Well…that was okay…didn’t get out of bed until 6:30 but feel kind of slow with having a couple of cocktails last night….it is nice to have a breeze blowing through the house this morning after having to have a fan on last night to keep from sweating my butt off…and it looks like that is going to be the weather for the next couple of days until it rains Wed…..so that means I should seed some more of the bare spots in the lawn before then but I still don’t have any motivation so we’ll see….I think we’re over 5 inches under the average in rainfall for the year so far and my lawn looks like it…it is turning yellow but I am not going to spend the money to water it but I really don’t know the cost since my water bill has been the same 24 bucks a month since I moved in and I am dreading when they actually read the meter and bill me….I think the pain in my right elbow is arthritis instead of tendonitis since it now has a big lump right on the bone that is sensitive to touch…and that is keeping me from working around here since the pain is pretty intense when I do anything with it…there is going to be a point where I’m going to have to suck it up and get working but I just don’t feel like it right now….just pouring coffee sets it off and I’m think I may have to take something for it this morning….not much to do today…I think I’ve figured out how to fix the leaking outside faucet using one of the bike tubes that I have downstairs but it will mean shutting of the water for an hour or so and I am not ready to do that today…need a different adhesive that I’ll get on the grocery run wed….so today I think I’ll just clean some and get the two rides in…and I have some chicken thawed that needs to be cooked so that will be my day….more later…..

Well…still have my fingers crossed that I figured out what was causing the flats on the rear tire of the bike….never did find anything wrong when I inspected it but I changed out the spoke band anyway and washed the entire inside of the wheel so maybe whatever was puncturing the tubes got washed out…who knows? I do know that I got two rides in today and feel sunburned and had to use some aloe just now to get rid of the tightness in my face….I think I need to upgrade my sunscreen and start to buy name brand stuff again instead of the dollar store stuff I have been using….even with 30 and 50 spf on, I have been burning and making the biker tan worse…and it already looks way too weird….so maybe out to the beach again tomorrow to try to even it out….I did buy some ham from DD this week and got 6 pounds for 6 bucks but was not happy with it…it really had no taste and I was pretty disappointed until I heated it today and it finally tasted like ham…strange, but it made me feel better I didn’t waste the 6 bucks…so, hot ham and cheese sandwiches are in the future…have 4 pound in the freezer, too, so I’ll have to find some recipes that use ham….okay, the race is going to start so I’ll end here….

Well….crap, woke up again today with a bout of the damn depression I’ve been fighting for a month or so now and that makes everything just so much effort…didn’t even read the news the first thing as I normally do and I’m even bored with MotoGP that is on right now and I can’t get excited for the F1 race that is coming on in about 20 minutes…oh, well….I do have to get myself a new hose since the expandable one I have is rotting and falling apart daily…have had to repair it the past two days and that is getting old when I need it to water everything since it doesn’t ever rain out here…..and I probably should get a hose reel to store it on since it looks like hell just laying in the yard….but they are 40 bucks or so and I don’t want to spend any money right now…..and the hose will be another 25 bucks…so that’s not happening until next month…or for two weeks when I get my next deposit….still need to plan for 4K going out in August for taxes and car insurance and that is going to hurt….I did get through the bike ride yesterday without a flat and I have my fingers crossed for a another uneventful day today but I won’t be getting out until after the race around 10 or so…and that may make it a one ride day today…it was a little cool yesterday when there were 4 WWII planes doing a flyover of the beach and Muskegon lake trailing smoke behind them and doing some aerobatics…..and I think there are more planned for today with it being the anniversary of D-day and that would be cool to see….not much to do today…just going to veg out for the next couple of hours and have coffee and read the news as I watch the race….don’t feel like doing much else….

Well…damn, I am going to be guilty the rest of the day with skipping the second ride…just hit a wall and couldn’t do it…lost all my energy and just wasn’t feeling it so I’m just going to take the rest of the day off and just do these after getting everything watered outside and chasing a damn ground hog that I think has a den under my front steps…so it looks I need to gas that hole, too, just like I did the one under my sidewalk but that will mean taking the lattice work off the side of the steps to get at it…but, not today….just feel off and want to sit here for a while as I try to think of a political one for today….I did get out to the beach for a second day in a row but the wind was blowing so hard that I was getting sandblasted and cut it short….and that was probably a good idea since I do have some sunburn and don’t want to need aloe for it….more later…maybe…

Well…running a little late this morning with not getting out of bed until 6:30 or so….for the first time I had all the windows open last night and it was nice to get up to a breeze blowing through this place…and it was a nice, quiet night and I will take credit for that….I am going to try to take it a little easier today and not rush around like a crazy person to try to get things “done” when I really don’t have to…I know I should have the kitchen cabinets torn down already and have them stripped to paint but I just don’t feel like taking on a big job right now….and my right elbow won’t let me do it anyway…it still hurts like crazy and I’m having a hard time just picking up my coffee cup this morning…but, I’ve had this before where I couldn’t pick up anything where I had to grip with my hand and it went away after a few months so I guess I’ll just gut it out and take some ibuprofen….I did get two rides in yesterday without a flat but it will be weeks without one before I can relax about it….and the problem is that I didn’t find how the tubes were being punctured so I don’t know if cleaning the wheel and changing out the spoke band fixed it…I guess we’ll see today….not much to do today….F1 qualifying is on in a few minutes and then out on the bike but it’s going to be a windy ride and a lot of work…so maybe only one today….more later…

Well…darn…I almost forgot to come here for the second one today and it’s all because my routine was changed by going out to the beach this morning and into the afternoon…it is pretty darn cool that I can get to the beach in about 5 minutes instead of 40 from GR and I can park my car about 20 feet from where I set up my beach chair….so the great evening out of my biker tan has started and with lying in the sun so easy, I may have a great tan this summer…I know you shouldn’t tan at all but even with 50 sunscreen on, I still do get color on my legs and arms when I ride so I have to do something about it and only 30 minutes per side isn’t that bad for me…but I didn’t get back here until almost 1 and that made me late for the second bike ride…where I didn’t get a flat…yet, and that all made me late to do this one….so, I may not do another one today on politics but who knows? Haven’t read much news today so I need to catch up first….

Well…this is really weird…for the second day in a row I didn’t get out of bed until almost 7:30….and I slept through the night but tossed and turned enough to kick the covers off the bed….and with the windows open, that was a little chilly…I think the dollar store sunscreen I’ve been using is not working…after being out on the bike with the flat yesterday and using the spf 50, I still had sunburn on my face when it should have blocked it all….had to use aloe since my skin was so red and tight…I may have to splurge and buy some name brand stuff but that is up to almost 10 bucks for a spray can and that is a bit much…..it has been quiet up here for three days now and I wonder if the last call was the one that did it…I know that the officer I talked to on Tuesday was going to threaten the morons to the north with fines and that was what they should have done with the first call, not the 12th but this place is now getting to where I can enjoy my day…whatever works….as the idiot that I am, I’m going to get on the bike here in a few minutes to see if I can get through a ride without a flat for the first time in days….and I may get in the car and head out to the beach after I’m done with that….might just as well use my free parking pass and start evening out my biker tan…and yep, I’m going to feel guilty about not working on this place when I have way too much to do….I think I’m going to buy a new beach towel this week since the one I have is probably 30 years old and looking pretty shabby…and I don’t know where it is….but, right now I need more coffee and to get to the news….it’s after 8 and I’m not sure I like being so late….more later…

Well…as you can see, I just couldn’t do a political one today with how sucky this day has been…okay, not that bad but still two flats in two days? Had another one almost all the way out to the beach which meant riding back 6 miles on a flat…again…and I’m not sure what the heck is going on….the punctures aren’t in the same spot on the inside of the tubes so there is nothing that I can see that has been causing them…so, when I got back this afternoon, I tore into the rear wheel to try to find the cause thinking it may be the spoke protector band that wraps around the wheel…so I took another wheel apart from the Motobecane that I kept and got one off and put that in the new wheel….but that was after I had taken the wheel off the old Gravity that was the same wheel as on the new bike (since they are the same model bike), pounded out the axle that had rusted in, changed the gearset over, and inflated the tire, I saw that the tire had started to separate and come apart…so, then I got to work on the new wheel and put on a new gearset that I bought a couple of years ago, cleaned it up since the tube that went flat was full of slime…that is supposed to prevent flats…and put the whole thing back together with the hope that changing out the spoke band and washing the slime out of the wheel will have fixed the problem…if not, I’ll have to change the new tire on the new wheel over to the old one…or just buy a new tire since I’m going to need one before the end of summer…this has become a royal pain in the butt and riding 6 miles back today is going to make me sore tonight and tomorrow and it is starting to make me not want to get on the bike at all…what a pain…