Well…I just hate frickin windows….it has just now gone crazy and told me that my router is too old to use anymore and I had a hell of a time getting it to let me use it to come here and do this…so I may have some problems over the next few days as I try to find and set up a new one that is affordable to me…I just don’t need this right now…and really, who the hell cares if the router is secure or not? I only use this computer to do this and every other thing that I use to pay bills is encrypted on their end so no one can hack them…so if someone wants to hack in and write these for me, go for it…I’ll take a few days off….crap…

Update: just talked one of my computer geek sons and bought the new router he recommended…only 65 bucks and it will be here Sunday…and you’re supposed to be able to just plug it in and open your browser and it will tell you how to set it up…now I just need to remember how to get my phone to recognize it when it gets here…hey…maybe there’s a post in there somewhere…

Well…man, feel pretty crappy this morning and just can’t get started…didn’t even get out of bed until almost 6 and time to get on the bike is coming up way too fast….I did sleep okay last night…for me anyway but I’m not sure if that really helped much…I did get up on the ladder yesterday to finish up the trim on the porch and my foot survived it pretty well…no pain this morning so I have my fingers crossed that I can start doing more work around here…I did take some ibuprofen last night since I was so damn stiff and sore and that is helping this morning….I may have to try that again today since I am still being an idiot and riding way too much….I did get the shifter on the bike figured out…I hope…and went the entire second ride with the 5-6 shift working and that made it fun again…made one more adjustment after I got back here and can’t wait to see how that works….I have to remember to never lubricate the shifter since all that does is gum it up and makes it worse…I do have to run out this morning to get some more food for the gardens to try to make sure they are fed enough to get bigger tomatoes…the celebration strain that I planted are just too small but the better boys are going to be okay…and I have 6 cukes waiting to be picked so I’m not sure what I’m doing to do with them…along with the many jalpenos that I think are going to have to be frozen since I can’t use them for salsa yet….not much to do today…I do need to mow the lawn and start planning the next work on the outside of the house along with the trip to menards but right now I need more coffee before I get on the bike…more later….

Well…as you know, the idiot running his damn smoker all day and night has been driving me nuts lately and last night was the last straw…just sitting here when it started to rain and I just love opening the windows and hearing and smelling the rain…but, as soon as I opened this place up, the smell from that damn smoker filled the whole house and forced me to close everything back up again it was so bad. So this morning, I thought I’d make a little mischief and called GR’s 311 number that is used to do all kind of stuff for the city and put in a report…they guy I talked to was cool and looked up the property on his computer to make sure there was no zoning variance covering it and there wasn’t….and he told me me what I thought…you can’t run a commercial business in a residential area so they are sending him a notice of non-compliance to the city rules and then sending an inspector out next week to make sure the smoker is no longer being used….now, I hate to be that guy that bitches and complains about everything but it smells like I’m living in a frickin campfire and my bed, clothes and furniture all smell like smoke and I am tired of it….and it is getting warm again over the next week and I need to be able to open my windows….and I could even smell the smoke 3 streets to the south this morning when I was coming back here on the bike….and I have the right to not live inside a campfire….

Well…haven’t talked about some nonsense things in quite a while but a funny thing happened on the way back from the ride this morning that I am still laughing about that I thought I’d share…after getting through the park and hitting the newly paved part of Valley over by the park, I saw a squirrel just sitting in the road about 25 yards in front of me…most of the time, they will take off running before I get much closer than that…but not this squirrel…as I rode toward him, he just sat there looking straight at me not moving at all and not even doing the nervous darting that they normally do…when I got about a wheel width from him, he finally took off and ran under a car that was parked in the street…I have never had a squirrel play chicken with me before and it was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while…I never even thought to swerve around him because they normally  take off long before I get to them….I wonder if he does that with cars, too?

Well…cripes, I’m miserable this morning with my allergies shifting into high gear with sneezing and my head completly plugged up so I am going to have to take something for it before I get on the bike….have been having some problems with he 5-6 shift on the bike and I’m not sure what the problem is…I cleaned the shifter and hope that will help but I won’t know until I get out here in a few minutes…I do have a new shifter that I bought for the old bike that I can put on it but this one shouldn’t be worn out with only 3100 miles on it….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I am going to try to get the front trim painted today…but, with the storms that are supposed to come in around noon, that may have to wait until tomorrow…I did cut the ride short yesterday and only did 32 miles for the day…and I think that will be the mileage every day from now on…the only reason I’ve been doing 36 daily is to get to 5K for the year and it looks like I can get there with only 1500 left to do…I think I need to limit the wear and tear on my body some since I have been getting cramps in my calves and some pain in my right achilles and that never happens when I ride normal miles….I haven’t been taking any painkillers so I may be able to take some today just to be able to move better….I was going to talk about sleep again but I guess all I have to say is 4:14…not much to do today…need to get out on the bike soon but it looks like a one ride day with storms coming in around noon and I just can’t muster the energy to do two before then….more later…

Well…running early for a Sunday but it is only because I remembered to come here and that it is raining and I can’t get out on the bike yet…it was a really depressing night last night with new renters moving in next door and the resulting noise and bullshit that comes from that…you know, I am beginning to hate living in the city with the traffic noise, the idiot people, the smoke from the damn smoker that runs all the time, and the heat that is relentless and can’t be relieved when I can’t open this place up from the smoke….I feel like I have ptsd from all of the sensory overload…it’s never quiet here and I have taken to wearing earplugs to sleep again…I am just so damn tired all the time just from living here that Tom’s cabin in the woods is looking better all the time…and this damn virus is wearing me out too….got invited out to K’s yesterday but I couldn’t go with having T here on wed and the possibility of exposure that I couldn’t take out there…so here I sit….and I didn’t get anything done yesterday but a little cleaning and the depression that I thought was over is again paralyzing me….and part of that is my damn body is giving up on me and keeping me from working as hard as I want to….so, what to do? Endure the day I guess and keep moving forward…the rain needs to stop in the next 10 minutes or I won’t be able to get out on the bike before the F1 race at 9…and I don’t want to get wet today…or cook, or clean, or even think….more later…

Well…not going to talk about how crappy my sleep was last night since it depresses me to think just how bad it is…I did have to take some allergy meds last night since I couldn’t stop sneezing and that is making for being able to breathe this morning and I appreciate that…and I don’t really feel that bad today…just the normal aches and pains but my butt is starting to wear out with all the riding and I have had to move around in the seat the last week or so just to tolerate it and I may just need to take a day off to let it heal up some…oh, I did just go past 3400 miles yesterday so that is more than 2/3 of the way to my 5000 mile goal for the year…I was a little disappointed that my rear tire only lasted 3,000 miles  before coming apart but I have one of the hard ones on now that I hope will last the rest of the year…I am going to see if I can find a spare locally or get one ordered so I’ll have one in reserve…I could take the front off the old bike if I need it but I want to keep that intact so I can get it repaired…didn’t get much done yesterday but I am going to paint the trim on the front of the house today to get that off the list…and I may try to clean the copper trim around the porch too, but that will depend on how my foot fares….not much to do today…I may lay out in the sun again to try to even out my biker tan and continue getting some color but we’ll see how the day goes….more later…

Well…I wonder if I’ll ever sleep again? Needless to say it was another crappy night with getting up at 4:44 this morning so that’s another 5 hour night…and I’m tired….oh, well…there probably has to be some long term health problems that go along with not sleeping but I’m not ready to find out what they are yet…I did get a few things done yesterday and I picked the first of my tomatoes and had one for a snack and I can’t believe how much better they are than the cardboard ones you get at the grocery store….and that makes the fact that I’m not going to get too many of them really suck….I guess I’ll just enjoy what I get and plan for the next garden….I am getting some cukes now and that will allow me to refine my pickle recipe and that is cool….I did get the lawn mowed yesterday and I am going to feed it tomorrow in front of the rain that is supposed to come Sunday and Monday to try to green it up some….I think they will be working on the gas meter today and I hope they finish it up so I don’t have to look at it anymore and I can get things back to normal around here…I do need to get out to depot this morning to pick up and return a new garage door receiver that I ordered since I fixed the old one and don’t need it…and that will save me 37 bucks that I can use….more later….

Well…cripes, it seems like my waking time is slowly moving back toward bed time with this morning being at 3:18 instead of the normal 3:40 but I still got out of bed before 6 so I’m not sure there is much of a difference….I did break down and take both some ibuprofen and allergy meds last night and I feel better for it this morning….my head is clear and the normal pains are down about 50% so that is cool….hope it continues all day….the swelling in my foot is down some too, so that is encouraging…had a nice visit with T yesterday and it was nice to see her and laugh a bunch but the whole thing was marred by DTE being here to move the gas meter from the basment to outside the house and they had to replace the steel gas line with a plastic one that they tunneled under the road for…but that still leaves the meter job and I just hate the disruption to my life that this three day process is doing….need to be here for them to be able to get in the basement so that means another day of only one ride…oh, and I just did one ride yesterday since I needed to clean this place up and that may be part of why I don’t hurt as much as normal…I did pick the first two tomatoes from my garden yesterday and I am going to have them for lunch today…they are pretty small so I think I need to feed the plants more…so I’ll do that today….not much to do today….just going to hang around here after the first ride and wait for the guys to finish the meter job so I’ll work on the gardens and the last of the trim on the front of the house….I did get a big box of baking soda to clean the copper trim and I may try some of that today too….more later….

Well…okay, my allergies are really bad this morning and I know I should have taken something for them last night…but I didn’t and now the decision is whether to take something this morning with only having a few left….maybe after the first ride…slept okay last night but feel as bad as I have in a while and it may be that I need to take a day off the bike to recover….I may have to only do one ride today with doing the grocery run and needing to clean this place up with having a visitor this afternoon…should have done that over the weekend but just couldn’t get moving to do it…I did take an ibuprofen last night since I was so damn sore everywhere and I think that is making a difference this morning…just small aches and pains that I can live with….I did get some work done yesterday and I bought a small sprinkler to use to try to save the front lawn so I don’t have to use my hose end sprayer and blocks so that will make it easier to keep it presentable….I think I’m going to be able to pick 3 tomatoes from my garden today and I even picked an inch long potato that was on the surface and that made me laugh…I planted the potatoes on a lark from sprouted ones in my cupboard and never expected to get anything from it…and there are more little ones just below the surface of the ground and I wonder how long they have to stay in to get big enough to eat? Not much to do today…just need to get going right now to get the bike ride in…okay, after one more cup of coffee that is….it’s not 7 yet so I can sit for a bit….more later….Oh, and I will get to a political one today…I know I’ve been slacking a bit on that lately but there was a reason for it….maybe even two of them if I don’t take the second ride….