Well…another day of trying to find a topic in politics to write about with very little luck so I think I’ll talk about ham soup instead…I tried the instant pot to make ham soup for the first time this morning to get all the ham bones out of my freezer and I was pleasantly surprised at how it came out…it tastes just like the stuff I used to make in my big stew pot but it only took about an hour total instead of the 4 hours that it takes in the stock pot…and that includes all the veggie chopping…and, of course, I had to try some of it but it was only about 9:30 when I finished it so I guess there was ham soup for breakfast today…a meal that I never eat…I’ll probably never go back to the stock pot now that I have the process down for the instant pot since it is so easy….so now I have 3 containers of ham soup in the freezer again and even room for the leftovers from the pork shoulder I am making in the pot Sunday….more later….

Well…it another 4:14 morning…sung to the tune of “Tequila Sunrise” by the Eagles…it does fit…I tried it….but I did go back to semi sleep until 6:30 so I don’t feel too bad this morning…my lungs are a little raw and I’m coughing again but that’s pretty normal for the mornings….the wind wasn’t as bad on the bike yesterday and that made the ride a little better but it was still damn cold and that hung on for hours after I got back here…still feel it this morning,too, even though it’s the normal temp in here…maybe the coffee will warm me up…just got a little cleaning done yesterday but today is going to be a soup making day…going to use up the ham I have in the freezer and use the veggies that I got for t-day that I didn’t use….and do it in the instant pot again since that cuts the time down to an hour or so instead of the 4 hours it takes in my big stew pot…I do have an 8 pound pork shoulder that I have to make Sunday and I think I’ll look for sauce recipes to go with it…and make some pulled pork sandwiches….that should last me a few days and I couldn’t resist at 99 cents a pound….not much to do today…going to start the soup here in a few minutes and then get a bike ride in but I don’t know how much else I’ll do today….they have just issued a warning that no one over 65 should be grocery shopping or be around anyone with the virus going nuts but I’m still going to do it…with precautions it should be okay…I hope….more later….

Well….amid all of the crap that is going on and all of the changes that have been happening, I’ve had a bit of a struggle lately with losing my long term friendship with T and having so much time alone around here…and that made me wonder, how are other people handling this? I’m pretty good at being by myself and I can adapt readily to changes, but what about the people who can’t? I worry that there is going to be long term psychological damage that won’t surface for years in many people…especially those who are on the front lines of this pandemic…who is going to take care of them when this is over? I read a story this morning about a traveling nurse who showed up at her new job in Arizona and lost 4 patients on the first day…and it didn’t get any better after that…what happens to her? I know people are tough but are they tough enough to handle that? I guess what is happening in this country is weighing on me a bit….and not being able to find a house is stressing me the hell right out…but, we move on…one foot in front of the other…what else can you do?

Well…I learned something yesterday morning…it’s probably not good when your half and half is chunky when you pour it into your coffee…woke up at 5:11 this morning and it was real close to the 500 cubic inch engine that Cadillac put in their Eldorados in the 70’s…but I went back to sleep…kinda…and didn’t get up til almost 7…that didn’t help me feeling pretty slow this morning but I have fresh half and half so I guess that’s something…had an okay day yesterday but didn’t accomplish much…I did finally get the bike washed after running through the mud that they made in the road the other day working on the water mains again….and they still didn’t fix it since I found water bubbling up from one of the caps that cover the shut off valves when I was on the ride and had to report it so thousands of gallons didn’t just run down the storm drain…it will be interesting to see if they fixed it when I ride by there this morning….I couldn’t believe how sore I was in the afternoon after riding yesterday….my hands and wrists hurt like crazy and that was new….but, they are better this morning so I guess I can live with it….well…kind of better…they are still stiff and my triceps have a dull ache that I hope doesn’t get worse…not much to do today…just going to work on the laundry room some more and clean here in the living room…I did dry rub some big pork ribs overnight and can’t wait to see how they turn out for lunch…I normally marinade them but thought I’d try something new this time….more later…

Well…not going to do the engine size comment this morning since I don’t think there was ever a 6:19….maybe in a truck…slept okay last night but I’m back to coughing again and my head is stuffed up and that is pretty damn annoying…but I’m not too sore even after the ride into the high winds yesterday but that will come tomorrow especially after going out in the wind again today…I do need to continue to clean today but that is going to wait until after I do the grocery run this morning….might make ham soup today since I have lots of ham bones in the freezer and need to get rid of some of them before I buy another ham for the holidays…but I may wait until the weekend to try to spread out the work and help with the boredom…at least Man U plays this afternoon so that will take up a couple of hours….and there is an early game, too, so that might make three hours….not much to do today…need to hit three grocery stores on the run today since I want to check out DD for vegetable egg rolls that they have on sale for 3 pound for 3 bucks…and then just the normal aldis and Meijers stops for the rest of it….more later…

Well…sitting here freezing after getting out for a bike ride, one of the most brutal I’ve had in a while going out into a 15 to 20mph wind and it only being 31 degreess when I left here…oh, the sparrows just found the feeder and it only took them 6 days this time…have a flock of them out there right now…oh, back to the work….I got really tired of the laundry room looking so shabby so I got after that this morning, cleaning the lint and dirt up and vacuuming the paneling that was coated with it…then I replaced the rotting 2×4 that was used to level the dryer with a new piece of pressure treated stuff that was left over from the fence….I cleaned both the washer and dryer, too along with vacuuming off and washing the top of the fridge…getting rid of some spilled goo that had run down the side of it and then cleaning part of the floor and the laundry sink…and that was enough for the day…I still have a couple of hours more work to finish it but it does look a lot better than it did…and now I’m going to watch some soccer and take a nap….

Well…it was another engine size wake up time this morning…woke up at 4:13 and that is the size of a Chrysler engine from the late 50’s to early 60’s…I wonder how many of these will come up? I do know I had some dreams after I got back to sleep that involved schools, partying on a river and topless women…yep, it was a weird as that sounds…but I slept okay and feel okay this morning so I’ll take it…didn’t get out for a bike ride yesterday with how cold and windy it was all day and today is looking the same with the wind blowing almost 20 right now and the temp is only 31 and not warming up until the afternoon….and the wind is still going to be over 15 and that is normally my cutoff for getting out…didn’t get much done yesterday but I didn’t need to so I guess I shouldn’t feel guilty at all…I do need to start cleaning this place up to prep for the move but I’m not really motivated for that yet…I kind of like that my legs don’t hurt at all this morning even going up and down the stairs into the basement but that will change if I go out in the wind….I haven’t even been outside in two days and that makes my world seem pretty small….not much to do today….again, pretty true but I will need to figure something out to keep the guilts at bay…probably dust patrol would be in order since I haven’t done that in quite a while…..more later….

Well…when I was looking to see what my record is for posts in a single month (it’s 105) I just noticed that I’ve been doing this since April of 2010…10 years of doing two of these a day…and that means almost 9,000 of them over the years and that is a lot of writing…and this month will be the second most in one month since I started…and yep, I am cheating some by doing this one but there’s not a placeholder in the bunch and I used to do that a lot when I found a topic but didn’t want to write about it just yet….so this ends out the month on a day when I have really done nothing but look for houses…skipped the bike ride today with the cold and wind gusting to over 30 at times…it does look like I’m going to have to change the way I look at houses since they are selling so fast…will have to pull the trigger as soon as I see one…going to make that my full time job this month with the goal being to have one purchased by the end of December….going to be a little nerve wracking since I probably won’t even have time to look at them and that will ratchet up my stress levels a bit…oh, well…that’s the new normal and I do need to have one bought by the end of the month….or just take my down payment money and find a cabin in Montana and live like a hermit…I am anyway here in GR….hmmmm….

Well…another 4:27 morning today and whenever that happens, the car geek in me immediately thinks of the engines that both Ford and Chevy made that were 427 cubic inches…yeah, I know…I’m weird…but, I slept okay and that isn’t…well..maybe it is the way I normally sleep….kind of sore today after going out hard and keeping it up the entire ride….it was nice to get out in a normal hat and just my riding gloves yesterday but I think that is just about over for the year…but I can get out in full thermasuit so I guess that’s no big deal…didn’t get a whole lot done yesterday with sports on…I am going to talk about a crash in the F1 race that was one of the worst I’ve ever seen but that will be later when I do a sports update…haven’t talked about that in a while and there have been things happen that I want to comment on…the birds still haven’t found the feeders yet and that is kind of strange with how many of them  that have been flocking under the awnings…it’s been three days but last year it took them 3 weeks to find them and I wonder if the ones that found and fed off them last year are all gone or if they don’t have very good memories…..I never got one hummingbird to the feeder this year and I just took it down the other day…will need to bring it in and clean it today since the sugar water will leave it sticky….not much to do today….have an easy morning with having to wait to go out on the bike and just having this to do until then…oh, and the news and lots more coffee….more later….

Well…you know, when I talked about a “care package” in the last one and still use it in conversation sometimes, I probably should explain what it is since it’s not common knowledge anymore…when I was a kid there was an organization called Care that sent out packages of food, medicine, and clothing to impoverished areas of the world…so whenever I get anything free, I call it a care package…and I got one today from Priority Health that had 2 facemasks, 2 temperature sensors, a band aid holder with band aids, and a deck of cards that have the biggest damn numbers on them I have ever seen…I wonder if they think I’m getting old? Still, it’s pretty cool anytime you get free stuff and I’ll use it….