Well…my brain wasn’t working too well this morning when I did the first post and forgot a couple of things that I wanted to talk about…first, and I am going to be blunt about this…don’t take zyrtec…just frickin don’t…no matter how bad you are sneezing, coughing, or your head is plugged up…don’t take zyrtec. I got up with all of those symptoms and I was miserable but without being able to take any red dots, I broke down and took a zyrtec and regretted it as soon as I started to feel it…cripes, I don’t understand how anyone can function taking that crap…I felt nauseous and like I had a thousand cups of coffee in me and the damn crap lasts all day…I even cut 5 miles off the second ride I felt so lousy and I never do that…did I say Don’t take zyrtec? Don’t take zyrtec…the second thing is something that is making me smile…as I reported earlier, I bought some new bike lube since I was tired of the wd 40 leaving black gunk all over the chain and sprockets and having to apply it all the time to keep them quiet…so I bought what is called Finish Line dry bike lubricant on Amazon for 9 bucks….kind of a steep price for 4 ounces but it works so well and makes such a difference in the bike that I think it is worth it…it has paraffin and teflon in it and all you have to do is clean the chain and then apply a drop to every link and let it dry overnight…it makes such a difference in how the bike rides and shifts since I use it on the suspension and the rear shifter too….and it stays on the chain and keeps it quiet for over 300 miles with no gunk build up even with riding in the rain and slop….I know some of you out there are bike riders so give this stuff a try…I’m sure you’ll like it and I think this one bottle is going to last me at least 6 months with weekly applications…that’s not a bad deal…more later…

Well…that was a little better…slept better last night and didn’t get out of bed til 6 or so and it is strange just how good you feel after a small amount of better sleep….and my eye is slowly healing too, and that is welcome after a couple of weeks of treating it…but, I’m still feeling old and decrepit with my foot still swollen and red..oh well….I can still get on the bike and ride and it’s a little better today so I’ll take it…didn’t get anything done yesterday and today looks the same with just some gardening in the plans…have a couple more green pepper plants that have sprouted downstairs that I need to put outside today but that will end the additions to the gardens and I’ll just have to go with what I have out there…I am a little disappointed that the peppers have been hard to get going but I am going to have way too many beans and jalapenos and probably tomatoes too if they ever set any fruit….I am curious about the garlic too, I may even dig one plant up to see what they are doing underground…..I do need to get started on the rest of the outdoor work on the house next week but I am taking the weekend off other than just fooling around outside and cleaning some in here….and there are two races on today so there will be some napcar going on this afternoon….more later….

Well…running late today even with being up and down all night and getting up for good at 5:30…and my foot is howling in pain so I had to take the prescription that I had refilled a couple of weeks ago…looks like another round of treatment is necessary to be able to walk comfortably again…and I have been pouring the water down since I got up and have almost 3/4 of a gallon in me so far and that will have to continue all day to the tune of at least a couple of gallons to get rid of the chronic dehydration that is caused by riding too much….and I bit the bullet and took a generic zyrtec allergy med this morning since my allergies are so bad…going to just take the side effects that make me feel weird so I can stop sneezing and coughing and my eyes will stop itching….would prefer the little red dots but I can’t get any more of them for a month or so and I need to do something I’m so miserable…I did see a hummingbird yesterday but it didn’t stop at my feeder and it may be that the food has gone bad so I am going to clean it and make a new batch this morning…just need one of them to find it and I’ll have a bunch of them on it but it has been more than a week since I put the feeder up and I am getting a little disappointed that I haven’t seen any birds yet….I may have to move it to the back yard since they like it a little quiet and this place is anything but quiet out front….the damn power outage from Wednesday has ruined my enjoyment of storms since now all I think of is that it is going go out with every storm that comes through….and 10 hours without power in the pandemic is the largest kind of boring….but, I survived it so I guess it wasn’t that bad….not much to do today….didn’t get a lot done yesterday and with my foot acting up, I don’t think I’ll be doing much but riding the bike today….and I probably shouldn’t be doing that with how bad my foot is….I did get to 2K miles yesterday and only have 3K more to go to get to the goal….a daunting task for sure with the damage I’m doing to myself to maintain the 30 miles a day that it is going to take…oh, well…already starting to feel strange from the allergy meds and I need more coffee so I’ll end here….more later….

Well…that was a wasted day…I think that was the longest power outage that I can remember since at least 20 years ago but, living in town, I still had water so I guess it wasn’t that bad….but I did miss the re-start of the BPL season and that really sucked after waiting for it for months…and with this place all electric, I couldn’t even cook anything so I had to fire up my little brick grill to make some food…but I did find the old portable radio that the grandparents brought on vacations and it still worked even with being 50 years old and that at least made a little noise to keep me sane….stayed up late last night after the power came back and I am feeling it right now with getting up at 5:30 so I think today will be just getting back into the normal routine and taking it easy…not sure what just bloomed but my allergies are terrible right now and I am miserable….I could feel it coming yesterday but man, this is bad enough that I may take the zyrtec that I don’t like too much…can’t stop sneezing and my head is plugged up like concrete…the storm didn’t last too long yesterday but it was pretty violent and took down a bunch of trees on the trail…I had to carry my bike over three big ones that were across the entry and then there were two other places that were blocked on my normal route and it will be interesting to see if they have them cleared today….not much to do today….going to just ease into the day but I do have laundry and gardening to get done later along with cooking but I am going to take an hour or so right now to just have more coffee and try to feel better….more later…

Well…that really sucked…my power went out at noon today and just came back on at 10:20…..all that for a damn storm that lasted about 10 minutes…and the irritating thing was they said it would be fixed by 4:30…then it was 9, then it was 2:15am…I wonder if they were doing the “Scotty” thing from start trek…where you give them a time you know is too long and you know you can beat and beating the deadline will make you look like a miracle worker…all I know is my power is back and I need to watch the race that’s on and I’ll get back to it tomorrow…..

Well….that was a mistake…for the first time since I’ve been working on this house, I felt relaxed last night and had cocktails while sitting on the front porch listening to music and watching the rain…put the screen in the front storm door to get some more air in here and that made it all click…not sure if the neighbors were too happy with “Dark side of the moon” playing really loud but I don’t really care, do you?…Okay…yeah if you read the news you get that dig…and with all of the rain overnight, there are no leaks in  the front porch ceiling so I must have gotten it fixed and that is pretty cool….cripes, I just realized that I can’t get out on the bike with the rain this morning and I don’t know what to think about that with being on the bike for 30 miles a day for the past two weeks…I could use the rest for my legs since they are in low grade pain all the time now but I wonder if I have to limit my calories to about a thousand with not riding? Didn’t get much done yesterday but work on the garden and the downstairs project and mow the lawn…but I am going to start on the front door today since looking at it open with it ugly and peeling is bugging the hell out of me….not much to do today…feel pretty crappy right now but I need to make a grocery run out to aldi’s and DD to get a couple more pizzas but that is about it for the day…going to just hang out and recover and try to get some work done….more later…

Well…that was a little better….was good last night and I even slept some so I feel okay this morning…probably going to be sore tomorrow with all the ladder work yesterday but my ribs finally seem to be improving and that is a welcome change….and the swelling in my foot seems to be getting better along with the eye infection so I don’t feel so damn decrepit…will get to 2K miles on the bike in the next couple of days but I think I’m so far behind that I can’t get to 5K this year but we’ll see…it looks like I may have a day off the bike tomorrow with the storm and rains that are coming in this evening and that may be a good thing since that will give me time to get the front door ready to paint and get that done finally….I can’t wait to see if my work on the flat roof fixed the leaks…it will be nice to sit on the front porch and watch the storms and stay dry…might even have a beer while I’m doing it even though tonight is another NCN…not much to do today…going to do my Meijers run today since I want to get some veggies to add to the cheap pizzas I got from DD yesterday and I’m going to buy Mega tickets for the first time since the virus started…I sure could use 410 million dollars….more later…

Well…man, it has been another busy day for me but that made me feel a little better than I have had some motivation and got some stuff done…started out with getting on the bike early and getting a nice ride in, then I had to run some errands to get what I needed to work on the house…but first I stopped at DD to pick up a couple of self rising, 4 cheese pizzas for 1.99 each…they are almost two pounds each and you can’t beat it for 1.99…then I had to go to Menards to get lawn food and roof cement to work on the small flat membrane roof that has been leaking…in the last storm, I was sitting on my little porch with a beer watching the rain and the rain came pouring through the roof of the porch and I got soaked so I knew some repairs were necessary…so, I got the ladder out and got the membrane cleaned up so I could patch it and then spent an hour making sure all of the bad spots were repaired…we’ll see how good of a job I did tomorrow when the storms come later in the day…after I cleaned up after the roof, I got out my little hand spreader and put the food on the lawn, took care of the gardens, made lunch, and then back on the bike for another 15 miles…and just got back here about an hour ago and now I’m taking a few minutes off before I get back to work on the downstairs project…so, it has been another busy day but I feel good that I finally accomplished something…oh, I do like how the car runs after I changed the oil….it now has over 40 psi even at idle and it seems to run more smoothly…I know it’s quieter so I guess it’s worth the 26 bucks the oil and filter cost…

Well…running about on time this morning after forcing myself to stay in bed until I heard the coffee maker start…slept as good as I can ever expect and I’ll let the coffee wake me up and get me going…there is a little good news that the amoxicillin is helping my eye heal up with most of the swelling down so it doesn’t look so bad…my eye is still watering some from the irritation so I’m going to do one more day of antibiotic to make sure it doesn’t rebound…I am looking forward to maybe getting a day off the bike Wednesday to get a little rest for my body that is feeling a little worse for wear with 30 miles a day becoming the new normal…I wonder how that happened? I mean, 15 miles a day should be enough for an old guy like me and I know I have the 5K goal but the compulsion to go out twice daily is a new thing that is confounding me a little…I wonder if it is trying to chase away the age that I see in the mirror every morning? If it is, it’s not working….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but gardening but I do have to get out to get some lawn food today to get it down before the storms tomorrow night and into wed…and I think I may want to mow before that but we’ll see….I do need to wash the car too, since C’s road in Mt. P is gravel and it is covered in dust…but, I may let the rain do that on the grocery run wed…it’s a little weird that I am letting little things like car washing and fooling around in the garden fill my time when I still have big work to do on the house….I guess I’m just burned out from working on it almost daily for a year…..I think I deserve a little time off to enjoy life for a bit….I am going to get to the front door this week and get it painted…and I do have to get on the membrane roof and replace the cement that has dried out to eliminate the leaks…maybe that will be this week, too? More later…

Well…got the political one in for the day but still had a few other things I wanted to talk about that are just things…not important at all but I have time so I thought I’d just go…I did get the oil changed in the car today in between the two rides I took and I had forgotten how big of a pain it is to get the filter out since you have to take it out through the top with the plastic pan under the car blocking even being able to see it…and every time I end up with scratches on my arms from snaking them down past the intake runners…but it’s done and I even cleaned up the oil that always spills from the filter boss and ends up on the ground…it is nice to have 50+ psi at idle again…and it looks like I did get a couple of the last green pepper seeds to sprout, finally and I can get them planted next week so I’ll actually have a few of those to go along with the jalapenos that are blooming all over the place…and I may even get some tomatoes out of the many, many plants that I have going..but, I’m not sure about that with the withering of lots of the blossoms on the celebrations…my beans have even stated to look like they may be blooming, too so I guess I need to stop stressing out about every damn plant….after all, gardening is supposed to be relaxing but I think I’ve made it a competition with myself just like everything else and that is not healthy…but the brute force method I used on everything has left me with 19 sunflowers along the fence that are going to be a sight to see when they start to bloom….so, I guess I need to relax some, huh? Okay, I will…taking the rest of the day off to just veg and watch the race…and I hope to get a nap in since it is napcar after all….