Well…damn, I am getting tired of the cold and wind out here and sure want winter to be over….the sky looked cool with it being clear and I did stop and look up when I was walking out to the garage…and I guess the neighbors think I’m weird but that’s okay…I am…slept a little crappy last night with getting up twice and doing a lot of tossing and turning but I still feel okay with being good…still…and I don’t think only one day of being bad since January 2nd is something to feel bad about….and I’m over the hump to making this the new normal and the only thing is the boredom that comes with being good…my brain never shuts off anymore and that is a lot of work….didn’t get anything done yesterday but that was the plan with trying to get my hands to heal up some but I may work on the baseboards in the kitchen today to get moving on the rest of the kitchen…I do need to finish the bathroom today after getting the shower cleaned yesterday and it is so shiny that I am a little reluctant to use it today….and should I be excited about getting a new mop to do the floor? Damn, little things make me happy and I’m not going to apologize for it….not much to do today…I am just going to sit here and drink coffee for a while since I don’t have to get on the bike today but I do have to at least take a shower before Man U plays at 9….and Daytona is on later today so I’ll have something to nap to to make up for the crappy sleep last night…more later….

Well….as I talked about somewhat earlier, I have been trying a new technique to try to ignore the boredom from riding the bike 8 miles every morning…and that consists of focusing on the music that I’m listening to instead of thinking about the miles that I still have to do once I start…and, with this morning’s ride, the technique appears to be working and I had the best ride that I can remember listening to the first disc of “Secret World Live” by Peter Gabriel…there is something about listening to a piece of music as a whole instead of the snippets you get when you add songs to a playlist…I have watched the dvd of this performance so many times that I could actually see the songs in my head as they were playing and the joyousness the band showed when they performed….so I’m going to keep trying to find entire albums (yeah, I’m old) to listen to as I ride…thinking of “Physical Graffiti” by Led Zeppelin for Monday’s ride…I have tomorrow off…and that is making me grin a bit….more later….

Well…this is just damn weird…two days of howling pain in my left jaw just stopped yesterday afternoon before I made pizza and it didn’t come back last night or overnight…I wonder if it was an infection and the amoxicillin I took knocked it down? All I know is that it still doesn’t hurt right now but I am going to keep the dentist appointment since I have been waiting 10 years to get started on the repairs that will allow me to eat ice cream on my birthday again…so I have til July to get that done…I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I can get through this week without pain….I was a little concerned last night with all of the high winds out here when my power blinked and the tv reset itself and that put me a little on edge since it is only about 11 degrees out there and heating this house with the range would be a huge pain in the butt…but, everything is still working and I am gong to get cramps from keeping my fingers crossed…again…even without working on this place for a day or so, my right elbow is really hurting this morning and I am wincing to just pick up my coffee cup and that is a little confusing but not really new….I wonder if all the sanding and abuse of my right arm and hand has done permanent damage to it? Sure hope not since I want to get 5K miles in on the bike this summer….not much to do today…just need to get on the bike here in 15 minutes or so and then I’m just going to wing it for the day…I do have to get out and shovel the snow but it doesn’t look as bad as I expected…we maybe got 2 inches of snow instead of the 4-6 that was forecast and I’ll take that any day….more later…damn, the tooth pain is starting up again…crap….

Well…after being in pain all day with my teeth seeming to have a direct line to my brain, they went calm for a couple of hours so I decided to make the pizza that I had planned for a 4 day meal…and I wanted to try to add some flavor to the crust so I gave it a little garlic powder and Italian seasoning when I was mixing it up and hoped that even with the small amount I added, it would add another component to the taste…and I will say that it did and I’m happy with it…no more bland crust even with the tiny amounts I added…and I may add just a little bit more next time if I remember…I may have to make a note to the crust recipe I have in my notebook to make sure I do it right next time…my teeth are still only hurting a little and I have to try to figure out what I did to make that happen so I don’t suffer like I did last night…it is nice to have an appointment with a dentist to get the process of fixing my teeth started even if I do have to wait til next Friday to get in….and I still think that paying 360 dollars for a year of insurance to get 2500 bucks worth of work is a pretty good deal and I hope that it’s enough to get all of the work done except the molar removal and implant that I need…okay, the wind has been blowing so hard out here this afternoon that I can barely hear my tv when it gusts…and there is 3-6 inches of snow coming along with it so I may have drifts for the second time this winter….hope not…

Well…my damn teeth are howling at me again this morning and that spurred me into talking to delta dental and getting a list of dentists out here that take my medicare dental insurance….very nice person at delta got me that list and then gave me some advice that I should look into the supplemental dental coverage that is available through priority health…so she transferred me to them and I found that I can get 2500 bucks a year of coverage for 29 bucks a month and they will take it out of my SS check so I don’t have to deal with it at all…so, I signed up for it and made an appointment with a dentist that is near me and has great reviews but they can’t get me in for a week but I’m hoping that they get a cancellation so I can get in sooner…but the insurance doesn’t take effect until the first of March but they will need to do a cleaning and take some x-rays and those are already covered so at least I can get started and maybe they can help with the pain until they can start working…or I can just pay for the first filling until the ins starts….it is nice that I have that at least started and maybe I’ll be able to eat ice cream with berries for my birthday for the first time in years…and the person I talked to at Priority is sending me a list of spectrum doctors out here so I can get that taken care of too…so it has been an eventful morning and I’m glad I finally got off my ass and got this started….

Well…damn…that was a crappy night with having pain on the left side of my jaw all night but, thankfully, I was able to sleep some and the pain is manageable today…but even with the pain at a low level, the anticipation that it is going to get as bad as yesterday has me on pins and needles as I do this…and I think it may be an infection since it hurts across my jaw both upper and lower…and to have all the teeth on both of them hurt at once is not how cavity pain usually works…I was lucky to have some leftover amoxicillin to take and that may be working and I have enough to get through a couple of days so I hope I can endure until I can find a dentist out here….crap…. so that was my focus for the whole day yesterday and didn’t get much done and today will be the same if the pain comes back…and the weather is going to go to hell this afternoon with 2-4 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 55 mph so I need to be able to get to Monday before I can go anywhere…..so, I’ve already taken some ibuprofen and some amoxicillin to try to get ahead of the pain and survive the day…and I need to find out if there is a dentist out here that will take my medicare dental so I can save a few hundred bucks on x-rays and cleaning…..no much to do today…going to get on the bike here in a few minutes and I really wish I didn’t have to….and I need to shovel the snow we got last night before the storm starts this afternoon….and I planned to make a pizza today but I’m not sure if I’ll do that with the pain in my jaw but I really should before the veggies and mushrooms go bad….I do need to put the chicken I got Wed into bags and get it into the freezer…won’t have to buy any protein for the next couple of weeks with getting 17 pounds wed….and I have three pork chops marinating in the fridge and I planned for one later today but I’m not sure if I can support that many calories in one day….more later….

Well…boy, that was a lousy night and I feel pretty worn out this morning…and it is so disappointing that I’m back to the bad sleep patterns that have haunted my nights for years and years now….and that was one of the reasons for having cocktails so much for the past year…but I will trade feeling worn out for not being hung over any day since the coffee is now no longer needed to get me back to functional but I can enjoy it as it reverts to clearing out my head…and that’s what an old guy needs…I did get some work done yesterday and got the back stairs vacuumed and scrubbed along with more cobweb removal and I can’t figure out how I never saw all of them before…I know the dust made them pretty visible but damn, there were a lot of them and they would have made for a pretty good Halloween haunted house…so this place is a lot cleaner than it has been since I moved in here and I still have more work to do..one nice development is that once I got all the dust cleaned up and aren’t making more, the combustion blower on the furnace is no longer making the whining noise it has been for a couple of weeks and that is pretty cool..I was expecting to spend 300 bucks to get a new one installed and can really use a month of no extra money going out after burning a pile of cash last month….it is going to be a leftover day today even with buying 17 pounds of protein yesterday but I will need to get some pork chops in a marinade today so I can have them tomorrow with the asparagus I got for 1.49 a pound…and I have oranges! So there will be healthy fruits and lots of veggies to go with the pork chops that are not too good for you and I hope that balances it out….not much to do today…I am going to finish up the filling in the kitchen today and I do need to clean up my sander so I can get at the baseboards and the door frames…and I will need to clean under the range since it is one spot I haven’t cleaned since I bought this place and, if it’s anything like the rest of the house, it will be gross under there and probably take two or three passes at it to make it acceptable to me….more later….

Well…have been looking for a topic in politics since I got back from the errands this morning with no luck so I think I’ll talk about my success at the grocery stores today….I did get some more salt to melt the sidewalks after this warm day ends and the rain freezes overnight…and it was a good idea to get it today since depot was almost out of it when they had pallets of it two weeks ago when I got the last bag…and I got the last container of filler…I hope…to start on the rest of the windows when I get to it…but I need to work on the kitchen first to get it ready for paint next week so I think I’ll work on that today but I am not going to just slather the filler on as I have been doing since I don’t want to have a lot of sanding to do before I paint…the dust is still causing some rashes a week after I stopped sanding and that is so damn irritating….oh, food…almost forgot about that…I did get another 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters at Aldi’s for 4.90 but I also got 7 pounds of pork chops for 7 bucks at Meijers so I have lots of protein here that is going to end up in the freezer in the next couple of days since I want to make another pizza tomorrow to use up the green pepper, mushrooms, and pepperoni…oh, and I got two more pounds of asparagus at 1.49 a pound and a 4 pound bag of oranges for 3 bucks…so I have lots of food here and really don’t have to go anywhere until I get the paper Sunday…even with all that food, I still only spent 30 bucks on groceries today and I think I can get two weeks out of it…oh, and I did finally get a new mop and bought a dustpan that I needed since I was tired of using cardboard and newspapers to pick up when I sweep….both the mop and the dustpan were Libman’s and I really like their stuff…plus it’s all made in the US and they still compete on price so it can be done….more later…

Well…that was not as good as it has been lately…tossed and turned a bunch and all my bedding ended up across the room and that sucks a little…but I ‘m not sure why I would expect to sleep well every night with my history of not sleeping much at all…not sure what happened but I have had a headache for weeks now and I just may have to take something for it this morning….the wind is howling out there already and it is 43 degrees at 6:30 and I really do hope that the storm they are forecasting for tonight and tomorrow stays to the south of us here…pretty tired of the snow but it is only the middle of Feb and I know that we can expect more snow and cold…but that doesn’t make it any easier to wait for spring to come…I have a 4 store grocery/errand run this morning and it may turn into 5 if DD has anything I want…Aldi’s has chicken for 49 cents a pound again and I wonder how much I should get? Still have 4 of the leg quarters in the freezer from the last time so I guess only one bag will have to do since I do want to make a lasagna later in the week and still need to make another pizza tomorrow…I think I may have figured out how to look at the bike ride every morning to make it a little easier…I just need to think of it as listening to 9 songs of music I like while moving my legs while I do it….I may just have to take a week day off of riding since this is my most consistent winter on the bike ever and I haven’t gained a pound this winter versus gaining the 12 that is normal when I don’t ride at all in the winter….not much to do today…just the grocery and depot run and then back here for more coffee…I just looked at my bank account and I did spend 2200 bucks last month and that has to stop if I’m going to afford another Miata in the spring…more later….