Well…over the past week or so, the bike chain started slipping when I hit bumps while pedaling so that means that the driveline is wearing out so I spent some money today to get all of the replacement parts I need…93 bucks with tax for the front crankset, chain, rear cassette, a bottom bracket tool, and a new set of handgrips…but, I had cashback to spend with Capital One so everything was free…I was going to buy some heated gloves to ride in the winter but even the 40 dollar ones were crap and I’m not going to spend 50-60 bucks for a pair…so I’ll look another direction for that..didn’t get anything else done today but take the left rear tire back off the car since I forgot to lube the suspension bushings when I had the wheel off to clean it…I decided to try a nickle plated rear cassette to see if it will last longer than the anodized ones I’ve been using…and it looks like chrome so that is cool…decided to cut back on my salt intake that I’ve been getting from snacking on pretzels so I won’t be buying any more of those…going to replace them with carrots, celery and cauliflower and see how that works out…it won’t be the same but I only have 3 weeks to get my blood pressure down before the checkup…and an article I read the other day said that extra salt intake is the most common cause of high blood pressure…and cocktails are another bad one so I’ve stopped those, too…and the calories from both have made my weight plateau so I’m hoping to now get down to 160 pounds and stay there…but I am going to have cocktails after the checkup…have to remember to get my blood work done next week and then I can have red meat again, too…okay, time to read….
Tag Archives: life
October 28th
Well…”just one more morning…I had to wake up with the blues…pull myself out of bed…put on my walking shoes” just a little quote from the Allman brothers “Dreams” to get the day started…didn’t plug the laptop in overnight and it still had 54% of the battery left and that’s pretty cool that the battery lasts a whole day…the old one lasted about a half hour…and after being plugged in for 5 minutes, it’s already up to 61%…damn, I’ve been so cold for the past day that I had the heating pad on me just to sit here but I’m sure it’s just the transition to cold weather that I haven’t adjusted to just yet…it’s going to warm up over the next two days and it looks like it will be the last two days of 70 degree weather here for the rest of the year but that is still a little weird for the end of October…have to drag the thermasuit out soon to be able to ride when I want and that’s a transition that I don’t relish…haven’t bought the heated gloves yet and I am struggling with buying them on Amazon after Bezo’s betrayal of the US by killing the endorsement of Kamala in the Post last week…I think I’ll do one last order to get the parts for the bike and then delete my account and go back to the olden days of buying individually…gonna suck but I won’t support anyone who supports the orange idiot…going to start to pick up the leaves today after the rides so I’ll be working outdoors all afternoon..and I need to clean out the flower beds along the house with the string trimmer and get the flower stalks raked up and bagged…more and more work…and more later…
No walnuts this year…
Well…last year about this time, I had to kick a path through all of the walnuts that fell on the trail from a tree that is right next to it..and I still have boxes full of them downstairs…but this year, there is not one walnut from that tree anywhere to be found…now, I saw the same thing a few years back when I lived in Cutlerville and rode through Kentwood where there were three walnut trees along a hundred yard section of the trail that covered it with nuts every fall…and then one year, nothing…I am a little curious about that since we had walnut trees on our property but I don’t remember them ever having a year where there were no nuts…walnut trees are weird…
October 27th
Well…having a heck of a time getting going today but I still have to get on the bike by 8am…it’s only 31 out there so the outdoor rides will wait until the afternoon but that will interfere with the races so I’ll have to figure that out…or just skip them since they are pretty boring anyway…yeah, you’re right…sounds like I’m a little depressed this morning and I am….not sure if it will turn into couch melting depression but it could and that means there is going to be a lot of work to do to suppress it…crap…had a good day yesterday and got the last 5 windows cleaned and today should be a bathroom cleaning day and it might be..we’ll see…finished up the antibiotics yesterday and I am a little curious to see what the effect will be without them…have been taking them since July but I think I still have the infection on my mouth and that sucks…man, I am so tired of having a schedule to meet every day…haven’t taken a day off to do what I want for over a year and that is a little sick, isn’t it? At least I don’t have to cook today with leftovers that will last at least 3 more days but I do have to plan what is next…but who knows what that will be…have lots of canned goods that should make some meals and they need to be used…more later…
Don’t use Total Browser…
Well…with getting the new computer, one of the first things I did was to go out and look for an ad blocker to keep the damn pop ups and ads from overrunning it…tried a new one called “Total Browser” and it worked great for two weeks…and then, even though it was advertised as free, after two weeks they shut it off and had their own pop up that said I could continue to have ads blocked for 69 dollars a year…yeah, right…not when there are really free ones that work with Firefox that are open source and free…just like Firefox… so now I’m trying out another one called U-block Origin that got good reviews and doesn’t sell my data and in the past three minutes, it has blocked 18 ads over on Kos and now I can read that again without having to click to get through the huge popup ad that always comes up when you start there…so, I’ll do an update after I’ve used it for a while and see how it works…
October 26th
Well…damn I just realized I’ve only ridden 650 miles this month and that won’t get me to the final goal…still have 1,400 miles to do and the 28 miles I did yesterday just isn’t enough…and it’s pretty depressing that I may not meet the last goal in my life…and it gets worse…I wasn’t good last night and feel pretty crappy this morning…didn’t ever pour the first cup of coffee until 6:45 and that means I’m already late with getting the day started and that is going to follow me all day…it’s funny how much pain I’ve been in and the lidocaine experiment on my neck appears to be a failure since it still hurts and I will need to have x-rays after my yearly checkup to figure out what the heck is going on…I mean how can an injury still hurt after 4 months? Oh, well…it looks like a one indoor ride day today since it is already 47 out there but I hope the wind is a little lower than yesterday…but, it’s always windy out here so why would I think today would be any different? Okay, just poured the second cup of coffee and need to get over to Mastodon to get the first post out there…don’t have a lot to do today other than the rides but I want to get the remaining windows cleaned…and get that off my to do list..more later…
October 25th
Well…not sure why I feel so darn worn out today but I think it’s a continuation of how I felt yesterday afternoon…tired, just tired and I probably should be after doing over 30 miles a day on the bike for the entire year…went over 8,600 miles yesterday and I’m not sure if I can do 1,400 more miles this year…I will try but damn, that’s a lot of miles…it rained overnight and it’s only 46 right now so that means at least one indoor ride today that I need to get to in 45 minutes or so…I do need a day off working around here and it may be today…but I still have 5 windows to do and should get that done so I don’t have to think about it anymore…I do have to cook at least one meal today since I have the Masala leftovers for one and chicken thawed for another chicken/rice/potato dish in the half dutch oven…but that still means I’ll have to cook again tomorrow and I’m not sure what that will be…need to look in the freezer I guess…not much to do today…can I just sit here for a bit and not get going? I wonder how people just do nothing for an entire day? Haven’t done that for so long I don’t remember it…and I won’t do that today….oh, well…more later…
Dust bunnies the size of bunnies…
Well…decided to not do windows today when I noticed the cobwebs and dust bunnies in my bedroom along with tons of dust so I decided to clean it instead…I know this is a dusty house but the dust bunnies under my bed were the size of real bunnies and it took a while to get that cleaned up…I even went so far as to wash down the side table beside the bed and the dresser along with the baseboards and trim…pretty darned tired aft all that and the rides today and I can’t figure that out…oh, well…getting old I guess…it is nice to have a clean room…and with the rain coming in tomorrow morning, it looks like I’ll have time to do the bathroom and the living room…more work…ick…
Jeans that fit?
Well…this is a little weird…I was looking for jeans to wear to run errands this morning and ran across a pair folded up in the closet that I recognized were ones I’ve had for 20 years and never fit in comfortably…but, with the weight I think I’ve lost, I thought I’d try them on and see…man, they fit perfectly and before I could barely get them buttoned…so I guess that’s a confirmation that yes, I am losing weight still and that should be helped by not having cocktails…still haven’t found the jeans I’ve been looking for, though…I did hit the library and dollar store since all of my riding sunglasses have fallen apart and after repairing three pairs yesterday, I knew the repairs won’t last long so I bought 3 more pairs today for 4.50…one of these days I’m going to buy a better pair that may last a while…still too cold to go out on the bike so I made two more cups of coffee in the french press and I’m going to be jittery for a while…oh, well…
October 24th
Well…up a little later than has been the norm lately but still out of bed before 6am…I did have some dreams last night but they were pretty non-descript and had beaches and cottages in them but just to have any is not normal anymore…I must be sleeping a little better after the 4th day of no cocktails and I am a little interested to see what the effects will be as time goes on…I did spend the money to get some lidocaine to try to dull the pain in my neck and I don’t know if it works yet…tried it once yesterday and it might work…we’ll see…only did one ride outdoors yesterday with the wind way too strong and I didn’t want to hurt myself more but I am sore from it today…still got 28 miles in and stayed above the average I need to get to 10K for the year and will do the same today…it’s only 34 out here right now and that will help getting the leaves off the trees but that will keep me off the bike until it warms up enough around 10 or so…indoor ride before 8 and then I have to take some books back to the library…then I may make a run up to the dollar store to look for some new rings for the shower curtain to replace the damn hooks that keep falling off…and after 3 1/2 years of that, I’m finally annoyed enough to replace them…it looks like a puttering around day today but if it gets warm enough, I may tackle the 5 windows I have left to clean…still have leftovers so I don’t have to cook today but I will have to plan some meals…eating out of the freezer this week since no one had any protein on sale…more later…