Well…that was a little odd….was good for last night for the first time in a while and that made sleep a little broken but I tried to not get up until after 6 and was successful…so I think I’ll keep that up all week and see how that feels…feel okay this morning so that alone may be worth it…not too sore this morning even with doing 30 miles yesterday and painting the underside of the last awning but I will be sore tomorrow with doing the rest of the awning this morning after the first ride….I may take a day or so off working after I put the awning back up tomorrow…need to find a house and that will be my sole job from now on until I find one…along with getting to 5K miles on the bike…had some damn animal digging into the garage next to the door so I had to mix up some mortar and plug the hole…couldn’t figure out where all the rocks and dirt were coming from but I think I have it fixed…and I patched a small divot in the front sidewalk with the leftover mix that I have been meaning to get to for a while now…damn amazon split my order and that’s why part of it got here so soon…they just sent the chain lube and not the rear cassette that I ordered…luckily, lubing the chain has stopped it from skipping so I think I can limp the bike for two more weeks…not much to do today…just the rides and the awning but that is going to take hours with all of the detail work that needs to be done on it and I will be sore tomorrow….more later….
Category Archives: My Life
September 21st
Well…damn, my allergies have gotten really bad to the point that I feel like crap and my eyes are so itchy I just want to scratch them out…have been coughing and sneezing like crazy too…just damn miserable…so, sleep was pretty rotten last night and I have a headache today…okay, enough bitching…I had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get much done other than ride the bike but I will have to do better today…need to head out to depot to get some spray paint to do the inside of the awning today so I can paint the outside tomorrow and get it back up this week…and that will about do it for what I’m going to do on the outside of the house other than some caulking and cleaning…the grass seed I put in the front yard has started to sprout but I think I’ll have to re-seed some spots that didn’t come in but it looks quite a bit better and the back yard grew in with just feeding it so I’m not going to do much there but clean it up…..had a brand new pain on the bike yesterday…or one that I haven’t had in a long time…my right hip was howling in pain when I got off the bike and I’m not sure what the heck I did to it to make it do that…doesn’t hurt right now but damn, I could barely get off the bike when I got back here and then limped around here all day….hope it was a one time thing….more later…
A new record…
Well…I finally made it! Got to 4,585 miles today for a new personal record on the bike….only 415 more miles to get to the 5K goal for the year. That is more than twice the mileage that they rode in the Tour de France this year…yeah, I know…they do the 2155 miles in 3 weeks and it took me 9 1/2 months but still…that’s a lot of miles and to continue to pile them on at my age is some sort of an accomplishment…what sort, I don’t know but it’s something….so, I’m taking the rest of the day off to watch some football and soccer…
The furnace works…
Well…that takes a load off…the furnace just kicked on and is running fine..stinks with 5 months of dust on the burners, though but I’ll take that to know I don’t have to pay someone 150 bucks to come out and fix it…or to replace it..don’t need to spend 5 grand for a new one….yay!
September 20th
Well….running a little late today but that’s pretty normal for a Sunday…got up way too damn early at 5:20 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I just gave up and got up…had to get out the warm clothes to just sit here yesterday since it is only 66 in here and I wonder if the furnace is going to work without having someone come out and take a look at it? I did check the pilot yesterday and it is running so I have my fingers crossed it will work when I need it….I did get a pleasant surprise in my e-mail this morning that my new rear cassette is going to be here tomorrow when they initially said it was going to be October 5th so that is cool…I did lube the chain to help the worn one keep working and that helped on the rides yesterday…it didn’t skip once but I kept the power lower as I pedaled in top gear since I knew it would if I laid on it hard….okay, need more coffee….there, that’s better…still haven’t adjusted to having to wait to get on the bike with it being so cold but I am not ready to get the gloves and long pants out just yet….I guess I’ll have to in a week or so since the highs are only going to be in the 60’s starting later in the week….only have about 25 miles to go to beat my all time mileage record and I think I’ll do that today…need to get to 4585 since I rode 4584 last year and then it’s downhill to 5K…I was pretty sure I could make it and the day off when I do is going to be welcome….not sure about what I’m going to do next year but doing doubles every day has gotten to be a habit and I’ll probably continue that….not much to do today…just going to take it easy and look for houses…then I’ll get back to working on the last awning tomorrow….more later…
September 19th
Well…that was a little odd…slept all the way through the night until 6:13 and that should make me feel okay…but I still feel quite slow this morning…but, I haven’t had any coffee yet so that could be part of it…it’s only 38 degrees outside right now so I am curious if my tomato and pepper plants will survive it…it’s getting close to the point where they will die and that will take away any chance of getting any more tomatoes to ripen…have about a hundred of them on the plants still and it would be a shame to just put them in the trash….and with the temp outside, I won’t be able to get on the bike til at least 10 am and that will mean only one ride today since Man U starts their season at 12:30 and I do want to see that…it looks like a good sports day if I decide to take the day off…Moto GP qualifying is on right now and then soccer starts at about 7:30 and goes most of the day until the nascar race on tonight….so, at least I’ll have something to listen to in the background as I do a couple more of these….not much to do today….need to pay a couple of bills that I will put out for the mailman but will probably have to drop it off at the post office tomorrow to make sure they get there on time…and I am going to clean the hard floors today since there is a lot of dust and grit that I have tracked in from outside that is annoying the hell out of me….more later…with all the change to my gas service, I wonder if my furnace is going to start when I need it? One more damn thing to worry about…
A disappointing day…
Well….just when things were starting to go well…I have a day like this one to bring me back to reality…okay, it hasn’t been that bad but I did wear out the top gear sprocket on the back of the bike and it has started to skip when I put some power to it and that is just so damn annoying…and I only got a little over 4,000 miles out of it…so, that turned my mood pretty black since I don’t have an extra one of those that is not worn out…so I had to order a whole new cassette…but I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much since it was only 17 bucks but Amazon’s delivery performance has declined so much I’m not supposed to get it for almost two weeks…and that sucks….and they didn’t have a new pair of riding gloves that I need in black, only in some ugly assed lime green that I would never wear and wonder if anyone else would either. I did get the awning prepped for painting so I guess that’s something…oh, and I splurged and bought myself a new set of hair clippers…I figured that if I’m going to cut my own hair I probably should have the right tool for it instead of my tiny beard trimmer…they only cost 25 bucks for a whole kit with lots of stuff in it and that would pay for itself after just skipping two hair cuts at the place I used to get it cut. Okay, so I guess it hasn’t been too bad of a day…but I only got one ride in and have 60 more to go to beat my record….and with the bike skipping, I just don’t want to ride….I know I can cope with it but it just damn annoying….oh, well…
September 18th
Well…that breaks the string…didn’t get up til 6:20 this morning…for the last time that is…first time was 4:40 and that is easing back to the up and down crap that I have been fighting for years….but, I slept okay with weird dreams again so I guess I’ll take it…it is cold outside this morning and I am not ready for it..I am not going to put the thermasuit on to ride the bike so that will have to wait until it warms up around 10…so now I have a morning to kill since I don’t want to do outdoor work in the cold…and the awning will have to dry off before I can get at it with the sander today so that leaves me with a morning to kill and I’m not sure what to do…I guess I could clean in here some and I really should…tracked dirt in the back door over the past weeks of working outside that needs to be vacuumed up but I think I’m going to just take the luxury of taking it easy for now…it was good to finally get the awning down yesterday without injuring my back to finish up what I’m going to do on the outside of the house….need to get some spray paint to do the inside of the awning next week since it is the only one that is painted on the inside and it has about 4 colors there that don’t match…not much to do today….need to remember to put the trash out in a little while since the bin is full and stinks….but that is about it…think I’ll just have more coffee and read some news right now….more later….
A good day…so far…
Well…sometimes you get a good day and it makes you feel pretty good, and today is one of those…I got an early start with the first bike ride then got back here and had my bagel and coffee before I started on trying to take the last awning down to prep it for paint…and it came down pretty easily although I had to bend a flange out of the way so I could get vice grips on the head of one of the screws I couldn’t get out with a screwdriver…after all, they have been in there for 40+ years and I was surprised they came out at all….once I got that done, I mowed the lawn and watered the repaired spots that have started to sprout new grass that I planted last week…then I was back on the bike by 10:30 for the second ride, and when I got back here I got a call from the woman I’ve been working with at the compliance department for the city of GR and she had good news…the guy who has been smoking up this neighborhood since I moved in here, has two weeks to move the smoker or the fines will start…and he has been working with the zoning commission to find out where he can move it to make it legal…that made my day when I was expecting that he was going to get a zoning variance that would allow him to keep smoking up the whole neighborhood but she said that can’t happen…so now I know that it’s going away…and soon…so, a pretty good day so far…and I’m going to take a break for an hour or so before I do another one of these and get out to wash the awning so I can start sanding it tomorrow….more later….
September 17th
Well….this is uncanny….another 6:03 wake up and I think I’ll start counting the days since this is around 9 days in a row of getting up at that time…yep, I’m weird that way so why not make it some fun? This is strange too…I’m walking around here in very little pain and, with how I felt yesterday, I never expected to feel this good this early in the day…we’ll see how long it lasts but right now I’ll take it….I did take some ibuprofen for it late in the day so maybe it’s the carryover from that….it was pretty busy yesterday and today looks busy too with getting the rides in, mowing the lawn and I’m going to try to get the side door awning down by myself…I have a plan and it looks like it only weighs about 40 pound or so and it needs to be done…that one is probably in the worst shape of all of them so it will take some time to prep it and paint it…but the weather looks great the next week or so and that will help…won’t have to put it in the garage to let it dry when I get to paint….and it will feel good to have them all done….it looks like I’ll be down to one ride a day for the next few with the low temp in the 30’s tomorrow and Sat…I did get to 4500 miles yesterday so I’m only 85 miles from getting to a new personal best for miles in a year….and that means I’m only 500 from hitting the goal of 5,000…have decided that I’m going to take a day or two off after I do just to rest…then no stress for the rest of the fall….probably won’t do that again but It was a good goal for the last one….more later….