Well…one of these days I’m going to stop complaining about how busy I am all the time…it sure doesn’t feel like I’m retired other than I don’t go somewhere to work every day…started out by getting three rides in by 10:30, then mowing the lawn…then I discovered some loose stair treads on the front porch and drilled and screwed them back down…when I was doing that, I noticed that the algae was taking over the flat surfaces again and the door mat so I scrubbed the mat with a scrub brush and dish soap…then I got out the deck cleaner and washed the flat surfaces that were green and I’ll re treat them with Thompsons water seal tomorrow…then I put a load of laundry in, did three of these and now it’s 2:30pm and I am done for the day…now you see what the title said…busy again…oh, well…

Well…it never got under 75 overnight and it’s going to be a hot one today…between 85 and 90 and that will continue for one more day and then down into the 70’s for the rest of the summer…so I’ll need to get on the bike by 7:30 to have the rides in before 11 when the heat just pours in…left the house open all night and should have put the fan on in the bedroom like I will tonight…allergies suck today as they have for weeks now and I really need to some rain to wash the air out and that might happen tonight but I won’t count on it…didn’t get much done yesterday but I do need to clean a bit today if I have the energy for it…have been trying to eat more to support the riding and other work and I’m not sure if I was successful or not…I do know that every damn joint I have hurts this morning and I’ll have to treat it before I get on the bike…and that means I’ll need to get moving in a few minutes to prep my skin, do my teeth, and get the voltaren on my joints….I am so damn tired of the maintenance that this old body needs every day to just keep moving…but, I’ll do it…oh, well…more later…

Well…I don’t know what it is about 3:37 but I’ve woken up at that time for the past four days in a row and that is a little weird…and out of bed at about the same time, too…and I’m not sure I want that routine…I did sleep okay but I think I’m running out of steam and just want to sit here on the couch for a bit…the F1 race comes on at nine and that means I have a half hour to get on the bike to get a ride in before then…so I need to pour the coffee down and get moving…it’s going to be hot the next three days with temps in the mid 80’s but then down into the 70’s for 10 days and I think that’s the end of the hot weather for the year…so I won’t be out swimming again and that is a little sad…I am sore from running the string trimmer yesterday and that will probably continue to get worse for another day…there will be voltaren in my future…not much to do today…don’t have to cook since I still have leftovers but I should clean some…not too motivated right now even to get on the bike…but I will suck it up and get going in 22 minutes….more later…

Well…I really like my routine..getting the rides in, getting work done, and cooking, then sitting down at 7pm to catch some entertainment from shows I watch every week…or find some weird Korean or Japanese show on netflix…but since the last week of July, my routines have been interrupted by the Olympics, the convention, and nascar putting races on at night like last night and tonight…now, I like racing and the one from Daytona last night was a good one and I expect that tonight’s race from there will be fun…but it won’t allow me to see Svengoolie or a show or movie for some mindless entertainment…races are supposed to be during the day so I get to watch it and then go into my routine…I really would like my routine back before summer ends…only did two rides today with doing some yard work…ran the string trimmer around the entire yard today and I will be sore tomorrow…heck, I’m sore right now…not eating enough caught up with me this afternoon and I was dizzy as heck but how the heck do I eat more…my stomach doesn’t have that capacity anymore…oh, well…going to order the new parts for the black bike tomorrow but I think I’m going to use them on the grey bike since I’ve got 16,000 miles on the set that’s on it and they normally only last about 12K and I can’t get the hitch out of the idlers and it annoys the hell out of me…I’ll be riding along perfectly fine and smooth and then I’ll get clicking and vibration through the pedals…so I guess I’ll replace the entire drive line again including the shifter that I’ve already got downstairs along with the chain and front crankset and rear cassette…I’ll put a new shift cable on it, too since the one on it is a little frayed at the end and I have a dozen new ones downstairs…but now it’s time to read…

Well…darn, the premier league starting up has complicated my life today…Man U plays at 7:30 this morning and then F1 qualifying starts at 9 so I won’t be able to get out on the bike til 10 or so and that may make it a two ride day…slept okay last night and I am really confused on why I can sleep on my back again after 40 years of snoring waking me up if I tried it…it has to be losing weight but it can’t be that simple can it? Woke up at 5:37 again but was able to stay in bed til 6:23 and now I need to coffee to work but I’m just going to be sitting here for a couple of hours so I don’t really need it…didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I do need to run the string trimmer so maybe two rides will be enough…it’s going to hurt like crazy as it always does and I wonder how long I’ll be able to keep it up? My neck and shoulders already hurt just sitting here so I think I slather some voltaren on before I get on the bike or work outside…don’t have to cook today since I have leftovers but I do need to plan something for tomorrow and I’m not sure what that will be….damn, this is hard just sitting here waiting for soccer to start…okay, more coffee and 10 minutes until the match…more later…

Well…the other day as I was riding off the boardwalk and onto the trail that runs right along Lake Michigan, the temp dropped by 15-20 degrees with the wind blowing in off the lake…and after learning that the lake temp had dropped 30 degrees into the 40’s, I finally put that together on the bike this morning…and the air is still really cold in that stretch of the trail today…so it looks like my swimming could be over for the year…oh, well…it’s almost 2 pm and I am done for the day other than my weight work that I’m going to start here in a minute…got the new batch of pasta salad made and in the fridge and I made another huge batch since I liked the last one so much…it’s just easier to have a ready made side when I don’t want to cook…had a squeak in the swing arm on the bike that I couldn’t get rid of and then I remembered what I did on my first mountain bike that had the same problem with that bushing…just a little dish soap and water…and I already had some made up in the cabinet downstairs and I soaked everything and it went right away…I even squirted the idlers on the shifter and it helped there, too…and I have enough room in the bike bag to carry it with me so that’s cool…okay, time to get to work…

Well…up at 5:37 this morning and that is way too early but I knew there was no point in trying to stay in bed…been up for over an hour and have just started my first cup of coffee and I really hope it works soon…it got cold again last night and I saw that the temp of Lake Michigan dropped by 30 degrees and is back down in the 40’s so I won’t be going out there to swim any time soon…maybe next week when the temp is supposed to be in the mid 80’s…didn’t get much done yesterday but the errands and bike rides and don’t have any plans for today other than making some more pasta salad and getting three rides in…going to get back to entertainment tonight after the week of the convention but I still don’t have a lot to watch…it’s a dry time for new shows so I guess I’ll go out to netflix to look for something….it looks like I won’t be able to get outdoors until around 8 as I sit here and let the temp come up so I don’t need a fleece…it’s going to warm up starting today and lows will be around 70 by Monday…this August sure has not been a normal one with all the cold weather but we are going to get over 85 by mid week next week and then will finish off the summer close to normal…more later…

Well…that didn’t work…got a new switch for the back landing light but it slipped my mind that it is part of an interconnected circuit that you can turn on from the top and bottom of the stairs so the switch I got won’t work…only paid 85 cents for it so I’ll keep it for a spare…the one that’s in there appears to be original to the house since it’s this huge ceramic thing that fills the box…so that would make it 84 years old…while I had it apart, I gave it a squirt of wd-40 and now it works like a champ again so it has dropped down on my list of things I have to repair…I did get the errands done this morning but that got me such a late start on the bike that I didn’t get the second ride done until 12:30…I have 3 new books to read and some more glue traps just in case I get mice in here again…and I got 4 more tins of tuna so I can make more pasta salad tomorrow…will probably make another huge batch of it since it did keep until I used it all…damn, forgot the weight work again…need to do that now…

Well…damn, woke up cold and worn out again today and I’m getting pretty tired of it…have some errands to run this morning after I get a ride in downstairs but I just poured the first cup of coffee so that is going to wait for a while…need to go to the library after the errand to get some more books but I’m running out of books from the authors I like so I have to find others to read…I should go through the books I bought at the library sale last year to see if there is something there that I can read…it’s still only 51 degrees out there and that’s cold for August…but it’s going to warm up over the next week so I’ll be back outdoors for every ride…but no rain in the forecast…it’s a little weird that we haven’t had any storms out here at all this summer…they’ve gone to the north and south of here other than the one that took down all of the trees…going to make another batch of pasta salad but I’m not sure what I’m going to cook to go with it…I did make burgers, chicken thighs and pork loin on the grill so I do have a couple of days to think about it…not much to do today…need to get on the bike in 5 minutes or so to get the day started and then out for errands…and that is going to take a lot of effort….more later…

Well…you know I’ve complained about the proliferation of tasks that you are responsible for when you live alone and today was filled with them…and when I’m on the bike for 3 1/2 hours, that takes a lot of time that I could be using to get more done…like right now, I have to write the check for the property taxes I’m going to pay tomorrow…and anytime I want food, I have to go out and get it like today…DD had black forest ham on sale for 1.99 a pound and I couldn’t pass that up so that means getting in the car and doing it myself…and anytime I want a meal, I have to make it…okay that’s not so different as it was before I was alone…okay, need to go get the laundry out of the dryer…see what I mean? Okay, I’ll stop whining now…I did get to 6,600 miles today and that means I only have 500 more miles to go to hit the goal…it looks my estimate of the third week of September is a good one…I do need to hit depot tomorrow to get a new light switch for the back landing light since the one in there is flashing the light and it takes a couple of tries to get it to stay lit…so I guess I’d better get going since I have to do the check and still need to do my weight work…geez…