Well…just picked and had the first tomato from my garden today…but that is a good 6 weeks later than they were last year and it was only one little cherry tomato…and the weird thing is that the other 6 that are in that bunch show no hint of pink at all so they won’t be ripe for weeks yet…I do have some regular tomatoes that have started to ripen but I can’t believe how small they are even with feeding the heck out of them…but I do have 4 cukes when I expected to have none this year since the vines were all pretty sickly earlier in the summer and I can’t wait to make some home made pickles when they are ready….can’t wait to slice a few tomatoes and have them with salt, pepper, and tortilla chips for a meal…I can use the vitamins and fiber…..need a different approach to the garden next year to make bigger tomatoes and get some peppers going early….I still have jalpenos in the freezer so I can survive until next year…

Well…another 5 am morning but I was able to stay in bed until almost 6:30 and I’m not sure if that is a win or not…don’t feel like it is and all I want to do is go back to bed…but, I won’t since i need to get on the bike in the next 22 minutes to get my day started…ick….got a few things done yesterday and I am contemplating mowing the lawn today but I may let if go til Monday since it is not really that long even with the rain we had out here…when I did the weed walk yesterday, it was crunching under my feet so I probably should just let it go for a while…and it is supposed to rain over the weekend…yeah…that’s funny to me too….and leaving it longer might help it grow a bit….the premier league season starts today with crystal palace and arsenal playing this afternoon and I am looking forward to that distraction….but that means I need to get all of my work done by 3 but I don’t have a lot do do so that will be pretty easy even with getting a beach run in…damn, I don’t know why I feel so fat today even with only having two meals yesterday and no snacks….so that was only about 1200 calories and all I want to do is cut that back to around 800 or so and continue to lose weight…and that is a problem with riding two hard rides where I sprinted out and back….not much to do today…just a normal day with two rides and a beach run and then back here to do laundry as I watch soccer…this place needs to be cleaned but I’m not motivated to do that…I am going to pick the first cherry tomato today and I have a few others that are getting ripe so I’ll need to get some tortilla chips and start eating them and I can’t wait….more later…

Well…yeah, I’m probably going to jinx it, but I checked the coolant in the car after driving it for a week and the radiator is still full and I can’t figure that out…okay, I did put some old stop leak in it that I had in the car stuff tote downstairs, but there was maybe a fifth of the bottle if that much so it shouldn’t have stopped the leak…and a weep hole leak in the pump normally won’t stop with that stuff but heck, I’ll take it if it gives me another month of not having to burn 800 bucks to have a new water pump put in….weird…and I did get some work done around here today pulling some of the weeds, doing the weed walk, and cutting up the sunflower that the damn squirrels broke…..oh, and I noticed that I have a blood clot under my tongue when I was doing my teeth a few minutes ago and I wonder what the heck that is about? No pain or anything so I guess I’ll just watch it for a few days to see what happens…cripes…what else is going to happen?

Well…that was a little better…didn’t wake up til 5 or so and didn’t get out of bed til 6:23 and I’ll take that any day…and it looks like there isn’t any wind out there this morning so it will be pretty easy rides today…I do still feel pretty good about having lost weight this year and that makes me want to lose more to get down to my goal of 170…it was nice that it rained out here yesterday and with the food I put on the lawn, it should green up pretty well….and I’ll probably have to mow tomorrow….and it’s going to rain again Sunday so I can put the hose away for a few days other than watering the flowers and garden…I am a little excited the I have some cherry tomatoes that are ripening but they are almost a month later than last year and I’m not sure what is going on…and I noticed I have a few cukes on the plants and I can’t wait to make some pickles from them but that will be a couple of weeks yet…didn’t get anything done yesterday and the plan for today is to do nothing again…it is going to be almost 90 today so it is going to be a beach day and I’ll get more sun and tan and a swim in…they are still working on the beach and almost have the pond filled in but I hope they don’t take the hill away…it makes for a good view when I set my lounger up on it….not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a few minutes to get the day started and then I’m just going to wing it for the rest of the day….I am finally getting in to the whole summer off thing and relaxing…but that’s almost over and I’m going to have to get back to work…but not today….more later…

Well…damn, it’s about time…it’s finally raining out here after having the storms miss to the north and south the past couple of days and it looks like it is going to rain off and on for a couple of hours and we can sure use it…I thought it was going to miss us again after a big thunderstorm slid by to the north just as I was finishing up the second ride this morning…but I got both of them in and was almost going to hit the beach until the thunder started but I still may go out later if the rain stops…I got lucky when I was out at Meijers when I heard thunder just as I walked in the store so I went back out to put the top up on the car and a few minutes later the skies opened and it was pouring so much that it was loud in the store…but again, this Meijers is to the east of here where the storms popped up and it barely even rained here….let’s hope it keeps up for a while to make use of the food I put on the lawn yesterday….so now what do I do? It’s hard to just sit here but I don’t want do do any work, either…so let’s hope for more rain and maybe I’ll watch some tv….

Well…damn, need to get going since it’s almost 7 and I need to get out on the bike before I head out for the grocery run…tossed and turned so much last night that all of the pillows and covers ended up all over my bedroom…and I’m feeling the lack of sleep today…don’t want to get on the bike with the wind blowing as it is but I know I have to….and the damn rain is missing us to the north today but I am not going to water the lawn after paying my hundred buck water bill today…didn’t get a lot done yesterday and probably won’t today, either, since I’m just not motivated to do much…and I really don’t have a lot to do anyway…but I do need to start thinking about working on the house again…I think I’m going to work on the living areas that I use instead of the last bedroom….want to get the ugly wood grain paneling painted and that will be easier than scraping the wallpaper and paint off the bedroom walls…and that will leave me with that to do over the winter…not much to do today…just the bike ride and the grocery run and need to hit DD since they have ham slices on sale for 1.79 a pound and I can’t pass that up….more later….

Well…had a pretty good day today but had a bit of not so good news from my doctor appointment yesterday…not sure if I talked about this before but I’ll recap…a couple of years ago, three actually, I had a colonoscopy where they found 5 polyps and removed them and they were pretty concerned but life intervened with the covid pandemic so I didn’t get another one in the one year period they recommended…well, the new doctor was pretty alarmed and scheduled me for another one in October…and that’s not the alarming part…after looking at the photos they took during it and the doctor’s report, my new doctor thinks it’s a 50/50 chance that a polyp has turned into colon cancer in the past three years…so, crap…another thing to worry about for the next 3 months..that they may have to take a chunk out of my colon if that’s what they find…at least they now have pills to cleanse the colon to prep and I don’t have to drink a gallon of the other crap that was the worst part of the procedure….but still…this is not a good thing and it will be the first major health problem that I’ve had my entire life…other than pneumonia and I got a shot for that yesterday….crap and double crap…

Well…man, I must have been tired since I didn’t get out of bed til almost 7 today…and I felt it all afternoon yesterday….might have been the lack of caffeine that I am fixing right now with the first cup of coffee….I only did one ride yesterday and I don’t feel guilty about that one bit and that surprises me some…but, I’ll be back on the bike for two today and I’ll be running late all day since I’m not going to get on the bike for 20 minutes or so….I did get out to the beach yesterday but only got in the water for a minute since there was a bad rip and undertow and I didn’t feel like fighting it…I was the only one on the beach and I wonder why…I know it wasn’t too sunny and the wind was blowing pretty hard but it was plenty warm enough to sit out there for while….I still feel pretty good about having lost 20 lbs this year but, even with that, the charts say I am still overweight and I can’t figure that out….but that means I need to get down another 10 pounds to get to “normal” weight and I guess that’s the goal now….I think the charts don’t take into account that I have 24 inch thighs from riding so much and muscle weighs more than fat….hmmmm…I may even have to buy some new clothes since the ones I have now are hanging off me and that makes me smile….I do have a lot of work to do today so I need to get going…want to get the last of the feed on the lawn and do the weed walk this afternoon since it is supposed to rain tomorrow…ha,ha….yeah, that is still a joke since it never rains out here…I do need to make some more pasta salad today since I like having easy food that I just need to spoon out of the container….and I like it and am still wondering why I never made it before….not much to do today…going to get back into the normal routine of bike rides and out to the beach for a swim…running a little slow today with celebrating that I’m not dying last night with a couple of cocktails….and I had a burger since I could..more later….

Well…have been looking for a political topic for the day and haven’t had a lot of luck so I guess I’ll do something else…not sure if I Iike this life without caffeine…or this day without caffeine since I didn’t have any coffee this morning so my blood pressure wouldn’t be elevated for my doctor’s appointment today…and it wasn’t…it was in the 120’s so I can live with that..but damn, I am just so tired right now that I can’t wait til tomorrow morning when I can get back to normal…and I didn’t take any allergy meds either and that leaves me with a headache that could be from that or from the lack of caffeine…not sure which but it hurts a bunch….one good thing that came out of the appointment today was that my weight is down to 180 lbs and that is 20 lbs less than my last appointment 3 years ago….I knew I was making progress but this makes all the work worth it…and now I’m on my way down to my goal of 170 by my next appointment in November…but today I’m going to splurge and have a cocktail later…after I take a nap right now since I was up at 4 today…and that is way too early….

Well…I did get a bike ride in this morning and there was nothing on the radar so I planned to do a second one…but it started spitting rain just as I pulled up to the garage so I decided to put the bike in just in case…and about 10 minutes later it actually rained for about 3 minutes…that was pretty close to me getting wet today and I really wasn’t in any mood for that…now the decision to be made is do I go out for ride two or do I just say one is enough for this morning? Okay, you know the answer to that…if it stops raining…and it has…before 9 I’ll head back out on the bike for another one…it is a little weird going out with no coffee but I feel okay and got a good sprint in on the way back so I guess I’ll survive it….now I need to look at the radar and see if the rain is really done….more later….