Well…haven’t found a political topic so I think I’ll do a recap of my year for the last one this year….man, when I look back to where I was last December 31st, I can’t believe where I am financially and even psychologically…last year at this time, I was down to 3 months to go to find a house before my son moved back to GR and my stress level was through the roof with seeing so many crap houses that were at the top of the range of what I could afford….but that changed in January when I found this place that had everything I wanted but it wasn’t in GR…so I had to make one of the biggest decisions of my life to just buy it….and living here in Muskegon has been better than I expected but I haven’t been able to get into life out here with the damn virus that is rampant…the trails and scenery are cool but it would be nice to be able to go out to dinner or to just have a couple of beers and meet some people…I have been at peace much more than I have been in years with now living here for 10 months and almost doubling what money I have in the bank….and with the worth of the house going up by 20k, I should reach my goal of having 100K in assets free and clear with the equity in the house and what I have in the bank…and I never thought that would happen…this house has been really reliable, too, with only a clogged drain and the handle on the toilet breaking yesterday that I have had to fix….one thing that I am not happy about is the estrangement from a couple of my sons that I can’t figure out…well, yeah I can…I haven’t been to visit my grandkids with this damn virus but I just can’t do it with the danger of me getting them sick…and I don’t understand why they don’t get that…if there was no virus, I would have been in to see them at least once a month even having to drive over by Detroit where my middle son lives….that is the only thing that has a cloud hanging over my life right now..okay, and not being able to shoot pool every week…now that Tom is retired…I’ll have to find a place that is halfway where we can meet up so neither of us have to drive a hundred miles round trip….all in all, things are okay….I have rebuilt the yard and cleaned the entire outside of the house, put up a new garage door opener and had a huge garden for the first year here that was somewhat successful….so, I am looking forward to a new year for the first time in a long time even though I’m a year older…”the sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death…” to quote Pink Floyd from “Time”…..happy new year….

Well…just got off the bike for the last ride of the year and thought I’d update on the mileage…did 4492 miles outside and 352 on the torture machine downstairs…not bad for an old guy….didn’t get to my 5K goal but 4844 isn’t bad for an old guy…going to try to beat my best year of a little over 6K miles next year to gear up for a 7K mile year the following year….now I’m taking the rest of the day off to watch football and just veg it out…I’ll try to come back for a political one later but I need to finish the coffee first and stop sweating from the bike ride…more later…

Well….not sure how it happened but I didn’t get up til 7:22 today…if I knew, I’d do it every day but sleep for me is not that easy….the pain in my back has been moving around from right to left and it is really becoming a pain…ha,ha….I think it may have something to do with riding downstairs since it started around that time….I am looking forward to totaling up the miles I’ve ridden this year…didn’t get to 5K but I got close and I think it will be about 4800 for the year…not bad for an old guy and that gives me a goal for next year of at least 5K…I’m hoping to have around 1K inside by the time I’m back out on the trails…I do have to find the instructions to reset the computer on the bike to zero and start the new year tomorrow…didn’t get much done yesterday but fix the toilet and watch sports and have decided to take the weekend off so today will probably be the same…lots of football bowl games on with the big one tonight with Michigan playing Georgia…will have to dig out my Michigan gear for that one….not much to do today…just going to sit here and have coffee for a while before I do the last ride of the year…will do a recap of the year later today…it’s been a strange one…more later…..

Well…as I said this morning, the arm finally broke off from the handle on my toilet this morning so that meant a trip out to depot to get another one, but they didn’t have one for the Elger like mine so I had to buy an universal one for 5 bucks…when I got back here, I needed to fit it to this toilet which is kind of weird with an oval tank so it’s not a front or side mount but in between…and that meant cutting it down with my side cutters since the arm was too long and heating the plastic arm up over the stove so I could put a bend in it so I could connect the chain and the arm wouldn’t hit on the inside of the tank…surprisingly, it all worked out well and this one has a connection to the handle that is almost twice the thickness of the broken one so I hope it will last a while longer than the last one…and I had all of that done before 8:30 this morning since I hate having things hanging that need to be done…but I have only done the bike ride after that…oh, and made some chicken for lunch but I’m not going to do much else with Man U playing in a while and  State playing Pitt at 7 tonight in a bowl game….

Well…darn, up at 5:14 again today but was able to get back to sleep for a while…but, the repair on the toilet handle failed and it broke this morning so I need to go out and get a new one here in a while…it didn’t snow last night so the streets should be dry but we’re supposed to get a big storm Sat with up to 6 inches of snow so it looks like I’ll be in for a few days….I did find a hand car wash the other day right over by depot so I’ll have a place to wash the car if I do have to go out in the snow…..had a busy day yesterday but today looks a little easier…need to get after the next window in the kitchen but my back has been hurting like it used to so that is going to make it a bit of effort…it’s been quite a while since it has hurt like this but this pain has been with me my whole life and I just  I forgot about it….and I’m a little irritated that just chopping veggies for soup hurt my thumb so much that I had to take something for it…and I don’t think it’s going to get better with all the damage I’ve done to it….not much to do today…think I’ll just take it a little easier than yesterday but I do need to get on the bike after I get back from the errand…and I need to find the instructions for both bike computers so I can zero them out Sat and start a new year of miles….more later…

Well…darn, another day and more busyness…it’s 1:30 and I am now just taking the first break since first light when I went out to shovel the snow…then on the bike for a hard 10, got laundry going, and then right into making soup and I just put 3 containers into the freezer and have a half of another one in the fridge for tomorrow…damn, it takes a lot of chopping to get the veggies ready and my thumb hurts from it….this time, I think I skimmed enough fat off the top so it won’t leave that orange layer on the top of the soup like last time….and I had to throw out two ham bones that have been in the freezer since last year to make room for the new soup but that’s okay…still have a turkey carcass to make some turkey soup later in the winter so that will work….the clean up from the soup is always a pain, too, and have done two loads of dishes already today…but dinner will just be another bowl of soup so only a couple of dishes to wash….now I am going to try to find a topic for later…still need to do more of those but topics have been scarce….

Well…darn, another 6:11 morning today and I am just so worn out…didn’t sleep well and I know I’m going to feel it all day…and we had snow out here last night that I am going to have to shovel as soon as it gets light….and my right shoulder already hurts from sleeping on it last night…broke the flush handle on the toilet yesterday so I had to take it off and jb weld it overnight…just put it back together and I hope it holds up until I can get out and get another one…but I don’t want to take the car out in the snow and salt so it will have to wait for a couple of days….didn’t get much done yesterday but it is going to be busy today with shoveling, the bike ride, and making soup later this morning…and I want to get started on the next window…and I need to order the rest of the blinds and that is going to cost a couple of hundred bucks and that is hard to spend for me….but the ones I put up in the kitchen look good so I guess I can live with the cost….not much to do today…just work and work and work…and I do need to clean some, too, but I don’t want to make it an all day thing…I am retired after all and want to act like it….more later….