Well…I don’t know why I’m surprised…I knew there would be lots of people on the trail for my last ride today with the pub pedal event going on starting at noon…but damn, not one of those people were paying attention at all and I almost got run into at least a dozen times…and I had to ride on the road to get around the swarms that were clogging up the trail on the way out and I really hate riding in the road…from the looks of some of these folks, there are going to be a few heart attacks in the crowd since a lot of them look like they haven’t done any exercise in 20 years…..but, I survived it and now I’m home and going to relax the rest of the day….and maybe come back here for one more after I take a look at the news….

Well…damn, it’s only 48 degrees out there and it’s June 4th? Oh, well…that just means I won’t be getting on the bike for an hour or so and that might not be a bad thing…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed til after 6 and I wonder if that will affect my schedule for the day…ha,ha…don’t have a schedule other than to get a couple of rides in and watch the drunks on bikes later….should be good for a laugh or two….only did two rides yesterday so I could get out to the beach for the first time and relax a bit…it wasn’t too warm but I did get the first swim in for the year so that was cool…that water was about 62 degrees and that still feels pretty cold when the air temp is only 70 with the wind blowing 15 off the lake….I did almost get out for a third ride but when I got on the bike, the left pedal was making a cracking noise that annoyed the heck out of me and I had to figure it out…so I took a pedal off the black bike to swap out to make sure the noise was in the pedal and then washed it out and then lubed it and I think I have it fixed…just figured out that those pedals have over 16K miles on them so I guess I should start looking for a new set….want to keep the black bike rideable just in case someone comes out and wants to take a ride with me….the first people moved into one of the rentals across the street yesterday and it isn’t even done yet and I can’t figure that out…and I wonder who can afford 1900 dollars a month? They are pretty small houses when I now look at them and can’t be more than 1100 sq ft…and no basement…weird….not much to do today….just going to wait for the temp to come up and then get on the bike for the first ride and then wing it for the rest of the day….it looks like I’m going to take the day off tomorrow with the rain…or I’m going to use that for an excuse and get a rest day in since I’ll probably do three rides today….more later….

Well…damn, I can’t remember being this stiff in a long time and I know how it happened…and it’s all my fault for doing 45 miles a day on the bike for the past 6 of 7 days….and the stiffness is even in my neck and shoulders, too, and that is pretty unusual…even my feet hurt so maybe I’ve reached my limit and should pull back some…I think I’ll use the rain for an excuse to take a day off Sunday and try to heal up a bit….didn’t sleep too badly last night but was up at 3:41 for the first time and the out of bed a little after 6….cripes, I’m worn out….sure hope the coffee starts to work soon or it is going to be brutal on the bike here in a few minutes…you know, I wonder how I got so off track with riding….I’m feeling a compulsion to get out there three times a day and I think that’s not healthy for someone as old as I am…is there a precedent for this kind of self abuse? I started riding as a way to get into shape and burn some calories since I’ve always had a problem with my weight but the weight is not coming off anymore even with not eating much and burning 1800 a day on the bike…I should be losing a pound every 5 days with the extra burn of 600 cals a day…I mean damn, I only had a chicken sandwich with a quarter of a chicken breast and a handful of chips with a glass of milk…at about 500 calories for lunch and a small pork rib with asparagus for dinner for another 400 or so…so I’m under 1K cals a day and can’t lose weight? I am really starting to hate even thinking about this crap all day every day…..oh, well….not much to do today…I do need to do the weed walk in the yard today since I noticed a bunch of them mowing yesterday and I want to run out to Aldis for some stuff I forgot and I may go out to the beach this aft to get a swim in…but, it’s only going to be about 70 today and that may be a little cool for swimming…we’ll see…more later…

Well…can’t get a line from the Neil Young song “Coupe DeVille” out of my head this morning…”well I hit the wall…woke up this morning and I hit the wall..” and that is just how I feel this morning after doing 45 miles a day on the bike for 5 of the past 6 days…I had been thinking that I may have been overdoing it for a person my age and I think I was right…but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get smart and take a day off…nope, that would be too easy…and would make me too guilty…so I need to think what to do…I was so exhausted last night that when I got into bed and needed a new set of earplugs, I just bit the cords off them instead of getting back out of bed and cutting them off with scissors….and I didn’t get out of bed til almost 7 this morning…so, I’m pretty used up this morning and I’m not sure when I’m going to be able to get going…or if I should…didn’t get much done yesterday but water the lawn to keep it alive and ride the bike for almost 4 hours…I am going to get to 1K miles outdoors on the bike today and with the 800 miles downstairs, I am inching up on 2K for the year so far but I’m not sure if the 6050 goal is doable with how I feel right now…not much to do today…just need coffee, coffee, coffee…and to read the news a bit…I was bad last night and had a cocktail and that may be why I feel like crap this morning so I won’t do that again for a while….I think that is triggering my depression again and all I want to do is sit here and stare at this screen…but, I won’t…I will drag myself out in a few minutes…or a half hour since it is still only 53 out there and I don’t want to be cold….more later….

Well…after having a lot of birds on the feeder out here over the winter and into spring, I’m down to only one bird left still using it. I have a young male Cardinal who is on the feeder almost once every 10 minutes or so and spends a lot of time sitting in the feeder as he eats…and he is even using the water container I put out a couple of days ago but he is the only one I’ve seen do that…I really expected that the squirrels would be the ones getting drinks from it but I don’t think they’ve found it yet…I did almost get the female grey squirrel to eat out of my hand today..she got about a foot away and then ran so I had to throw the bread out so she could still get it…she still runs toward the back door when I come out but is  pretty wary and just stands there on her hind feet watching me…still no hummingbirds and I wonder if I should do a count of the days I’ve waited? We’ll see….

Well…that was about normal…went to bed at the normal time, tossed and turned for the normal two hours trying to get to sleep, and then out of bed at the normal time of 6am…so about 5 1/2 hours last night but I feel okay today so I’ll take it…just saw a pretty cool thing…I moved the hummingbird feeder over to hang from the tree just outside my kitchen window yesterday and, with the sun coming up, it looks like there is a light inside it and it glows…I hope the birds find it this year…if not, it will be the second year I’ve had it up with no birds….I really don’t hurt as much as I should with doing 45 miles a day the past two days and I am going to get my day started today with getting the first ride in at 7am before I do the grocery run which will set me up to do 45 again today….with not working on the house, I have a lot of time that needs to be filled and I guess riding the bike is as good as anything until the water gets warm enough to go out and swim every day…I almost went to the beach yesterday but the 20mph wind would have sandblasted me and that is just no fun…and it looks like it won’t be warm enough to go out the rest of the week with highs in the 60’s and lower 70’s…I do think I found out why my allergies spiked over the weekend…it looks like all of the tall grass along the trail is blooming and the high wind is spreading the pollen everywhere….was just damn miserable the past few days and was hoping the rain we didn’t get would wash some of it out of the air…no luck…not much to do today…just riding and the grocery run and I may have to start using the sprinkler on the lawn to keep it alive til next week when it’s supposed to rain….and that will cost some large dollars but it has to be done….oh, well…more later….

Well…If you were here last night, you saw that I called myself stupid for tacking on a third 15 mile ride for the day and it was a struggle to finish it…felt like crap afterward but did that stop me from doing it again tonight? Nope… but this time I felt good coming back and even did a full sprint all the way back from the beach…I will use the excuse that I was trying out all of the adjustments I made on the bike today starting with the seat position…and I can’t believe the difference that moving it about 3/8ths of an inch and tilting the front up one notch does…no pain on the way back when it hurt like crazy coming back on the second ride this morning…I wonder if it’s the electrolyte stuff that my daughter sent me…two of those a day and I think it’s making a difference….we’ll see….I think I’m working on making 45 miles a day the new normal as long as the weather cooperates….ha,ha, it never rains out here so that won’t be a problem….last one for the month…yay!

Well…running really late today with not getting out of bed til almost 7 and I feel really beat today…and I think that’s the fallacy of doing 3 rides a day…I shouldn’t even do two today to let my legs repair themselves but I will…I think it’s going to be a while, though, my thighs have a constant pain that I’m going to have to work through to get any speed up this morning…oh, well…as I said, a little stupid to do 45 miles a day….didn’t see any meteors last night but I was only up til 11 or so and I think the peak was supposed to be almost 2am and there was no way I was going to stay up that late with how beat I was….I’ll have to check the news to see if it was a boom or bust…not sure if I can support another hard work day like yesterday and I think I’m going to have to take it easy…have been coughing like crazy after getting back from the last ride yesterday and it has to be allergies…may have to take one of the bad allergy meds today to try to cope with it and I am not looking forward to that…not much to do today…have no plans at all other than to ride twice and take care of the lawn and garden….the wind is blowing like crazy again today and that might be one of the reasons my legs hurt so much today…going into a 25mph wind yesterday was just brutal and it looks the same out there this morning….more later…

Well…sitting here feeling like all of the energy has drained out of me and you can call me stupid for doing it to myself…after I made a sandwich for dinner, I still had time on my hands so I decided to go out for a third ride to make it 45 miles for today and that might not have been such a good idea with how I feel…even fixed up some of the electrolyte mix my daughter sent me the other day to help with dehydration since my toe started to hurt and that is a big sign that I can’t ignore…other than that, I had a pretty good day today…got the errands run and cleaned the porch and all the dirt out of the windows but they will need to be replaced since they are double pane and have fog inside of them that can’t be cleaned off…but, I’m not going to spend 4 grand to have them done right now…and I got to use the porch today to have my coffee and read the news along with doing one of these and that hasn’t happened at all this year….and I do think I came up with a way to cheaply replace the rotted lattice on the front steps…going to get some pressure treated fence boards and cut them in half and screw them to the supports to fill it all in….and it shouldn’t cost a lot since I only need about 30 boards with cutting them in half and I can get them cheap at lowes…about 2.20 a board on sale so I’ll to fill the Miata up and get started on that this summer…so, all in all , a pretty good day but I am waiting for the idiots to start pollute the neighborhood with their boom boom crap any minute….but, right now I need to just take a break and have another glass of water….

Well…for the first time ever, I am writing one of these from my porch couch…have all the windows open and the is wind blowing the curtains around and I have my last cup of coffee sitting next to me and things are okay…I am waiting for the boom boom boom to start but I am going to enjoy the sound of the wind blowing through the trees until it does…this porch really need to be cleaned, though, and I may work on that this afternoon…or I may not…it is nice not having the tv on for a change and just listening to other things….had an interesting morning going out to look for shoes at Dunham’s…they didn’t open til 10 so I had about 45 minutes to kill…luckily the store is near all the other ones I use so I started the time wasting at Target since I needed another set of bath towels…I mean a grown man should have more than one set, right? So, I even color coordinated it with the grey that I painted the bathroom so now I have a blue and a grey set that I can rotate in there…and it only cost me 13 bucks for the new set so that is cool….but I still had lots of time after that so I shot over to the dollar store and got a bunch of stuff including one of those static dusters like a swiffer for doing my blinds and other stuff when they get dusty…which is all the time, and it only cost 1.25 instead of the 10 bucks a swiffer costs….and I got lots of other stuff…some stainless steel scrubbers, some dish scrubbers, and a new pair of garden gloves all for about 5.50 so that was a bargain…but, I still had time to kill so I went over to Aldi’s to get a couple of things I needed and then it was 10…so back to Dunham’s to look at the shoes,and they were ugly so I didn’t get them…and that kind of sums up the day so far….I am going to get to a political one today but I need to make lunch first…it’s heading toward one and I haven’t eaten anything yet…so I need to do that right now….more later…