Lost my trees to the snow…

Well…we’ve had almost 13 inches of heavy snow out here today and I’ve lost half of my big tree to the weight of the snow snapping branches off…and half of my mulberry tree is touching the yard since the biggest branch snapped but is still connected to the rest of the tree…so now I have two frickin weeks of work to clean up after this and it is not even over sine it is too cold to melt the snow off until tomorrow…when I was shoveling the snow, it sounded like shotguns going off as branches shattered all over the neighborhood…and now it’s going to cost me at least  a couple of grand to have a tree service come out and cut the branches off that are still hanging on…I just don’t need this…

The new speaker is whitewashing his past…

Well…isn’t this to be expected from any repub who crawls out from under his/her rock? The new speaker of the House has started to delete his electronic past, eliminating his radical website that compared gay people to beastiality and pedophiles and his wife is doing the same with hers that was even more radically right wing and was cheering for the end times of armageddon where the final war takes place and jesus the comes down to save all of the people like them who are trying to cause it…but again, they don’t understand how the internet works and that there are hundreds of copies in archives across it…so now, why would they spend their lives spouting their hate for anyone who is not a white, straight, christian and now try to whitewash their past? Could it be that they are trying to hide who they really are sine now they are exposed to the general public instead of their inbred right wing bubble? They know that a large majority don’t support their truly radical policies so now they will try to hide them behind the lie that they are moderates…lies which should be challenged every time they open their mouths….geez…

Unions on the rise…

Well..with a settlement being reached with all three of the big three automakers and the UAW, the only conclusion that can be reached is that unions are on the rise in the US…and it really does appear that the worker are starting to get their fair share finally after sacrificing pay and benefits to keep the automakers afloat during the great recession…on average, it appears that the pay raises are going to be 25% over the next 4 years along with better retirement benefits and lower healthcare costs…and this is only fair after all of the companies announce record profits over the past 5 years…and this whole settlement is a  result in a change in tactics by the UAW that saw strikes against all of the companies at once and then a continual adding of more and more plants until the companies came to the bargaining table with no bullshit this time…and with all of the union activity going on in this country across almost every industry, workers have finally realized that their employers are not going to give them what they deserve out of the kindness of their hearts so they are banding together to use the power they have as a group to be compensated for their true worth….there are still people like Jeff Bezos of Amazon and the movie/tv studios who are willing to take on hundreds of millions in lost profit just to keep from paying workers, writers, and actors and small percentage of that they are asking for….showing this is just a bunch of assholes who run these companies…keep it up folks, we need a middle class again….geez…

October 31st

Well…that was a little weird…hit the sack at 11 or so…up once at three and then didn’t get up again until 7:34…so, I’ll consider that a good night’s sleep…and I feel good this morning even though my neck hurts and I have a slight headache but I think it will work out after I sit here a while…it was the third day of being good and I’m starting to like how I feel when I get up in the morning…we have a winter weather advisory on today with the possibility of 6 inches of snow out here and it’s going to be cold so I’ll be back on the indoor bike for two rides this morning…and I’ll continue cleaning the kitchen…don’t need to cook since I have lots of leftovers still but I have the ingredients for the chicken masala that I’m going to plan to make later in the week…and I need to look at the recipes that my daughter left and find a second one to make and get those ingredients tomorrow…still have chickpeas and lentils she left me and I want to use them….going to ease into it today but I want to get on the bike by 9 so I can get both rides in this morning and have the afternoon free….not much to do today…have lots of coffee left over so I need to have a couple of cups before I get on the bike…and I think I’ll have some toast to use of the 4 buck loaf of rye bread I bought two weeks ago….more later….

Rode inside today…

Well…it’s been a pretty busy day that started out with me looking at the weather and the temp of 38 out there and deciding that was just too cold to ride in, so that meant I had to get the indoor bike ready by airing the tires and hitting the chain with wd…but then I discovered that the battery in the computer on it was dead so I had to find the spare batteries and the instructions on how to program it so I could log the miles…I finally got that done by around 10am and then got two rides in totaling 16 miles and that felt good since all I had to do was walk downstairs in shorts and a t-shirt dragging my tablet and it’s tripod with me so I could watch tv while I rode…and it’s a good thing I got it up and running with the “enhanced” lake effect snow that is going to be falling all day tomorrow that will keep me off the outdoor bike probably til Friday or Saturday…and it’s going to be cold with highs in the 30′s so there is no way I was going out in it…I did have a problem with my bluetooth earbuds when one of them died by dead battery about halfway through the second ride…so, I may have to buy another pair…only about 20 bucks so no big deal…and then I made the best pizza I’ve ever made on the grill…loading the crust up with garlic powder and Italian seasoning and then putting turkey pepperoni, thin smoked ham, green pepper, onion, and green olives….big taste that I needed to do since I can’t taste much anymore…I’m only going to have that one piece of pizza today since I need to cut calories…need to lose ten pounds since I overshot gaining…oh, well…

Can’t we agree that killing children is wrong?

Well…with the terrorism on both sides in the Hamas/Israeli war, can’t we agree that killing children is wrong? So far, there have been at least 3,000 children killed by the Israeli attacks in Gaza and there have been some Israeli children killed, too…but this is not tit for tat…children should be off limits to any kind of warfare…for that matter any civilian should be off limits and what Hamas did in their attacks when they killed almost 2,000 people in Israel were unconscionable and there is no justification for it…but Israel attacking civilians, hospitals, and infrastructure in Gaza is no better…and I hate the Hamas cheerleaders across the world saying that the Jewish people deserved the attacks…and it is nothing more than antisemitism…something I’ve never been able to understand at all…this hate is just bullshit and I’m tired of how much there is of it in the world…children are children and I don’t care if they are Palestinian or Jewish or American…killing them is just wrong…geez…

October 30th

Well…damn, it’s 36 out here with a “wintry mix” going on right now and I am just not ready for winter yet…and it’s only getting up top 41 today so it looks like I’ll be riding downstairs after I work on the indoor bike…only did one ride yesterday so I feel like a slug today but I was good last night so that kind of makes up for it…didn’t sleep for crap with taking over an hour to get to sleep after going to bed at 11, then waking up at 2, and then up for good at 5:13 but I feel okay so I guess I’ll have to live with it for now…the darn leaves are hanging on the trees so I won’t have to pick them up until later in the week or next week…they all need to be cleaned up and out by the end of November but with this cold coming, they should all be down in a couple of weeks…I just noticed I only did one of these yesterday so I will try to do better today and get at least one more out….probably two since we are getting to the end of the month….I really do need to tell my doctor about this damn cold that I’ve had for almost a month now…of my Mastodon friends thinks it may be allergies and I can’t disagree except for the coughing and feeling flushed…it could just be the next phase as my allergies continue to get worse as I age….not much to do today…just going to ease into it and have a lot more coffee and maybe some rye toast for breakfast….need to keep the calories down sine I’m not burning as many as normal….more later…

October 29th

Well…didn’t get out of bed til 7 this morning after getting up once at about 4 and had some dreams again and I wonder what I’m doing different to make that happen…still feel pretty crappy today and I don’t think I’m ever going to get over this cold…or I’ve picked up a new bug since my skin looks red and I’m scratchy and I wonder if it’s the lotion I’ve been using to try to keep my skin from cracking? All I know is that my face looks like it’s sunburned…I wonder if it is? There wasn’t any sun when I was on the bike yesterday so that can’t be it…crap…at least I have a doctor appointment Friday that I can ask about this crap….I did get a few things done yesterday and I do need to clean today but I don’t feel like it right now…it’s only 43 out there and I’m not sure if I want to get as cold as I was yesterday so maybe I’ll skip the rides today and work on getting the downstairs bike ready to ride…shouldn’t take long with only having to air up the tires and wd the chain….have to vacuum the back stairs to get rid of the dead bugs from the box elder bug infestation on the back of the house from a few weeks back….still don’t need to cook but I do need to make a pizza in the next couple of days to use up the ingredients before they spoil….not much to do today…man U plays at 11:30 but they are going to lose against City so I may not watch it…there are two races on this aft so I may just take the day off and read a bit but I’m still gaining weight and that has to stop….more later…

Got some work done today…

Well…it’s a little after 2 pm and I am done for the day…it has been busy since I got out on the bike around 8:30 in almost full thermasuit  since it was only 42 when I went out…after doing the two rides and getting back here with my hands white and numb, I warmed up and then decided to finish the car…cleaned the interior, washed the glass, applied rain-x, and then did some repairs to the top to get it through it’s last winter with me…now it’s time to take a bit of a rest for a while and watch some F1 practice and the xfin race and then F1 qualifying…one more night of cocktails before I take a week off to get my BP down for the doctor’s appt Friday…it worked last time so we’ll see…more later…

October 28th

Well…running darn late this morning with not getting out of bed til after 7 and just pouring the first cup of coffee at 7:45…the heat has been on all night with the temps crashing overnight…only 47 right now and that means I’ll be out in almost full thermasuit when I ride this morning…no rain and wind out of the north at about 7 shouldn’t be too bad….slept okay last night and even had a few dreams that I don’t remember so I guess that’s cool…I did watch the new “Mission Impossible” movie last night and man, is it long at 2 hours and 45 minutes…nothing new or groundbreaking in it with lots of running, car chases, and explosions…it did keep me interested through it, though and that is my measure of whether it was worth that much of my time…it did fill a whole night so that’s something….got a few things done yesterday with getting the bike rides in with it raining on both rides, then washed the car and put the hoses away so the exterior is ready for winter…didn’t do much else other than read and I do need to clean today after the rides but I still don’t have to cook with more leftovers in the fridge….not much to do today…just need to clean up the bathroom and living room and there is lots of stuff on the dining room table that needs to be put away so I’ll try to work on that….okay, the temp has dropped to 44 so I guess I’ll wait a bit before I get on the bike….more later…