Well…just finished painting the mailbox an re-installing it and now I sit here thinking if I should go out for another ride today to give me 45 miles for the day? The first two rides were pretty good and I could go out in a t-shirt if I wanted to, and F1 qualifying is not on til 4 so I have the time even though there is a nascar race on but I could watch that tomorrow morning…what to do? Okay, going out…need to go now since it is after 2….

Well…damn, the allergies are bad this morning and my eyes feel like they are filled with sand they are so itchy…and my shoulders and neck hurt like crazy from being out in the brutal wind yesterday and having to pull so hard just to keep moving into it…I did sleep okay…for me….and feel okay today but need to get moving by 9 to get two rides in before Man U plays at 12:30…the wind is down to about 8-9mph today and that will be welcome after the 20-30mph from yesterday and it is nice to have the bike working right again so I don’t have to think about that…and the new cable is stainless steel which the ones that came on the bike weren’t and there was some rust inside the cable sheath that goes to the shifter and the cable just fell apart inside the sheath…..the first ride is going to be pretty cold at around 51 degrees but the sun is shining so that will help…I so have some work to do around here today and the bathroom will be today’s project…not sure when I can wedge that in but I’ll figure that out….don’t have any leftovers to eat today so it will be a day of cooking two meals but it is still all chicken, all the time, and I am starting to get tired of it….and I am going to fill the freezer with the leg quarters I got wed at Aldis….I am feeling pretty old this morning and really don’t want to resign myself to feeling like this all the time…but what can I do about it? Not much it seems…I did have that wave of depression hit me again last night and there really isn’t any reason for it….things are going okay and summer is coming with some great 70’s weather for the week with no rain so I wonder what the hell is going on….oh, well…not much to do today…just going to read some news for the next hour or so and get more coffee and hope the temp comes up by 9 so I can ride comfortably…I am looking forward to getting a real sweat up on the bike next week and doing some sprints to get back into summer shape….more later….

Well…I know I bitched and whined about not having a schedule or any organization for my day…and with how busy my day became, the next time I bitch, slap me….started out pretty normally with doing the first post and having my coffee, then skimming the news for a minute until I remembered that I wanted to clean the kitchen…or just the sinks, window over them, and the blinds that go over that window…so, I worked on that for a hour and a half…and yeah, it was that bad, then got on the bike by 10 and the ride was a lot of fun going out but coming back into a 20-30mph wind was just do damn brutal that I was all the way down on the 3rd sprocket on the back when I’m normally in 7th or 8th…and when I looked down at the computer, I was going 6mph….and could barely make any headway….while I was out, the rear shifter started to stick and shift really hard and I noticed that the cable was starting to come apart right by the shifter…and luckily, I have 5 of the cables that I ordered last year…but it wasn’t time to work on that yet…when I got back, I put the chicken in for lunch, and since I knew that it was going to take 45 minutes to cook, and the lawn takes the same amount of time to mow, I decided to mow the lawn…then lunch, and downstairs to work on the cable….I had to laugh that I’m getting pretty good at that and it only took 10 minutes to take the old one out and put the new one in…and I hit the calibration of it perfectly and didn’t even need to do any fine adjustments when I took it out for a test ride…but I turned around after a couple of miles since the wind was blowing even harder and I wanted to see F1 practice at the new Miami track….so now I’m done and it’s 2:30…and remember, the next time I bitch about nothing to do, slap me…I’ll take one of those days sometime…back for a political one after I read the news….more later..

Well…another 5:23 morning and I really don’t feel any urgency to get going…I wonder if this is going to be the new normal with taking the summer off? Damn, my brain isn’t working this morning….with no urgency, I don’t have any organization or schedule and that is a little disconcerting after an entire life of having regimented days…hmmm…I did get two rides in yesterday and my legs are feeling it a bit but the pain is manageable…I did have a left hamstring problem on the second ride where it hurt every time I pedaled and that was a bit new with it just coming out of nowhere…not sure how I hurt it but I am working up to mid summer speed and that could be it….I wonder if it was from bending over to weed the back of the house and plant the flower seeds? That stretches the hamstrings quite a bit but they didn’t hurt then….another hmmmm….okay, here’s another weird weather watch that is on this morning…we are under a fire weather watch and I have never seen that before…I think it’s connected to the strange humidity alerts we have been having out here but this time it is too low at about 30% and with the 20-30 mph wind that is forecast, I guess there could be some grass fires out here…but there is not really any action items to do to prepare….just don’t burn stuff?  Maybe that will keep the campfires down around here….not much to do today…I had planned to mow the lawn this morning but there are some showers moving in…and how the heck does that fit in with the low humidity warning? I think the weather people have ADD….and I do need to get two rides in today or even just one and clean this place up some…I think I need to make a cleaning schedule for this place so every room gets done at least once a week…this place is pretty dusty even without doing any sanding…I wonder if I should get one of those swiffer dusters to do a quick once over every day? We’ll see….more later….

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….