Well….crap, another 5:15 morning after going to bed late too so that means less than 5 hours…again…and getting up at that time always reminds me of the Who song from Quadrophenia….I may have reached the point where I have to take it a little easy on the bike for a few days or take a day off completely with the overall pain I have been feeling the past few days…I hurt everywhere and have been running out of energy so much lately that I even cut the second ride short yesterday and only did 34 miles for the day. And something I’m allergic to just bloomed yesterday and left me coughing and with a plugged up head on the second ride and I am still feeling it this morning even with taking something for it last night….that could be why I felt so lousy yesterday…I guess we’ll see when I get out this morning….I think I’m just finally feeling my age and can’t go like I used to…but, I’m not willing to accept that just yet. I made up a new rub for some pork shoulder and tried it out on a small piece off the 7 pounder I bought this week…tasted great but I forgot to put the brown sugar in it but I will do that for the rest of it I’m cooking in the instant pot for lunch…going to make some pulled pork sandwiches out of it and then think about what else I can use 5 pounds of pork for….thinking of trying a vinegar based thin mustard sauce like they do in SC but I’ll have to look that up…and the pulled pork should go great with the jalpeno pickles I made the other day….not much to do today…I did chase the damn squirrel that is attacking my sunflowers yesterday and I m going to try to hit him with a rock if I see him today…and I got some other outdoor work done but I really need to get at the garage soon…but, not this weekend…I am going to take the weekend off except for cleaning and cooking and try to heal up and get back at it hard Monday….and I will get to a political one later today…just have been hovering on the edge of depression the past week or so and that makes it hard to focus and make sense here….more later…

Well….running a little early today…or should be with getting up at 5:14 but I just can’t get moving…okay, this is really weird…when the cops put up their radar sign yesterday, I didn’t expect there would be much of  an effect…but damn, traffic has slowed down to an average of 30 from 50 and the volume of traffic has even decreased this morning…no trucks hauling butt down the street or people flying down it….not sure what the deal is but I’ll take….slept okay last night but I am pretty worn out from all of the riding but I’ll be back on the bike this morning even though I hurt everywhere….didn’t get a lot done yesterday and probably won’t today either but I do need to watch for the damn squirrel that is killing my sunflowers…I was going to be nice but no more…I’ll kill that little shit if I get the chance…okay, yeah, I guess a few plants aren’t worth killing an animal….and the brush killer they sprayed next door is killing them anyway…or it’s the lack of rain…who knows? I am re learning a bunch about tending a garden so I guess that’s something I can apply to the next one….I did make up my own rub for some pork shoulder I got wed and it would have been perfect if I had remembered to put brown sugar in it so I will when I do the rest of of the 7 pounds in the instant pot over the weekend….and I made a new batch of jalpeno pickles that came out good again so it will be my new go to for pickles as I get more cukes from the garden….actually have 5 more cukes that are growing, too….should have a hundred but what can you do?  more later….

Well…no, it’s not what you think…had a pleasant visit from a couple of officers from the GRPD this morning in response to my complaints about the excessive speed on the street here. They brought along one of those radar signs that show speed on a big display along with a speed limit sign showing what their speed should be…one thing I didn’t know about the newer signs is that every time it is triggered, it records the time date and speed on a computer card so that the cops will have 3 days of info to look at when they come and replace the card…one of the funny things that is happening is that some people are slowing down but some others appear to be speeding up to make their speed higher since they understand that you can’t get a photo radar ticket in Michigan. The bad part is that they don’t have the manpower to do an old fashioned radar trap with a gun and a few cars to stop the speeders so I’m not sure what use the data from the sign is going to be. At least someone in city government listened to me and something happened…really more than I expected.

Well…running late again today since I had to get a response out to the first ward commissioner who wrote me back yesterday in response to my e-mail about the traffic speed down my street…I mean 50-60 mph in a 25 mph zone? And not one damn cop in sight? They are great about citing people for peeling paint and unmowed lawns but reckless driving? Not so much…and I have never seen peeling paint or long grass kill someone like speeding down a narrow city street could. Oh, well…I’ll keep up the campaign until I get some results….oh, two days into the no foot pain count! Yeah, I know, it probably won’t last too long but I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts….and the redness is almost gone too, along with some of the swelling so that’s progress but I’m not sure what I’m doing that is helping but I’ll keep up all of them since it’s not a lot of effort. Had a problem with the garage door for the past month or so and thought it was the receiver for the remote so I bought a universal replacement from depot and am waiting for it to arrive…but, in checking the wires that led to the receiver and that power it, I found they were corroded and cleaned them…and the receiver started right up so I guess I’ll have to return the new parts when I get them…but, I am going to wait for a couple of weeks to make sure my fix is permanent. No much to do today….I did the lawn yesterday and most of the other outdoor stuff so it looks like just the rides today and I have to pay a couple of bills but that’s it…I can use an easy day and I am thinking of scheduling a day off the bike just because I’m old and I hurt….more later….

Well…running a little late this morning so this one could be short so I can get a ride in before I do the grocery run…it’s funny that when I wake up and put my foot on the floor for the first time, I don’t know what my foot is going to feel like…is it going to hurt too much to walk? Or is it going to not hurt at all? Today it doesn’t hurt at all and I am so damn surprised that I have been walking around just to feel it…okay…damn..it just started to hurt again…oh, well….slept okay last night so I guess that’s something…but it’s not enough….I did get the front yard cleared of crab grass yesterday and that was annoying the hell out of me…the killer I put on it just didn’t work and that sucked…it worked on the weeds, though so it’s not a total loss….I did get over 3100 miles yesterday and but I can feel my body is starting to wear out and it hurts everywhere every day so I may need a day off soon…I was expecting that there were going to be storms this morning but they fizzled out so I’ll be on the bike here in a few minutes….not much to do today…need to do the grocery run after the ride and maybe mow the lawn later but we’ll see…and I need to get at the crabgrass in the back yard to finish that up so I feel like I’ve accomplished something…mor elater…

Well…running a little late this morning and there is no reason for it other than I laid in bed until almost 6 even thought I wasn’t sleeping much…I did sleep some, though so I don’t feel too bad this morning with being good last night…and my toe seems to be in a lull of pain right now and I’ll take it…I can even move it but that will end after I get it forced into my riding shoe here in a while….need to work on the lawn today and pull up some crabgrass since the killer is not working too well and I should mow today too but I’m not sure if I’ll get to it…I did start my campaign of nasty e-mail writing to all of the GR city government to see if I can get them to do something about the speed of the traffic here…started with the office of the city manager and today will be the ward one commissioner…I did talk to the police last week but they were pretty dismissive that they would do anything about it…if I don’t get any response, I can always call fox 17 and get it on the news but that won’t be until I give these other people a chance to do their damn jobs….Yahoo has started to shut down my e-mail that I have had for 25 years since I use an ad blocker to keep from seeing all the crap they push so I may have to switch over to my g-mail account that I re-activated yesterday…are these people so stupid and greedy that they will throw away a long term user just to force me to take ads that I won’t look at anyway? Of course the answer is yep so we’ll see what happens….not much to do today….need to get on the bike in a few and then figure out what to do after the lawn work…more later…

Well….I think I mentioned that I used the second and last cucumber that I got off my plants to make another batch of pickles since I’m not a huge fan of cukes any other way…so yesterday, I took a shot at making another batch of pickles but this time I used some pickling spices that I had leftover for making bread and butter pickles, cut up a jalapeno from the garden, put in three big cloves of garlic, and a bunch of whole peppercorns and added the normal vinegar and water that I boiled, then let it set overnight in the fridge for the flavors to meld together…yow, by accident, I just made the best pickles I have ever made…they are spicy but with the cool bread and butter taste that offsets it some….I’ve already gone through a quarter of the ones I made for lunch and will probably have to make more if I ever get another cuke off my plants….yummy…

Well…made it all the way to the coffee maker starting this morning…okay, I was in bed until the coffee maker started but I had been up since about 5 or so and with not getting to sleep until after midnight, that is another short night of sleep that I am feeling right now….my foot seems to be a little better this morning and I am trying some vitamin c to see if that will help….it is supposed to have some effect along with lots of coffee so that I can do…it is less red and puffy so maybe I’m on the right track….didn’t get much done but some cleaning yesterday and I made some jalapeno pickles from the second cuke that I grew and picked yesterday and I can’t wait to see how they came out…they need to sit in the fridge for 24 hours while the vinegar does it’s work but I’ll be trying them with lunch today…the first batch I made a few days ago came out quite good but needed more flavor so I went with more garlic and one jalpeno to see if I could kick it up a bit….I did only do one ride yesterday with the rain and soreness but we’ll see about today….don’t want to have a setback on the progress I’ve made with my foot but I know putting it in my riding shoe is going to do that….and there is no way I can drink more water than I did yesterday….not much to do today…I should run some errands but I probably won’t…should wait until it rains and I can’t do anything else….more later…

Well…a few minutes ago, I decided to skip the second ride of the day and give myself some rest since I am feeling pretty worn out…and I think that makes me look like a genius now with the storms that have just popped up out of nowhere and that are going to hit here in a few minutes….in reality, I skipped to watch the Man U FA cup match at 1 against Chelsea….along with being worn out and my foot still sore from wedging it into my riding shoe this morning…okay, better end this one right now before the power goes out….need more water…well…I don’t really NEED more water but I do think it would be a good idea to keep drinking as much as I can until my foot is better….

Well…timed that one pretty well…..just walked in the door from a shortened ride and it has started to rain…and it looks like we are going to get some puny storms but I thought I needed to get this one done before the power goes out…slept pretty crappy again last night but I don’t feel too bad other than my toe hurts again…but the low being 80 was a bit much and I hope these storms coming through will cut the humidity some and cool it off…okay…yeah, that made me laugh too….they have predicted storms for almost a week now and we haven’t gotten anything so I’ll believe it when I see it…I do hear some thunder and can smell the rain so maybe they’ll be right this time….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but pick the biggest damn cuke I’ve ever seen…it must be 18 inches long but it looks like my cuke count will be two from 6 plants and that really sucks…at least I can make another batch of pickles…the first ones came out pretty good but I need to add a little more sugar and dill to the next batch…not much to to today…going to continue the cleaning I started yesterday and I have to get started on some stuff downstairs but I do need to rest my foot some so I am going to do that for the next hour while I wait for the F1 race to start…it the power stays on…more later….