Well…that really, really sucked….the coughing is back and worse than ever and I think I finally figured out what it is…worked a bunch on the downstairs project yesterday and, even with taking hazmat like precautions, my lungs are on fire and I am completely plugged up from the sensitivity to it…so now it looks like I am going to have to wind that down since I can’t ventilate it well enough in the winter and I am just damn miserable….and the only way I could sleep last night was to use some flonase that is wearing off…and I just realized that the coughing started when the project did and that is just damn disappointing…and I didn’t sleep at all last night and I am exhausted this morning and I can’t keep that up….I hurt everywhere from the coughing and I am going to have to take some ibuprofen here in a minute…didn’t get much done yesterday except project work so I will need to do better today….didn’t even get on the bike yesterday but I will today and try to get at least 8 miles in if my lungs can take it….and I think I may wash the car if it gets to nearly 40 as forecast but we’ll see….first I need to drown myself in coffee and try to read some news…and there will be a nap in my future along with coming back here for another one a little later….more later…

Well…we’re up to three days after I filled the feeders and still no birds…and the strange thing is that I really don’t see any birds around here…you would think there would be some sparrows or chickadees in the trees but no, I haven’t seen one bird anywhere around here since I started to look for them…so maybe the feeders will be a bust and I won’t be entertained…but, that’s not the real reason I put the food out…at every house I’ve lived in I’ve had at least one feeder up and sometimes as many as four if you include the hummingbird feeder and I just like the idea of doing my little bit to help the wildlife…cripes I wouldn’t even mind having some squirrels attack the feeders…oh, well….the feed was only 5 bucks so I guess I can live with that….

Well….hmmm…slept all the way through til almost 5:30 this morning and didn’t cough much at all during the night so maybe the amoxicillin is starting to work? Still coughing right now so I’m not sure….but, I did sleep okay and don’t feel too bad this morning so I’ll take it…but I am a little sore from the bike ride yesterday with doing a hard 9 miles trying to burn this damn infection out so I may take the day off and just rest the lungs…but that will trigger my well developed guilt from not getting any exercise and I think that’s harder to take than getting on the bike for 45 minutes….I did get a few things done yesterday…had errands to run in the morning to restock the groceries and a little work downstairs but then I took the afternoon off to watch Man U lose again…it is pretty cool that I figured out the garage door opener adjustment and it opens every time now without stopping at about 12 inches up…it was getting damn annoying to have to use the release to open it almost every time and it really defeated the purpose of even having an opener with having to get out of the car to open it when I drove in…not much to do today…just a little work on the downstairs project and then I’ve been ordered to take it easy and heal up but we’ll see how that works…it’s just not me to do that even when I feel really crappy…feel like if I stop being active at my age that will start the downward slide that I have been keeping at bay with all of the riding….more later…

Well…as I told you yesterday, I finally decided to get some bird food to fill the feeders in the front of the house yesterday and now I am on bird watch waiting for them to show up and eat some of it…I’ve even gone out and looked to see how long it can be before they find the food and found that there is a “rule of 2” that you can go by…and that rule states: it can be two minutes, two hours, two days, or two months before you see birds at your feeder…yeah, I know, that’s a little tongue in cheek, essentially saying to have patience, that no one knows how long it takes for birds to find the food since it is basically by accident….but, that’s not good enough for me, dammit…I want to be entertained and if I went through the effort of buying the food and filling the feeders, the least the birds can do it get their butts here and eat it….oh, well…not sure if I’m going to make this a series yet but I am going to keep track of when they finally get here and that should be worth at least one more of these….

Well…that was a little better…slept okay last night and coughed much less that I have been but I wonder if it’s the amoxicillin or just naturally getting better…whatever it is, I’ll take it…my lungs are still wheezy and I could hear it all night but I was able to breathe much better which will put me on the bike here in a few minutes…still have the iron taste when I do cough, though but I can’t expect to be completely cured with only one day of treatment…I did get a few things done yesterday and need to run errands this morning to get the grocery run done for the week but I’m supposed to take it a little easy so that may be the only thing I do today…but, we’ll see how I feel later…I do need to cook today but I’m not sure what that will be yet…I do still have the cream cheese for pasta but I’m not sure I want to work that hard today…not sure why I’m getting more chicken after just freezing some yesterday but at 88 cents a pound, I can use the cheap protein…but I think I need to try some different recipes for it…I’m a little bored with what I have been making and want something a little spicier…maybe with some cayenne? Who knows? More later….

Well…after getting a late start to the day, I finally got moving to get some things done I wanted to…went out to get my prescription and was pleasantly surprised that my new insurance covered it with no copay…and the PA I saw gave me 30 of them for three courses of treatment if the first on doesn’t do the trick…so that is pretty cool…and I had a couple of empty bird feeders hanging out front so I bought some bird food and filled them and now I’m waiting for the birds to discover them and get the word out there is food  here….even found one that suction cups to the window so I can watch them close up when they come in to feed…so, not a lot of work yet but just did some things I wanted to do, not that I had to do and that is making my life feel a little more normal…oh, and I found the force adjuster on the garage door opener and I think I have dialed in enough force so it will open the door even when it’s really cold…just some little things that are quite mundane but that made me smile so I’ll take that…life should have some little things that you can appreciate….

Well…running really late today with not getting up til 7:06 but that includes getting up at 2:30 and staying up for a couple of hours before trying to go back to sleep…have had this damn cough for over a month now so I went to the doctor yesterday to have them check it out…with the iron taste that I get when I cough, I  was pretty sure I had pneumonia but the x-rays showed that I don’t…but that leaves the bad news that I still have the cough and they are not sure why that is…so I need to pick up a prescription of amoxicillin this morning to see if that will help…I may have bronchitis but that won’t show up on the chest x-rays…all I know is that it such a relief to have insurance…the doctor visit only cost 5 bucks but I’m sure that there will be extra costs for both the x-rays and the prescription but it’s worth it to know that I don’t have pneumonia…but, I still feel crappy like I have a cold or something that I know antibiotics won’t do anything for….back to the normal stuff…I did have weird dreams again last night about getting parking spots assigned at my old apartment…something that never happened and to dream about that now is pretty strange….didn’t get anything else done yesterday but the bike ride and having G come over for a visit and I think I may have to take a couple of days of rest to help heal up and get better…but, I am going to try to at least get on the bike today for an hour before I run errands but that is about it with how I feel…more later….

Well… got all the way to 6:03 this morning! If that sounds a little sarcastic, it is…you know, being retired you might think I could sleep in just a little, just once but no, it hasn’t happened once that I can remember…but, I do remember sleeping in when I was younger…that wonderful feeling when you wake up, look at the clock and see that it’s 10 am and you feel so damn good that you just leap out of bed with all of the stored up energy….or just roll over and get another hour of sleep….but, maybe that’s just a dream…it feels that way anyway…I did have some of the weirdest dreams last night where someone took all of my stuff and no one knew where it was…and the strange part is that I really don’t have much stuff…for someone my age, you would think that I’d have lots of stuff but I don’t…I mean putting it all in a 10 foot U-Haul? Okay, that’s enough of that…I do feel a little slow this morning but the coffee hasn’t started it’s magical journey into my brain and I think it’s one of the things I anticipate most every day….didn’t get much done yesterday but shovel the snow…twice…and get a bike ride in…oh, and I paid all of the bills through mid Feb that need to go in the mail today…I am going to clean this place up some today and get an early ride in but I still don’t need to cook with all of the instant pot leftovers I’ve had but that ends today and I can make something fresh tomorrow…I still need to make that cream cheese pasta that I got the ingredients for last week so that will be tomorrow and that should last for three days or so….but, right now it’s back to the news and more coffee…more later….

Well…I know it’s just the start of winter but I’m already getting tired of snow since I have to shovel it this year…I mean having to do the driveway three times in two days? I haven’t yet developed my resignation to the fact that it is Michigan and it is winter but damn weather, give me a day or two to get rid of the soreness before you dump on me again. I am going to go out and buy a plastic shovel for the light work this week since the one I have been using is a pretty heavy aluminum one that was left here when I moved in and it is great for pushing snow but not too good for lifting it and clearing the snow off the porch…and I can get a nice one for 10 bucks at depot so that will be the one purchase that I can make this month until I get my next deposit on the 19 of Feb…just paid 700 bucks worth of bills that has a few hundred dollars that are not repeaters so Feb should be better and I’ll be able to build my checking account back to where I’ll be comfortable in any emergency…I even got 9 miles in on the bike today and I am working on making that a daily occurance since I do need to try to meet the 600 miles I got in indoors last year to make the 5K goal I have for this year…only have 144 miles so far so I need to make sure I don’t skip any days…it’s a little boring without a tv to watch but I’ll get used to it…no more later…

Well…another 5:10 morning and that is three in a row with only about 5 hours of sleep which I will pay for later in the day…and I am worn out this morning and trying to get started without coffee since it hasn’t started yet with the timer set for 6…I guess I could reset it but I think I still have hope that I can sleep until 6 again at some point in the future…I am a little confused that I don’t hurt more than I do after shoveling snow for two hours yesterday…it hurt like crazy while I was doing it and my shoulder has a low level pain now but that is about it…we’ll see how it feels when I take care of last night’s snow…not sure if I’m going to shovel before I go out to get the paper or not since it is early and I don’t want to wake up the neighbors but I do have to do the entry since the plows piled up another 18 inches and I’m not sure if the Miata will bust through it….and if I shovel that, I might as well do the rest of it…but that will make it late getting the paper…decisions…didn’t get anything else done yesterday…even skipped the bike ride after the abuse of shoveling but I will get another 10 miles in today…need to get that done before Man U plays at 11:30 and I do need to remember to watch the Space X launch this morning at 8….and I do need to clean since I am going to have some visitors tomorrow…but, I have all day for that and tomorrow morning, too so I’m not going to work too hard today…more later…