Well…we’ll get to the good news in a minute but I have a question to ask? How the heck do you operate without a usable thumb? My right one normally hurts like crazy all the time so I use my left one to compensate…but after the injury to my left one yesterday, I’m left without a thumb to use since the left one now hurts worse than my right….maybe I can use it as an excuse to take a few days off? We’ll see…now, to the small bit of good news…I just got a renewal notice for my driver’s license and I can renew it online! No going into the SoS office and having to take an eye test…and that was starting to concern me since my eyes take some time to adjust and become clear when I get up in the morning…I see perfectly fine when they clear up but it would be just my luck I’d go in on a day when they were bad and flunk the darn test and then have to spend big bucks on glasses that I really don’t need…so, I’ll take any small bit of good news and can stop thinking about it for 4 more years….

Well…running a little late this morning and it’s from not sleeping until late this morning and then not up until after 6:30…feel pretty crappy today from it and I am not getting on the indoor bike today…I’ve done two days in a row of doubles and will get out on the bike in thermasuit this morning since it is going to rain this afternoon…check that…I won’t be getting outside on the bike this morning with the rain only about an hour away and it still in the 30’s outside…so I will be on the bike downstairs in about 20 mins or so…ugh….I did get my seeds for the garden planted last night since I was so bored just sitting here and that was the only thing I had to do today so I’ll have to think of some other stuff but I don’t want to…this taking the summer off is going to be harder than I thought….the gash in my left thumb seems to be healing some already and I sure hope it didn’t hurt the nail bed like I did with my right one…the nail on it is still not healed from ripping it on the fence and it has a split down the middle that is still there a year later…and it continues to grow with the split in it and I’m not sure if it will ever heal…damn, I just want some time with no injuries on my hands…they are so scarred and beat up from working around here they look even older than they are….not much to do today…hey, I got through this one without talking about working on the house…almost….and I really don’t have much to do…laundry and cleaning but that is about it….probably should get on the bike now…more later….

Well…damn, I’m not sure why I keep doing this to myself but I worked my butt off and accomplished some things this morning….first the indoor bike and then a run over to Lowes to look for a short piece of tubing that they didn’t have and I almost left without anything since it was cold and wet but halfway out the door I said nope and went back in and picked up the 10ft piece, put the top down on the car and drove home with 6 feet of tubing sticking out of the back of the car…then I worked on the garden and got the soil turned and the manure mixed in along with fixing the fence and raking the leaves…then cutting up the branches that I’ve picked up since the snow melted and getting them put in a big yard bag…after that, I just couldn’t leave the front gate when I had all the parts so I got out my grinder with a cut off wheel and cut the old corners off, cut a 26 inch piece of the tubing out of the 10 feet, and installed the whole thing and now I have a gate that is not flopping around with the bottom tube rusted completely away…it still doesn’t hang straight but that is a job for another day since I gashed a big one in the back of my left thumb when the cut off wheel slipped…doesn’t hurt much but it bled like crazy…the new band aid with antibiotic with pain reliever has helped…so, I did get a few things done this morning that had been bugging me…but now I’m done for the day other than getting an outdoor ride in after lunch….more later….

Well…that was pretty crappy…didn’t sleep much at all on my first night in the new bedroom but I don’t think that has anything to do with it….haven’t been sleeping much lately but I don’t feel too badly so I can live with it…I feel kind of adrift with getting the major project done and planning to take the summer off…if we ever have a summer…looking out into the middle of May, it is going to be like March with temps in the 40’s for highs and I don’t remember this type of crap for a long time…we get one day around 70 Saturday and the back into the 40’s again until about the 20th of May…where the hell is spring? Not having one this year I guess….so, back on the bike indoors today and in thermasuit if I want to go out for a ride but may not with the wind forecast to be blowing 20-30 and that is just a bit much…I am going to run out to Lowes this morning to see if I can get a short piece of tubing to fix my fence…I do have a piece of dowel that I took out of the closet that I can sub in there short term if I have to so I may take the rivets out and put the new corners on….and I do need to get started on the outside and get my veggie seeds planted….so, I do have things to do today…and I may continue to take the front bedroom apart so I can start in there….so much for the summer off….more later…..

Well…the third Wednesday of every month is a good day usually, and today was okay…reached a financial goal with the latest SS cash dumped into my account and now I have enough to survive for two years if it comes to that…if I stop working on the house and don’t spend any money, that is….but that really is the plan for the summer so I can reach the next goal by September…I do need some months that I don’t spend hundreds on the house but with no projects planned until the end of summer, it’s doable…I did start taking the other bedroom apart today after I moved into the restored one and I don’t know why…I guess I just need to have something going on…I did get out for a bike ride today in shorts and that was a bit cold without gloves…even forgot to put my riding half gloves on so my hands hurt like crazy without the padding in them…and I think I’ll keep doing the inside rides for the next month or so until the weather warms up…I mean come on…40’s in May? That is the forecast after the one warm day Saturday and I am getting really depressed about it…oh,well…going to run over to Lowes tomorrow to see if they have any shorter pieces of fencing that I can buy instead of the 10 foot long ones that everyone carries…and then I can fix the gate out front so it doesn’t look like crap with the bottom frame piece rusted out…and I’ll probably start on tilling the garden and mixing in the manure to get ready to plant…and I’ll have to get the seeds going in cups downstairs again so they will be ready…damn, still busy with not even working on the interior of the house….

Well…I think I’m still holding the fact that my brother died at arms length by immersing myself in the routine of life….but it doesn’t seem right somehow that I’m doing the grocery run, moving into my new bedroom, and cleaning…and life goes on as before and he’s gone…hmmm…but I know it has to so here goes…again….I did sleep okay last night and didn’t get up til after 6 so that is a win for how badly I’ve been sleeping lately….one funny thing came out of moving into the new bedroom yesterday…I have been calling it the “big bedroom” for a while now but yesterday I got out the tape measure to find out just how much bigger it is…and it’s only one foot longer than the one I’m using now…and, with the design of the house, it is the same width but it just feels bigger with the 8 foot ceiling in there that is not hidden by a crappy dropped ceiling like the room I’m using now….houses were different back when this one was built and bedrooms were to sleep in and that’s what they were built for…not the palatial all purpose rooms they are now…and that’s fine…I really don’t want or need them to be bigger…would rather the space be used for the rest of the house and even 1100 SF is fine for one person living alone….not much to do today…just need to get back on the bike downstairs today even though I may try to get a ride in outdoors, too, and then the grocery run and moving the bed and nightstand into the new bedroom…and I need to cook today since the big ham is almost ready for the freezer and I have chicken and burger thawing for the next few days of meals….more later….

Well…after doing all the work on the new bedroom and getting the rug this morning, about an hour ago I decided to start moving stuff in there and it went really easily moving the dresser…just put a couple of the sliders under it that my daughter gave me and picked up one end and slid it right in there…then I cleaned it up along with the chair and tv so now I’m ready to move the nightstand and bed in there tomorrow and the move will be complete…it is nice to have a finished room to live in and I even got a notice from amazon that the blinds I ordered will be here sat morning so I can install those and get rid of the newspaper that I have on the window…so finally, the work that I had scheduled to do first but got sidetracked by the kitchen and bathroom is done….almost, and tonight will be the last night in the small bedroom…and done before my plan of the end of May so that is cool….and that will be my only job for tomorrow and then a week off to work on the yard….

Well…have been looking halfheartedly at the news this afternoon and with the happenings of yesterday, I just can’t get worked up enough about politics to even think about doing one of those…so, what to do? I really don’t want to talk about my brother, either, so I think I’ll just noodle a bit and see what happens…it looks like my lawn has started to grow enough so that I’ll have to mow it here in about a week or so and that will be good since I’ll use the catcher to pick up the small sticks and leaves for the first mowing and put them in one of the big bags for yard waste if I have any of them…will have to check in the garage to see before the grocery run tomorrow….I did get out to get an area rug for the bedroom this morning…got a nice 5×7 one in shades of grey that go well with the new wall color and have it unrolled on the floor in there so it will flatten out before I start to move in there later in the week…but I need to let the paint smell go away a bit first or it will bug the hell out of me trying to sleep…I’m not sure if they got the color right for the paint in there…it seems like a shade darker than I wanted but I love the way  looks so no big deal…but I am going to take the can and color chip in to depot tomorrow morning so they can check it to see if I’m right or it’s just my eyes…haven’t done much today but clean and I’ve take the shop vac apart to try to get all of the plaster dust out of it with some luck but I don’t think it will ever be clean again…and I did get all of the tools put away and the work box put downstairs and have the dining room table cleaned so I can make a pizza later in the week…still need to vacuum and wash the floors tomorrow and I will get back on the bike tomorrow since I skipped today…but right now Man U is going to lose to Liverpool so I think I’ll start watching that….more later?