Well…damn, that was a night of hard sleep….went all the way through until 6:06 today and had weird dreams about real estate and condos being built in Chief Hazycloud Park in Ada…and the only people who will understand that are those who grew up there as I did…I am having a little bit of a hard time getting going this morning and it may be from just eating  a little too far under what I need for the day…but, that may be a plus with the article I read yesterday that said that if you eat around14% less calories than you need, it helps you avoid some of the problems that come with aging along with helping maintain weight….and I’ve been doing that my entire life so maybe my obsession is going to pay benefits and I’ll be able to keep going longer…who knows? I am starting to get bored with getting on the bike every day and it is getting harder and harder to keep it up…I did get over 300 miles since the start of the year yesterday and that keeps me on pace to get to 600 before the trails melt and I can get back outside…and I think this is going to be the first year that I don’t gain weight over the winter and may even lose some and that will set me up to be at summer weight before I get outside…that would be cool….not much to do today…will probably continue to clean and organize the downstairs and start getting my tools ready to make the push to finish the kitchen….need to clean my sander and get the dust out of it so I can get on the baseboards and I have a little filling to do on some cracks in the corners but I am not going to overfill them so I can keep the dust down…still have rashes from the dust and may have to get more cortisone cream on the grocery run tomorrow….more later…

Well…gee, who would have thought I couldn’t just take it easy around here…after sitting here this morning and watching some Olympics, I just couldn’t sit anymore so I went downstairs and started to finish up cleaning the dust that got everywhere when I was sanding the kitchen cabinet parts…got the walls washed along with one fan, the ac unit, and some electronics that needed dusting badly to keep them so they will work if I need them to…and then washed all of the hot and cold air ducts in that area and cleaned the dust off my two outdoor bikes that had gotten a thin coat on them…and I found a set of Samsung earbuds that must have come with this phone when I bought it but that I forgot about…and now I have a backup set just in case my Betrons quit…but, I’ve had them over two years now and I’ve never had a set last that long…the cords are pretty heavy duty on them…not like the rest of the earbuds I’ve bought and have taken a lot of abuse and just kept on working…so, I guess the precedent is set for tomorrow to keep working downstairs until I get that done and organized…I’m even thinking about buying a cheap door to hang in the doorway of the bike room where there was one before when it was a bedroom….not sure why I want one but it would make it a little more finished…one crappy thing is that my hands hurt and are stiff again just from cleaning for an hour and a half today…crap, crap, crap…

Well…running about on time this morning with not getting up til 6:22 and I don’t feel too bad today…I am still dreading getting on the bike for some reason this morning and it may be how hard the ride was Sat…but, I felt like crap then and I feel okay now so maybe it won’t be as bad…and I really don’t have anything to do today other than clean a bit downstairs so it looks like another easy day…the cracks in the ends of my fingers started to heal pretty well with the rest from the last couple of days and I am still going to take it easy on them for a few more days before I get back into working on the kitchen…still have some crack filling to do in there before I get to the rest of the painting…and I need to hit all of the extra plaster on the ceiling so there are no blobs before I paint it…I will need to hit depot Wed to get more filler and some more ice melting salt before we get the rain/snow/ice that is going to come in Wed night…man, I burned a lot of cash this month and I think I spent all of my SS deposit with the house taxes and insurance that were almost a thousand bucks but this month should be better with nothing extra going out…but it has been so cold my gas bill is almost 115 bucks and that is the highest one I’ve had since I’ve been out here…but this week should help with highs being in the 30’s most of the week…although it is only 12 right now and that is damn cold….not much to do today…just the bike ride and then I’ll figure out what I need to do to keep the guilts at bay…and I’m making chicken and asparagus for lunch so that will be cool…more later…

Well…I have been making homemade pizza for a long time now but I really haven’t been happy how it has been turning out…I know I haven’t made it since I moved in here so my memory of how the last one came out could be a little fuzzy…but I do remember that it didn’t have a lot of flavor and that I have been adjusting the crust recipe bit by bit over the years and I think I may have screwed it up doing that…I added an extra quarter cup of water to it since it felt a little dry and I started to use vegetable oil instead of olive oil in the crust….and I think those two changes were wrong since the crust came out really sticky and didn’t taste like much…so today, I went back to the original recipe and it came out so much better and the crust was even a little crunchy and not the gooey consistency it had gotten to…so, I have enough materials to make another one Wed…and the idiot I am, I think I may add some garlic powder to the crust or maybe some Italian seasoning to bump up the flavor even more…but just enough so you barely taste it but it’s there…but, that’s all I had to eat today…two pieces of pizza and I wonder if that’s enough? I think so….or I may have some cheese and crackers with the SB tonight….who knows?

Well…I know we are in the part of winter that tries people’s coping skills here in Michigan and it is only about 15 out there right now and that is damn cold…but, when I went out to shovel the snow, by the time I got the front walks done the sun had already started to melt the remaining snow on my walks at the back of the house…and that means the sun is getting slowly stronger no matter what the temp is out there…and looking at the 10 day weather forecast, I can see that we have a short spell of moderating temps that give me a little hope that the worst is over for this winter…and it gives me a little bit of a smile that I’ve survived another winter here without much damage…but, I don’t want to speak too soon since I remember getting over a foot of snow in an April snowstorm when I was young and that can still happen….I will take any small hint that spring is coming…I’m an optimist, after all…kinda…

Well…damn, I feel so much better this morning after getting back on track with being good last night…and I slept okay…got up at 5:34 but that’s okay with hitting the sack early….and it’s Sunday! This is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week with not getting on the bike and just doing whatever I want all day….had a good day yesterday but the bike ride was really a hard one with not feeling so hot…and I didn’t do much which was a good start to my week off that isn’t going to be a week off…I know myself well enough to know that I won’t even get through today without doing some cleaning downstairs and that’s okay since it will get me closer to having it done…and I really like how clean the dust room area came out and I have a space to get everything organized now…I do need to get a new mop head or mop this week since I need one for upstairs, too…I can’t wait for this damn cold weather to moderate some…it’s only 11 degrees out there and the door going into the garage was frozen closed and I had to lean on it to get it to open…at least the lock worked this time and I didn’t have to get my torch to melt the ice…probably should wd it later today when I go out to do the snow…not much to do today…just the snow and watching some Olympics along with the super bowl later…and I’m making a home made pizza for lunch and it’s nice to have my dining room table cleared for prep finally….going to make a mess but that’s okay…have only done homemade pizza once since I’ve been out here and that is too long….more later…

Well…it looks like I’ll have to wait on the dentist until Monday since I need to find one who will take my Medicare insurance…just remembered today that I have some dental insurance on my advantage plan that will cover two cleanings and one set of x-rays every year and that should save me almost 300 bucks before they start on the rest of the work I need done…but I can’t find out til Monday who out here will take Medicare so everything’s on hold for a couple of days…the pain is not nearly as bad today so I can live with it for a few more days….and I’ll just sit here and hope it doesn’t get worse until then…darn…

Well…I can make a fist with both hands! That is something I didn’t think I would be able to do for weeks after all of the abuse I did to them working on the kitchen cabinets…but, they are still cracked everywhere and that hurts as much as the muscle pain…but, that’s not what this is about…as you know, I have planned to take a week off working to heal everything that hurts after the kitchen work…but, it’s 9:20 on the first day of my week off and I’ve already run out of things that I wanted to do…I’ve always had problems taking it easy…it’s just not me but I have to figure out how to do it as I get older and the work wears on my body more…I know, hard problem to have, huh? I suppose I could just go back to work on the downstairs since there is still dust to clean up but I still have rashes from the dust and I need those to clear before I head back into it again…okay, done whining…for now…more later….

Well…that was a huge, huge mistake…had just one cocktail last night and my stomach feels like I was drinking acid all night…and I didn’t sleep well at all so that is the last time I’ll ever think about doing that…I guess you have to go back to feeling bad to understand how good you feel taking care of yourself…so I am going to suffer all day today and take it easy until I feel better…I really can’t imagine having 3 cocktails in a night anymore…don’t know what I was thinking going all that time abusing my body….I did get a few things done yesterday and it does feel good to have my coffee table fixed and to have a clean living room but I’m not doing much today with how I feel…I am glad I got the snow cleared yesterday when it was warm since it is only 18 out there right now and all of the slush has turned into a block of ice….and it looks like we have one final storm coming in on Thursday of next week that is going to dump about 8 inches of snow on us out here so I’ll have to plan for that one…it hasn’t been a bad winter out here and the temps appear to be moderating for most of the week and will be up around 40 for most of the week…okay, nope that has changed and it looks like a normal Feb week with highs in the 20’s until late in the week…darn…not much to do today…just the bike ride and then taking it easy for the day…I am still going to try to take the week off and shut off the guilts for a while…more later…

Well…crap…have had a tooth screaming at me all day and can’t get in to the dentist until Tuesday so it looks like I may be breaking the dry month tonight to deal with the pain if the orajel and ibuprofen doesn’t do it…crap, and crap again….I had planned to get on the dental work this week since I’m taking the week off and I know I’ve needed it for a long time but I really wanted to do it on my schedule …but maybe it’s a good thing I’m being forced to get started on it…it is going to cost multiple thousands to get everything done but I may as well get started on it so I can finally eat something cold or hot without pain…and they need to remove the molar that has been loose for years and start figuring out if I need to put an implant in to replace it…and that will be thousands more so maybe I won’t be able to afford another Miata this year…crap again…oh, well…