Well…damn, getting up at 6 with the heat running on May 18th really sucks…but, I did sleep okay last night so I guess that’s something….and it is finally raining out there and that may save my lawn without spending a hundred bucks to water it…actually feel pretty good this morning and have a little energy for a change….I did start throwing in a recon ride around the city in the evening to start to get a better picture of how to get around here…and it only took a year of living out here to do it….this is a pretty run down city but there are pockets of people trying to make a difference and that is pretty cool to see….I’ve always found that riding is the best way to really see a place since you can take your time to look around without worrying about clogging up traffic…not that there is much traffic around here to clog up….I am still marveling that I’ve done over 10K of these and I will add to that count today with the rain and taking the day off the bike that I really need….I do need to do the grocery run today and stop at Menards to get some shade grass and dirt to do some repairs on the lawn in front of the house where I killed it with salt to keep the walk to the mailbox clear….and there is one more thing I wanted to get from there but I can’t remember it right now…darn….not much to do today….with the rain, I may only be able to get one ride in and that is okay…and I’m really hoping I can’t get any rides in since my legs do need a rest…and I could use some time to clean around here….more later….

Well…just took a look at the post count and missed the big milestone of 10,000 of these that I’ve done that I hit yesterday….wow, 10,000 of anything is a lot but sitting down to do all of these and reaching this milestone is pretty cool…10,000 ideas, 10,000 times of coming here to put down my thoughts, to rant, and to write enough that the “e” has disappeared from the keys of my laptop….I really hope that I’ve added to the discussion of what is important in life…mine anyway…and I’ve made it pretty clear where I stand on politics and stupidity and the damage that can be done when they are combined by cynical assholes grasping for power over the good of this country….and I guess I’ll keep it up for a while more…maybe 10K more? Sounds like a goal to me….thanks for reading…

Well…as you can see from me doing three of these before 9am that waiting for the temp to come up has become boring and is taking way too long to happen….I mean damn, it’s getting into late May and it’s not even 50 yet? I suppose I could find other things to do like clean etc but I really like to get the rides out of the way before I get on to working…I do think that 19 days of doing 30 miles a day is starting to wear me out a bit after the flat legs I had yesterday, but that could be a function of not eating enough…yeah, I know you hear that from me almost every dam day and I should weigh 130 pounds with the calories I take in but that’s not how it works for me….but I have lost some weight so far this year so I guess I shouldn’t bitch but do something about it….I think it is going to take a mindset change to take the summer off if today is any example….I’m just no good at sitting and waiting…..but that is going to be my life from now on…and I don’t know how I feel about that….

Well…that was better…slept mostly through the night and didn’t get up til 6 and feel okay today…so three for three…and it’s only 42 out there so I won’t be on the bike until at least 9 and that will be strange…but I’m a little sore and can use the rest…didn’t get a lot done yesterday but didn’t need to so that is okay…I really did get bored yesterday afternoon so I got back on the bike around 5:30 and just fooled around riding around downtown just to see more of it and get a better idea of it’s layout…I did find out where Apple ave starts just a few blocks from here and I didn’t know that before so that adds some knowledge that I can use…not sure if the lilac cuttings are going to survive so I guess I need to look at other methods to get them to root…I used to be pretty good at getting cuttings to start and need to apply some of those techniques and I think I can get them to start…I did have the idea to start some blackberry canes along the small part of the yard along the west side of the garage to have my own little berry patch and I still may do that…we’ll see…it looks like I’m going to have the same problem with the yard that I had last year and that is that it doesn’t rain much out here and I’m already losing part of it after the past two weeks of no rain…and with the sandy soil up here, what rain that does come just drains into the ground too deep for the lawn to use….but I am not going to spend a hundred bucks a month of water to keep it alive….not much to do today…..just the rides and some fooling around with the garden…and maybe a little cleaning….and I may continue taking the dropped ceiling out of the second bedroom just to do something to prevent getting bored….we’ll see…more later….

Well…some damn animal is cutting down my sunflowers after they get up to about 3-4 inches and now I am on a mission to find out what is doing it and kill it…until that time, I’m going to have to buy some clear cups and invert them over the flowers until they get big enough that they can’t be cut down…and it’s the only flowers they are paying any attention to with lots of others up out there…so I won’t be putting the ones that have sprouted downstairs in the back until I get the cups and can protect them…and I may just plant the rest of the pack out back, too and that may allow me to have 3 or 4 that survive…have felt pretty crappy all day today and my legs were so flat on the bike that it was hard to get up any sprint speed and I’m not sure what that is about….I know that I did get up at 5:30 and didn’t sleep for crap so that may be why I took a short nap this afternoon….but that didn’t help much and I’m still pretty worn out…oh, well…probably just old…

Well…that sucked….missed the eclipse last night since it was cloudy out here all night..and we didn’t get any rain from it so it double sucked…and it’s only 47 degrees out there right now so I won’t be out on the bike until the temp comes up some…and I’ve been up since 5:30 and I’m already bored….so this could be a trying day with already feeling pretty depressed….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but get the seeds in the garden and water the lawn…with the two bike rides, of course, and today looks about the same…but I do need to hit Menards to get food for the garden and a new set of funnels to use in the garage…not sure where my old ones went and it’s a pain maintaining the car without a set….not sure if the lilac cuttings are going to survive until they root so I may have to figure out another way of getting some plants for the back yard….I wonder what temp reading I should use? The one from the weather channel says 47 degrees and my computer says 52 and it does make a big difference in how I dress to get out on the bike…not going to wear full thermasuit since it is frickin May and I should be able to get out in shorts….not much to do today….should clean a bit in here and get the rides in but that’s all I have planned….and the bean plants are getting big enough to feed so the Menards run….but I don’t really want to do anything right now…just feel depressed….more later….

Well…you know I’ve talked about the little contests I do on the bike to keep it interesting such as trying to ride all the way back from the beach in 24th gear…which I did the other day with the help of a nice tail wind…and today the contest was a race with the Lake Express ferry that runs from here over to Milwaukee a couple of times a day to see  if I could beat it from the dock to Lake Michigan…and it worked out perfectly since I rode by just when it was leaving the dock so that set up the race…and I won the first one by about 15 seconds after working pretty darn hard on the way out to the beach…and that was on the second ride of the day when my legs had started to go flat…so I feel pretty good about that, especially when it has beaten me before…on to the next challenge….

Well…darn…up at 4:50 and then out of bed before 6 and that is not good when I didn’t get to bed until 11…so, at best a 5 hour night of sleep and that is just not enough…I did get out to get the paper with the top down on the car this morning and, at 53 degrees, it was a little refreshing and woke me up pretty well….not sure what I’m going to do today about riding the bike….there isn’t a lot of wind so it should be an easy ride but I’m not sure if I’ll do two today…have done doubles every day this past week and that may just be enough….going to go over 500 miles outdoors today and that gets me to 1300 miles or so for the year but to get to 6K, I’m going to need a bunch of triples in there, too….it looks like I’m going to lose part of my trail in the next couple of weeks as they start construction on one of the big rich people projects along the lakeshore….and by rich people I mean that these “affordable” condos are going to start at a half million dollars and go up to a million dollars…I’ve never lived in a world where that kind of money was “affordable”….and I’m curious what else is going in there like a grocery store because the closest one to that area is Meijers that is 4 miles away….I guess they’re rich so they can have everything delivered….I did have to start watering part of the lawn yesterday to keep it alive until it rains since the new grass seems to be more sensitive to drought than the rest of it…and it hasn’t rained here in almost two weeks…so I’ll need to do that again today….not much to do today…just the ride here in a few minutes and then I do need to plant some more tomato and pepper seeds in the open spot in the garden but the tomatoes I planted the other day are looking better and I may have enough already…and I have a couple more sunflowers that have come up downstairs that should get planted but we’ll see about that….more later….

Well…after doing two hard bike rides and watering part of the back yard, I am done for the day….just so darn worn out that the only thing I want to do is sit on the couch for the rest of the day…but, I still want to plant a few more tomato seeds and some jalapeno seeds, too…have a 3 feet long part of the garden in the middle that is empty so I can use that as feeder for the rest of the garden if I need to replace any plants that die…and I think I’ll throw in some green pepper seeds, too since the only ones I planted were from a green pepper I used on a pizza a few weeks back…some damn animal keeps killing my sunflowers and that is starting to piss me off…three of them now and all they do is chew the top off and leave it there…not even eating it….if I see what it is, I going to throw rocks at it before they cut down the last one….but now, couch time….more later…

Well…darn, just can’t get started this morning and didn’t even get out of bed until 6:30…so I feel like I’m late even though I don’t have anything to do today but ride the bike….I’m glad I decided to mow the lawn yesterday so I don’t have to do it today….and the mower survived it with the repair holding for now so that was cool….not sure if the lilac cuttings are going to survive the rooting process but I had to give it a try since they would look pretty cool along the back fence….haven’t looked at them yet this morning but they were looking pretty sickly when I put them in dirt yesterday…I do have a couple more sunflowers coming up down there, too, that I will need to plant outside in a couple of days and figure out what to do about the tomatoes since the ones I planted are iffy at best and I need to have tomatoes in the garden….I did see a couple of dead seagulls along the water yesterday and I wonder if it is the bird flu that has people pretty alarmed? That would suck since it seems to be attacking eagles pretty hard and we have some of them out here….not much to do today…just need to get going and get on the bike so I can get two rides in before the FA cup final at 11….so that gives me a half hour to pour more coffee into me and read the news before I have to get out of here….more later…