More Ollie’s bargains…

Well…as I said this morning, I was going to head out to ollies for some more 1.99 t-shirts this morning…and it was so nice to have a good running car again and one that is clean to drive around in…so, I got 5 new t-shirts and a pair of Ralph Lauren flip flops that normally go for 28 bucks for 2.99…and the total bill only came to 16 bucks since I did spend 3 bucks each on a couple of the t-shirts since they were new FoTL with some new kind of super wicking cotton that I thought I’d try out…so, I’m done buying new stuff for the summer unless they have some beach towels for cheap since I do need a new one….and now I think I’ll sort out my t-shirts later and put the old ones in a tote in my closet so I can use them to get dirty with….now out on the bike for the first ride…

Kind of a pet peeve…

Well…hey, I found something to fill some time! After getting back outdoors on the trails this spring…is it spring? Sure doesn’t feel like it…I noticed that there is a huge explosion of people riding electric bikes that I wonder if they should be classified motorized vehicles and banned from the trails? Just the other day when I was out riding some idiot came blowing through the crowds at almost 30mph and not pedaling at all…and I can see carnage if this continues when the trails get busy when it warms up when walkers and riders clog up the trails so there is nowhere for someone going at that speed to go…I even find it a little challenging at times when I get up a head of steam and run into a stroller blockade…but I’m not going 30 and I pay attention and have the courtesy to slow down and allow them to get out of the way with a smile on my face…after all, the trails are for everyone who uses them but the speed differential to electric bikes is going to cause accidents…and I wonder who the hell can afford a 2,000 dollar bike anyway? Okay, that’s the end of my bitching…normally I just yell at them that they are cheating with a smile on my face and a laugh…especially when you have an obviously out of shape person flying by me only pedaling once every 100 feet or so…but, they are getting out and getting some exercise and that is always a good thing….and I have even started to do some research on converting the black bike to an electric assisted one to use when I’m injured but it’s still over 800 bucks to do that and I can think of many other way to spend that much cash….maybe look for a used one that is just sitting in someone’s garage after they used it for a week or two? I guess the point of riding for me is to get all the exercise I can to keep age at bay and an electric would make it too easy….going to be an interesting summer….

April 29th

Well…damn, I’m sore this morning…as I was last night and the day before and I’m starting to get a little concerned that it never stops…and I’m not sure if it’s from the work I’m doing or if it’s a medical problem but I do know that I am creeping around here and everything I do is painful…I wonder if taking two ibuprofens a day would help instead of the one I take now? I did get the car finished yesterday and got my new sticker in the window that allows me to park at the beach for free and I will be using that a lot this summer….and I can’t wait to run an errand this morning in the clean car…even with all the rust in it, it is still cool to have clean glass and the un-rusted parts waxed and it is just the best to know that it is ready for summer…and that it is not leaking oil anymore….and I am going to hit ollies again today for some more 1.99 t-shirts if they have them…and then I can weed out all of the old bleached and painted ones and replace them with new ones….I am going to try to get two rides in outdoors today so I don’t have to get on the indoor bike and that leaves me with lots of time to just relax on the couch and have my coffee while I do this…and then I can leisurely read the news….oh, forgot to talk about sleep…should I talk about sleep? Nope, not today…pretty sure you’re getting bored with that and the one thing I strive for is to not be boring…sometimes even successfully….not much to do today…not sure how to do these easy mornings and I’m still wondering if my need to be doing something is going to override that…but I am going to try…but it’s 7am and I really don’t know how to fill the time until I head out on the errand….hmmmm….more later…

They were all in on it…

Well…sitting here feeling like crap after the bike ride…and I felt like crap on the ride, too, so I don’t know what is going on…hmmmm…I did read an article yesterday that I wanted to talk a bit about…after all of the investigations that have been done about the coup attempt on January 6th of last year, on startling fact has come out and that is that every damn repub in the house but two were in one it…every one of them have turned up in text messages, facebook posts, or other media talking about how to do the coup or in planning of it or supporting it…and the only two who weren’t are Cheney and Kinzinger who are on the January 6th committee…just let that sink in a minute, one of the major political parties in this country had every member try to overturn the legal election of Biden… and not one of them has been charged with sedition or insurrection or even jaywalking…not one damn thing for these people who violated the 14th amendment and should have been expelled from congress and banned from ever holding office again…but nothing at all from Garland…has anyone checked on him to see if he is still alive? This is the best way to guarantee that this crap will happen again…and we see that the plans are being laid by these same people for 2022 and 2024 to overthrow the legal votes of Americans again…they all need to go and if Garland isn’t willing to uphold the law, then he needs to go, too…geez…

No drips!

Well…had a pretty busy morning with all of the work I had planned and I got it all done with a really pleasant surprise when I backed the car out to wash it…no drips! After years of just cobbling it together with blue silicone on the drain plug and it never really working, the damn 3 dollar drain plug worked and it was so simple to do, I’m not sure why I didn’t do this years ago instead of wasting all my time looking for the Mazda crush washers that went on the old plug….I guess I get tunnel vision sometimes…and I did get the rest of my work done, too, starting with seeding the front of the lawn, washing the inside and outside of the trash bin, washing and vacuuming the car, washing the bike and cleaning up the garage…and I tried my stainless steel detail brush on the dirt that would never come off the wheels of the car and they even look better so bonus….but now it’s the last cup of coffee, reading some news, having lunch, and then getting out on the bike when it warms up enough…damn, it’s only 44 at 11:30…and that sucks…

And you thought it couldn’t get any more nuts…

Well…as I sit here waiting for the temp to come up enough so I don’t freeze my butt off working outside…and no, I didn’t get on the indoor bike today so I needed to do something else…and this is it. Just read about the latest conspiracy theories that coming out of the right this week and they just can’t get any more nuts than this…okay, I’ve said that before but damn, this is just crazy…oh, crap..buried the lede again…when someone was interviewing some of the deplorables at a trump hate rally this weekend, the true believers have a new on to believe…and that is that Biden is being played by a bunch of actors since he is too feeble to do anything and his handlers are hiding him in the WH basement so they can continue to control the world…and guess who a couple of the actors in rubber masks are? Jim Carrey, for one and James Woods for another….never mind that Woods is a huge trump supporter but he is doing it for some reason that has something to do with the tired old meme that the idiot boy trump is going to be reinstated any day now once all is revealed…and I guess he can do more damage to Biden from the inside? Jim Carrey had a bunch of pretty funny responses on twitter and can’t really understand why they singled him out to get sucked into their delusions but he is having fun with it…oh, and in the interview that I saw, the man who was standing next to the crazy assed woman who was being interviewed had on a t-shirt that read “trump and JFK junior 2024″….and I wondered how that person can even function with no firm grasp on reality….this is one of the nuttiest things I have seen in quite a while…but I will admit I don’t immerse myself in the fever swamps of the modern repub party…sometimes I dip a toe in just for a topic but then use a ton of disinfectant to make sure the infection doesn’t spread to my brain…geez…

April 28th

Well…hmmmm….feel a little worn out today and I wonder if I should skip the indoor ride today with being able to get out on the bike later? But, it’s the end of April and it’s only 29 frickin degrees out there so that will be much later…and still not too comfortable….slept okay last night but not that well and I’m getting tired of that…just once I’d like to hit the sack and just sleep without waking up all night…okay, enough bitching and whining….it is a little bit of a relief to finally get the car maintenance started and not have to buy a 60 buck set of plug wires…I think I should note how many miles the car has on it to keep track of how far I go on this oil change just to see how many miles I drive in a year….I know it’s been at least two years since I last changed it but only about 3000 miles or so in that time…but I could tell it needed it when the oil pressure gauge reads about 30 at idle…and all of the short trips I take don’t help…I mean 6-10 miles a week? And all those start ups with the car running rich? I know the oil looked pretty bad but it’s supposed to….I am going to do a full clean up on the car today with wax, windows and vacuuming and it will be nice washing it here instead of the car wash…and I may even wash the bike today if I have the hose out and a bucket of soapy water ready….not much to do today…I did get some flower and herb seeds yesterday and need to start the herbs downstairs so I can make a little herb garden next to the back door…going to plant rosemary, thyme, and Italian oregano…should have gotten some chives, too, but I didn’t see them….and I got some perennials that I won’t have to plant every year and should look cool…so, I do have stuff to do today but need much more coffee first and to read the news…damn, why do I feel like I’m late and it’s only 7am? More later…

Getting old is a pain…literally..

Well…I wonder if I’m getting to the point where literally anything that I do is going to result in pain and stiffness all over my body? I know I’m getting old but damn, just changing the oil in the car and putting a set of plugs in and my back and arms hurt like I just lifted weights for a few hours straight….and there was not really much leaning into the engine bay other than to snake the oil filter out…I know I had to lean over to get to the plugs but doing all 4 of them only took about 10 minutes…maybe it’s because they are not movements I do all the time? Who knows? All I know is that getting old is a pain…literally, and I don’t like it….I did get back out to check the air in the tires on the car, too, and I don’t know how they could have gotten down to 20psi on each corner without me noticing it…okay, I did notice that the tires looked a little deflated but with radials, you really can’t see it that well…okay, that sentence right there tells you I’m old…I remember the times before radial tires and I’ll bet most people don’t…so, I aired them up to 32 where I normally run them and also aired up the bike tires to get ready for an outdoor ride tomorrow…and I’ll be cleaning out the trash bin and washing the car and cleaning the interior for the spring cleaning I’m late on…so, I already have the day planned for tomorrow and that is not supposed to happen anymore…oh, well…it is nice to do something other than work on the house….

Could it be karma?

Well…you know, there are times that I do believe in karma and that people get what they deserve when they are so damn terrible people…and yesterday was one of those days when Tesla’s stock dropped almost 140 billion dollars in reaction to ole elon borrowing against it to buy twitter…and the sick thing is that it means nothing to elon…he still has 300 billion dollars and there is just something wrong with that…and the shenanigans have already started at twitter with conservative assholes gaining thousands and thousands of followers while the progressive voices have been losing them hand over fist…even Mark Hamill has lost over 8,000 followers since the sale of twitter was announced…and ole elon’s freedom of speech bullshit has been revealed to be just that…all he wants is to be free of twitter’s moderators and be able to attack whoever he wants…starting with some twitter execs who were then piled on by all of the deplorables who elon is allowing back on twitter…okay, he doesn’t own it yet so I’m not sure how much he had to do with it but he was setting the example that attacks are just peachy with him if they are to support him…hmmm…who does that sound like? trump?  Yep….and he is just trying to intimidate people who work for twitter to show them that when he is in charge, they will have hell to pay if they cross him…and that is exactly what elon does…when he disagrees with someone or they disagree with him, he wants twitter to be able to launch an even bigger attack that the people he is attacking can’t respond to…and that is not “free speech”, it is just another rich guy trying to shut everyone else out of any conversation…after all, the only people these rich assholes think should have the right to speak to them are other rich guys…geez…

Got the car work done…

Well….have been neglecting the car for almost all of the time that I’ve been out here and I know I’ve never changed the oil since I’ve lived here until today….went out to zone this morning as part of the grocery run and got an oil filter, oil plug, and a set of spark plugs so I could do all of the things I’ve put off while working my butt off on the house. I normally use fram oil filters but neither zone or advance had any and they said they have been fighting shortages of them for over a year now…so I got an stp one since they have been rated pretty good too and got to work…and it started off pretty crappy with dropping the oil filter after I took it off and spilling oil all over the bottom of the car…there is not much room where the filter is but dropping it showed me a new way to take it out that is much easier so that was cool…and I put a new oil plug in that has a nice gasket on it that should stop that leak that I have been fighting since I bought the car…and it only cost 3 bucks so that was really cool…hope to get a few changes out of it before I have to replace it or the gasket and it is really nice to not have to slather the plug in blue silicone to try to keep it from leaking….after I finished that job, I decided to check to see if I could get the plug wires off and replace the plugs and they came off easily…and the blue silicone I used to hold them together was still working so I saved 60 bucks in not replacing them…but I’m still only about halfway done with the car since I need to do the spring cleaning and every thing else that comes with it…but I’ll wait til tomorrow for that when it is warmer….

What you never want to be….