Well…running late this morning with having cocktails last night and not having any motivation to do anything right now…and I am sore from doing almost 40 miles on the bike yesterday and am hobbling around here like I’m a hundred years old….so, yeah…pretty normal for a Saturday morning…had an okay day yesterday with Tom coming out to show me his new car and me showing him how easy it is to get to the beach now that I know my way around a little…then I rode over to the bank and then out to the beach and fooled around out there and added some miles to get to more than a double for the day…and I’m only on my first cup of coffee this morning so I’m not starting the day off too easily….don’t think I ate enough yesterday, either, with only having a bagel and a pork shoulder wrap even with doing the double ride…so that may have something to do with how I feel today…it looks like Amazon split the order I made the other day so I’ll be getting my new riding gloves today but the chain lube won’t be here til late next week…and that’s okay since I just cleaned and lubed the bike thursday and have enough in the bottle to do one more…and I can use the gloves more with the old ones being worn out and pretty shabby looking….not much to do today…going to get out on the bike by around 9 or so since it is not freezing out there today…finally…and then start cleaning in here to prep for the new couch coming on Monday….I think I’m going to wait to plant until Monday but who knows? I may just get started today with the rain coming tonight….more later….
Monthly Archives: May 2021
It’s a trap!
Well…how many of you knew that was a often repeated line from Star Wars? This time it applies to the repub response to the infrastructure bills that the dems are proposing…while the dems have included repealing the repub tax cuts for the rich to pay for it…the repubs have made it a key to their plan to raise taxes on the middle class and poor by instituting user fees that hit those groups the hardest as a percentage of income….and the dems are letting them go on about not repealing the rich people tax cuts as they prepare to go it alone after the repubs will invariably blow up the negotiations over Joe’s insistence that no one making less than 400k a year will have their taxes raised…and that is the trap that has been set by the dems…they know that the repubs will never allow their pet tax cuts for the rich to end and they are going to allow them to whine and bitch about it for a while…as the dems then plan to go it alone to pass this popular bill repealing the tax cuts that the public wants and then will hammer the repubs with it in the 2022 election…all the while emphasizing that the repubs tried to block the plan…pretty subtle and effective…and mcconnell is going to lose this one bigly….
May 14th
Well…yeah, running a little late today and just can’t get motivated…just had a thought…I don’t think I’ve talked to so many cops in such a short time in my life…and every one of them were really nice and listened to what I had to say….that’s a little new to me…okay, I am an old white guy and it probably shouldn’t be that much of a surprise but it is still welcome…it was pretty quiet around here yesterday and I’m hoping that will continue today…damn, I just forgot what day it is…I guess that’s a product of not having anywhere to be…I do need to start planning when to put my tomato plants out and that may happen this weekend…I did notice that a couple of the sunflower seeds have sprouted in the back of the house where I planted them and I have 8 more planted in cups downstairs so I’ll need to figure out where to plant them if they sprout….I may put them next to the garage or along the fence but I need to make sure they will be easy to trim around…I think I may adopt a vacant lot across the street and clean it up and keep it mowed but I can’t find the organization that does that to make sure it’s not already assigned to someone….I guess I can just do it and let them come to me…I know I already have too much work to do to get this place in shape but I know I’ll feel better to look out my front windows and see a nice, clean lot….not much to do today…I did get a double ride in yesterday and am going to try to do that again today…need to ride over to the bank that is about 5 miles away to deposit the comcast check so that will be one of the legs of my ride today….and then the normal one out to lake Michigan….need to clean this place up some, too, since my new couch is supposed to come Monday and I need to be ready for that….more later….
This is a little weird…
Well…if you’ve been here before, you know of the ordeal I had trying to move my modem from the GR house to here when I moved…it took a tech 3 1/2 hours of wending his way through the stupid phone system with his secret phone numbers…but today, I got a weird little surprise from comcast…a check for 50 bucks that the tech said he was going to get me for all of the crap I had to go through just to move the modem and having them hold the whole thing up since they owed me money…and they have only been taking 15 bucks a month out for my internet so I’ve been getting 10 bucks a month off, too…I knew I liked the tech who was here….
Just stuff…
Well…hey, Tom…after you got your new car, I’ve noticed that almost every damn car out here is a Subaru….I wonder if they are issued to people when they move here? Where the heck can I get mine? Okay, that’s not what this is about…you know I’ve mentioned that you can see the curvature of the Earth from my boardwalk seat at the beach and today I saw proof of it that I had never seen before. When I was pulling up to the bench, I notice that the Lake express ferry was heading out of the entrance to Muskegon Lake..well…it was probably 5 miles or so out, and heading straight West and after it got out quite a few miles, I noticed something strange…to me anyway…the ship started to disappear over the horizon and, over the next half hour or so, more of the boat disappeared until the last part of the top sank below it…I can’t remember ever seeing that before…I guess it took a big ship heading straight toward the horizon to do it…I guess that proves the Earth is round…at least to me…to the flat Earthers…not so much….
I feel better about Muskegon…
Well…after the debacle of yesterday, I was starting to question buying this house and moving out here…but, after chatting with the officer last night and having the community officer just stop by to meet me and talk for a while, I am feeling better about Muskegon. When I told him that I have thought about selling and moving out, he seemed to be a little hurt…and then he said that he has lived in Muskegon his entire life and they love to have people like me move in and help to make the city better…he even gave me his personal cell number so I could call him for any reason and he will answer….he stressed to please not sell the house, that any problems can be fixed if I just call them and let them help….I know that this is going to be a long process to get people to understand what the rules are and to follow them….and he did reiterate that the 50 foot rule is the law…so I really don’t have to listen to anyone since all of the houses around me are more than 50 feet away….but, we’ll see…at least I have hope that there is a path forward and I can enjoy my house again…
Wake up, Joe…
Well…Joe, Joe, Joe…..I know you remember the bipartisanship from your time in the senate a long time ago, but are you listening to these assholes who you are trying to do a deal with? To start, turtle mcconnell has stated bluntly that his entire job is to make sure you are not successful and that any bill that will help the American people will be blocked and the tax cuts for the rich are set in stone and will not be touched…some bipartisanship, huh? Yesterday, after the idiot mccarthy walked out of the meeting you held to try to find common ground, he scurried right to the microphones and called you “corrupt Joe Biden” and promised that he would not even try to help the American people….so more bipartisanship? Look, Joe…these guys have shown you for years and years that they will never buy into anything that you are proposing so just leave them behind…your bigger problem is to get Manchin and Sinema to stop covering for ole mitch and start acting like dems…that is your real problem and is something you need to deal with and right now…or you can kiss your very popular agenda goodbye…get after it…
May 13th
Well…darn, I feel pretty crappy this morning and my head is plugged up completely with all of the tree pollen…and I have trees out here that I can see which are in bloom so I think I’m going to have to take something for it this morning…and I think I’m going to lose the bean plants in the garden today with the temp down around 30 right now…but, this should be the last day of freeze and the temps are supposed to start getting warmer…we may even get to 70 next week and get back to almost normal highs for this time of year…so that means double rides to try to get my mileage up….I did start working on the old bike to try to replace the drivetrain but it looks like I need a puller to get the pedal arms off and then a special tool to get the crankset keeper off….I know I’ll need to do that to the current bike when it wears out so I should get on it…I did buy a new pair of riding gloves and a big bottle of chain lube yesterday since I am almost out of lube and I have been using my gloves for almost 5 years now and they are pretty much worn out….they have been good ones so I bought another pair just like them and can justify the 13 bucks with all of the use I get out of them….I did discover that there are a few other people out here who are getting tired of the loud music and have been calling in noise complaints…talked to another police officer last night who confirmed the 50 foot rule…that music can’t be played so loud it can be heard from more than 50 feet away and she welcomed the noise calls that come from it…while I was talking to her, one of the people who is responsible for the noise came up and said”why would walmart sell me a speaker that is too loud if playing it loud is illegal?” Man, that is some twisted logic right there…I am making it my goal in life to build a nice, quiet neighborhood here…and I don’t think the long time residents get that things are changing out here and they have to follow the rules since it has been the wild west for so long….and they have been able to to whatever they want…no longer…more later…
Don’t screw with Darth Vader…
Well…it looks the idiot trump and his minions got their way in removing Liz Cheney from her leadership post in the House…but, I think their high fives are going to be very, very short lived…do they even remember who her father is? Yeah, that Dick Cheney…the one who has overthrown governments, approved torture, and lied us into the Iraq war…and that was just on a Tuesday…the Dick Cheney who is still plugged into the old boy repub networks that control the money going into the party…do they really think Dick got the nickname Darth Vader by being a Star Wars fan? Cheney is the guy who works behind the scenes to get what he wants…and you never see him coming as he shivs you in the back…does anyone think that the idiot trump or Kevin McCarthy can go up against him? When he takes slights of his family just like an Italian mob boss does? We saw some of his behind the scenes machinations when he got over 100 former state and defense department heads to put out a letter warning trump about using the military to overthrow the election…and it is well known that he thinks trump is just a washed up game show host who never should have been president….and this diss on his daughter is going to be the last straw and he will use his power to torment trump for a while as he goes after McCarthy too…and he is going to end any possibility of McCarthy getting what he wants, and that is to be speaker of the house. Now, I hate Dick Cheney with a burning passion for what he did to harm the US while he was VP, but if his Vaderishness can be turned on idiot boy, I’ll watch that…
May 12th
Well…my sleep seems to be deteriorating over the past couple of days but at least I’m consistent with waking up before 5…and I feel okay so I guess I should stop bitching…but, damn…it’s 32 degrees outside right now and that means I’ll lose my bean plants that are in the garden…how the hell can it be 32 on May 12? Oh, well…that means I’ll have to wait until Friday to get at planting the tomatoes that are ready downstairs…but still no green peppers or cukes to replace the ones that died in the garden…I did get a bunch of stuff done yesterday with the grocery run and then mowing the lawn and that was a lot of walking…but I think I’m getting used to walking the mile it takes to mow it since only my big toe is hurting right now and my calves used to scream at me after I was done…probably the shoe change I made after the first mowing…still not losing any weight after cutting back on cocktails and nuts and that is a little disappointing…especially after cutting down to one meal a day…I mean all I had to eat yesterday was a bagel with cream cheese and a third of a chicken breast…no lunch or dinner and a hard ride, too, so that is a little confusing…might have to wait for getting double rides in next week…I am going to make a small pork shoulder in the instant pot for lunch and may make some pork tacos to go with the pickled red onions I made yesterday…have tomatoes in the fridge that need to be used, too, so I’ll need to start that by 9 or so…or 8:30 since it takes a while to get up to pressure and I want to get out on the bike by around noon or so and the potatoes and carrots take a cycle, too…more later…