Well…it’s pretty icy out on the street this morning with all of the freezing rain overnight but it’s going to warm up and melt it later this morning…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed til 6:30 or so and that only leaves me 40 minutes until I have to get back on the bike to get back to the routine of 3 rides a day…going to make another ham today so the third ride will be in the afternoon and I need to fit the Manchester Derby and the Lions game in starting at 11:30…so the ham will go on the grill at 10 or so and will be on it for a couple of hours…so maybe I’ll start it at 9:30 after two rides and then get the third one in while it’s warming…it’s going to get up to 47 tomorrow so most of the snow will be gone and I wonder how may birds I’ll have on the feeder after that….then the rest of the week will be in the 30’s for highs with no snow int he forecast for the rest of the year…and that leaves about two months of winter to cope with..I did get the bathroom cleaned yesterday and really should do the kitchen today but I’m cooking so I’m going to count that as enough work for the day…so I need to get going right now…more later..

Well…I really wish they’d stop reformulating toothpaste for a while…when I made the turkey soup a few days back, I couldn’t taste it at all and I realized that I had just opened a new tube of toothpaste that had all the germ fighters and whiteners and all that crap…and as many as 30% of people will lose their sense of taste with some ingredient that’s in there…so I went back to some regular stuff the dentist gave me and had soup for lunch and I could taste the whole peppercorns and turkey in the soup…I am curious if it will get better as I continue to use the basic toothpaste…I sure hope it does…I was really surprised how the same recipe of soup could taste so bland compared to the last time and that sucks….I can even taste the coffee I’m finishing up and couldn’t yesterday…and I even got the french press out to make more…I am trying to take it easier today with only one ride but I did give myself a haircut, and did laundry, and now I’m going to clean the bathroom…then I can take it easy….yeah, right…

Well…this is weird…knowing I only have one ride to do today, I just poured another cup of coffee and I’m going to sit here and watch a tv show until 9…then get on the bike…have been having problems with netflix lately and it wouldn’t run on my roku so I had to reset it back to factory settings and then I downloaded the app to my tablet to give me another option instead of freevee…will try that on the ride this morning…this is going to be hard to relax…I’m just not the relaxing sort I guess but I’ll try…wow, I haven’t sat here until 9am this year and I’m vibrating from the habit of getting going first and then taking it easy…oh, well…I think I’ll get to relaxing…cripes…I even have to plan my relaxation….

Well…up and running at 6:46 this morning and I’m having a bit of a problem with taking a light day on the bike today…I don’t think I’ve done a one ride day this year but after hitting the 10,000 mile goal yesterday, I think I’ve earned a light one…but that means I need to cut out at least 1,000 calories today so it will be a bowl of soup and two chicken thighs and nothing else for about 600 calories….it was another cold night last night with it getting down to 12 degrees but it’s going to warm up enough for freezing rain and snow tonight that is going to change over to rain for Sunday and Monday so we’ll lose a lot of the snow we have…and then stay in the 30’s until next Sat…need to get some cleaning done today but I don’t have to cook until tomorrow when I’m going to make another BAH (big assed ham) and that will feed me for another week…I put the ham bone from the last one in the freezer yesterday and it must have two pounds of ham on it so it would make a batch of ham soup by itself…still have three other bones in there that will make a batch next week…not much to do today…just the one ride that I don’t need to get to until more coffee and cleaning somewhere but I’m not sure where yet…more later…

Well…with the 24 miles I put in on the bike today, I hit the goal and went past it to 10,006 miles…I am a little surprised how well my body held up…I am an old guy, after all…not really any complaints at all for the year physically…just the normal aches and pains that come from overwork and I’ve even figured out the neck pain that was driving me nuts by using the stretching exercises the doctor gave me…the bike held up really well once I figured out the broken adjuster on the rear shifter and adjusted it manually and I think I only had a couple of flats and I consider that a successful year…so I’m going to just do one ride tomorrow as a little reward but I do still need to ride every day for the rest of the year to meet the last goal of riding every day during the calendar year…but will be back doing 24 miles a day after the rest day…the breakdown of indoor and outdoor miles is 3,414 indoors, and 6,592 outdoors….I’ll do a breakdown of the rest of it on December 31st as I always do…yay, me!

Well…that was better…slept through most of the night and didn’t wake up til 6 and not out of bed until 6:37….still feel pretty worn out but I guess I should…going to hit the 10,000 mile mark today and I’m not sure how I feel about that…I know it’s an accomplishment but where do I go from here? Is riding 24 miles a day now the new normal? I know I have to ride to control my weight but I have been longing for a day off to do what I want for a change but that can’t become a habit with my well developed sense of guilt….and I don’t think I’ve done any permanent damage with all the miles…I still have the last goal of riding every day for the calendar year and that means a couple more weeks of every day on the bike…I wonder if I should just keep riding to have two years in a row? Not sure yet….it did snow a couple more inches last night and didn’t get above 14 degrees overnight but a warm up is coming to almost 50 by Monday and the it will stay in the 30’s for the rest of the year and I’ll take that over the teens any time…I do have to figure out the meals for the day today with the first big ham finishing up and having chicken thighs in the fridge so I’ll probably make two days of those and make the next ham Sunday…will probably do the next batch of ham soup next week but I’m not sure if it will be with the bones in the freezer or the new ones…not much to do today…just need to get off my butt and get started on the rides and then see how it goes…more later…

Well…after the three rides and getting 24 miles in today, I only have 18 miles left to get to 10,000 for the year…so that will happen tomorrow and I’m not sure how I feel about it…after I get there, I still won’t be able to cut back much or I’ll be 200 pounds again quite quickly…I guess I’ll have to go down to 6-800 calories a day and that means one meal from now on…and how the hell do I gain 5 pounds in two weeks? That’s what I did from my checkup to Monday when they weighed me again and I went from 170.5 pounds to 175 and I haven’t been eating anything so you can understand my frustration…and in that time, I averaged almost 30 miles a day…so how can you burn 12-1400 calories on the bike and still gain weight on under 1K calories a day? Oh, well…I did get out and shovel and my feet stayed warm in the new boots and it was only 12 degrees when I was out there…took me about 45 minutes to shovel with the 2 foot drift I had on the sidewalk on the east side of the house…but I’m done now and I’m taking the rest of the afternoon off to watch Man U and read….

Well…damn, it’s only 10 degrees out here right now and that is going to make shoveling the 6-7 inches of snow a two step process…and I don’t think my new boots are going to keep my feet warm in that but I guess we’ll see later…didn’t get out of bed til almost 7 today and I feel pretty crappy this morning and that continues how I felt last night…just off a bit and I’m not sure why…oh, well…coffee is starting to work but not fast enough for me so I’ll have to wait a bit to get on the bike…only have 42 miles left to get to the goal and I’m a little amazed that my body survived all the abuse…I really hope that I’ll heal up after I lighten up the load…don’t have to cook today with making the soup yesterday and still having ham on the first bone but I will have to do some meal planning soon….the bathroom needs a cleaning and I may get to that today but I’m not sure….I am happy that I don’t have to go anywhere for a week or so and this weather is making me want to hibernate for a while….not much to do today…just the rides and no other plans right now…and that is needed since I plan way too many days and I have been trying to just let my days flow a bit….more later…

Well…darn, I’m a little confused about the turkey soup I made today…when the noodles were finally cooked, I had a bowl and, even though I made it like I always do, it really didn’t have much flavor…so much so that I added a quart of chicken broth at the end…now I wasn’t sure if it was the soup or that I’ve lost more of my ability to taste anything…it was better when I added a little salt which I only do when I ladle it out into the serving bowl and after it sat cooling for an hour, the flavors started to come out and it’s okay…but not as good as last year’s but that may be that I didn’t brine the turkeys so the flavor of rosemary isn’t there…I guess I’ll try just a little of that when I have a bowl tomorrow…down to 42 miles to go on the bikes and it feels good to be able to still ride so much at my age…if I start taking shorter rides, I’m going to have to cut back to one meal a day if I want to maintain my weight…and that is going to suck since I already don’t eat much…oh, well…going to go over to Kos right now and then come back for a political one…more later…

Well…running about on time this morning with getting out of bed around 6 am…and I slept okay and I’ll take a night like that any day…and the pain from riding outdoors is subsiding so I’m heading back to just being creaky and old and I can live with that…we do still have a winter storm warning on for today and tomorrow but just a light dusting of snow so far and the radar doesn’t show much but with lake effect, it can set up and snow like crazy any time…damn, it’s nice to have a day where all I have to do is ride the bike and make soup…I took the turkey carcasses out of the freezer last night since I may have to cut them up some to make two of them fit in the instant pot…and I cleared space in the top of the freezer to put 3-2qt containers in there…and 3 of the ham soup I’m making this weekend…don’t really have to go anywhere for a couple of weeks and that is pretty relaxing but I do have to get off my butt and find a new car soon…I did check my BP yesterday and it is still high so it looks like it will have to be treated and I’m okay with that…it’s not a personal failing that it is high…I mean I’m old after all and that is what happens when you get old….not much to do today…just going to get on the bike here in 25 minutes or so to get started on the three rides to get closer to the goal…sure hope the power stays on in the storm today…it’s pretty quiet right now but the wind is supposed to come up around 10 am or so….more later…