Well…had a pretty busy morning with all of the work I had planned and I got it all done with a really pleasant surprise when I backed the car out to wash it…no drips! After years of just cobbling it together with blue silicone on the drain plug and it never really working, the damn 3 dollar drain plug worked and it was so simple to do, I’m not sure why I didn’t do this years ago instead of wasting all my time looking for the Mazda crush washers that went on the old plug….I guess I get tunnel vision sometimes…and I did get the rest of my work done, too, starting with seeding the front of the lawn, washing the inside and outside of the trash bin, washing and vacuuming the car, washing the bike and cleaning up the garage…and I tried my stainless steel detail brush on the dirt that would never come off the wheels of the car and they even look better so bonus….but now it’s the last cup of coffee, reading some news, having lunch, and then getting out on the bike when it warms up enough…damn, it’s only 44 at 11:30…and that sucks…

Well…hmmmm….feel a little worn out today and I wonder if I should skip the indoor ride today with being able to get out on the bike later? But, it’s the end of April and it’s only 29 frickin degrees out there so that will be much later…and still not too comfortable….slept okay last night but not that well and I’m getting tired of that…just once I’d like to hit the sack and just sleep without waking up all night…okay, enough bitching and whining….it is a little bit of a relief to finally get the car maintenance started and not have to buy a 60 buck set of plug wires…I think I should note how many miles the car has on it to keep track of how far I go on this oil change just to see how many miles I drive in a year….I know it’s been at least two years since I last changed it but only about 3000 miles or so in that time…but I could tell it needed it when the oil pressure gauge reads about 30 at idle…and all of the short trips I take don’t help…I mean 6-10 miles a week? And all those start ups with the car running rich? I know the oil looked pretty bad but it’s supposed to….I am going to do a full clean up on the car today with wax, windows and vacuuming and it will be nice washing it here instead of the car wash…and I may even wash the bike today if I have the hose out and a bucket of soapy water ready….not much to do today…I did get some flower and herb seeds yesterday and need to start the herbs downstairs so I can make a little herb garden next to the back door…going to plant rosemary, thyme, and Italian oregano…should have gotten some chives, too, but I didn’t see them….and I got some perennials that I won’t have to plant every year and should look cool…so, I do have stuff to do today but need much more coffee first and to read the news…damn, why do I feel like I’m late and it’s only 7am? More later…

Well…I wonder if I’m getting to the point where literally anything that I do is going to result in pain and stiffness all over my body? I know I’m getting old but damn, just changing the oil in the car and putting a set of plugs in and my back and arms hurt like I just lifted weights for a few hours straight….and there was not really much leaning into the engine bay other than to snake the oil filter out…I know I had to lean over to get to the plugs but doing all 4 of them only took about 10 minutes…maybe it’s because they are not movements I do all the time? Who knows? All I know is that getting old is a pain…literally, and I don’t like it….I did get back out to check the air in the tires on the car, too, and I don’t know how they could have gotten down to 20psi on each corner without me noticing it…okay, I did notice that the tires looked a little deflated but with radials, you really can’t see it that well…okay, that sentence right there tells you I’m old…I remember the times before radial tires and I’ll bet most people don’t…so, I aired them up to 32 where I normally run them and also aired up the bike tires to get ready for an outdoor ride tomorrow…and I’ll be cleaning out the trash bin and washing the car and cleaning the interior for the spring cleaning I’m late on…so, I already have the day planned for tomorrow and that is not supposed to happen anymore…oh, well…it is nice to do something other than work on the house….

Well….have been neglecting the car for almost all of the time that I’ve been out here and I know I’ve never changed the oil since I’ve lived here until today….went out to zone this morning as part of the grocery run and got an oil filter, oil plug, and a set of spark plugs so I could do all of the things I’ve put off while working my butt off on the house. I normally use fram oil filters but neither zone or advance had any and they said they have been fighting shortages of them for over a year now…so I got an stp one since they have been rated pretty good too and got to work…and it started off pretty crappy with dropping the oil filter after I took it off and spilling oil all over the bottom of the car…there is not much room where the filter is but dropping it showed me a new way to take it out that is much easier so that was cool…and I put a new oil plug in that has a nice gasket on it that should stop that leak that I have been fighting since I bought the car…and it only cost 3 bucks so that was really cool…hope to get a few changes out of it before I have to replace it or the gasket and it is really nice to not have to slather the plug in blue silicone to try to keep it from leaking….after I finished that job, I decided to check to see if I could get the plug wires off and replace the plugs and they came off easily…and the blue silicone I used to hold them together was still working so I saved 60 bucks in not replacing them…but I’m still only about halfway done with the car since I need to do the spring cleaning and every thing else that comes with it…but I’ll wait til tomorrow for that when it is warmer….

Well…darn, sleep was pretty crappy last night and I guess I’ll just have to get used to the lack of consistency…I feel okay so maybe the effects are not as severe as I thought….had and okay day yesterday but didn’t get anything done at all but lunch with T…that was a bit of a pain to get to with all of the bridge work being done in GH but I think it’s the first time I’ve been in traffic since I moved out here and I can live with that…it looks like another day on the indoor bike with the high not getting over 45 but I may be able to get out thurs and into the weekend with the warm up that is coming…and all I can say it’s about damn time…I mean it got down to 29 last night and we are 4 days from it being May….I do have a lot of work to do on the car that I have been neglecting over the past year so I’ll stop at zone this morning and get an oil filter and a new oil drain plug that will finally seal since I can’t get the aluminum crush washers for the standard one anymore and it drips oil even with coating the plug with blue silicone…and I think I need a set of plugs, too and plug wires but the NGK ones I need are now over 50 bucks for about 3 feet of wires and that is a bit much…those are being held together with blue silicone, too…I probably should get a tube of that this morning just in case I need it….I need to get the hose out today and try to clean out my trash bin to get rid of the plaster that is still stuck to the inside of it and it looks pretty gross…and I won’t be doing more of that work until the fall and I just want to have a clean one…not much to do today…just the grocery run and a run to depot to get some cuke seeds and some flower seeds that I want to get planted along the back of the house…might even try some herbs this year but I’ll have to see what they have…fresh rosemary would be nice but I wonder if I should get a big pot for the herbs to grow in? that might be better than just sticking them in the ground…we’ll see…more later….

Well…had a nice lunch with T today and am still full so no more food for today….but, that’s not what this is about…..when I had the freakout about the rental houses going up across the street and talked to my brother about the effect they would have on the worth of my house…he estimated that if we put it on the market today, I could get 140K for it all day long….if that’s true, that makes 90K that I have in equity and I have gotten to my goal of having six figures in assets if you include the cash I have in the bank…in fact, it is well over six figures and that is amazing to me with where I was 4 years ago…broke and borrowing money to live….and the idea that I have enough assets to deal with anything that might happen does take a lot of stress off me…but, I still need to have more in the bank…could I get to 200K? Not sure if I need to really….the kids don’t need an inheritance but it would be nice to be able to spend 10 grand on the next Miata and not blink….so, I think I’ll just take the night off after taking the day off…and get back at it tomorrow…

Well…that was a little better…pretty much slept through the night with just a bit of tossing and turning so I’ll take that…and my laptop updated windows overnight and it started just like normal this morning and that never happens…so, a good start to the day and I feel pretty good so I’ll take that, too….this is a little weird…microsoft has a little weather app that shows the current condition on the lower banner on my front page and it is telling me that it is humid right now…why anyone needs to know that, I don’t know…what would your reaction be? How do you dress for humid? Would you say “I’m not going out today, it’s too humid”? Sometimes too much information is of no use at all….all I have to do is open my freezer and I know it’s humid in here….weird. It was nice to get some outdoor work done yesterday and get that off my mind…still have the sidewalk edging to do but starting a 2 stroke when it’s cold is a pain so I think I’ll wait until it’s a little warmer…..I did start on the second bedroom yesterday by removing some quarter round molding  that was between the floor and baseboards that looked like hell and I’ll probably do a little every day but I won’t make it a major project…yet…I am curious to see if the wallpaper remover will work if I score the walls and spray it on and I’ll probably do a test section just to see how much work removing the wallpaper and paint is going to be…but my hands and shoulders haven’t healed yet and I don’t want to do anything until they do….the skin on my hands is finally showing some progress and has stopped peeling and feeling like sandpaper and I am even getting some feeling back into them….not much to do today….have a lunch with T tentatively scheduled for noon but I will have to leave early since 31 south to GH is under construction and I don’t know how long it will take to get there from here…or even if I can….but, I have time so I can figure it out…and I need to ride indoors today with the high only about 43 and need to get on it here in 15 mins or so….more later….

Well…T just couldn’t work out getting someone to sit with her mom so lunch has been put off til tomorrow or later in the week, and that gave me the chance to get on the work that needed to be done on the lawn today…got the first mowing of the year done and it only took about 7 pulls to get the mower to start and one little adjustment of the drive to get it to work right and that lasted through the mowing so I have my fingers crossed for the rest of the summer…and the weeds are really overgrowing the lawn so I ran out to menards to get some weed and feed that was on sale and put that on the lawn….and I filled up one of the big lawn bags that needs to go out later today for pick up tomorrow but I don’t think I have enough to put the trash bin out this week…I do need to put some more seed on the front of the lawn in the spots they killed with all of the crap they piled on my lawn when they were digging for the  water and sewer…and the spot where they dug up the sod plowing the driveway next door…and I need to do that tomorrow with the rain that is coming wed…okay, nope, no rain til Sunday so that will give me the rest of the week to fix the bare spots and do a repair on the car’s top that needs it….but right now I’m done for the day…I did get an indoor ride in this morning so I can veg the rest of the day…not sure if I can do that or not but I am going to give it a try….

Well…running late this morning with not sleeping well at all and staying in bed until after 6….feel pretty crappy and worn out again and I’m not sure why that would be…maybe taking Sundays off is not such a good idea? Didn’t do much yesterday which was the plan but I did make a pizza that came out good when I remembered to add some garlic powder and Italian seasoning to the crust so it had some flavor….oh, I think I know why I feel worn out…only had one piece of pizza and a small burger to eat all day but I didn’t ride so that should have been enough…and I need to get on the bike here in a few minutes since it is cold outside and I don’t want to go out in thermasuit anymore…I may have lunch with T today but it’s one of those on again, off again things that we’ll see if it happens….I do need to start planning my next project since not having something to do is a bit much to take right now….I know I have to work on the yard all week but won’t get to that til Thurs since it is only going to be in the low 40’s for highs for two days….ick….I am going to have to mow the lawn for the first time this week and will probably get the edging and trimming done, too….and I need to get some weed and feed to treat the lawn since the weeds are growing faster than the grass…not much to do today…just going to clean this place up a bit in case T visits and get on the bike to shake off the cobwebs and then just play it by ear….my damn allergies have exploded and I’ve been coughing like crazy since last night so I need to take something for it right now….more later….

Well…okay, this is a little strange…just noticed that after being out in the sun for over 3 hours yesterday, I got some sunburn and it is starting to hurt a bit…and I even got some on my face where I used 50 sunscreen and that shouldn’t happen…but I now realized that I only used sunscreen for the first ride and forgot it for the other two…so I’ll have some color to make me look less like a damn ghost….as I’ve said before, I’m one of the whitest people you’ll ever see…almost to the point of being transparent so I don’t really mind getting a little burned…but I won’t have to worry about that for another two weeks at least with how damn cold it is going to be…I mean May is coming fast and it is still in the 40’s? That kind of sucks but it keeps the noise down around here…I guess that’s something…