Well…darn, forgot to hit the timer button on the coffee maker last night so I have to wait to have some coffee…grrr….I should hurt more than I do this morning after the long ride yesterday but I wonder if that will come tomorrow? My right hip does hurt and I’m a little stiff but I can walk so that is cool…and I am going to get on the bike around 7 again since it is warm enough to go out right now and I want to get the first one in before F1 qualifying at 9…I may only do one ride today since I want to watch England play at noon and then their are races this afternoon…after doing two and a half days worth of rides yesterday, I can slack off a bit today if I feel like it…but I probably won’t I’m so anal about getting my rides in….I did get sunburned through the 50 sunscreen I had on yesterday and I even applied it twice while I was riding and I that isn’t right…okay, 6 hours in the sun is probably a bit much for any sunscreen but 50 should block all of it….not much to do today….going to take it easy today and might go down the hill to check out the July 4th festivities but I’m probably not going to the fireworks since they are not going off til 10:30 and I’ll have a couple of cocktails before then….more later…

Well…as you know if you’ve been here over the past few years, I try to do at least one long ride every year that matches my age in miles….and I’m not sure why but today was the day…did 5 laps of my 15 mile loop today for 75 miles…and no that’s not my age but you can’t just ride half of the loop….just like last year, I didn’t plan that I was going to do it today….I had just started thinking about doing it a couple of days ago but when I got done with the first lap this morning, I felt so good and there just a little wind so I thought I’d give it a try…it was pretty easy through the first 4 laps but the fifth one was brutal with quickly running out of energy and the wind that had picked up to almost 15 mph out here…and now everything hurts…not just my legs but my arms, shoulders, and even my left knee which really surprises me since it has never hurt before…but, with being on the bike for over 6 hours, I guess everything really should hurt….and I feel pretty good right now…I guess I couldn’t take a day off after all…

Well…damn, I feel worn out today…and I’m drinking two day old coffee since I couldn’t bring myself to throw out half a pot that I didn’t drink yesterday with working on the lawn after the first ride…I am seriously considering not working on anything today and just taking the day off other than riding….need to have some time to heal up after pushing hard all week and I think I need more time for recovery as I age…and I just don’t feel like working today…did lots of cooking yesterday with making potato salad, tacos, and burgers so I won’t have to cook again until Monday or so….I had run out of leftovers to eat and I think I took a couple of hours to restock the fridge since I didn’t have anything in the freezer for quick meals….I do need to get out to the beach in the next few days and just relax and get a swim in…I mean I live 5 minutes from the beach and I haven’t been out there to swim in two weeks? Damn, now my right shoulder hurts, too…felt it crunching when I moved it last night and it is still doing it this morning so I really do need to rest it and my elbow….so I think my body made the decision for me…rest day…not much to do today…a bike ride here in a few minutes and then I just might veg out and watch the TDF this morning before I do the second ride…..I did notice yesterday that I have tiny cukes on my cuke plants and now I’m just waiting for my peppers to bloom and everything will be producing…my garden looks better than I expected with the poor soil out here and I should have cherry tomatoes ripened in a couple of weeks…can’t wait….more later…

Well…as I’ve written about before, the high water in Muskegon Lake over the past few years washed out the trail that runs right along the shoreline…I rode what was left of it early in the spring and there was very little of the pavement left, just holes where it used to be and it got to be impassable near the point so I found a new route out to Lake Michigan that used the roads and some sidewalks…until today, that is….on the way back from this morning’s ride I decided to check out the trails since I hadn’t seen any workers on it for a while and the trail was complete and open…and it is really nicely done and has some great views…probably the best that I’ve seen on any trails I’ve ridden on…they even have a bridge that hangs out over the water that goes for a hundred yards and has a set of steps that go down to the water so you can dangle your feet in the lake if you want to…and they have installed swinging seats that you can stop and relax on that are really cool. With this addition, I can ride on trails for all but a mile out to the lake…and that mile is on the street where there is a bike lane so I can stay away from the traffic….and the trail adds another half mile to my ride so that is cool…it was sure a nice surprise to see this today…but, I damaged the hell out of my elbow doing the string trimming today and it hurts like crazy….can’t wait til I can take something for it…18 minutes…

Well…I think I’m in a rut…I sit here every day and agonize over finding a political topic, but I have other interests that I can write about and I wonder why I don’t do a few of those? Or would that bore you guys and then you won’t come back? Hmmmm…okay, I’ll do one more political one and then maybe start talking about other stuff…the SC today sent down a ruling that the repubs voter suppression laws in Arizona is just fine with them…and Alito said that yeah, we see that minority and dem voters will be the ones most affected but, hey…just work a little harder to vote and everything will be fine…stand in line a little longer, bring two kinds of ID, that will be just fine…so now that makes passing the for the people act even more urgent…and hey, Sinema…this crap is happening in your state and you still think the filibuster is more important than restoring voting rights to your people? I think there is going to be a big backlash against this crap in the next election…independents really hate these laws and are moving over to our side everyday…I really hope this is happening and we can ‘throw the bums out”….geez…

Well…this is a little weird…for the past few days, I woke up around 6 and was able to get back to sleep for an hour or so and didn’t get out of bed until almost 7….I think part of that was I was so beat after all of the work yesterday…and I’m going to do the same thing today with mowing the lawn thrown in for good measure….I can’t believe how fast the grass is growing…I cut it Monday and it is almost 6 inches tall…maybe a I made a mistake seeding it and feeding it….but it is starting to look like a lawn and that was my goal from the start…had a couple of boards in the front steps come loose yesterday from the screws rusting out so I need to get out to the hardware store and see if I can some stainless steel ones to replace them…not sure if the hardware store has bulk screws but I don’t want to buy a package of 20 from the big box stores….I ran out of leftovers yesterday so I need to find some time to cook today, too…want to make some potato salad and I got burger for 1.79 so I can make tacos, too, along with olive burgers so maybe I’ll put washing the siding on the west side of the house off for a day so I can get the cooking done today…..and I wonder if I can just do one ride today? Or do the second one later? One of these days, I’m going to take an entire day off and just veg out and eat bon bons and sit on the couch and watch tv…..I’m not sure how long I can sustain this pace…but what happens when I slow down? I wonder if I’ll get old? More later….