Well…damn, I am not sure how the day got away from me but I do know that it is after 3 and I just finished up with lunch…and I have been busy all day…started with getting out for the grocery run around 8:30 or so then on the black bike for the first ride…and on that ride I decided to get the grey bike rebuilt and take the crankset off the black one to put on the grey one…that only took about 45 minutes to get it up and running again but damn, the front shifters on these are such a pain to get adjusted, especially when you have to move it to compensate for the larger sprockets in front and while doing that, the cable became frayed from adjusting it so much so that will have to be replaced soon…and I worked on it for over an hour just to get it to move from the big sprocket to the medium one…and all that work beat the heck out of my hands and they are just screaming in pain…but I did take the bike out and got the second ride in and getting the rear shifter adjustment close so I can finish it tomorrow morning…and I hurt everywhere from the roof work yesterday so I should take some time off or some ibuprofen…not sure which yet…maybe both? I am going to try to do a political one in a while but I haven’t read any news yet for a topic… so that will have to happen first…man, I’m beat….
Monthly Archives: September 2021
September 15th
Well…6:36…that’s all I’ll say about that…damn, I’m sore in a lot of new places today after climbing on the roof to fix the soffit siding yesterday….and I got that all done with Tom’s help and that was cool…and I got out for a bike ride after the wind got down to 16mph and I’m going to do two today before I start tearing down the black bike to transfer the crankset over to the grey bike and try to get that up and running today…but, I need to do the grocery run today first…don’t have a lot to get since I am trying to eat out of the freezer and have plenty of food in there….I did get the lawn mowed yesterday morning so that frees me up to do other stuff today…I do have to remember to get gas for the mower Friday since I used the last of it yesterday but it’s not bad that I only used about a gallon and a half since I moved in here….I did check my bank account this morning and went over the 20K barrier this month…that’s a gain of 8K since I bought this place 7 months ago and it is nice to not have to worry about money anymore…but I am going to burn 6K in the spring to buy another Miata but I should be at 25K by then so I’ll still be near 20K…and I may get to the point of having 100K in assets next year if housing prices keep going up and I don’t spend much…I do want a garage door opener but I need to pay off the 150 bucks I spent on bike parts first….not much to do today….just the grocery run and bike rides before I get to working on the bikes…it will be nice to have front suspension that works and a lot less pain in my thumb and elbow….more later….
“Severe mental decline”
Well…I see there is a new book coming out co written by Bob Woodward (of Watergate fame) that really is quite scary…in it they say the idiot trump had planned try to start a war to stay in power and you could see it with idiot boy’s belligerence toward China…and they quote the chairman of the joint chief’s, General Milley, saying he noticed a “severe mental decline” in the idiot after the election and even went so far as to use backchannel communication with his counterpart in China to assure him that the US was not going to attack them to keep them from launching a first strike. All of this because a minority of the country thought it was a good idea to elect a mentally unstable moron to the presidency. I still have a question, though…everyone knew this about trump, so why didn’t any of these supposed concerns turn into action against the idiot? Why are we now just hearing about this? This is what happens when a political party puts itself above the country and any tactic or lie is fair game…and it is still going on right now from the repubs as they still listen to the unstable idiot from Florida….geez…
September 14th
Well…another 6:05 morning and I am just starting my first cup of coffee….just put the garden waste out to the curb and it is warmer outside than it is in here so I opened the windows to let the breeze blow through…and it looks like the rain is already over for the day but at least we got some last night…it looks like it will be dry for the next week but I don’t think I’ll need to water the lawn for a few days anyway….I wonder if I’ll be able to get in the water one more time before fall? It was pretty cold when I was out there last week but still okay…might try that later in the week….slept okay last night but I’m still worn out…and I have been having cramps in my calves and it hurt like crazy just to put the bags out a few minutes ago….so. we’ll see how it is when I get on the bike here in a few minutes…..only got one ride in yesterday with the rain we had in the morning but I am going to try to do two before I get to the soffit repair today….I got a notice that consumers is going to be out here trimming trees in the next week and there are a few branches in the alley that will need to be taken down….have not had a power outage out here since I moved in 7 months ago and that is better than in GR where I had a couple of half day ones and the power blinked every time there was a storm…not much to do today….just the rides and taking down a dead branch that is hanging over my power lines along with the soffit repairs…that’s enough, isn’t it? More later….
Got a bargain…
Well…getting ready to do some repairs to the soffit on the house this morning, I went out to get some siding and found out that the 13 inch stuff that is on my house is a special order item that would take weeks to get…so, I decided to buy some 16 inch wide stuff that I will have to cut down to make fit…a bit of a pain but doable…and when I was at Menards looking at it, I noticed a pile of damaged ones lying next to the rack of the good ones and asked the clerk if they would sell me one of those since I only needed 36 inches of the 12 foot section…he said sure and I got the 20 buck piece for 5 bucks so that was pretty cool…they even cut it in half for me so I could put it in the front seat of the car….and I got caulk to glue the sections in instead of glue since caulk is 1.94 and adhesive is almost 10 bucks a tube…and, if I have to section a piece, I can use the caulk to fill the seam and finish it…so, I have everything ready to do the job tomorrow and it looks like there is a window from 11 to 2 that it won’t be raining so that is plenty of time to get everything done…I hope anyway….and I think I’m going to wash the section of siding near that part of the roof, too…might just as well get everything done at once….oh, and I got some stuff done on the yard today, too….got all of the branches bundled and out to the street and took out the rest of the garden to put out tomorrow so I’ll have three full bags….and I got a bike ride in and figured out I’m going to switch the new crankset from the black bike over to the grey one when I get the rest of the parts thurs so I can get the grey one back on the road…the pounding on my elbow and thumb from the frozen front forks is starting to make them hurt like crazy so I need to get that done as soon as possible….
Retirees, blame Joe Manchin…
Well…with the way he’s acting on the infrastructure bill, you would think Joe Manchin was a damn repub….just yesterday, it was reported that Manchin is a hard no on the 3.5 trillion dollar bill that would start fixing all of the neglect of the infrastructure that has happened over the past 50 years…and that bill also includes expansion of Medicare to cover vision, hearing, and dental care…so retirees, when you buy hearing aids, buy eyeglasses, or have a filling or extraction or bridge done…and you pay for it out of your pocket, you can thank Joe Manchin….and the sick thing is that he won’t even say why..even when this idiot is told that it will be paid for by raising taxes on the rich and corporations…oh, that’s why…Manchin is in the pocket of business and he has been told that he will vote against any rise in taxes on them….so, again, business screws over the working people who keep them in business because the are greedy as hell and just want to use infrastructure for free since many of them pay no taxes at all…so that means you and I are building roads and bridges for these pricks to use as they laugh and count their money. I sure hope there will be a progressive challenger to Manchin to give the people a real voice for a change…think what could be accomplished if a real dem sat in Manchin’s seat…geez…
September 13th
Well….this hasn’t happened in the 7 months I’ve lived out here…it’s raining…and that makes two days in a row…had a nice little storm come through yesterday afternoon and there is another one coming through right now…my lawn is going to green up pretty well from that…but I think I’ll be down to one ride today since I need to get out and get the materials for fixing the soffit…but I need to be able to put the top down on the car since the siding is 12 feet long…so I’ll have to wait a while and I’m not sure how to do that…have to take a deep breath and just relax about it….I did get started on taking the garden out yesterday but the rest of it has to wait until I get out and get more bags this morning….I had one that is sitting out in the rain and I hope it survives the rain and dragging it out front for pick up tomorrow….I do need to clean this place up some today since I have let it get pretty messy and I don’t like it…but not right now…I’m not sure if there is enough coffee to get me going this morning with feeling this slow….not much to do today…just the errand, cleaning, the garden, and trying to get on the bike…I guess that’s enough for one day…I am going to take wed off…okay, I might take a day off this week….yeah, no….still have lots to do and not enough time to do it…at least I’ll have the outside pretty much done for the winter after tomorrow…then it’s just a wait for the leaves to fall….more later….
It doesn’t only affect them….
Well….one of the stupid arguments that the repubs use to justify not being vaccinated is that it is a “personal choice” that only affects them and they are willing to take that risk for “freedom”…but what they don’t say is that “personal” choice has fallout that they don’t give a damn about…as the unvaccinated fill up every hospital bed across the country, other innocent people are being denied the emergency care they need to save their lives…just the other day the doctors for a man with a heart attack in NC tried 31 hospitals and there was not one bed available…and the man died before he could be saved which would have happened in normal times…and there was a gunshot victim in Kansas that was told to just go home since there was no one to treat him and no room in the hospital…and that man died at home, too….and this is happening across the country as these selfish, unvaccinated assholes practice their “freedom” by filling up hospitals so there are no birthing rooms available for pregnant women who are ready to deliver, either. I think that when an unvaccinated person who has chosen to not get vaccinated for “reasons” shows up at an emergency room, they need to be told that there are other people that need to be treated who aren’t stupid and they will get to them when everyone else who is vaccinated is treated….they want choice, suffer the consequences….geez…
September 12th
Well…5:56…that’s all I’ll say about that….found a new place to get my paper on Sunday and it is much closer to me so that is cool….slept okay last night and had some dreams that I really don’t remember other that I had them…feel okay this morning but I’m a little sore in new places after wrenching on the bike yesterday and I think I’m going to have to let my hands rest at some point since they feel abused and stiff and have for a while now….man, it’s already 71 out here at 7 am and the humidity is off the charts…sweating like crazy just sitting here and will be ready to get on the bike in a half hour or so when it gets light….and it is calm and that very rarely happens so it will be a good ride this morning….need to get out and back here before the F1 race at 9 so I can set up for getting two rides in today….I am going to start taking out the garden today but I only have one bag so the rest of it will have to wait til I go to depot tomorrow to get the soffit repair stuff…can still get it out Monday night for pick up so it won’t have to sit here for a week…not much to do today…do I watch the Lions suck today? Not sure yet but I may watch a bit of it to see the new qb play…have been watching them lose since I was a kid in the 50′s so why stop now? More later…
Got the grey bike torn down…
Well….not sure why I started on the grey bike this afternoon since the parts won’t be here for a couple of weeks but I did….tried and tried to get the pedals out of the crank arms since I have to re-use them and they wouldn’t budge until I remembered that I have a propane torch the kinda works…so I dug that out and heated the arms and since they are made out of aluminum, they expanded and I was able to get them loose with a big rubber hammer on the wrench…but that took almost a half hour and I thought I was done for the day…but, I was curious how hard the crank arms were going to be to remove so I hit them with some wd and got my crank removal tool out…they came off easily so I decided to remove the greasy chain, too, and got that done in about 5 mins…so now I have the bike torn down and waiting for the new parts and it should only take about a half hour to re-assemble it…but I do have to move the front shifter since the big sprocket will hit it if I don’t…it should be easy since I’ve already done it on the black bike and then I’m good for 10,000 more miles….and I hope that going to Shimano cranks and sprockets will mean they last longer…the suntour stuff has always looked cheap….and I really do like the higher gear that this change gave me…I can fly on the black bike over 25 mph and I think I may be able to get to thirty if I have enough coffee….