Well…as the surgery date quickly approaches, I did make the goal I had of 3,000 miles before it…might even make it to 3,200 since I’ll hit 3,100 tomorrow…and the big goal of 4,000 miles with all of the time off the bike starting next week looks doable…two months without riding is going to be hard but I’m going to try to get on the bike before the UK trip since they said I could get on it after 4-6 weeks…but I don’t want to re-injure myself so I think it will be a short trial on the indoor bike to start…it would be nice to start getting my fitness back before we go…we’ll see…
Why all the hand wringing?
Well…with all of the negative commentary about the US supplying cluster munitions to Ukraine, I wonder why all the hand wringing? I know that more than 100 countries have signed a treaty to not use them but the US, Ukraine, and Russia haven’t….and the biggest point they try to make is how dangerous unexploded bomblets are to civilians…and that is a good point with what we know about the damage these things do after the wars are over and not all of them are cleaned up…but to me the point is that Russia has already used over 100,000 of these shells all over Ukraine and the Russian dud rate is more than 30% compared to 1.5% for American munitions…and here’s another point…the US has more than 5 million of these shells of various types and Ukraine is running short of regular artillery shells and being able to use these cluster munitions will get rid of that shortage and give them the tools to attack the trenches that Russian has built all over Ukraine…Ukraine is the country that is going to deal with the cleanup after they push Russia out so the ultimate decision should be up to them…and we should give them everything they need since they are doing the worlds work in beating Russia…and crippling Russia will do great things for the world’s future…so let’s help them…
July 16th
Well…had a pretty good birthday yesterday with hearing from a lot of my Mastodon friends and lots IRL, too…woke up this morning with back pain that is all across my lower back and I wonder if it’s just from cleaning up the bike room? Whatever the cause is, it’s stiff and I can barely move…but I will be getting on the bike soon…didn’t get out of bed til around 7 today after waking up before 6 but that is about normal…I was going to take the day off yesterday but after starting to put the tools away from changing the shifter on the bike, I decided to clean the bike room since it really needed it and I had lots of equipment to put back in the boxes and stack with some organization…got rid of the spiders and webs and need to to that for the rest of the basement this week…not sure how much I’m going to do today but I do need to clean the bathroom…don’t really have to cook other than breakfast for lunch since I have leftover chicken for the second meal…my damn teeth still hurt and I’m doing it to myself by grinding them overnight and I need to work on that along with getting my muscles fit for the surgery…going to spend an hour on it today after I get done with the rides…not much to do today…just need to get the bike rides in and then I can wing it for the rest of the day…more later…
July 15th
Well…happy birthday to me…had a sucky day yesterday with the renters throwing a loud party with lots of yelling and screaming and noise that went from noon until 9 last night…going to start videoing them today and going to find out who owns the house and send an e-mail to them telling them what is going on…probably going to threaten them with a lawsuit if they don’t control their renters and I will continue to call the police on them every time until they get the hint that they can’t pull that bullshit…I can’t believe how terrible the people are who live up here…they are like animals who don’t care about anything but their partying…happy birthday to me, huh? I am so damn tired of this shit that I am thinking of selling this place again…I think it will be after the UK trip that I will list it….only owe 46 K on it and I will list it for 140K so I’ll have 90 grand or so to put down on the next place…and it will be away from people….okay…what to do for my birthday? It rained a bit overnight but that looks like that is over…my teeth hurt like crazy today and I’ve already taken an ibuprofen for it…so I’ll be out on the bike soon but I should take one day off….but with being forced off the bike for two months I’ll have lots of time off after the surgery….I’m feeling pretty depressed today and I shouldn’t have to feel that way on my birthday…god, I hate those assholes…more later…
They planned deaths from covid…
Well…as I’ve talked about before, during the start of the covid pandemic (which is still going on) when the idiot trump could have done something to save lives, initial data showed that black and brown people were doing most of the dying from covid…and most of them were in blue states so the idiot made the calculation that he could motivate his white nazi base by making sure they knew that covid was essentially attacking the people they hated anyway and the push to get people back to work were the people in the service industries which are disproportionately staffed by black and brown people…and the latest studies that have been done show that over 500,000 extra people have died because of a political calculation that idiot boy made that he thought that letting these people die would help him get re-elected…no other reason…just the selfish bullshit he’s pulled his entire life where no one matters but him…this should be enough to put him in jail for the rest of his life…but it won’t and that is what’s wrong with this country…geez…
Another busy day…
Well…damn, woke up this morning with my back hurting and thought I was going to take it easy but no such luck…got the bike rides in and then mowed the lawn and did the weed walk with the sprayer…then whacked the neighbors brush that was overgrown so much that it was blocking the sun from my garden and then trimmed all the tree branches that were hanging low and I had to dodge when mowing…now I need to get some chicken cooking for dinner and decided I’m just going to cook it in the air fryer instead of the grill since I really don’t want to do that much work and the chicken needs to be cooked before it spoils….so I’d better get to it…more later…
July 14th
Well…damn, didn’t get out of be til 7:28 and my back is hurting so bad that I have the heating pad on it and I have no clue how I hurt it…I did carry the big ladder to the front steps and climbed up to clear the downspout but if that is enough to hurt my back, I’m getting too damn old….it was a good day yesterday with the good health news but I have bruises on my arms from people fishing around trying to draw blood but part of that is on me from having such small veins to work on…I did get some stuff done yesterday and got the metal box spring put together and it was really pretty easy…going to unbox the mattress today so it will have time to expand before my daughter gets here….it’s pretty sunny out there right now and there is some wind blowing the branches around so the rides may be a chore today…and it’s after 8 and I can’t get started…it was supposed to storm today but there’s nothing on the radar right now so maybe later….okay, just looked at the weather and it looks like the rain won’t come til tomorrow and might make it easy to take the day off for my birthday….not much to do today…going to grill some chicken later after I make breakfast for lunch but I still need to watch the calories….I should have bought a steak or something for my birthday but I have too much stuff in the freezer that I need to use…man, I’m worn out…I think the medical stuff has caught up with me it is so much work and stress…and it’s only going to get worse….more later…
OTC birth control…
Well…in a blow to the right wing misogynists who are doing everything they can to control women and prevent them from controlling their own bodies, the FDA has approved the first OTC birth control for women meaning no expense of going to the doctor and no records of it’s use that the fascist repubs are trying to use to hurt women in red states…now, we know that there is going to be pushback from right wing pharmacy owners who think just because they own the company it gives them the right to screw with any woman they want to…and that goes for the pharmacists who will make sure the stores don’t stock the medicine or will do whatever they can to make it as uncomfortable for women as they can. At least the Biden admin is trying to use the power of government to help people instead of hurt them as the asshole trump and his cronies still are doing…just look at the rulings coming out of the SC lately…and Biden needs to keep it up to try to protect women in red states that can’t get the hell out of dodge and move to a blue state that protects women’s rights….keep it up, Joe…geez….
Medical tests were good…
Well…I am getting really tired of all of the medical stuff I’m going through…and today I had to go in for my pre-op physical and they were much more thorough than I expected…first off, my BP was good at 127/73 and that surprised the heck out of me when I was expecting it to be much higher…I guess skipping coffee and cocktails really does work…then they did an EKG on me and it came back “perfect” to quote the PA and that made me smile a bit…but then after two people and 5 tries to draw blood, they gave up and sent me to the lab in the north end where the nurse hit it first try and I didn’t even feel it…and I got to drive out to the north end in sunshine with the top down on the car so it’s all good…and I got the downspout unplugged already and I am having coffee right now and I’m going to read some news….more later…
July 13th
Well…finally, it rained like crazy yesterday but that showed me I need to get the big ladder out and clear the gutter downspout since it was overflowing onto the front steps…just leaves over it and won’t take long to fix it….this is going to be a tough morning with no coffee to jumpstart my brain…trying to see how it effects my blood pressure at the pre-op physical this morning at 11…at least it just over at my GP’s office and that’s only a mile and a half from here…and I’ll have time to get the rides in before that if I get a move on and get on the bike by 7:30…my daughter is still sending me lots of stuff to prep for the surgery/recovery and two things showed up yesterday…a rack for the dumbbells she is bringing to work out during recovery and the metal box spring for her bed that I need to put together this afternoon after I get the gutter cleaned and have lunch…was up at 4:40 this morning but was able to get back to sleep til almost 6:30 so that is a win for me…was good for another day last night and I hope that helps the blood pressure, too….not much to do today…my teeth hurt from grinding them last night so I had to take an ibuprofen since they are still really pressure sensitive….that’s different from the last time and I hope it heals like the last time….more later