Well…damn, just got the 600 dollar check that I had to file a tax return for! And the 1400 dollar check is going to be sent on the 2nd of April…yay! It took a damn lot of work and bitching to get this one so I really do hope the next one comes without any work since the IRS has my info now so it should be easy…the operative word is should…but, we’ll see…all I know is that I can sure use this money…going to call a plumber or drain cleaner and get the kitchen drains cleaned next week and probably get an estimate on taking down the dead tree….and I can now afford a ladder, garage door opener, and a grill so I’ll be set for the summer….this is just such a damn relief….

Well…it feels darn good to be able to  come here first thing in the morning after not being able to for two days…after almost 9,000 of these, I still look forward to doing this every day and my day is just wrong when I can’t…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed until 6:30 and that makes three days in a row of sleeping through and I’m not sure why that is happening….I’ll take it but I sure wish I could figure out the keys to doing it all the time…didn’t get out on the bike yesterday with the cold, rain, and wind and it looks like this is going to be a pretty crappy week with temps in the 50’s today and tomorrow but down into the 30’s wed and thurs and rain showers almost every day so riding is going to be iffy starting then….I should be able to get back to yard work this morning and I want to finish the back of my lot today…still have trimming and raking to do and then I’ll start on the rest of the yard…not sure when I’ll get started on the interior of the house but I am starting to feel stress about getting going…and that shouldn’t be…after all, I don’t have any schedule to meet and I am perfectly fine living in the house the way it is….and I want a summer off to just enjoy myself…don’t know how many summers I have left and it would be a shame to spend them all working on a house that someone else will enjoy….not much to do today….I am going to try to get a ride in today and the yard work done and the dirt races at Bristol are on starting at noon so I may have to fit the ride in between the trucks and cup cars….more later…

Well….after working and working to try to get my relief payments and not having any luck, I went out to the IRS website on Saturday and put my info in and they have information on me and they are sending one of the checks on the 2nd of April….so, I’m not sure which payment it is going to be but I’m guessing it’s the 1400 dollar one and that would be so cool…have burned so much cash in the past month that I was going to have to basically stop spending any money to make sure I still have a good sized reserve left….I need a garage door opener and a grill..and my kitchen drain cleaned…maybe by the middle of April…yay!

Well…I’m back! Did you miss me? Had a little snafu with my domain name expiring and my son being too busy with an outage at his work to fix it until just now…so now I’m back…and damn, it’s hard to not do this for almost two days…so let’s get to it…hmmm…I did sleep okay last night but still feel pretty crappy even this late in the day so it looks like I’m going to skip the cocktails tonight and just have water…or more water since I’ve been drinking glasses on glasses all day today…I’m really not as sore as I should be after chopping out a bunch of stumps yesterday with my axe and that should have screwed up my shoulder but it feels okay today…but my back is still iffy and stiff and that has been going on for a long time and I’m not sure what to do about it….I did get a comment from one of my neighbors on how nice the sidewalks in front look after I edged them with my spade and that made me feel good that someone is noticing…and I got all of the vines chopped up and bagged yesterday but I am out of space in the garage so the leaves will have to wait a while until they start picking them up in a couple of weeks…I didn’t do anything today but watch sports and veg since it was so cold and windy out here…steady winds of over 20 with gusts to 40 with rain and I just don’t want to get wet working outside…I did talk to my neighbor about the amp he has in his van…I heard it the other day and could not believe how loud it is…but he’s my neighbor so I’m not going to bitch…and he’s a nice guy…oh, he has 2,000 watts in the thing and 4 12 inch woofers in it…made me laugh….okay, that’s enough to get started again…might be back for another one later after I let my brain get back into writing mode….

Well…running on time this morning with getting up around 6 or so…I know I could smell the coffee so it must have been a little after 6 so that makes for a good night after crashing out about 10 last night…I did get up a couple of times and the pain in my left ribs didn’t let me sleep in my right side…yeah, that’s weird…I could sleep on it but sleeping on my right was too damn painful….and I was good again last night for the fifth day and I feel good about that…that’s two weeks in a row and I am close to making that a new habit…I did get my new stainless steel pots yesterday and I can’t wait to try them out but need to read the pamphlet that came with them to care for them and make them the last pots I need…after all, I am pretty damn old an they only need to last about 10 years or so…didn’t get on the bike yesterday since I really did need a day off I was so sore…and I may take today off, too, with the cold and showers that are forecast but we’ll see…I can use some exercise but I’m not as anal about it as I used to be…it is going to be cold the next few days but I am ready to go back to my thermasuit if I need to….not much to do today…I should get into planning the painting project for the living room and the bedrooms but I still haven’t taken the two weeks off I said I was going to after I moved in here and I wonder if I will ever do that….there is still a lot to do and it is hard to sit here with it not done…and I do need to not spend any money until next month since I spent close to 2500 bucks this month and that is more than I had come in for the first time in years…and that is not sustainable….more later…

Well…with the package that just came with my new Cuisinart cookware that my son and daughter in law bought me, I’ve had a really nice day that started with T coming out to see the house and then going out to lunch and talking for a couple of hours…it was nice to catch up with her since I hadn’t seen here since last year and, with everything that is going on in her life, I think she needed and old friend to just sit and listen a while…and we laughed and smiled and just talked as old friends do…and that made me smile that I could give her a couple of hours where she could live in the moment and not think about the hard decisions she needs to make….I felt useful for the first time in a while and that made me feel good…hope I helped…

Well…darn…was up three times last night with the last time a little before 6 and I could tell that there was no use to try to get back to sleep…so, I didn’t…slept okay, though, and feel okay today…and I am getting to like this feeling good in the morning without cocktails the previous night so now I’m up to 5 days a week and I think that’s where I’ll keep it for a while….getting through the first few weeks of this and getting my habits changed was different…I won’t say tough but it did need some discipline and I am glad I made that choice…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday even with the wind blowing almost 20 but I won’t be going today with gale warnings up for out here of 25-30 mph and gusts of almost 40 all day…it was like that yesterday in the afternoon and one gust sent some of my tools flying when I was working on the sidewalks…but, I had them inside the fence so they caught as they flew…I wonder if it’s going to be this windy all the time out here? That could make the summer heat a little more bearable…and it is usually cooler out here by the lake…T is going to come out here today to take a look at the house and then go to lunch over in GH and it will be good to see her….and I am getting some new pots and pans from my son and his wife for a housewarming present…a nice set of Cuisinart stuff that look pretty cool and will be replacing pots that I’ve had for 20 years and were looking pretty shabby….not much to do today…need to clean this place up some this morning but that is about it….haven’t gotten sore from all of the pounding my body took yesterday but I think I’ll try to get ahead of it with an ibuprofen in a few…my ribs still hurt when I breathe and it’s pretty annoying….more later…

Well…man, I’m tired…it’s been another busy day and I am now waiting for the pain to start to build for the rest of the day…started out with doing the grocery run and hitting Aldi’s and Meijer’s…forgot to buy milk and I’m not sure how the heck that happened…but, I have a gallon and a half here so I may be able to get through the week without it….then I got out for a hard ride in the wind…it was blowing 18 to 20 mph with gusts of 25 but it was from the south and, with my route mostly west and east, it was tolerable….and that’s something I wouldn’t have said last year….then I got started on edging my front sidewalks with a spade since the grass had grown over the walk by almost a foot so that took a little work…okay, a lot of work and I am surprised my back allowed me to get through it…and I took the sod and dirt that came from it and filled the back entrance to the yard and it looks pretty good…no more 2 foot deep holes and, after it grows in with some rain, I think I’ll be able to easily drive in the back yard to wash the car….so, progress! Still haven’t done much in here but I can live with the interior as long as I get the outside cleaned up…and now I’m making an 8 pound ham with mashed potatoes and corn for dinner since I skipped lunched to get the work done…almost want to have cocktails tonight since I earned them but nope…have to be good again tonight and tomorrow…discipline….

Well…running about on time this morning and had a pretty good night of sleep with getting up at 4:14 and then being able to go back to sleep until after 6 so I’ll take it…I am pretty sore after the yard work yesterday and my shoulder bugged me all night trying to not sleep on it to make the pain worse but it’s nothing I can’t handle…I am going to work on the front of the house again today and edge the sidewalks with my spade and that should take a couple of hours but it will be worth it when I get done and have that finished look it gives it….once I get all of that stuff done, it will be easy to maintain it and it will look good all summer…the fence does need some repairs and I wonder if I should paint it black…that will a project for later once the rest of the lawn work is done….I did take a ride along the beach trail yesterday to take a look at the damage the high water did last year and that entire part of the trail is trashed and will probably take a couple of years to restore…most of is it washed away and the pavement is in the lake…won’t go that way again since I just had to turn around and some of the approaches to the bridges were pretty sketchy…but they are working on it and making progress…not much to do today…I do have the grocery run to do here in a couple of hours and I may be able to put the top down for that run…and I think I’m going to buy a spiral ham at Meijers today…only 87 cents a pound and that will give me protein for almost a week and I can’t wait for ham and swiss sandwiches on rye bread…really don’t have anything else in the fridge so I’ll have to cook it today…I should use some of the chicken thighs I have in the freezer and I’ll probably start thawing some today….more later…

Well…yeah, I almost forgot to come back here today and do another one of these and no, it won’t be about politics…it may be about bitching a little but I probably shouldn’t do that since that’s not what I’m about anymore….I did get into GR today and was supposed to meet up with T but she texted me a few minutes before were supposed to meet and said she just got out of bed and wanted to move the meet back a day…and then texted and moved that one back a day so it looks like Thursday now…but, I got these texts after I was already in GR so all I did was pick up some leftover stuff and drive back here…I did get to have the top down both ways so that was cool but a waste of time and mileage on the car….so, when I got back here I got on the bike and did 20 in shorts and a t-shirt and then worked on the front of the house until my back wouldn’t take any more…I did get the fence cleaned up with the string trimmer and chopped out a bunch of bushes that had grown into the fence and raked some of the leaves and trimmings….and it does look a lot better but I have to use my spade to trim the grass that has grown over the sidewalk and that is going to take a full day with how wide the lot is….I sure hope it rains tonight like it’s supposed to and waters my grass seed….I am so damn sore right now that there will be an ibuprofen in my future…I am tired of hurting so much…darn…