Well…that was better…slept most of the way through the night until 5:47 this morning and I’ll take that any day…but, man, I’m sore after all of the sanding yesterday but I’m making real progress in the bedroom and that is a relief…I did get a nice ride in outside yesterday even though it was in almost full thermasuit and the wind was blowing 15 or so…it is a little strange not having to get moving and get on the downstairs bike and it is kind of luxurious to just relax a bit after I get up….and it gets me to working earlier and I accomplish more but I’ll be back on it starting tomorrow for a couple more weeks as the weather goes cold again…but I shouldn’t bitch too much…with this new storm that is moving across the country, the upper plains are supposed to get two feet of snow in places this week…ours is going to be thunderstorms and rain and I’ll take that…don’t want to be shoveling snow in April…I do need to get started on the yard next week and I need to buy the 44 bricks I need for the border around the garden but that will only cost me about 22 bucks and I think it will look pretty cool when it’s done…and I need to condition the soil with some manure and rake up the leaves that have piled up along the fence…I am a little excited to have found that I can repair my front gate and I am going to get that done next week…and I’m going to dig out the gate beside the garage and make that workable….I wonder how long it took for the bottom of that gate to get buried by natural processes? Still thinking about a gate to go across the opening between the garage and the big tree to close off the yard but that costs about 300 bucks and there are other things I want to spend money on first….not much to do today…need to continue to clean up the bedroom I’m working on and I’m going to try to get the baseboards painted today and then I need to work on the ceiling….and I do need to do a whole house dust patrol since everything is coated with it and that is just damn annoying…I think I may have worn out my new sander since it is making lots of noise and the on/off switch is starting to fail..but, damn, 25 bucks to do everything I’ve done so far in this house? That is a bargain to me and I’ll buy another one once it does fail…sure is a nice little unit…more later….

Well…when I did the first one this morning, I forgot to talk about the storm that rolled through here around 3 am this morning…man, it was loud! So loud that it woke me up through the earplugs I normally wear and then the lightning just lit the place up like daylight or more…and that kept me up for at least an hour and I never really got back to sleep…so that’s why I’m so worn out…4 hours of sleep will do that to you…and there are more storms coming in Wed and Thurs so I may not be out on the bike after tomorrow…but in shorts and maybe a t-shirt for the ride tomorrow…but then down to 39 degrees on Sat…ick…

Well…damn, what a sucky day yesterday…and I am so mad at myself for bowing to the depression it caused and having a cocktail last night….had a house to the northeast of me thump their damn music all day yesterday and had to call in a noise complaint twice since they played the asshole game of stopping after the first time until the officers left and started right back up again so I had to call again…and I am pissed about that and I am going to make it my mission to get these idiots fined if they keep it up….and that is just so depressing considering it’s not even warm enough to have the windows open and it was so damn annoying already….and that’s the problem with having so many rentals up here…people moving in and out and every time someone new moves in they start this crap…and they don’t give a damn about this neighborhood at all….okay, that’s enough bitching for the day…I did find that I can replace the bottom corners of my front gate with bolt on ones so I can replace the rusted out bottom frame piece and it will only cost about 20 bucks to fix instead of 100 bucks to replace the gate…but that will wait until I have the bedroom done…and I’m running out of time and will need to start on the lawn here soon with the grass starting to grow….it’s the last big dust day today as I sand all of the repairs in the bedroom and I’ve already taken an ibuprofen to get ahead of the pain that I know is going to start as soon as I do…but I am not getting on the indoor bike today since I am going to be able to get outside to ride after I finish the bedroom….it’s hard to make the transition to riding outdoors without guilt that I’m not getting on the indoor bike but I need to remember that it has only been a substitute for real riding and I don’t have to ride it if I can get out…damn, my brain is working too hard today already…and I think I’m going to run out of fuel with only having one meal of a chicken leg quarter and a potato yesterday…and 600 calories is just not going to cut it….I need a reset…more later….

Well…damn, Sunday is supposed to be my day off and it sure doesn’t feel like it…after having coffee this morning, I got right after the work I needed to do in the bedroom…got the window painting finished, patched the spots that I missed on the wall, and re-hung the door so it will help control the dust I’m going to make tomorrow…and hanging the door made me think about the stupid hinges that I bought the other day that have a special tool you need to use to hammer the pins out so you can remove the door without taking the hinges off…it was so easy hanging the door with the old hinges…just lift it into place an put the pins in…no vice grips, no hammer, no special punch, no nothing and it only took about a minute….still shaking my head at that….but it only took about 10 minutes total for everything so I declare that it doesn’t count as work…and I did get out on the bike for 13 miles today and it was nice to get out for one…I am still amazed how different it is to ride outdoors than inside and how the work done inside really doesn’t transfer to outside…I mean, I’ve done almost 700 miles inside and it feels like I’ve done nothing when I get outside…oh, well..it was just nice to get the bike out again…rain the next two days…ick…

Well…I finally have birds coming to my feeder and it is pretty cool but very loud as they peck at the food I’ve put in my windowsill and bang on the feeder….have the biggest darn bluejay I’ve ever seen that has been coming for the past few days and that thing is so big it barely fits on the feeder and it scares the other birds away when it comes in…but, even that huge bird was chased off by a Redwing Blackbird the other day and I know they are pretty aggressive birds having been attacked by them when riding by their nests in the spring…well…not attacked but they fly down and peck at my hat for some reason and I find it funny after I got used to it…the Grackles have even found the feeder and they eat in packs…when I have 6 of them on the sill and feeder it is pretty loud but fun to see….had a red bellied woodpecker on the feeder last week that I thought was a Northern Flicker and I’m not sure why I thought that…but, I thought the Grackles were Starlings so I guess it’s pretty easy to make mistakes…even had a Chickadee on the feeder but still no sparrows and I think that is still weird….but it may be the Grackles are scaring them away there are so many of them and they are pretty big birds…need to figure out where to hang the hummingbird feeder this summer to try to lure some of them in and give me something to watch…will probably put the hanger outside the same window so I can see it when I’m doing this….not sure if I’ll keep the window feeder up all summer but it doesn’t cost much and I’m sure the birds can use an easy food source even with all of the natural food out here…for a long time, I didn’t think I’d get one bird on the feeder so it is cool to have them finally find it…

Well…that was okay…slept through until almost 6 and feel okay this morning other than I hurt everywhere but I guess that comes with working hard and getting old….but today is my day off! Not really…still have some work to do on the window and a couple of spots of the plaster to fill to get ready for sanding day tomorrow…and I need to re-hang the door to help contain the dust but all of that is at most 45 minutes of work so that’s cool….I do want to get out on the bike if it every warms up enough but that looks like it won’t happen until this afternoon and it will still only be in the high 40′s so that will mean thermasuit and gloves and it’s almost halfway through April…and we’re getting a few days of 50′s this week and then back into the 40′s again and I suppose I shouldn’t bitch too much since it is keeping the lawn from growing as I try to finish the interior before I have to spend hours on the yard…need to start planning what I want in the garden this year and I think it will be more beans and less tomatoes…and more green peppers since I’d like to make some stuffed green peppers this year….and I still need to make the border around it and that needs to be done before I start prepping the soil…week after next? Not much to do today…just the little bit of work in the bedroom and then some time off and need to start thinking of food for the week but that will be kinda solved with a big spiral sliced ham that I’m buying wed that should feed me for a week or so….and it looks like the leftovers will time out perfectly but that means I’ll need to cook wed and need to plan for that…but right now, I need more coffee and to read some news to come up with a bunch of topics since I am behind for the month….more later….