Well…decided to change it up this morning and come here and do this before I read the paper…just had to get a night’s sleep last night so I took a sleep aid to help that and am paying for it right now with feeling pretty slow….but I didn’t get out of bed until almost 6:30 and am just getting to my first cup of coffee and it’s 7:30…so, I’ll be running late all day today but late for what? I did get into shorts this morning for the first time this year and that is almost a month later than normal with how cold it’s been….and I’ll be able to get on the bike as soon as I want since it is already 50 out there and that means that it will be another double on the bike today…I am going to skip the bagel this morning so I can have two meals today…I don’t think a bagel should count for a meal with it being only about 350 calories with cream cheese but if I’m ever going to lose any weight, I need to watch everything I eat and make allowances for it….didn’t get anything done yesterday but I really do need to start putting my plants in the garden today…I have about 20 tomato plants that are ready to go and I even have a few pepper plants that have come up but they won’t be ready for a couple of weeks….but, right now it is raining outside and I need coffee and to read the paper so I’ll end here….more later….

Well…I guess things must be getting better with the vaccines here in Michigan with the announcement this morning that masks are no longer mandated for those of us who are fully vaccinated…yeah, I see the problem with that, too…how the heck are stores, bars, and restaurants going to tell if you are vaccinated or not? I know I have a photo of my vaccination card on my phone but I’m pretty sure no low paid employee is going to ask for it….and the assholes who infest this state will raise holy hell if anyone asks them  for proof of vaccination…so, this is progress and a small move back toward normalcy for those of us who are civic minded and wanted to do our part to protect our fellow citizens by getting vaccinated…I think I’m still going to carry my mask with me just in case when I go out for the paper tomorrow morning….and I am going to go out to the new bar opening down the street next Friday….need to find a home bar since it appears that I’ll be out here for a while…maybe….

Well…my lack of motivation is still hanging on so I don’t think I’ll be doing a political one for today…still feel pretty lousy and my stomach is iffy and I wonder if just having a bagel to eat for the day can support two rides? I did do two rides out to the beach today and it is funny that, once you have to pay to use the beach, it is about empty when every other day almost every space is filled…have been having problems with the shifter on the bike the past few days and I wonder if it has sand in it? The 5-6 shift has been hanging up and I have adjusted it a couple of times a day when it normally works once I get it adjusted and never have to touch it again…so I washed the shifter out with the hose before I watered the garden and will see how it works tomorrow…don’t see any frayed shifter cable that would cause the problem but I have never replaced the cable on this bike and it has lots of miles on it so maybe it’s coming apart inside the housing? Should probably take it apart to see but don’t feel like it right now….and I should plant some tomatoes today, too, but don’t feel like doing that, either….so maybe I should declare this a lazy day and just give up…who knows?

Well…running late this morning with having cocktails last night and not having any motivation to do anything right now…and I am sore from doing almost 40 miles on the bike yesterday and am hobbling around here like I’m a hundred years old….so, yeah…pretty normal for a Saturday morning…had an okay day yesterday with Tom coming out to show me his new car and me showing him how easy it is to get to the beach now that I know my way around a little…then I rode over to the bank and then out to the beach and fooled around out there and added some miles to get to more than a double for the day…and I’m only on my first cup of coffee this morning so I’m not starting the day off too easily….don’t think I ate enough yesterday, either, with only having a bagel and a pork shoulder wrap even with doing the double ride…so that may have something to do with how I feel today…it looks like Amazon split the order I made the other day so I’ll be getting my new riding gloves today but the chain lube won’t be here til late next week…and that’s okay since I just cleaned and lubed the bike thursday and have enough in the bottle to do one more…and I can use the gloves more with the old ones being worn out and pretty shabby looking….not much to do today…going to get out on the bike by around 9 or so since it is not freezing out there today…finally…and then start cleaning in here to prep for the new couch coming on Monday….I think I’m going to wait to plant until Monday but who knows? I may just get started today with the rain coming tonight….more later….

Well…yeah, running a little late today and just can’t get motivated…just had a thought…I don’t think I’ve talked to so many cops in such a short time in my life…and every one of them were really nice and listened to what I had to say….that’s a little new to me…okay, I am an old white guy and it probably shouldn’t be that much of a surprise but it is still welcome…it was pretty quiet around here yesterday and I’m hoping that will continue today…damn, I just forgot what day it is…I guess that’s a product of not having anywhere to be…I do need to start planning when to put my tomato plants out and that may happen this weekend…I did notice that a couple of the sunflower seeds have sprouted in the back of the house where I planted them and I have 8 more planted in cups downstairs so I’ll need to figure out where to plant them if they sprout….I may put them next to the garage or along the fence but I need to make sure they will be easy to trim around…I think I may adopt a vacant lot across the street and clean it up and keep it mowed but I can’t find the organization that does that to make sure it’s not already assigned to someone….I guess I can just do it and let them come to me…I know I already have too much work to do to get this place in shape but I know I’ll feel better to look out my front windows and see a nice, clean lot….not much to do today…I did get a double ride in yesterday and am going to try to do that again today…need to ride over to the bank that is about 5 miles away to deposit the comcast check so that will be one of the legs of my ride today….and then the normal one out to lake Michigan….need to clean this place up some, too, since my new couch is supposed to come Monday and I need to be ready for that….more later….

Well…if you’ve been here before, you know of the ordeal I had trying to move my modem from the GR house to here when I moved…it took a tech 3 1/2 hours of wending his way through the stupid phone system with his secret phone numbers…but today, I got a weird little surprise from comcast…a check for 50 bucks that the tech said he was going to get me for all of the crap I had to go through just to move the modem and having them hold the whole thing up since they owed me money…and they have only been taking 15 bucks a month out for my internet so I’ve been getting 10 bucks a month off, too…I knew I liked the tech who was here….

Well…hey, Tom…after you got your new car, I’ve noticed that almost every damn car out here is a Subaru….I wonder if they are issued to people when they move here? Where the heck can I get mine? Okay, that’s not what this is about…you know I’ve mentioned that you can see the curvature of the Earth from my boardwalk seat at the beach and today I saw proof of it that I had never seen before. When I was pulling up to the bench, I notice that the Lake express ferry was heading out of the entrance to Muskegon Lake..well…it was probably 5 miles or so out, and heading straight West and after it got out quite a few miles, I noticed something strange…to me anyway…the ship started to disappear over the horizon and, over the next half hour or so, more of the boat disappeared until the last part of the top sank below it…I can’t remember ever seeing that before…I guess it took a big ship heading straight toward the horizon to do it…I guess that proves the Earth is round…at least to me…to the flat Earthers…not so much….

Well…after the debacle of yesterday, I was starting to question buying this house and moving out here…but, after chatting with the officer last night and having the community officer just stop by to meet me and talk for a while, I am feeling better about Muskegon. When I told him that I have thought about selling and moving out, he seemed to be a little hurt…and then he said that he has lived in Muskegon his entire life and they love to have people like me move in and help to make the city better…he even gave me his personal cell number so I could call him for any reason and he will answer….he stressed to please not sell the house, that any problems can be fixed if I just call them and let them help….I know that this is going to be a long process to get people to understand what the rules are and to follow them….and he did reiterate that the 50 foot rule is the law…so I really don’t have to listen to anyone since all of the houses around me are more than 50 feet away….but, we’ll see…at least I have hope that there is a path forward and I can enjoy my house again…

Well…darn, I feel pretty crappy this morning and my head is plugged up completely with all of the tree pollen…and I have trees out here that I can see which are in bloom so I think I’m going to have to take something for it this morning…and I think I’m going to lose the bean plants in the garden today with the temp down around 30 right now…but, this should be the last day of freeze and the temps are supposed to start getting warmer…we may even get to 70 next week and get back to almost normal highs for this time of year…so that means double rides to try to get my mileage up….I did start working on the old bike to try to replace the drivetrain but it looks like I need a puller to get the pedal arms off and then a special tool to get the crankset keeper off….I know I’ll need to do that to the current bike when it wears out so I should get on it…I did buy a new pair of riding gloves and a big bottle of chain lube yesterday since I am almost out of lube and I have been using my gloves for almost 5 years now and they are pretty much worn out….they have been good ones so I bought another pair just like them and can justify the 13 bucks with all of the use I get out of them….I did discover that there are a few other people out here who are getting tired of the loud music and have been calling in noise complaints…talked to another police officer last night who confirmed the 50 foot rule…that music can’t be played so loud it can be heard from more than 50 feet away and she welcomed the noise calls that come from it…while I was talking to her, one of the people who is responsible for the noise came up and said”why would walmart sell me a speaker that is too loud if playing it loud is illegal?” Man, that is some twisted logic right there…I am making it my goal in life to build a nice, quiet neighborhood here…and I don’t think the long time residents get that things are changing out here and they have to follow the rules since it has been the wild west for so long….and they have been able to to whatever they want…no longer…more later…

Well…my sleep seems to be deteriorating over the past couple of days but at least I’m consistent with waking up before 5…and I feel okay so I guess I should stop bitching…but, damn…it’s 32 degrees outside right now and that means I’ll lose my bean plants that are in the garden…how the hell can it be 32 on May 12? Oh, well…that means I’ll have to wait until Friday to get at planting the tomatoes that are ready downstairs…but still no green peppers or cukes to replace the ones that died in the garden…I did get a bunch of stuff done yesterday with the grocery run and then mowing the lawn and that was a lot of walking…but I think I’m getting used to walking the mile it takes to mow it since only my big toe is hurting right now and my calves used to scream at me after I was done…probably the shoe change I made after the first mowing…still not losing any weight after cutting back on cocktails and nuts and that is a little disappointing…especially after cutting down to one meal a day…I mean all I had to eat yesterday was a bagel with cream cheese and a third of a chicken breast…no lunch or dinner and a hard ride, too, so that is a little confusing…might have to wait for getting double rides in next week…I am going to make a small pork shoulder in the instant pot for lunch and may make some pork tacos to go with the pickled red onions I made yesterday…have tomatoes in the fridge that need to be used, too, so I’ll need to start that by 9 or so…or 8:30 since it takes a while to get up to pressure and I want to get out on the bike by around noon or so and the potatoes and carrots take a cycle, too…more later…