Well….you know, I really do need to take a day off sometime…have already gotten a bike ride in and have fixed the spring bracket on the garage door that had pulled loose….and watered the gardens…and, so far, so good…at least from the bike ride…no shortness of breath but my right knee is still hurting from wedging it against the ladder Friday…that DID hurt on the bike but I’m hoping the ibuprofen I took will help that before the second ride…and yeah, I am going to take a second ride as soon as I make lunch and that should be interesting…even went out with only one cup of coffee at 8 so I need to finish that up first…then I think I’ll take the afternoon off…ha,ha,ha…yeah, I laughed at that one, too….I need to do the floors around here and should try to clean up the copper on the front of the house….see…I just can’t do it…

Well…yeah, running late again today…it is Sunday after all and I’m always late on Sundays….slept okay last night but feel pretty crappy today with the pain from painting the front trim finally hitting my mid back and everywhere else…even my damn thumb hurts this morning and my foot is still puffy and I need to figure out how to get my back to crack to help that…I am little depressed that today is normally my big race day of the year with Monaco, Indy, and the coke 600 on and now there is only the coke 600 to watch later…it was a great excuse to do nothing for an entire day and now that’s gone…I had problems on the second ride on the bike yesterday where I couldn’t catch my breath coming back and, while that happens sometimes, not to that degree and I was really concerned…but I think part of it was the acid reflux I was having…water helped that but I still had concerns that I was going to be able to get back here…..we’ll see how it is here in a few minutes when I take the bike out this morning….cripes, it sucks getting old…not much to do today….not going to do any work other than on the garden and that will just be screwing around…well, I might try some cleaning on the copper on the front of the house but that will aggravate my foot so I’m not sure about that….and I’m not sure about two rides today but that will hinge on how the first one goes….more later….

Well…cripes, my allergies are just terrible this morning after not taking anything for them last night and I am miserable…but I think I’ll tough it out today and wait until later to take anything for it…I think I’m going to take the day off from painting today since climbing up and down the ladder yesterday really flared my gout in the right foot and it was really swollen and hurting last night…it’s better this morning but I do need to take care of it by keeping it elevated and drinking way too much water today…I am going to get out on the bike today but only for one ride…it looks like the 5K goal for the year is gone since I can’t do the 30 miles a day that I need to do to get there….oh, well…and the trail is so flooded that I can’t get 15 in anyway….and that is going to get worse with the rain that is forecast for the next few days….and it’s going to be in the upper 80’s Monday and Tuesday and I am looking forward to that…I really like the hot weather….and I’ll be sitting on the front porch watching the storms when they come in….not much to do today…going to listen to Joe Walsh on the radio today when he does a radio show for a public radio station in California at 6 tonight…well…on the internet since I don’t think the radio will carry all the way from Cali….should be a hoot…but I’m not going to do much more…need a day off to rest the foot and take care of myself….just wearing out and I don’t like it….more later…

Well…running late this morning and today I have an excuse…my internet was down until just now and I haven’t even read the news yet…slept okay last night but feel pretty crappy this morning with it being a cocktail night last night and not having my coffee…or enough coffee…so this one is going to be a little disjointed….and my foot hurts after the abuse of climbing on the ladder yesterday…I do need to get the prescription for the gout refilled since my foot is all red and looks just like it did the last time….damn….drank so damn much water yesterday I was floating but I guess I’ll have to keep that up today…and I need to get at the rest of the trim on the front of the house today but I’m not going to paint today….just need to get the wire bush out and get it ready….don’t think I have enough paint to do the rest of it so I’ll have to get out for another gallon Tuesday…I can’t believe it’s already Memorial day and I don’t have my one race day of the year…normally, there is F1, Indy, and then the 600 to watch this Sunday and it gave me an excuse to just veg the entire day…but this year there is only the 600 Sunday night and I guess that will have to do…not much to do today…need to get out on the bike in a few minutes but I need coffee first….not sure if I’m going to do two rides today but I should…we’ll see…more later….

Well…I’m not sure how this day got away from me but it did…I did think about doing a political one but just couldn’t do it….I needed to take a day off from trump and his cronies or my brain will turn to mush just like theirs and I am not going  let that happen to me…so, let’s talk about the day instead…you remember from this morning I said I had found a new trail to ride after the flooding started on the normal trail…well…that worked for two days and then, when I got to the entry to the tail this morning, the whole trail was flooded and that meant I had to take the road up to the high parts of the trail and cut across the fields to get back to it…so I got started and got all the way to the other side of the park but then one of the ring roads was flooded and it was the damnest thing that I saw…there were fish swimming across the trail and into the woods against the flow of water that sounded like a waterfall and was 300 yards long….saw some big damn carp that must have been 20 pounds and even saw a couple of steelhead heading upstream….pretty cool even with having to find dry trail to ride…but, that wasn’t the only thing that happened…I had planned to only take one ride today to try to not hurt so much and have more energy…and to help the re-occurrence of the gout…so instead I got after the trim on the driveway side of the front of the house and got that painted today along with the gutter that is hung on that side that is aluminum and not the copper of the rest of them…but standing on the ladder for two hours really made the swelling in my foot explode and I am going to have to keep it raised all night to try to help it….so I do have an excuse for not doing a political one today but I’ll get back to it tomorrow…you can count on that…but, right now…..I am going to have a cocktail or 3 tonight and get caught up on the shows I’ve ignored all week….

Well…damn, it’s a bitch living in a body that’s wearing out….the damn gout came back yesterday and I know I did it to myself with all of the double rides and work on the house…just like the last time…so now I know I need to drink gallons of water over the next few days and cut back on the bike rides…I was going to try a new schedule anyway with having three days of doubles and then a day of only one ride to see if I can make the pain go away and stop hobbling around here….the trail was flooded yesterday in two places but I discovered a new trail that got me to the 15 miles I needed and I am going to use that one for the next week or so until the water goes down…need to try to figure out how to add that one in to the normal rides…it is cool that I can change it up a little now and still get my miles in….I wonder if I can take a day off in the near future and just heal up? The thought came to me on the bike yesterday that maybe I’m doing more damage to myself than I’m helping with all of the rides as I age but I just can’t be one of those people who sits and does nothing….I think I need to do some research on that and maybe start to tailor my nutrition to what I want to do….there has got to be a way to keep going….not much to do today….I am going to do at least one ride today and I want to start to paint the trim on the front of the house that I scraped the paint off yesterday but with my foot hurting, climbing the ladder is a bit much…and there is a race on at noon that I may just watch instead…and I do need to cook some chicken today since all of the leftovers are gone…at least I get to have cocktails tonight….more later…

Well…yep…it’s a pattern….up at 2 again this morning and then back to sleep…fitfully…until almost 6 but doing the math that’s only about 5 hours or so…just like yesterday but I survived the day so I guess I can do that again today….I did get two rides in again yesterday and I am back to pain everywhere again so I’m not sure how good of an idea it is to do that every day…and I do have work to do around here so I may have to cut back on riding or move it til later in the day…want to get moving on getting the trim painted and I need to start on repairing the back yard and that is going to take a lot of work since it is almost all weeds will need to be reseeded….I have 16 sunflowers that have come up and I can’t wait to see how that is going to look when they grow….should be kind of cool around July…and I have 4 tomato plants that have started to set some buds for tomatoes but they are pretty sparse so I am going to plant a bunch more…having to use the brute force method just to get a couple of every kind has been a lot of work….it looks like I may be able to salvage a couple of green pepper plants and a couple of Jalapenos but I do have a few each of beans and cukes that have survived…not what I was expecting….I did get my latest gas bill yesterday and it is down to 56 bucks so that is cool it will be nice to get it down to 30 bucks or so in the next month….not much to do today…need to do the grocery run at aldi’s and meijers and then move on to working around here since the rain has stopped for the next few days and I should be able to get the prep done to paint he front…will need to get out and get the rest of the paint that I need next week and then hit HF to get a sprayer to get staterd on the siding both on the house and the garage…and today I’m doing the grocery run in shorts with the top down…spring needs to come….more later…

Well…the no cocktail sleep pattern is back again…to bed at 11, trying to get to sleep for an hour, and then up between 4:30 and 5 and trying to go back to sleep for at least until the coffee maker starts at 6…I wonder if I should take some comfort in the consistency? Who knows? Had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get much done with the lack of motivation I’ve felt lately but I did get two rides in after taking the day off Sunday….and my legs were supercharged after just resting one day so I guess I’ll have to do that more often…I had been on the bike for doubles for 16 days straight and was just miserable for my rides on Saturday…legs were just flat from the start through the entire 30 miles and it was torture to keep going…and it hurt which doesn’t happen very often…I did have a funny surprise when I took a walk around the yard after the first ride yesterday and discovered that a flock of grackles had punched holes all over the front yard looking for insects I guess…it looked like someone had run one of those aerator machines over it and that should be good for the lawn to loosen the soil some and let air and water down to the roots of the grass….and the food and weed killer I put on it looks like it is working even though it rained after I put the killer on….I am going to get out on the bike here in a few minutes since it is already 55 degrees out and there is rain coming for later this morning…just don’t want to be wet today…but after today, the weather is going to turn nice with no rain and temps in the 70’s to near 80…going to have to break out the shorts and put the top down for a ride in the car….it is kind of cool that I can just pull the car in the garage and leave the top down if I want to and not think about rain….not much to do today…I should start working on getting the loose paint off the trim in the front to get ready to paint it and I might if I don’t get sidetracked with fooling around with other stuff….more later…

Well…cripes that was a lot of rain yesterday and it looks like it’s going to continue all day today too…it does look like I may have a window to get on the bike around 1 this afternoon and I hope that happens…I can’t go two days without riding or I’ll go nuts…it was an okay night of sleep last night with only getting up once at 4 but then getting back to sleep until it was light…and the heat came on last night for the first time in a couple of days so I am looking for my gas bill to be down some this month….I really don’t want to go out and look at the gardens after all the rain yesterday…I don’t think the small tomato plants have survived so I planted 4 more of each in cups yesterday downstairs but that will negate the whole get them started early plan that I was working on…tomatoes are usually so damn easy to grow that I can’t figure out how I’m having so much trouble getting them to stay alive….oh, well…I was really planning on taking the day off yesterday but I had work to do on the downstairs project that couldn’t wait so I spent a couple of hours taking care of that but that was all I did yesterday…and I really don’t have much to do today so I am going to just ease into it and have some coffee right now to try to get jump started….not sure if that will work but it’s all I have the energy for right now….more later…

Well…damn…we’re more than half way through May already and I don’t feel like we’ve had any spring at all…is it bad that I am hoping for rain all day today so I can justify taking a day off the bike? Hmmmm…at least it may be easier to take the day off if it is raining…not sure if I could do it without the rain…so rain already…I did sleep okay last night but still feel worn out today and I think it may be that I have been working too hard around here…damn, it’s hard getting old and not being able to go like you used to….I mean in my 20’s and thirties I worked 50 hours a week, went to college full time, and took care of my house and young kids and never felt this worn out….oh, well…I am going to try to take the day off today with racing coming back and needing some rest…napcar might be just the thing I need for this afternoon…but I still miss having the premier league to have running in the background on the weekends…MLS games on Pluto just don’t do it for me….not much to do today….it is going to be interesting to see if I can take the day off….I should clean some and get started on the front door…see…I just can’t do nothing…I wonder what that is about? More later….