Well…damn, out of bed at 4:33 today and have poured the first cup of coffee before 5am and there just seems to be something wrong with that…I don’t think I’ll ever get back to sleeping to 6am or later and I know that 6 hours total with tossing and turning all night is not enough…oh, well…it looks like it will be raining all day today so the possibility of getting outdoors on the bike is pretty small and I can use an easy day after working my butt off yesterday…I probably should clean the bathroom today or the kitchen, not sure which but I know my microwave is going to be cleaned….need to take the chicken out for masala today to be ready to cook Friday or Saturday and then plan what the second meal will be…haven’ had pasta in forever so that may be the choice…need to see if I’m able to taste garlic bread and if not, that sucks…going to have to mow the lawn soon and get the fencelines raked…the yard waste pickup has started so I can fill a big bag and have a place for the clippings and sticks to go…it’s going to freeze again Sunday so I’ll have to figure out how to insulate the outdoor faucet so I don’t lose the new valve I put on when I opened the tap…god, I hate the frickin cold…the high is only going to be 40 and the low is 30 and that could freeze everything…crap…at least it won’t kill any new grass that comes up…not much to do today…just an indoor ride and then cleaning so I will have the chance to read today….more later…

Well…have been running since 6:30am but it’s now 1pm and I am done for the day…it started with an indoor ride since it was raining and then straight out to run errands and I was able to put the top down on the car and that was fun…I had a guy stop at Menards and told me the car looked like fun and I had to agree with him…bought some really expensive bluegrass seed that has a coating that absorbs moisture and keeps it in the seed as it germinates so I’m hoping that will work with the dry times out here…but it’s going to rain off and on for the next week so maybe the patches I seeded this morning will grow…I also put weed killer on since the weeds were perilously close to taking over the yard…I’m still finishing off the coffee at 1:15 pm so you know it’s been too busy to drink it earlier…even got an outdoor ride in with just a t-shirt and shorts on and that was fun…but I’m used up and need to rest a bit and read some to recharge…it’s warm enough to open the windows a bit and air this place out…yay!

Well…up and running at 5am again today and I still haven’t had a good nights sleep since I started this boozeless journey…but I still feel so much better that I’ll keep this up maybe forever…got a lot done yesterday and it’s going to be another busy one today with doing the grocery/menards run since I need to get grass seed and topsoil so I can start working on the bare patches in the lawn…it’s raining right now so the ride will be indoors to start but I’ll try to get and outdoor one in later…I do need to get the weed killer on the lawn today so reading is going to take a backseat…I hope it stops raining before I head out so I can put the top down on the car…it’s already 54 out there so that is warm enough for that…would like to get some patches started since it’s going to rain almost every day this week and that will help get them get growing…still have leftover pork shoulder for a few days but I do need to plan for the masala and I think I’ll take the chicken out for it…aldis has boneless/skinless chicken thighs on sale but I really should eat out of the freezer instead…I guess we’ll see…more later…

Well…man, this has been a busy day starting at 7:30 when I went out for the only ride of the day…and as soon as I got back here, I started on the garage and car and working on that til after noon…got the garage swept out that took me an hour and got rid of a bunch of crap that had been piling up in there…and then I did the car from top to bottom starting with the wheels using the armor all wheel cleaner that is the best one I’ve ever found…actually the first one I’ve ever found that would clean the wheels…then I cleaned the interior of car, did the glass, and washed and waxed it and it looks pretty damn good after winter had really trashed it…need to get on the lawn as soon as I have a couple of hour window so I can get the weed killer on before the damn things take it over again…and I’m hoping that will be tomorrow… and then I need to rake the fence lines and get the string trimmer out along with re assembling the mower so I can do the first cut and vacuuming of the year…I do need to get some grass seed since the blight really hit the lawn hard and that will take most of the summer to fix…oh, well…so I guess I better get my reading in so I can be ready to get out tomorrow…

Well…up before 5am today and that is about normal lately…feel okay after the 8th day of not drinking and I think that is the new normal that I don’t need to think about anymore…I was a little curious how being dry affected my BP and it appears pretty good…115/70 and I’m hoping I can get back into the single digits as time goes on…lots of work to get done today and it’s warm enough to ride outdoors but I’ll probably do one ride as I want to get the garage swept out and the car cleaned from top to bottom…and that means a total vacuum, the glass cleaned and rainx’d, washing the interior, and then waxing it and that will take a couple of hours…still not going to be too warm but I can live with it being in the 50’s…and I got the outdoor faucet opened up yesterday and I think I’ll wash the bike, too as I do with the leftover car wash in the bucket…and I do have to use the wheel cleaner that I found last year that works like a champ and the car wash soap that is easy on the paint…still have leftover pork shoulder that will last a few more days but I’ll have to do some meal planning for later in the week…and I know that will be Masala…really don’t have much to get on the grocery run since I need to empty the freezer before I get anything else…more later…

Well…when I got up this morning, the plan was to get two rides in outdoors since it was already 48 degrees and that is plenty warm to go out…but, once I got the first ride almost completed the wind came up to 35 and I was struggling to get back here…and it got even worse when I got to the top of the climb up to here I broke a spoke in the rear wheel which stuck into the chain and damn near pitched me off the bike…so I crippled the bike back here and got to work replacing it with one from the wheel that broke and that was a long process since you have to remove the tire and tube and the rear cassette to get access to it…so I put it all back together and re trued the wheel and reassembled the bike but the wind was still blowing like crazy so I parked the bike with 13 miles in for the day…but it was warm enough to fit the new valve to the outside water tap and climb in the crawlspace to turn the water on…man, I’m getting too old to fold myself through a 2×2 foot door and I really hurt myself doing it…I did clean all the crap out of the space so at least there are no more old paint cans or bug killer in there…so I can do a complete clean on the car tomorrow if it isn’t raining…need to wax it and clean the interior and rainx the windows…race time…

Well…darn, as you can see it’s 7:22 and I almost forgot to come here and do the third one for the day…I did get out to do an outdoor ride today but it was only 43 when I went out and that is just wrong for April 11th…it was a good ride and day and I’m getting through the 7th day of no more drinking and I’m starting to get used to it…there is a race on from Bristol tonight so I’ll be watching that instead of burning shows from my queue on plex…but the new “Hail Mary” movie is out there and I really want to see that…maybe tomorrow night…it’s going to rain tomorrow so I’ll have an easy day with just one ride…I skipped the weight work today since I’ve done it every day for three weeks and I really needed to have a rest day to let my muscles recover…I sure hope that not drinking will help me lose 10 more pounds…my vision was quite clear on the bike today and that’s enough to keep me going with it…time for the race…

Well…that was a little better…didn’t get out of bed til 5:33 this morning but there was a lot of tossing and turning…as always, but I feel okay after day 6 of no cocktails…and I can taste the coffee this morning and that is a good sign…I wonder when this damn cold is going to break? I mean cripes…32 degrees on the 11th of April? Sure hope it warms up enough to get outdoors on the bike today but the high is only supposed to get to 52 and that won’t happen til late afternoon…I really want to get the outdoor faucet turned on so I can do the spring cleaning on the car and the bike…I’m still thinking of buying one more bike since I used up all the spare parts from the black bike to keep the grey one running…and it’s got over 65,000 miles on it so I guess I got my money’s worth…if I do that, I’ll have to buy a new handlebar bag and a new computer for it to keep track of the miles I ride…and it will take a couple of years to get it set up the way I like…I did make a pulled pork sandwich for dinner yesterday but that made three meals for the day and I can’t do that every day…not much to do today…just need to get off my butt and get going so I can get the indoor ride in before 8am…more later…

Well…today was pork shoulder day in the instant pot and finally, it turned out great…tender and falling apart…so I guess I hit the amount of cook time at an hour and a half that I was always under before…and I just winged it on a rub with garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, chili powder, and cayenne pepper with salt and pepper…I cooked with chicken broth as the cooking liquid and threw some bay leaves and garlic cloves in…to flavor the gravy, I put onions, celery, and carrots in the instant pot as it cooked…by far the best one I’ve ever cooked and now I’ve got it down so I can repeat it…the smoked paprika made the gravy come out with an orange tint that was a little strange but it tasted good…so, I’m going to have a third meal today with a pulled pork sandwich with barbecue sauce and dill pickles…yummy…I did hit the library today and just wandered a bit there to look for more authors and ran across the guy who does the “Reacher” series named Lee Child and I like the Reacher tv shows and like the first book I’ve started…so that gives me another dozen books to read…Yay! Okay, back to reading…