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…
Monthly Archives: September 2020
Let’s compare…
Well…have been trying to figure out what to write about today and have finally come up with a topic….there were two town halls held in the presidential campaign this week and they could not have been more different…trump’s was filled with lies and lethargy as he sat on a chair looking like he wanted to be anywhere else than listening to real people with real problems hold his feet to the fire for his incompetence and stupidity. But at Biden’s, we saw what makes Joe the best person to go up against trump. Answering all the questions with details of policy and showing his trademark depth and empathy…and if you didn’t already know it, it showed he really does care for this country and the people in it…and he made sure to emphasize that he would be president for all of the people, not just those in the blue states. Watching Biden’s performance must have sent a few of trump’s cronies into shock since they have been trying so damn hard to label him as feeble minded and out of it…and sent the debate preppers into abject terror of what trump is going to face in the debates. It was so cool to see a normal America on the stage with Biden…not the “American carnage” and hate that trump spews and foments every damn day and have hope that if we elect Biden that things could start back toward normal and not live every day as if we all have PTSD. How could anyone who watched the idiot boy this week think he gives a damn about anyone but himself? That is the contrast that Biden’s campaign need to hammer on every day…and keep it up…
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….
Bill Barr thinks he’s king…
Well…just when you thought Bill Barr couldn’t get any worse, he open’s his mouth and spew more garbage into our air. Just the other day, Barr came out and justified his interference in the Michael Flynn case by saying that he can do anything he wants in any case in the US…and he can investigate anyone he wants and the rules that every AG in history has followed don’t apply to him….he can charge anyone he wants and the FBI, instead of being the independent investigative service that it has always been is his own personal police force that he can use any way he wants and they have a personal duty to him and not the oath they take to defend the constitution. This is some pretty fascist stuff right here and you know whey he said it…he is getting ready to announce bogus investigations into Biden with information that came from a Russian spy and he’s coordinating with Ron Johnson and rudy to get that done before the election…the so called “October surprise” that is supposed to tip the election to the idiot trump. Oh, and to show how batshit crazy Barr is, he went off at a speech at the ultra right wing Hillsdale college here in Michigan that lockdowns and requirement that people wear masks are the greatest threat to civil liberties in the history of the country to which the historian John Meachem replied that he was just so much bullshit, to paraphrase. This is what is at stake in this year’s election…fascism or our democracy….should be an easy choice, huh?
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….
I think I’m wearing out…
Well…sitting here hurting everywhere after riding and working most of the day and it hit me that I may finally be wearing out…could barely get off the bike when I got back from the second ride and it took me a few minutes to be able to walk without pain in my hip and now my back is howling in pain after standing on my feet for three hours working downstairs…and I have been exhausted for the past few days too….I know I’ve been riding and working a lot but no more than I did since I started on this place last July…I wonder if there is a cumulative effect that is hitting me? I know I’m getting old but to have it hit so fast like this makes me hope that it is a temporary thing and there is a way to correct it…not sure what that would be but the exhaustion feels like I’m not eating enough with doing 36 a day…and the pain could be from overuse so maybe some ibuprofen can help….crap…don’t like how it feels to get old…I was just thinking the other day that I really am thankful that I can still do 36 hard miles at my age…I wonder if this is the start of the decline..that would suck…
Daniel Dale should get combat pay….
Well…yeah, it has been a busy day and I am running late again…but I did want to talk about the fiasco of a town hall that ABC put on last night with the idiot trump being asked questions by a group of undecided voters…and let me interject right now…if you are an undecided voter after the last 4 years of the trump shitshow, you are not smart enough to vote and probably shouldn’t. Of course trump lied and lied and then lied some more…and that kept Daniel Dale busy, again, oh, probably should say that Dale is the fact checker for CNN who should get combat pay for covering idiot boy every day…but, his work is pretty easy at this point since trump lies about the same thing all the time…pre-existing conditions? The “great” repub plan to cover them is two weeks away just as it was in May, and as it was last year and the year before that…reminds me of the old saw about fusion power…it is always 30 years away and has been for 50 years…this time, the host of the town hall…George S actually called trump on his lies and made it clear that trump and his cronies are in court right now to remove coverage for them as they try to dismantle Obamacare…and that put everyone in shock since he is not known for actually doing journalism….oh, one jaw dropping part of the night was when asked about why he didn’t institute a mask mandate for the entire country, trump asked why Biden didn’t do it…and he had to be reminded that Biden isn’t president and he is…man, the debates are going to be lit if this is a preview of trump’s performance….let’s just leave it by saying that yes, this was shitshow and whoever thought this was a good idea in the WH is probably packing up his desk right now….geez….
September 16th
Well…this is getting a little weird…have gotten up at 6:03 for almost a week now and that consistency is a little unnerving….and I had strange dreams that had me in a library trying to find a book that I had seen on tv but couldn’t….that is another thing…have been having dreams again and that hasn’t happened in a long time…I wonder what the change is? I was just exhausted all day yesterday and can’t figure that out….have felt pretty good lately, getting lots of rides in and lots done around here but it felt like a lack of calories but my intake hasn’t changed much…I did do two full rides yesterday to get 36 miles in…maybe that’s it…it’s going to be a really busy day today with trying to stay on the 36 mile pace and then lots of work on the downstairs project along with finishing up the trim paint on the exterior of the house…..and I do need to find a house by the end of the month which is going to be a crunch….but I think that will wait til tomorrow since I’m going to be so busy today…and that looks like it will continue the rest of the week with more work on the gardens and getting everything ready for a big project that I need to do next week…or the week after….more later….
It’s just too easy…
Well…with all of the criminality of every damn person around trump that has infested out government, it’s just too easy to write about the latest outrage and it has made me lazy and closed my eyes to other topics that I used to write about. I have been struggling to find things that as important as the crisis this country is in but I know it is as disheartening to you as it is to me…so maybe I’ll alternate politics with other things as we move toward the election….let’s start with something lighter…does anyone else have hundreds of green tomatoes on your plants that have stopped ripening? I just noticed that this week and I’m not sure if there is anything that can be done about it…I did pick a few of them to just put them in the bowl on the kitchen table and see if they will ripen…if not, I think I’ll just start cleaning out the gardens and tossing them…it is a shame that I didn’t get to make spaghetti sauce with all of those tomatoes but I did get tired of homemade salsa and pickles so I probably would with the sauce too…at least I learned something about gardens that I can apply to the garden at the new house if I can ever find one….one of the the worst things about this summer is not being able to see anyone and give away all the excess produce, luckily you can freeze jalapenos and green peppers but I only got one of those off of 6 plants so I guess I didn’t have to worry about that….okay, that’s enough for now…yeah, this isn’t working for me either…I live for politics so I guess I’ll get back to that soon….