Well…yeah, I know I should be working on a political one right now but I’ve been a little busy and just got back from the first bike ride….I did get some stuff done today and it feels good to have the back of the house cleaned up and the flower seeds planted…and I put some more weedkiller on parts of the lawn I missed the other day along with repairing the top bar on part of the fence that I have been looking at since last fall…and then I had to go over to Sternberg road to Meijers to get some olive oil that the close one didn’t have yesterday…and buy one get one free is the only way I’ll buy it so now I have oil for the rest of the year…and now I’m waiting for lunch to cook so I can eat and then get back out for the second ride….and then I’ll get the laundry in an then get to a political one….still pretty busy….

Well…damn, thought I had another 5 am out of bed day but was able to get back to sleep until after 6 and I do want to shout “win”….I wonder if this is how the mornings are going to feel this summer with not working on the house…back into my routine and it feels comfortable with not getting on the indoor bike today and probably for the next week or so with a bit of semi warm weather coming…and I don’t have a lot to do this morning other than clean up the back of the house and get the flower seeds planted…I think I have a sunflower coming up downstairs but I bought another packet of seeds and I’m going to plant a few of those this morning, too…I think the flowers didn’t come up well last year since I didn’t keep the ground watered but I will do that this year….even the few that came up last year made me smile and I think I have 4 kinds of annuals and 4 perennials to put in and I can’t wait to see how they work…hope I get more than two sunflowers to come up this year….I did get two rides in yesterday and that is the plan for today when it gets over 50 around 10am…the wind finally has cooperated and stayed under 10mph yesterday and that made for a couple of pretty good rides and I wonder if I should skip taking Sundays off as the weather warms up? Maybe go back to the no sprint weekends that I used to do and still ride? We’ll see….not much to do today…have to do a load of laundry later and need to do some meal planning since all I have thawed is chicken leg quarters and I am getting tired of them….not sure what is in the freezer but I think most of it is more leg quarters…I do have a couple of pounds of burger so I could pull some of that out I guess….it is going to be a pretty easy day….more later….I think I made my coffee too weak this morning….hmmmm…

Well…hey, consider this a bonus day with getting two of these out before 6:30am but starting this way has thrown my timing off…I normally read the news with the first glass of water when I get up, and then move on to my first cup of coffee as I fire this thing up and do my morning post…but with that reversed today, I didn’t know when to get the first cup of coffee and I had to think about it when I’m normally on autopilot….and I’ve already read the news and it’s really early….and I don’t like to have to think…that is for after the first cup of coffee and getting going this early means I have two hours before I can do the grocery run and with no indoor ride today, I’m not sure how I’m going to fill the time….I am going to try to get the flowers planted outside today but will need to do some prep work before I get to it…and I need to get the seeds for annuals this morning since I planned on perennials to provide the color but didn’t know it takes a year for them to flower…and I want some chives so I’ll get seeds for those, too….and the sunflowers I planted in cups haven’t come up so I may need to buy more seeds for those, too….but first, more coffee…and to try to get back into the routine so I can stop thinking….more later….

Well…not sure how I feel about waking up for good at 5am and then out of bed at 5:27…and I’ve had the song “Wooden Ships” running through my head since I woke up and I wonder what that is about? Normally, I would lie on the couch and read the news on my tablet before I get going here but I wondered if my brain would work any differently if I changed up the order and did one of these early before anything else….hmmm…seems that there isn’t much difference right now but I am  little fuzzy and this seems to be more work than normal…but that could be from only getting about 5 hours of sleep…it will be interesting to see how I feel later in the day…I did get the oven cleaned yesterday and, even though you are supposed to be able to use the cleaner without gloves….my hands feel like they are slightly burned and very shiny like all the oil is gone and even using lotion all day yesterday, they still don’t feel right…won’t do the no gloves thing again…and even with rinsing and rinsing, the thing still smelled when I heated up a piece of pizza for dinner…so I Ieft it open all night to see if that will help…it was so bad when I bought this place that I still have never gotten it really clean even with using 3 cans of cleaner to clean it…..but that is like the rest of this place and I probably have another year of cleaning to get it to the point I can accept it…I think my lawn is going to green up pretty good after all of the rain yesterday and putting the rest of the food on it but I will probably need to mow it again later in the week but I’m okay with that…I’ll easily have the nicest lawn in the neighborhood after all the seed last summer….not much to do today…just need to do the grocery run and then on the bike for the first ride hoping to get out for a second one later so I can start piling on the miles to get to 6K for the year…boy, I feel pretty crappy right now and I know it’s allergies this time….and that sucks….more later…

Well…with all of the rotten news today out of the corrupt SC, I had to take a break and just kind of fool around with one of my bikes after not planning on doing it all…I just went down to look at the seed cups to see if I had any more veggie plants up and the Schwinn was calling my name after neglecting it for so long so I started to look at how hard it would be to replace the cable to the back shifter and then it just kind of snowballed from there…got the cable replaced and adjusted, then aired up the tires to look for leaks, wd’d the chain and sprockets and then worked on adjusting the rear brakes so they would kind of stop the bike…they have never been very good but I think I’ve got them as good as 51 year old rim brakes can be…and it was kind of fun just noodling around with a bike and not thinking about anything….but, I think I put in the wrong length cable…when I bought 10 of them, I didn’t remember that it was 5 fronts and 5 backs and the fronts are about 10 inches shorter and that is what I used since I didn’t realize that I had two different lengths….so I’ll probably take it out for a ride and see if it works since I have less use for the front cables…have never replaced one of those in the three mountain bikes I’ve had but I do need to replace the one on the grey bike since I kinked it pretty good when I re geared the bike and had to adjust the front shifter….so, that’s about it…waiting for the last piece of pizza to heat so I can have dinner…no more later….

Well…don’t know what I think about how I slept last night…I guess it was okay but no dreams to speak of and that is the new normal that I think I’m already tired of talking about…I am pretty sore from running all of the equipment yesterday but today is going to be an easy one with rain about an hour away so that will keep me indoors on the bike today….and my left arm even hurts and that is a new pain that I haven’t felt in a while….it was nice to get some work done yesterday and today I am going to clean in here starting with the kitchen….the counters and range are pretty bad with all of my attention on doing other work and I hope I have some oven cleaner left over after using it to strip the heat registers….I did get to 1K miles on the bikes yesterday and I’m not sure if  I can get to the 6K goal for the year but I’m going to try…and I’ll be back outside starting tomorrow and it looks like we have a run of almost nice weather coming for a week or so until it goes back down to the 50’s for highs…in May…in Michigan….and that sucks…I did have some tomatoes and beans sprout yesterday but I got a little surprise with the perennial flower seeds I bought to add some color to the back of the house…most of them take a year to flower so I’ll only see vegetative growth this year….I think I’ll get some annual seeds tomorrow and plant them later in the week for the color I want…not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a minute and I do have topics for later talking about the dark day with the SC gutting women’s rights in this country….more later….

Well…with how I was feeling when I got up this morning, the chance of me getting anything done was slim to none but I surprised myself by actually getting some work done…got on the bike and got the miles in and then suited up and got started on the outside work that I needed to get done before it rains tomorrow…so, I dragged the two stroke multi tool out and, since it already had the edger head on it, I edged all of the walks and then changed the head to put the string trimmer attachment on and did the entire yard and around the house and fences….then I got the mower out and mowed the lawn…and the mower worked perfectly…then, since the weed and feed wasn’t killing the weeds fast enough, I mixed up some liquid weed killer in my tank sprayer and walked the whole yard and sprayed it….and all of that work took me over 2 1/2 hours to finish but I am done for the day….I think the ibuprofen I took really helped my right elbow that was hurting like crazy just riding the bike…and I may just take a look at the temp and see if it’s going to get warm enough to take an outdoor ride….we’ll see….

Well…darn, running late this morning and I am going to blame it on having a cocktail last night…feel pretty lousy right now and still exhausted and all I want to do is go back to bed….don’t think I’m going to do that again for a while since it is another thing that just doesn’t do anything for me anymore….too damn much guilt for doing it and I haven’t felt that for a long time…and I’m sore as heck, too, and I didn’t even do anything strenuous yesterday…okay, my computer is telling me it’s humid again and I still don’t see the worth of that information….I mean, what are you supposed to do about humidity? Not sure….should you stay in the house? Should you dress for it? Do I have to go out and buy humidity clothes? Weird….the car did run great yesterday with the new oil and spark plugs and I’m not sure if I’m the only one that feels that way….but it does start differently and I don’t know what that is about…it takes about an extra crank for it to fire up and I hope it’s just in my head and not in the car….it looks like i won’t get outside on the bike today with the high only about 50…and yes, it is May and that sucks…but I will be going over a thousand miles on the indoor bike today if I can drag myself down there here in a few minutes…not much to do today…just the bike ride and mowing the lawn for work…and I do need to cook today since I only had one meal yesterday and that kept me under 1,000 calories for the day….have some tilapia fillets that need to be cooked along with the leftover pizza that I made Friday….then I need to plan the rest of the meals for the week and try some new recipes since I’m kind of stuck with having chicken since I can’t get anything else that cheap…I was really hoping that the rain would have cleared the air of the tree pollen that is making me miserable…maybe tomorrow since it’s supposed to rain all day…and that’s why I have to mow today since the grass is already almost too long for mulching…more later…

Well…just got back from the service for my brother and , even though it was a sad occasion, it was nice to see my brothers and sisters again for the first time in years. Man, we are all looking pretty damn old and most of us are struggling to get around….and I found out that my oldest brother is starting cancer treatment tomorrow for throat cancer and that just sucks big time…I guess I should feel lucky that I am one of only two of us who don’t have any big health problems but it doesn’t make me feel good…I do feel lucky, I guess…but that doesn’t help them feel better and that sucks, too…need to think about it a bit…my brother did say that he still has the grill to give me and he has a welder that he wants to give me, too, so that will be cool but I can’t think about that…just worry about him and the rest of them…hmmmm…

Well…damn, felt exhausted all day yesterday and I know it’s a combo of my allergies and not eating enough…I mean I tried to eat…had a piece of pizza for lunch and then a chicken leg quarter and a handful of baked fries for dinner but I know that’s still under 1500 calories…closer to a thousand and that’s nowhere near enough…okay, won’t bitch about that anymore…I’m sure you’re tired of hearing me talk about it…but, I feel better this morning and will have to remember to take some allergy meds here in a minute to get a head start on it before I get worse….didn’t get anything done yesterday but cook and today looks the same with needing to go over to Ravenna for the family get together for my brother who died a couple of weeks ago and my feeling about that are a little mixed…still haven’t gotten used to the idea that this is going to be happening more and more often as we all get older and I try not to think about it much since that would mean addressing my own mortality and I just don’t want to do that right now…it’s the start of a new month and I’m still bitching about the damn weather…come on spring…I am so tired of still bundling up everywhere I go and this week is going to be in the 50’s…again…and that means half thermasuit on the bike still…and having cold hands riding triggers the arthritis in my thumb that then hurts like crazy….oh, well…the lawn is starting to green up but the damn weed killer in the weed and feed isn’t working so I need to do a weed walk with my tank sprayer this week if I have day when it’s not raining….but the rain has kept the patches in the front wet so the grass will grow in later in the week so I guess that’s something….not much to do today…just the run out to Ravenna at 11 and then back here for a veg day and planning the work for the week…I am going to have to mow the lawn sometime but will convert the mower to mulching so that will make it easier….and I need to plant the perennial seeds I bought along the back of the house so I can have some color there…and it looks like I need to replace the outside faucet since it is leaking quite badly without the hose valve on it but I would like to get one that has a compression fitting so I don’t have to do any soldering…it will be a big enough pain just crawling into the crawl space to get to it and cutting out the old one…more work…more later….