’t come…and today is no different, just can’t find a topic even with going to every news site I normally use along with ones I only use occasionally…dredging through every political story I could find and still nothing…but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying…I just need to have everyone bear with me a bit until I can work through this writer’s block…it is so damn frustrating when this happens and and it’s been so long I really don’t know what to do about it…keep trying, I guess…I will be back for another one within an hour although it might not be a political topic…will keep working on that, too….more later….

Well…running late this morning with not getting out of bed til almost 7 and then reading the news for a bit…slept okay last night…or as okay as I ever sleep and I can live with that….my back and abs are better today and I’m trying to figure out if I’m going to ride inside or out today since it is in the 20’s right now…so I guess it will be inside if I want to get the day moving…took the day off the bike yesterday with the rain we had but more that I needed a days rest after going into the wind and hurting myself Saturday….I do need to run an errand this morning but that is looking pretty daunting at this moment and I don’t want to think about that…I do need to get all my bills paid today and I can do that after I get everything else done and while soccer is on later….it looks like I’ll be eating out of the freezer for the next couple of weeks since it’s full and I need to empty it out some…will be finishing up the turkey the next day or so and will need to plan something but I’m not sure what that will be right now…I am a little glad I’m done with turkey but that normally means I buy a couple of hams but the prices are pretty ridiculous so that won’t happen this year…I mean 3 bucks a pound when I was able to get them last year at 99 cents? Not much to do today….just need to get started and that is harder than normal today….but I do need to get on the bike after one more cup of coffee and reading the news…and I will be back for a political one later if I have to keep looking for topics all day…more later…

Well…after waffling most of the morning on whether to make soup or not, I got off my butt and just did it and ended up with 4- 2 quart containers…one for the fridge and 3 for the freezer and just put everything away….I have this recipe down as I do for my ham soup but I don’t have any room for more in the freezer so it will be a while before I make any more…it came out quite good and I wonder if I should write the recipe down? Nope…who would want it? So, I’ll just enjoy it and take the recipe with me when I go…more later…damn, I really hurt myself on the bike going into the wind yesterday and now my abs hurt as much as my back does…I probably should get some heat on them to see if that will help…darn…

Well…damn, brand new pains this morning in brand new spots and that is pretty depressing…this one is toward the front of my right side and it can only be from going into the 20+ mph wind yesterday…or from sleeping and that is the weird thing….there are days when I wake up with pain that I have no clue how I got….I guess it’s just part of getting old and I don’t like it one bit….I am going to take the day off the bike to heal up some and the rain that is coming in will help make that decision easy….just feel so damn worn out that I could go back to bed for a couple of hours…but I won’t…have to get the instant pot out and get started on the soup I plan to make here in a minute but I don’t want to do anything right now but have coffee and read some news….didn’t get much done yesterday and I wonder if I need to mention that anymore since it has been so long since I did get anything done…this appears to be what just living is and I’m not sure how I got into this pattern…and I’m sure I don’t like being a slug so much…I did start looking for a new car yesterday and there is not a lot out there if I want another Miata…so I may expand my search to look at other cars…but they need to be convertibles and there are not many of them out there either….not much to do today….need to clean the instant pot here in a minute and get the carcasses out of the freezer and get started….or I could wait til tomorrow since I have leftovers to eat today and the veggies will keep til tomorrow…we’ll see…more later…

Well…just sitting here yesterday, I got an e-mail from Social Security saying I had a new message on my account at my SS page…so, I had to find the username and password and luckily, I had written it down on my password notebook since it’s not something I use very much…so, once I got signed on, I found that is was the new amount of my monthly SS payment and it is almost 2400 bucks a month or just a little under 29K yearly…and with Michigan being a no tax state for SS, I can live pretty well on that amount of money…especially with a house payment of only 350 bucks a month…the only catch is that the raise doesn’t start until the January payment….and next month I should go over 30K in cash in the bank so I guess I could spend a little money…I do have 8 grand set aside for a new car so I guess I should say I’ll be getting to 22K next month and will start the cycle again of trying to get to 30K….not a bad problem to have….

Well…man, it was windy out there this morning and it is just brutal when it blows out of the west at 20…so I did the first ride in full thermasuit but it warmed up enough to get my last ride for the year in shorts on the second one…I did give up at about half way when the gusts went over 25 and I could feel my back starting to hurt along with my legs so that was good decision and I just finished up my first heat session so we’ll see how it works with the back pain…okay, need to watch the Michigan game…more later…

Well…trying something new this morning with heating my back before I get out on the bike this morning….it was not as bad yesterday but I still had a hitch in it when I got up this morning that hurt a bit….woke up around 5 this morning but was able to go back to sleep until after 6 so I can live with that….and I feel okay today if just a little worn out but that is pretty normal….had an okay day yesterday but again, didn’t get a lot done and if I just get the two bike rides in today I’ll be happy….still can’t get motivated to do much else right now and with Michigan playing at noon my schedule is pretty full until later in the day…have to check the weather to see if it is going to rain today but I think that’s for tomorrow….and that may give me a day off the bike so I can make soup…and it looks like this is the last of the warm weather for the year so I’ll be back on the indoor bike late next week…I did get over 5,600 miles yesterday so that makes it a good year even if I didn’t make the goal of 6K for the year…and I may just take the day off tomorrow to have a lazy one like I do when I’m riding indoors….not sure yet…not much to do today…just waiting for the sun to come up so I can get on the bike but I need more coffee first….I really do need to start getting rid of the cobwebs in the kitchen and clean the floor and I am going to try to do that…but I won’t feel guilty if I don’t….more later…