Well…having some problems with my website this morning and I’m not sure what is going on….the original tab I had open just sat there and did nothing as I tried to get to adding a new post…I opened a new tab and it appears to be working but we’ll see…got up before 6 again today and I kind of like having the extra time before I get on the bike in the morning so I don’t feel rushed…but screwing around with the site this morning is putting me back to being a little late today…I did get the huge pork shoulder cooked yesterday and it came out pretty good and I did get to making a soft taco later in the day and that was yummy….and I now have leftovers that will last until next week and won’t have to cook at all….I did try some beef broth to cook the pork in and I’m not sure it’s a favorite…like veggie broth better and will probably use that next time….damn, still having problems with my site and I’m not sure what is going on….think I’m going to have to talk to my son who is not talking to me to see if he can figure out the problems….didn’t get anything done yesterday but cook and today looks like another easy one unless I decide to start stripping the hinges for the bathroom door with the new strip to see how it is going to work…it should work better than the 40 year old stuff I have been using….not much to do today…just the bike ride and then laundry after I’m done and then trying to figure out what is going on with this site…more later…

Well…who knew that stopping the antihistamines that helped me sleep would allow my allergies to go completely nuts and make me miserable with lots of sneezing and a nasty headache to go with it? But, I think it’s a good thing to know how bad my allergies are and then try to selectively target the symptoms instead of the shotgun effect the overnight medicine had. That doesn’t make me any less miserable, though, and I am dreading when the tree pollen hits…I may have to try some of the stuff I have in the drawer in the bathroom since I can’t get the stuff that works the best…or they won’t let me buy enough of it to be able to even use the dosage that is on the box…and I never understood that…why do they say two tablets is the recommended dosage when, if you follow it, you run out about two weeks before they let you buy more? Oh, well…may have to go back to the generic flonase that I bought on Amazon but that is 25 bucks for 5 bottles of it and I am almost out…and it depresses your immune system and that’s still not a good idea with covid still floating around…oh, well….I guess I’ll just deal with it and keep on sneezing….

Well….okay, the coffee just finished so I have to go get a cup before I get started….that’s better…had an okay night of sleep but was up at 2:44 and then for good at 5:31and I think I can cope with no sleep aids pretty well…I do remember sleep like this and it’s really not too bad…one weird thing is I’m not as cold as I used to be when I’m in bed and I wonder why that would be? I do know that I feel okay with how I’m sleeping now so I’ll take it….I did do another small cleaning project yesterday when I was in the dining room and finally got tired of looking at the dirty ceiling fan with one light burned out so I went to work on that and spent an hour cleaning the globes, taking the fan blades off and washing them, and then washing the motor to get the dust and crud off it…just like everything else in this house, the whole thing was coated in a greasy, dusty dirt that took a lot of scrubbing and soap to get it clean…and the globes looked like they were frosted when they are clear they were so coated and hadn’t been cleaned in years…one side effect of the clean globes is that the three bulb light on the fan now lights the dining room up like the damn sun it’s so bright…I may even have to go down to 60w led bulbs from the 100’s I have in there now….and that would help with getting rid of the cfl’s in the rest of the house that are so weak they barely light anything…I do have to try to balance the blades since the fan swings when it runs and that is a little annoying….but a piece of duct tape on the top should do it when I find the time….not much to do today….it’s going to be a cooking day today with doing the 8 pound pork shoulder in the instant pot this morning and everything that goes with that and the cleanup that comes with it…but I am looking forward to both the lunch of pork and mashed potatoes and gravy and the pork soft tacos for later and I won’t have to cook for 4 or 5 days after today…not sure what small project I’ll do today but I know it will be something…probably laundry and cleaning to finish out my week off….more later….

Well…as the fallout from trying to sleep without aids continues today, I really don’t feel like working at all….have been sneezing and coughing all day and feel pretty worn out but haven’t been able to take a nap this afternoon to try to help it…but I haven’t done much else, either, other than make some pickled red onions to use on the pork tacos I’m going to make tomorrow….I did get an 8 1/2 pound pork shoulder to cook in the instant pot tomorrow and I am going to make some mashed potatoes and asparagus to go with it…or I may do potatoes and carrots and make a gravy from the cooking liquid or maybe an au jus that will be just the cooking liquid without any thickening….or maybe both…I am going to add some veggie broth for the cooking liquid with some celery, garlic, onion, peppercorns, and carrots for taste along with a couple of bay leaves and just set the shoulder in the liquid without the lifting grate that normally goes in the bottom….this should make enough protein to keep me going for the next week or so without taking anything out of the freezer…and I got some Texas style boneless ribs that I am going to just portion out and freeze since I won’t need them til next week…oh, and I did get a huge bottle of laundry soap at Menard’s for 8 bucks along with the new strip that says it will strip anything in 2 minutes but I’ll believe that when I see it….I even hit the dollar store to get some 100w led bulbs to continue to replace all of the CFL’s that are all over this house and that don’t put out a lot of light….and I put gas in the car at the highest price I’ve ever paid at 4.19 but I’m okay with that….anything to help beat Putin….

Well…that kinda sucked….decided to stop using the sleep aid that I have taken for a  few months last night and the results are what I expected…tossed and turned all night and woke up about 20 times…okay, maybe 5 times but it felt like 20…and I have a bad headache today that I will probably have to take something for before I head out for the grocery run this morning…so now I’m down to no artificial anything and I’m not sure if I like it so much….since the sleep aid was an antihistamine, it kept my head clear all night so I could sleep but I woke up with it completely plugged up and that is probably the cause of the headache….oh, well…started to work on the bathroom yesterday and pulled one of the paint clogged hinges off the door and put it in some strip but the 40 year old stuff I have here just couldn’t cut the 10 or more coats of paint that was on it…so I need to stop at Menards this morning to get some better stuff since I will need to strip the heat registers that have the same amount of paint on them too….but I really should wait til it gets warm enough to wash the strip off outdoors since I don’t want to wash it down my sink downstairs….or I may just see if I can get new hinges but I like the decoration on the current ones that goes with the age of the house…man, I feel like crap this morning and I am sitting here sneezing like crazy and sweating but I guess that is all part of moving to natural sleep and will probably take a couple of weeks to have my body stabilize….not much to do today…need to hit 4 stores this morning to get the food that I need to stay in for the next week…or two grocery stores, Menards, and the dollar store since I need some light bulbs and other stuff…going to make a pork shoulder tomorrow and that will give me ingredients to make some pork soft tacos with pickled red onions and sauteed red peppers for the second meal for the rest of the week…and I really do need to finish my week off working on this place since I hurt my right hand again yesterday just doing the puttering around that I did…more later….

Well…with the coming 5 bucks a gallon prices for gas out here in Muskegon to support the cut off of any Russian oil imports to the US, I am looking for a place out here to donate a little cash for people who are not as fortunate as I am…I don’t really have to drive much…I think it was 6 miles last week so I can easily afford to pay for my gas but I know there are people who this is going to break their budgets…so, over the next few days I’ll be looking for a place I can donate a few bucks to to help some people out and get them to work and back…and I am not ever going to bitch about the cost of gas even though a lot of the price rise has been gouging by the oil companies who have just had the most profitable year ever in their histories….but that is for another one of these…

Well…as I do my week off from working on this place, I have shifted to just fooling around with small jobs to get some information that I need to start planning the next big job…first, I thought I had lost the spare keys to the house and spent an hour looking for them…but the funny thing is that I found them exactly where I thought they were after looking there twice…so that was cool…and one weird thing about this place is that every interior door has door knobs with locks in them and I didn’t get any keys for them so I thought I’d have to replace them at 40 bucks a pop…but, this morning, I found that I can unlock them with just a screwdriver so I won’t have to replace them after all….just one less thing I have to do…but all of the interior doors need a lot of repair to fix the cobbled up jobs they did putting the new knobs and latches in…so they may need to come off for that but that’s okay with living alone….I also figured out how to remove the heat registers so I can strip and paint them…the backs are only held in by the ends of the duct work folded over a flange and the grates have two screws with catches that I got to work by chipping the paint off them so all of them now fit how they are supposed to and I can take them all off when it gets warmer and start stripping them…I did get started on checking out the big blobs of stuff that were stuck to the walls in the bathroom and it looks like they are just filler that was never sanded and it came off with my putty knife…and that got me started on the bathroom so I guess that’s the next room to work on…I wonder if I should start on the window first? But not today…I’ve already hurt my thumb again and that sucks…so maybe back to resting for the rest of the day…

Well….darn, already running late today and it’s only 6:41….didn’t get out of bed until after 6 and didn’t have any dreams that I remember and that sucks a little….have been sleeping pretty well lately and that usually means some dreams and I may be getting spoiled from it….I did sleep on my right shoulder again and it is howling in pain and I’m glad I have this week off to let things rest…had a completely veg day yesterday that should have happened Sunday but today is going to be a little busy with trying to find a dentist and doctor so I can get back on track with my health….I have tempted fate too much by waiting to get going on my teeth and I am longing for the day when I can eat without pain again….and I know I need a yearly checkup that I missed last year with the pandemic going on and I hope that being good has helped my blood pressure some…I know I weigh less so that should be a good thing….we did get a bunch of snow out here yesterday but I didn’t need to shovel with the walks melting off as the day went on…I really hope that will be the last time it snows out here but the forecast is for temps that are around 10 degrees below the average for this time in March….I do need to cancel my Netflix account this week since they are raising prices again next month and it is not worth over 15 bucks a month….I rarely use it anymore with Plex and emby available so I need to say goodbye to them….and I will tell them why in a scathing e-mail if I can work up the outrage of their almost constant rate hikes…two this year already? I think they have miscalculated the necessity of using their service with everything else that is out there….not much to do today…and that is boring, boring, boring….just the bike and then planning for the next repairs on the house…I am really leaning toward doing the bathroom next since it is the second worse room here after the kitchen and it is small enough that it won’t take much time….and I may let the ceiling go til summer since it needs lots of plaster repair…we’ll see….more later…

Well….damn it’s before 10 am and I’m already bored with taking time off working on the house but this happened last time I did it, too, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised….have done a little meal planning for later in the week and that includes getting a pork shoulder for 99 cents a pound at Meijers and cooking it in the instant pot Thursday…and that gave me an idea to make some pulled pork soft tacos for the second meal later in the week after I finish off the container of ham soup that I thawed the other day…but that means making some pickled red onions and sauteeing some red peppers to go with it….and I need to figure out the spice flavors I want to use on them….probably some chili powder, cayenne, and cilantro would be a good start….will have to look on the internet to get some ideas…oh, and I’m starting to feel better after going really hard on the bike this morning but still feel like I have a cold with the slight headache I’ve had for a month now…I wonder if that could be the caffeine in the coffee? Not sure but at least I have a little energy again and need to remember to keep eating two meals a day to help that….more later…again….

Well…that was strange…had some long lasting weird dreams last night where I was trapped in the office I was working in by a nuclear or biological attack of some sort and I had to figure out what procedure to use to get out of it and no one was telling us what it was…yeah, pretty damn weird and it took a lot out of me that I am still feeling right now…and I wonder how that works? How do you get tired from the stress that happened in a dream? Or is it just a continuation of how I felt yesterday? I know I feel pretty worn out and it is no better than yesterday…getting on the bike is going to be hard this morning but maybe it will make me feel better…and I think I may have to get the french press out to make more coffee later since I went through more than half of this pot yesterday and I need more than two cups to get started in the morning….and to reward myself for getting on the bike and doing the miles…it looks like we are getting 2-4 inches of snow today and I’m glad I have nowhere to go today…and it is going to be a shock to put gas in the car wed with the prices almost 5 bucks a gallon but I don’t drive much so I can live with it for a while….not much to do today…I am still in my rest and healing  week and, after two days off, my hands are getting better and the cuts are starting to heal up so that is progress…and there is not too much pain so I’ll be ready to start on the dining room next week…but, I am thinking about doing a quick paint job on the bathroom first since it is the second worst room in the house and I could get it done in about a week but haven’t decided on the color yet….maybe I’ll start on the trim first and see how it goes….more later….