Well…made it all the way to coffee o’clock this morning and I wonder if that will help how tired I’ve been lately…I’m sure it’s better than getting up at 4 or 5 so I guess we’ll see later this morning…got a call from my middle son yesterday with a bit of surprising news…he and his wife are expecting so that makes two grand kids on the way in the span of a year…had an hour long talk with he and his wife and had quite a few laughs…going from no grand kids to two in a couple of months was a little strange to me but I’m pretty happy about it and they are really excited…so life goes on even in the pandemic….I did get some stuff done yesterday with mowing the lawn and getting all of my seeds planted along with cleaning the gutters on the garage…the one on the back must not have been cleaned in 20 years since it was filled to the top with soil and tiny maple trees….and the downspout was filled with dirt and I had to dig out around the outlet since it was buried in a foot of soil….but it flows now and I must have removed a hundred pounds of dirt…it’s a wonder that the weight didn’t collapse it….and then I washed the back of the garage since it was covered in dirt and and debris….still need to clean up that area and get it organized but I have all summer to do that and I need a day off….so I think I’ll just ride the bike today and veg some but I do have to remember to keep the seeds wet…and I need to pay two bills today but they are online so that will be easy…but, not right now…need more coffee and to start getting ready for the first ride…more later…

Well….as you know, I have been prepping the two small areas on either side of the front walk to plant some flowers and I got the seeds before everything was shut down…one of the things I wanted in picking the seeds was that they all grow to be between 6 and 18 inches tall when mature…and a selection of colors and types….but yesterday when I started looking at the packages of seeds I noticed something that I had missed…or misread…the snapdragons that have really cool blue flowers and that I thought grew from 6 to 8 inches tall actually grow from 6 to 8 FEET tall….so, needless to say, they really won’t go too well with the others that are less than two feet tall. Luckily, I have two places that I can grow flowers that tall…one in the front by the shrubs where I have 4 feet of open space and next to the garage door where I have another flower bed that I cleaned up yesterday…and one that I was going to grow beans in until I decided to make the overflow garden in the old rose garden bed. I guess this mistake is part of the trials of planting flowers from seed for the first time…still going to be cool to see 6 foot tall flowers….

Well…I’m getting really tired of getting up before 5 so this morning I just wasn’t going to have it and went back to bed for 45 minutes…yay? I think I may have slept for 10 of the 45 minutes but that’s better than nothing…and my allergies are as bad as they have been all year and I wonder if it’s from working outside yesterday? We’ll see today since I’m going to be back out there again planting the flower seeds and some veggies in the overflow garden…but, not until I get a bike ride in here in a few minutes…it’s 7 o’clock and it’s already 56 degrees out there so I can go out in shorts by 8 or so…but not until I have an ocean of coffee and maybe take some ibuprofen to get after the headache I’ve had for two days now….can’t take any allergy stuff since I need to ration it so I can sleep at night so I guess I’ll just be miserable today…not going to do as much work today but I do have some more cleanup to do in the back yard to uncover more of the blocks that have been overgrown over the years… and put the roll of chain link behind the garage until I decide what to do with it….but I’ll have to clean up and organize it first….oh, and I need to mow the lawn again to try to level it out until the new grass starts to come in…so, I guess I do have lots of work to do today once I get started…but more coffee first…one cup just isn’t going to do it….more later…

Well…I wonder when I’m going to actually take a day off? I know I’ve had the intention of taking one just to heal up some since I’m just damn sore all the time but it never works out that way…like today, I was not going to do much other than get the bike rides in and then run an errand this afternoon…so, instead of that…I washed the car early before it got warm enough to get on the bike in shorts, then got on the bike and did a hard 15…and when I was out, I turned right instead of left to go take a look at a trail I hadn’t been on…and it took me across the road to a new part of the park that added an extra 3 mile loop and that is just too cool…I now have more places to explore and with having part of the trail shut down for construction, I now can get back to 15 full miles without having to re-ride much of it….then I came back here and made lunch, then back on the bike for another hard 15…yeah, pretty stupid when I’m so sore…and then I was supposed to run an errand but that got cancelled and I just couldn’t sit here and do nothing when it is so nice outside so I went out to prep all of the garden and flower spaces and continue to clean up the shrubs in the front of the house along with re-setting some blocks in back that had gotten all wonky…then I took a look at the flower seeds I bought and found that the morning glories I got to put in the small spaces out front grow to be 6-8 feet tall so I don’ think they will work with the other ones that grow to be 18 inches tall….so, I’m going to put them in by the shrubs in front since I have  a bare area in there that would be fine with a 6 foot tall plant…and I think I’ll put them in right next to the garage door, too so they can lean against the garage when they get tall….I am now curious how they are going to look when they grow….I even stood back and took a look at both the front and back yards today and I think I’ve made good progress with just working on them for a couple of weeks…the place looks like someone lives here again and that is pretty cool….and I have two more days of good weather to keep making progress before it gets cold again…I think I may even plant the flower seeds tomorrow since they take from 7-21 days to come up and the cold will be gone by then….along with the overflow garden that I am going to start everything with seeds….going to have lots of veggies by the end of July and I hope I can give lots of them away, too….I still need to take a day off….

Well…that was a little better…didn’t get up til almost 6 this morning but the cost of getting some sleep has me feeling really crappy….and I should have some energy but don’t…maybe that will wait until I have some coffee…had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get a lot done but clean the living room…and I don’t think I’ll do much today but make a run out to HF to get the compressor I have been thinking about for a month now but I want to wait until it’s warm enough to put the top down so that will be near noon…need to get a bike ride in first and would like to get two in today but I have an errand to run this afternoon so I may not have time….it looks like I’m going to have to wait to put the garden in until at least another week with the cold that is coming in but I am going to put the flower seeds in this weekend and just take a chance that the couple of days in the 30’s won’t kill them if they come up that soon….I think I may start seeds in the overflow garden too, since they are just extras and I am curious to see how seeds will work outside….not much to do today…need to just ease into this one with feeling so crappy and low energy…man, I could go back to sleep right now but I won’t….more later…

Well…it wasn’t a 4:47 morning this morning…it was a 4:21 morning but I was able to get back to sleep for another 45 minutes or so….and during that time, I came up with the idea for carbon fiber gutters and downspouts…I know it would be expensive but leaving them unfinished would look really cool with the fibers showing through…I know, weird that I’d even think about that but I’m weird and I’m not about to start apoligising for that now….I don’ think the heat came on at all yesterday and I’m hoping that will continue the downward trend from the 76 bucks it cost me last month….I even sat around in shorts yesterday for the first time since I moved in here…but, it’s back to cold today and it may even be a day off the bike with the rain that is coming in…I did get out yesterday but not until almost 4 and that was odd…it makes it a little harder to go out without being caffeine fueled but I survived it….looks like a nice weekend coming but then it goes back to crappy for the next two weeks and I think that is more disheartening than being stuck here…I really want to get my flowers and veggie garden planted and I think I may start with the overflow garden this weekend…going to plant some garlic around the outside of it and then might just put some bean seeds in, too….we’ll see….not much to do today…I had that same thought about yesterday but with getting groceries, cleaning the bathroom and fooling around with the car, I had something to do all day….I do need to clean the living room today and should get at the kitchen a little but we’ll see after the coffee starts to work….more later…

Well…okay, doesn’t it seem weird that I’ve woken up for the past week between 4:45 and 4:57? I mean, how do you get that consistency without an alarm clock? I know I did that when I was working…always waking up between 6 and 6:12am but why now? I have no reason to get up and it is a little frustrating that 6 hours has become the new normal…oh, well…I did have some dreams last night that involved Ferraris and guns for some reason and that is weird in itself…but having dreams is okay…still waiting for the coffee to finish and I’m already running out of steam at 5:54am….I did get quite a bit done outside yesterday but today looks like an inside work day after I try to get some groceries after a while….Aldi’s has pork butt on sale for 1.69 a pound and that could be good for some shredded pork tacos and lots of other things but who knows what today’s restrictions are going to look like out at the grocery stores? I did get out the other day to try out the new tires on the e-way and got all the way up to 80 without any vibration and that is cool…and they do ride a lot better than the old ones…can’t wait to try them in the rain this morning…the old ones were just terrible…but I guess that happens when they are bald….not much to do today…I am going to get to the bathroom today and I need to do laundry and a bunch of other inside stuff so I do have something to do….not sure how much I’m GOING to do but I can do enough to keep the boredom at bay…but, coffee and news first…damn….it’s only 6 and I’m already bored….more later…

Well…have been trying to get outraged about something to write about today and have had a little luck but I don’t really want to talk about politics right now…and I think I’ve done enough today to earn a little downtime…I did get over a thousand miles on the bike today and that met the first goal for the year of getting there before the end of April….but the computer on the bike has gone wonky so I may have to do a hard reset and go back to the start and enter all the information again…but, I’ll do that tomorrow with the forecast rain keeping me off the bike til Friday maybe…so I’ll have all day to screw with that…after the first ride this morning, that I got in early since it got warm early, I went after finishing up getting sod put in to level out around the fence…after I got that done, I decided to finish up chopping the sod out of what was a little rose garden when the in-laws lived here…but that had been left to overgrow with weeds and grass over the past 18 years or so….I got that done without much injury, although I won’t know how much for a day or so, and got it leveled out and got the idea to make it another garden but one less organized…will just load everything into it and just see how it works….it appears to have about 6-7 hours of sun a day so it may just work….and it will give me overflow room to put in more stuff to give away after I harvest…then I got the second ride in and that makes 4 days in a row with doubles and I could feel it on the way back…I did get the windows open today and it feels nice to have a breeze blowing through the house for the first time…and it changes how the house feels, too which is kind of weird but I do like the smells and sounds of spring that are out there…my allergies won’t thank me but I don’t care…it’s worth it to have some fresh air…and the breeze is in here even without having the screens in the doors…and that will give me some time to have them replaced once everything is open again…so, I think I did enough today…

Well…back to the 4:50’s again this morning but I went to bed 15 minutes early last night so that makes it about 6 hours and these days that seems like a miracle…I was almost not good last night but I resisted having cocktails from boredom and feel okay this morning other than I’m still a little sore from the garden work and from re-seeding parts of the lawn yesterday…oh, and the two rides I did, too…only have 7 more miles to go to get to 1K before the end of the month so that will happen this morning and it might be fun to get out early since there is supposed to be thick fog and I like riding in it…can’t wait to get my garden planted but it looks like it will be another week or so to get past the 40 degree low that is necessary to make sure the tomatoes won’t die…I even planted 4 more of the better boys yesterday since the ones downstairs are looking a little wilty….I do need to get started on the paint prep for the garage trim in the next couple of days and then get paint to cover it…and that is a pain with all of the restrictions at depot…but I think I’ll only need one more gallon of the brown and then one of a cream color to cover the siding on the dormer…and I do need to get out to HF to get the new air compressor and some more fap discs later this week or next week…not much to do today…going to ease into it today and might just have to make some french press coffee since there is not too much leftover in the coffee maker….and I do need to set some more sod along the fence after I fill it to make it level…then I need to figure out how to plant my sunflowers in the area I just re sodded….didn’t think about that when I started on it…oh, well…more later…

Well…on the bike ride the past week or so, I’ve seen what I thought was a female bald eagle sitting in the trees across the pond from the male that I’ve seen quite a bit this spring…and today, that thought was confirmed when I saw the nest that they’ve built only about 20 yards from the trail and with the female on the nest….so we have a nesting pair and I am a little excited about that…when I was a kid, there were no bald eagles in this part of the country and now I get to watch as a pair raises some eaglets over the summer…I just hope that people will stay the hell away from the nest and leave them in peace…but, with the morons I’ve seen on the trail lately, that is pretty unlikely…