Well…that wasn’t too bad…slept through til 5:41 and then was able to go back to sleep for an hour….still feel a little worn out but that is my fault and I’ll accept that…damn, the inside of my right forearm hurts like crazy right now…how the hell did I hurt that just sleeping? Weird….had a good day yesterday but didn’t get anything done but the rides and trying on the clothes my daughter sent….I am going to try to get some cleaning done today but that won’t be til later…have to make a run out to Meijers to get my powerball tickets for tonight…the jackpot is up to 1.5 billion dollars and I really could use a piece of that…and I need to get some calcium and vitamin D tablets to see if I can get the bone loss in my jaw reversed….there is a gale warning on for tonight and all day tomorrow with winds forecast to be 25-35mph with gusts of up to 55 so that may keep me off the outside bike…I could use a day off to let my back heal up some but I am going out today even with the with being able to hear the wind right now…yeah, I’m stupid but it’s already over 60 out there and I want to take advantage of the last few warm days of the year…the highs are dropping into the 40’s next week and will be like that the rest of the year…not much to do today…coffee, coffee, and coffee first….the the errand and on the bike after that…it’s supposed to rain this aft so I’ll need to get on the bike by 9 or so to get two rides in before that….have another care package coming today and I wonder what will be in this one….more later….

Well…Just got a call from my doctor with some good and bad news…he agrees with me that all my bike riding could skew the results of my PSA test and has scheduled another one for Feb 3rd of next year…the bad news is I have to stay off the bike for two weeks before it…yep, me off the bike for two weeks…damn, that is going to be hard…but necessary…so I have to figure out how to get exercise for that two weeks…I think I’ll get a pair of walking shoes and start training for the UK trip then…I am glad it’s in the winter where I usually only ride inside 4 days a week so that’s only 8 times off the bike…I wonder if it will screw things up if I double up before that…probably shouldn’t since I’m riding twice a day now…think I’ll have to cut down to one meal a day for that two weeks….it will be interesting to see just how much not riding changes the results…

Well…just got the care packages my daughter sent me and all I have to say is that I’ll never have to buy any cold weather clothes again…have 19 pieces of light to heavyweight fleeces in a lot of brands from North face, to Under Amour, Eddie Bauer, and lots of other stuff…used up all of the hangers I had to hang them up and had to put them in the spare bedroom closet since there was too much to fit in my closet…if I just wear just one a day, it would be 2/3rd of a month before I’d repeat…and I retired the two fleeces I bought about 20 years ago that were looking a bit shabby….and I think there are more coming tomorrow…and my daughter said what she sent was about 5% of her husbands clothes….and they have more they need to clear out…it took me an hour and a half just to try them on to see what I had…pretty cool….

Well…when I was getting ready to sleep last night, for some reason Peter Gabriel popped into my head and I realized that I hadn’t listened to any of his albums in a long time…yes, albums, I’m that old…and I remembered it this morning and I put his album So on…and followed that up with Up….and I haven’t listen to the entire albums in at least 5 years but it was the perfect music for how I feel today…I might even say I was happy…and that almost never happens….even with the health stuff going on I really do think I am happy…and I can’t figure out why…oh, well…I’ll take it….more later…oh, and now to change it up, James Gang Rides Again….

Well…that was okay…slept through the night until 6:24 this morning and that is really unusual…but I wasn’t good last night so I feel a little worn out and hope the coffee will start to work soon…it’s kind of funny that when I was trimming my beard yesterday that the guide fell off and I took a big chunk off down to the skin…so I had to trim the rest of it down to almost nothing so I really don’t have much of one right now….need to buy a new one since the rechargeable battery in this one quit years ago but I really hate spending money…a new one is only 17 bucks so I probably should suck it up and get one….had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get much done and today will probably be the same….don’t need to cook today with all of the leftovers in the fridge but I do want to cook one of the steaks I got yesterday and I just might…..it’s a little weird that there is a garlic bread shortage when we have a Cole’s bakery right down the street that I smell every day….I wonder if it is a problem with wheat supplies? Not much to do today…I can get on the bike as soon as it gets light but that won’t be for an hour or so and I can use that hour to pour more coffee in me and wake up….I think I’ll just enjoy the day and I am looking forward to the care package coming from my daughter today…it’s just like getting a christmas present…and it’s T’s birthday today…she’s turning the big 60…damn, we’re all getting old…I’ve known her since she was in her mid 30’s….what a long fun ride….more later….

Well…was just sitting here thinking a bit and thought of a few things I didn’t talk about earlier…I won 4 bucks in the Monday powerball drawing? Or, to look at it another way, I only lost 2 bucks so I rolled it over into tonight’s drawing and got three easy picks for only two bucks more….and I bought some beef today…yeah, I know it’s bad for you but a 5oz. bacon wrapped filet for only a buck fifty? I thought it was a pretty good deal to get 10 ozs. of filet for 3 bucks so that will make one meal…or maybe two…not sure yet…probably should have bought a couple more but I have enough stuff in the freezer and I still have the thighs I bought today that I have to find a place for in there…probably shouldn’t have thawed the leg quarters I just put in the oven for dinner…and I’ll have to restrain myself from buying any more protein next week…need to eat more veggies….

Well…after finding out about the big C, out on the bike today a thought came to me…wouldn’t it be ironic if the thing I’ve been doing for many, many years to try to stay healthy is the thing that causes the cancer that kills me? And to add to that, it would be the ultimate irony if I won the 600 million dollars in cash in the powerball tonight and the cancer kills me before I have the chance to spend it…okay, this is the last time I go to black humor as this process plays out…probably won’t mention it again since I still do have a life to live…although I may re-think doing any more work on this house…why should I make it nicer for the next owner? Okay, that’s it..I am going to take today off to digest everything but then back to normal tomorrow….more later….and I will do a political one in a few minutes…just need to read the news a bit first….

Well…with the doctors appointment yesterday and what was discovered in my colonoscopy last week, along with my elevated PSA test, this is one that I had hoped to never write about…my doctor is worried that I have prostate cancer…yep, the big C and that really, really sucks. So the process starts to find out for sure in the next couple of weeks with a referral to a urologist for more tests and probably a biopsy to see what is going on…one tiny bit of hope is the weird effect that riding a bike hard has on the PSA test…it is supposed to raise the PSA like crazy and I did a full hour on the indoor bike going as hard as I could yesterday morning before they drew blood so I’ll bring that up when I have the urologist appointment…at least this will give me a topic to write about over the next few months…I’m glad we have found out about this early so the prognosis should be pretty good and normally prostate cancer grows pretty slow unless I have the aggressive one that could kill me next year….so, maybe there won’t be a UK trip after all…oh, well….

Well…it really is nice when I feel that I did enough to keep the guilts at bay and today is one of those days….started out really early by getting on the bike downstairs by 7am and getting a good ride in…I did have to replace the earpieces on my ear buds since the rubber ones had rotted away and looked pretty shabby…so, I dug out the box for the betrons and found that there was a spare set of silicone earpieces that fit perfectly and do a better job of keeping the wind noise out of them than the rubber ones did…and I am still amazed at how long these things have lasted…going on 5 years now and I’ve never gotten more than 6 months out of any other ones…okay, back to the day….after I got the ride done and got cleaned up, I headed out to my doctors appointment that went well and I am waiting for the results of the PSA test to be sure that I’m in the clear…then, as soon as I got back here, I jumped on the bike for the second ride of the day, had lunch, then back out to work on the yard and spent 2 1/2 hours running the string trimmer and edger then cleaned all that up and finished about 2:20 or so…so, I think I did enough today and plan on taking the rest of the day off and having a couple of cocktails tonight after being good for the past week and getting my blood pressure below 130…and now I have tomorrow afternoon off after getting the work done today…yay…oh, I did hurt myself more today but it’s not my back or any parts that hurt before…it hurts on my side just under my shoulder and that is a familiar pain that I’ve had every time before when I abused those muscles doing the edging…oh, well…