Well…stayed up late last night watching the Beatles documentary again and that makes waking up at 5 a little too early but I was able to get back to sleep for an hour or so….even with not doing anything yesterday, I feel pretty worn out today and I’m sure it’s just from getting old….I shouldn’t hurt today but my ribs on the right side are stiff and sore and it’s probably from sleeping wrong…okay, that’s enough whining….looks like the ride today will be inside with snow/rain coming in and a winter weather advisory in effect for the day…still haven’t put the old snowies on the car and I’m not going to to do it today…think I’ll just stay in until the snow melts this time and get them on next week…going to try to not take the car out in the salt as much this year and that will mean I’ll be staying home a lot with how much it snows out here…I really only need to go out once a week for groceries so that may be doable….I have to get started on the inside of the house soon and get some color chips to decide on the color scheme for the house…still want to do it in greys but I’m not sure how dark I want to go…not much to do today…need to get the bike ride in downstairs since it is cold and wet out there and I’m not riding in that….and I need to get that done before the Michigan game today…they play Ohio State and are going to get whipped so I’m sure I won’t watch the whole thing….more later…

Well….I’m not sure what the reason is but I’m finally taking a day off of everything…I think it’s been around 3 years since I’ve allowed myself to just do nothing for a day…no cleaning, no cooking, no bike, no nothing…it’s even almost two in the afternoon and I haven’t even gotten in the shower yet…and I don’t feel one bit guilty…okay, maybe a little but I’ll live through it….and I just got the first birds on the feeder in a couple of weeks….I guess the snow we got out here covered up their normal food….have a blue jay on the sill right now but he hasn’t figured out how to get on the feeder yet….still haven’t had any sparrows on the feeder yet but I have hope I’ll get some other birds soon….okay, that’s enough….need to get back to doing nothing….

Well…running a little late this morning with not getting out of bed until after 7….and it snowed out here last night and it is sticking to the roads so I’ll be riding indoors today….had an okay day yesterday but I am a little irked that I didn’t hear from two of my kids after I reached out to them….only had one meal yesterday but it was a big one with doing the normal turkey for t-day and I’m not sure what I’ll do today…still have leftover ham that needs to be used or put in the freezer and I do want to have turkey sandwiches so maybe I’ll have a small lunch so I can do two meals today…..I can’t figure out how I hurt so much yesterday with just doing one bike ride and no other work but it might have been doing the leaves Wed…and, as I’ve bitched about before, it seems everything I do makes me hurt these days…it was almost a day off yesterday other than cooking and I think today will be the same….just don’t have any motivation right now and I hope there will be some soccer on later…I did start the Beatles documentary done by Peter Jackson last night and it was so cool to see how they worked to develop songs that I’ve only heard in their finished states….more later…..

Well…yeah, I usually don’t do one of these…they seem to be pretty self-indulgent and a way to brag about how much you have and how good things are going for you…and I know that many people in this country aren’t doing great…in fact almost 60% of the people in this country wouldn’t be able to meet a surprise 400 dollar expense….that said, I have had a lucky year that has been pretty good to me and my future….I have been in my new house now for 9 months and that in itself is something to be thankful for….with all of the moving parts that had to happen just right to get everything I wanted in a house for a good price, I will thank my brother the realtor…and to have the beautiful trails I ride on everyday and to have Lake Michigan so close is something I never thought could happen after looking for houses for a year….it has been a lot of work to tame this neighborhood but it has gotten so much better that I can go weeks without making a noise complaint…and I have enough money in the bank to take care of any emergency that might arise and that is all happening with my only income being SS….and that is something to be thankful for after being broke 4 years ago and having to borrow money to live….I’m on pace to have 100K of assets by early next year and that is just so damn cool…so, it has been a good year…I am thankful to have all four of the kids doing well, too, and for my grandchildren that I hope this damn virus will stop preventing me from seeing….and I’m thankful for the turkey that is making this place smell so good as it roasts….I think I may be at peace for the first time in many, many years and I always thought that was unobtainable….it’s not all rosy…I’m getting older and the daily aches and pains are always here and getting worse but I can still rip off 15 miles on the bike so I should stop bitching…so I will…Happy Thanksgiving…..

Well…running about on time this morning with waking up at 5 but staying in bed til about 7….slept as well as can be expected but still feel kind of slow and I’m going to ease into it this morning…it’s pretty warm outside right now and will probably get on the bike here in an hour or so and try to get an outdoor ride in if it isn’t raining…but it’s going to get colder as the day goes on and we may get some snow showers later in the day…glad I got the leaves picked up yesterday so I don’t have to think about that….had an okay day yesterday and got a few things done but I’m not planning on doing much today but cooking the turkey and watching football…just flipped the turkey over in the brine so I could get the back of it brined and need to get it in the oven by 10…going to slather it in rosemary butter to get a nice crisp skin…and I’m putting garlic, celery, carrots, and bacon in the cavity as it cooks to get some good flavor in the turkey and gravy…not much to do today…just cook and veg and then cleaning up after I’m done….and eating too much…I’m sure there will be a nap in there somewhere, too….more later…

Well….once the temp got up to around 40, I decided to take an outdoor ride today even with the wind blowing over 15mph…but it was out of the south so it wasn’t too bad…and the waves were huge and so loud that I had to take my earbuds out just to listen for a while…they must have been 8 feet or so and they were not just at the shoreline but stretched a quarter mile or more offshore and I’ve never seen that before….it was a fun ride and so different than riding indoors an it took me a while to get used to it again…once I got back here, I decided to pick up the rest of the leaves that had just fallen and filled two more bags to go out Tues on the last pickup day…the big tree still hasn’t lost it’s leaves but I think it’s tall enough that the wind will blow the leaves away when they do drop…oh, and after that, I washed the car in the driveway for the last time until spring and I need to find a car wash around here so I can wash it over the winter….need to put a hook up to hang the hose on over the winter….oh, and I did put the turkey in brine this morning to get ready for tomorrow…it’s a small one….only about 9 1/2 pounds and that’s probably the smallest one I’ve ever gotten…and fresh this year, not frozen…thought I’d pay a little more and see if the quality is better….we’ll see…

Well…darn, no dreams and crappy sleep last night and up at 6:46 but woke up an hour earlier than that….on the first cup of coffee and I sure hope it starts to work soon…I almost had that elusive day off yesterday but I did clean the kitchen so I guess it doesn’t count….but, I’m getting close and may get there tomorrow…I do have to cook the big t-day meal so I wonder if that counts as work? I do have to get the turkey into brine this morning and I’m not sure what flavors I’ll put in…rosemary, of course but I think I’ll add some bay leaves and thyme along with some garlic cloves….I’m thawing some bacon so I can put that in the cavity with the celery, carrots, and onions tomorrow to give me some good tasting gravy…..didn’t get much done yesterday but the kitchen and today looks like more of the same…I am going to try to get out on the bike today since it is already 41 out there and I would like to do a few more rides outside…but there is a gale warning right now and lots of wind out of the south so we’ll see…..would like to see what the countryside looks like after riding indoors for the past 10 days….not much to do today…I do need to clean off my dining room table that I have been using for storage for dinner tomorrow…..and I think I’ll open all of my shades to let some light in too…there is a huge change in the weather coming on Friday with cold temps and maybe some snow so I need to get out and get the leaves picked up today or tomorrow…or wait til next week but I want to put them out so I would like to do them today….we’ll see…more later…

Well…as you remember, when I got up this morning it was only 18 degrees out here since it was clear all night last night…and I had a few trees that still had most of their leaves on them… when I opened the shades that look over the back of the yard I saw something really weird…all of a sudden, the leaves on those two trees started falling off them in sheets and in less than 10 minutes they were bare…and, you know me, that triggered the first line of “Ramble On” by Zep…”leaves are falling all around, time I was on my way…” I’m weird that way…but, my big tree still has almost all it’s leaves still on it and I hope they fall so I can get them picked up by next Tues since Wed is the last day of yard waste pickup…and I don’t want to store them over the winter…I know there will be limbs down over the winter but I can store them next to the garage where they won’t be in the way…still pretty weird sight to see…