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…

Well…didn’t get up til after 6 this morning and I feel like I’m running late again today…and I really am if I’m trying to get out on the bike before 7:30…and then I need to run an errand to depot to try to get some rooting compound since I want to try to get some cuttings from a lilac bush in front of an empty house across the street so I can line the back fence with them….I think it would look cool to have lilacs back there and the next owner will have a nice privacy fence made of them….I did get some work done yesterday but I don’t really have a lot of motivation right now…not sure how many of my tomato plants are going to survive so I may have to make a plan to replace them….and should get on that today if I ever want tomatoes this summer….at least the flowers I planted out back are coming up and that is going to look cool when they get bigger…I did have to kill a couple of flies in here yesterday so I’ll need to get some home defense poison to spray on all of the windows to keep them out of here….have been using some stuff I bought 10 years ago and I  am almost out so I need another gallon….not much to do today…need to get going to get the first ride in and then run the errands…and then back out on the bike for ride two and more work….I really do need a day off….more later….

Well…started out again today with a full schedule…at least til around noon as I planned and got everything done that I wanted to…two bike rides and then I planted 12 bean plants, 12 regular tomato plants, 6 cherry tomato plants, and 3 sunflowers in the back of the house….and I put a bunch of green pepper seeds that I took out of a green pepper that I used to make pizza a few weeks back….that worked last year so I thought I’d try it again this year….still don’t have any jalapeno plants up yet but I still have hope they will come up…and it looks like I have a couple more sunflowers that are sprouting so I’ll have a half dozen or so of them in the back this year…and I planted giant Russian ones I’ve never seen before so that could be cool….but, I’m done for the day after getting everything done I wanted to….don’t feel the need to do extra…will save that for tomorrow so I won’t be too bored….

Well…didn’t get to bed until midnight last night and up at 6 but slept okay…still feel a bit worn out and I’m not sure when I’ll get on the bike…probably by 7:30 or so since it’s already almost 70 out there….I did get my herb garden planted yesterday and today I’ll get the first of the veggies in the garden…have 9 bean plants and tons of tomatoes that are up but no cukes or peppers yet so I am going to plant some more seeds directly in the garden for both…will have to take a look at the weather to make sure it’s going to stay above freezing before I do that….I do have flowers coming up behind the house and can’t wait to see what it looks like or if the sunflowers I planted earlier in the week will sprout…I do have a few that have come up downstairs and will plant them today, too…I could have a jungle in that 2 foot wide little patch along the house and that would be cool…..it looks like a take it easy day today after the bike rides and I need to get the food I bought Monday into the freezer but that is about it…I should clean windows today and I may get to the dining room and living room ones today and I need to decide what to do with the bird feeder since it is stuck to the window and a pretty big mess….and I’m not supposed to be feeding the birds anyway with the bird flu going around…not much to do today…just need to get on the bike and then get into planting and should have everything done by noon or so….it will be interesting to see how many plants survive the transplanting….had way too many tomatoes last year and will probably have the same this year…can’t have enough beans so I may even put a few more seeds of them in, too…we’ll see….more later….

Well..I think I’ve talked about this strange weather phenomenon before….we have a storm that is sitting about 5 miles north of here and just sitting there…as it tries to move southwest, it’s like there is a wall that it is running up against and the storm falls apart on the same line…and this has been going on for over an hour…the rest of the storm to the east is moving southward but out here it just stops at the same location along a line that runs from the northwest to southeast…I can see the storm from here and the dark clouds and lightning but nothing here…I’ve seen this before out here but out over the lake where when it reaches the shore, the storm just falls apart while it rages out over the lake…I’d like to find out what the heck is going on…and maybe I will go out and do a search for it when I’m done here…and then I’ll come back and update if I find anything….hmmm….

Well…after getting a couple of rides in, finishing up mowing the lawn, and planting the herb seeds next to the back door, I feel a little better and less depressed but still about an 8 on a 1-10 scale…and I really don’t see it getting better in the near future but at least it’s at a level that I can deal with it….now I need to start planning how to fix the mower next time it breaks…and make it permanent…might be some rain coming…

Well…you know, I really don’t know why I do this….almost 10,000 of these over the years but for what reason? Who the hell knows? I do know that I didn’t get out of bed til 7:30 and does that make me late? Had a really shitty day yesterday and today is looking to be another one and I’ve already shifted into low and slow survival mode where I try not to think much….and now my computer is screaming a high pollen alert at me along with high humidity and I still don’t know what to do with that information….I do need to ride over to the post office this morning to pay a bill I forgot to mail yesterday but I don’t really feel like it…should have done a ride already since it is almost 8:30 and I need to make up for only doing one yesterday….but I don’t see enjoying any of it this morning….still so damn depressed that I just want to melt into the couch and with how warm it is, that is a possibility…kept the windows open for the first time last night and that really doesn’t help the allergies at all….it really hurts to do anything right now and my brain is screaming at me to stop….so I think I will….I do need to figure out what to do with the food I got Monday and I think it will all end up in the freezer since I have no desire to eat or cook…or do anything else for that matter….maybe more later….