October 14th

Well…finally, we got some rain out here yesterday but I’m sure it’s too little, too late for my lawn…slept okay last night and was only up once at about 4am but I feel so worn out that the bike ride is going to wait until the coffee starts to work at around 8am…it’s only 40 out here right now and the high is going to barely get above 50 today so the outdoor rides will wait until the afternoon…I know I should be ready for the cold since it’s already halfway through October but it gets harder as I get older…man, I feel like crap this morning…haven’t cooked for a few days and need to start planning meals for the rest of the week…think I’ll make some pasta salad today and I need to take some chicken out of the freezer for Masala that I’ll make tomorrow…and I’ll make some more chicken, rice and potatoes to use up the open chicken broth in the fridge…this could be a short ride day with the rain forecast for this afternoon and the cold and I really could use an easy day…not much to do today…just need to dig down deep and get moving but not until I have another cup of coffee…man, I feel old today….but I will get moving and accomplish something today…not sure what that will be but something…more later…

52 books…

Well…I did get back to the library for bag day today and with the 19 books I got Friday, today’s haul got me to a total of 52 books for 30 bucks…but I threw in an extra 10 as a contribution to the library so I guess I really spent 40 bucks…but that’s still only 76 cents a book and I got a lot of hardcovers…and a lot of books from my favorite authors that I haven’t read so I’ll finish the last one I checked out and then get into my books…I don’t think I’ve ever owned this many books in my life…all the new ones fit on the desk my daughter left and I still have enough room to use it for an ironing board…I think I’m going to look for another book case if I can find a reasonably priced one…or maybe I should make one…I guess I’ll price out a flat pack one just to see…

No “common good” for modern repubs..

Well…I can remember a time when both major parties thought the purpose of government was to build the “common good” that would benefit all of the people in the US…but the rightward lurch of the modern repubs has them repudiating that purpose and instead saying that government’s sole purpose is to use it’s power to attack the enemies of the country…and guess who gets to decide who is an enemy? Yep, the repubs think it should be only them…they don’t even hide the fact that they feel that way anymore…just listen to the list of the agencies/programs they want to make go away and turn this country into the hellscape they lie about constantly…public schools? Defund and privatize them to make profits for their buddies…Department of Education? Abolish it…Medicare, Medicaid, and any public health programs? Slash them and repeal them…Public lands like national parks? Sell them off to their buddies again for pennies on the dollar…public transport? Abolish it…you get the idea…not one repub wants the government to do anything that will help even their voters…in fact the stupid repub rank and file will keep voting for them even though, or maybe because they keep hurting them…all I know is I’ve had enough of these stupid voters ruining my country by electing repubs…so get your butt out to vote…or better yet, here in Michigan, just sign up for a permanent absentee ballot that is available to everyone with no reason necessary…I voted from my couch…geez…

Ordered the laptop…

Well…I am not really used to just buying things so to order the laptop from Dell today after only one day of thinking about it is not normal for me…but, how could I pass it up? It will do everything that I need and more and it has three times more memory than the Acer I was looking at and it’s less money…this one has Intel processors in it too when the Acer has chips I’ve never heard of before…so now I’m a little excited to have a computer that works as it’s supposed to and actually has a battery that will hold a charge…and the screen is two inches larger than this one and HD that this one sure isn’t…only 290 bucks after cash back on my card and it feels good to be at the point in my life that I can afford a new one with no stress…I’m sure that the new one will be cool and a little more modern than this one that I’ve been using for 10 years or so…and it was a couple of years old when I got it…and thinner by a long ways at 3/4ths of an inch vs the 1 1/2 inches of this one…and the best thing is that I won’t have to keep it plugged in all the time like I do this one sine the battery is shot…glad I didn’t bite the bullet and buy a new battery for this one for 50 bucks…and I’ll be able to use my bluetooth earbuds with it and it does come with a headphone jack, too…I just realized that this is the first new laptop I’ve ever bought…for the past 20+ years I’ve been using hand me down computers…and all of the laptops were Dells…weird…

October 13th

Well..damn, having a hard time getting going today and I’m not sure what the rides are going to be…I think I’ve decided what new laptop I’m going to buy…Dell has one that has a 15.6 inch HD screen and a 512 gig hard drive with wifi and bluetooth for 279 bucks and that is  really a deal, I think, and I certainly can afford that…so, I may order it today…man, it will be weird to have a laptop that actually has battery life but it is going to be a pain to get everything that I need loaded up to it…but I do have time for that since this old thing is still working…but windows 11 doesn’t support external cd/dvd drives yet so I won’t be able to buy one of those…and no laptop has those drives anymore….it did rain yesterday for a bit and the little weather widget says it’s supposed to rain again today but I’ll believe it when I see it…damn, it’s already almost 7:30 and I’m not moving at all and I wonder if I’ve finally gotten to the point where I need a rest? I know I do but I won’t take it today…will be on the indoor bike here in a few minutes and then outdoors as soon as it gets to 50…not much to do today…just the rides and some cleaning but right now, I’m sitting here pretty worn out from cocktails last night…but I’ll be back to being good tonight and through Thursday and I wonder why I should be doing that…yeah, I know it’s good for me but a life of discipline is pretty wearing at times…I don’t even remember what it feels like to just let a day flow without anything that I have to do…and that sucks…more later…

An easy day…

Well…still crippling this old laptop along until I make a decision on  a new one…I can get a better one direct from Dell for about the same price as the Acer so that’s something to think about…didn’t get much done today after scrubbing the porch siding yesterday and getting up pretty sore today…I did get three rides in for 33 miles this morning…just heard some thunder but I’m not seeing any rain so I won’t get my hopes up…it hasn’t rained here in almost a month so we could really use some…it looks like I’ll get to 10,000 miles without replacing the driveline on the bike since it has been working really well for the whole summer and I might just as well use the sprockets and chain up and then replace the whole thing over the winter…I do have one more night of cocktails for tonight and may watch the new “Beetlejuice” movie but we’ll see…might just get caught up on some shows or go into the library to see if there is anything interesting…but right now I’m going to read for an hour or so…

Done with the news…

Well…I am getting too much stress from following the news right now so I think I’m done with it until after the election…the polls show it to close to call and I am still amazed how terrible half of this country is that they think the idiot trump is worthy of being elected again…it’s the same thing that I thought when putin installed him the first time…is trump someone who you would have your kids look up to? And the terrible thing is that half of this country says yes…that they are so racist and stupid they want their kids to be racist and stupid, too…that can be the only explanation..either that or half the population has lost the ability to tell right from wrong and would probably cheer if idiot boy was caught committing more crimes…this is too much work to follow this crap and write about it every day…so maybe I’ll try to find other topics…idiot boy is polluting me and I don’t like it one bit…geez…

October 12th

Well…damn, didn’t get up til almost 7 this morning and slept through the night but I can’t get used to that since it was all the cause of having cocktails last night…and I’m paying for that right now since I’m having a hard time getting going…but part of that is I’ve just poured my first cup of coffee at 7:25 and it needs to work soon…had a good, productive day yesterday and I wonder how I can keep that going today…I should be on the bike already but that isn’t going to happen until 8 or so and, with the temp in the 40′s right now, outdoor rides will have to wait til 10 or so when it warms up into the 50′s…so I wonder if I can wait until 8:30 to get on the indoor bike?  Nope, no later than 8…I do need to make some bean burritos today but that will probably wait til dinner…I do need to think about meal planning but that won’t be for a couple of days…going to hold off mowing the lawn for a few days since not many leaves are down and the lawn is dying form no rain out here for weeks now…it is supposed to rain out here tomorrow but I’m laughing about that…haven’t been out here long enough to see the long term patterns but this sure looks like a drought to me…not much to do today…and I really wish that was true for just one day…man, I would savor just sitting here doing nothing for a change but that is just not me…but why is that? Who knows? More later….

Nothing works like it used to…

Well…as I follow this year’s election, and I see all of the lies and bullshit the the idiot trump spews that has no effect on his poll numbers and all I can say is that nothing works like it used to…if any other candidate would have tried to overthroe the government ant then tried to run again because he wasn’t in jail 4 years later, he would have been laughed off the stage…but with citizens united and the backing of 60 billionaires, none of that matters…the 34 felony convictions don’t matter…the constant lies and attempts to divide this country don’t matter…nothing works like it used to when half of the country don’t have any moral compass…how could you have one and follow the orange idiot? Okay, this is depressing me…after all this bullshit, when I see a trump sign in someone’s yard, I feel justified to hate those people who don’t give a shit about the country lots of us love…geez…

Still searching for a topic I am so burned out…

Well…have been so busy today that I haven’t had time to look for a topic until right now at 2:15 pm and I do need to take a little break…so I’ll do this instead…it’s been a really busy day today with getting two rides in before 9am and then getting cleaned up and heading over to the library at 10am to look at the used book sale…and I hit the score with 19 bucks for 19 books and I found three Larry Nevin sci fi novels…”Ringworld”, “Ringworld Engineers”, and “The Integral Trees”…three books I really wanted…they are in paperback but I’m okay with that…and I got lots of other authors that I like…Michael Connelley, Patricia Cornwell, Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, and others…so a good score and I’m going back Sunday for the bag sale…I really like the people at the  library…they are so nice and helpful and made sure I knew about Sunday…pretty cool… oh, and a couple of Frank Herbert “Dune” books…after I got back here, I jumped on the bike for the third ride, had lunch, and then got to work on the siding on the front of the house…have that done and now it’s 2;30 and I am done for the day other that the weight work…it looks pretty shiny and new and I’m really happy how it came out…I wonder if I’ll get the weather to do the sides of the house this fall? I guess we’ll see…need to do the weight work right now…politics later…