Well…man, I must have been tired since I didn’t get out of bed til almost 7 today…and I felt it all afternoon yesterday….might have been the lack of caffeine that I am fixing right now with the first cup of coffee….I only did one ride yesterday and I don’t feel guilty about that one bit and that surprises me some…but, I’ll be back on the bike for two today and I’ll be running late all day since I’m not going to get on the bike for 20 minutes or so….I did get out to the beach yesterday but only got in the water for a minute since there was a bad rip and undertow and I didn’t feel like fighting it…I was the only one on the beach and I wonder why…I know it wasn’t too sunny and the wind was blowing pretty hard but it was plenty warm enough to sit out there for while….I still feel pretty good about having lost 20 lbs this year but, even with that, the charts say I am still overweight and I can’t figure that out….but that means I need to get down another 10 pounds to get to “normal” weight and I guess that’s the goal now….I think the charts don’t take into account that I have 24 inch thighs from riding so much and muscle weighs more than fat….hmmmm…I may even have to buy some new clothes since the ones I have now are hanging off me and that makes me smile….I do have a lot of work to do today so I need to get going…want to get the last of the feed on the lawn and do the weed walk this afternoon since it is supposed to rain tomorrow…ha,ha….yeah, that is still a joke since it never rains out here…I do need to make some more pasta salad today since I like having easy food that I just need to spoon out of the container….and I like it and am still wondering why I never made it before….not much to do today…going to get back into the normal routine of bike rides and out to the beach for a swim…running a little slow today with celebrating that I’m not dying last night with a couple of cocktails….and I had a burger since I could..more later….

Well…have been looking for a political topic for the day and haven’t had a lot of luck so I guess I’ll do something else…not sure if I Iike this life without caffeine…or this day without caffeine since I didn’t have any coffee this morning so my blood pressure wouldn’t be elevated for my doctor’s appointment today…and it wasn’t…it was in the 120’s so I can live with that..but damn, I am just so tired right now that I can’t wait til tomorrow morning when I can get back to normal…and I didn’t take any allergy meds either and that leaves me with a headache that could be from that or from the lack of caffeine…not sure which but it hurts a bunch….one good thing that came out of the appointment today was that my weight is down to 180 lbs and that is 20 lbs less than my last appointment 3 years ago….I knew I was making progress but this makes all the work worth it…and now I’m on my way down to my goal of 170 by my next appointment in November…but today I’m going to splurge and have a cocktail later…after I take a nap right now since I was up at 4 today…and that is way too early….

Well…I did get a bike ride in this morning and there was nothing on the radar so I planned to do a second one…but it started spitting rain just as I pulled up to the garage so I decided to put the bike in just in case…and about 10 minutes later it actually rained for about 3 minutes…that was pretty close to me getting wet today and I really wasn’t in any mood for that…now the decision to be made is do I go out for ride two or do I just say one is enough for this morning? Okay, you know the answer to that…if it stops raining…and it has…before 9 I’ll head back out on the bike for another one…it is a little weird going out with no coffee but I feel okay and got a good sprint in on the way back so I guess I’ll survive it….now I need to look at the radar and see if the rain is really done….more later….

Well…not sure how this is going to work today but I’m starting out without coffee to try to keep my blood pressure down for my checkup this morning…read an article yesterday that said coffee can raise it by 5-8 points and I need all the help I can get…along with no cocktails for the past 10 days, I have hope I can get it down to 130 or so…and losing the weight I have might help, too, at least I hope it does…but I didn’t sleep well at all last night so that probably cancels out all my work…have been up since 5 and was up and down all night so only about 4 hours last night and that is probably worse than having cocktails…oh, well…I wonder when the weather channel is going to fire all of their forecasters who keep forecasting rain out here and it never happens…I mean they had it at 100% for this morning and nothing, not a damn drop and nothing on the radar…I guess that could be looked at as a good thing since I can get two rides in before I go for my checkup but I was really looking forward to having a day off without guilt but I guess that is too much to ask…didn’t do much yesterday but get the rides in and watch soccer and races and today will be another easy one after the checkup….might go out to the beach when I get back here if there are no surprises with my health…and I am going to have cocktails tonight and try to get back to the normal routine…my skin has rested a couple of days and can take a trip out to swim and relax a bit….and then back to it tomorrow…more later….

Well…when I went out to the beach this morning, I found that I was right…they are trying to fill in the pond and have a pipe from the dredge laid across the beach to get to the depression that the water filled to make the pond…and they are using a bulldozer to move the sand around and make channels for the water to drain back into the lake…not sure if these guys really know what they are doing but they are giving it a try…was going to go out to the beach today but with half of it blocked off for the work going on, the rest of it was going to be pretty crowded with how hot and sunny it is…so I decided to just watch soccer and races and take it easy this afternoon….I did get both rides in but tomorrow looks like it may be the elusive day off with storms forecast for the morning and my appointment at 11 that should take an hour and a half or so….and I’m not sure if I want to ride in the afternoon or just go to the beach since I can have a beer after working on my blood pressure the past week or so…we’ll see…it probably won’t rain so I can get the rides in before I go to the doctor…hope so….

Well… running about on time for a Sunday morning but I need to get moving here in a few minutes to get a ride in before the F1 race comes on at 9….I had thought about trying to get two rides in before that but that would have meant getting out without coffee and in the dark and that was just a bit too much for me…you know, I’m getting tired of always trying to get better…to lose weight, to eat healthier, to change my attitude for the better, and to deprive myself of things that I enjoy just for my health….it is just so damn much work and, while I can see the results and I feel better, it seems that I can’t just cut loose and ignore that for even a little while and just live…and I am stressed out about my checkup tomorrow reading the dire entries in mychart where my medical records are and where my cholesterol was too high along with my blood pressure…I’m afraid they are going to want to put me on medication for both and I just don’t want to do that yet….I have lost 3 inches+ on my waist since the start of the year and I can’t remember being at this weight since I was in my 30’s…so maybe it won’t be so bad….didn’t do much yesterday and today looks the same with just getting the rides in and watching races….I did take some burger out of the freezer to have tomorrow after my physical since I have been avoiding any meat but chicken over the past few weeks to help my cholesterol but most of it is hereditary and I’m not sure how much diet effects it…I guess I’ll see…not much to do today…just going to ride and then take care of the gardens….don’t have to cook today since I have leftovers and I’m going to make a big salad for dinner so I guess I’ll be under 1K calories for the day and that will help with the physical tomorrow…..I am a little pissed that all the riding I do isn’t the magic bullet I expected it to be with my health…but, I guess I’m getting old so I can’t expect much….more later….

Well…cripes, just sitting here and all of a sudden my right shoulder started to howl in pain and I didn’t do anything to cause it…today that is, yesterday I was out in the waves and doing a little body surfing means my arms are out straight over my head and that’s not a motion I normally do….it feels like I raked the whole yard of leaves and I know I haven’t done that…..but, I know this pain and have had it so many times in the past whenever I abuse my shoulder…so it is going to take some ibuprofen to cut through it here in a minute….it’s been a really, really easy day today with just the bike rides for any work and then I took it easy all afternoon with only making potato salad this morning….no beach today since my skin is still tight from yesterday and I think I’ll take tomorrow off to keep the healing going…and I don’t really like going out there into the crowds on the weekend….they did start to do something to the beach today with a bulldozer pushing a bunch of sand around and some drain pipes that were dropped out there yesterday…I wonder if they are going to fill in the pond? I guess I’ll see tomorrow when I ride out there…but right now, I’m done for the day…just going to contemplate what I want for dinner and get off my butt here in a while and make it….

Well…damn, need to get going here pretty quick to be out on the bike by 7 so I can get two rides in before 10 so I can see F1 qualifying…damn, I’m tired of rushing around…had a good day yesterday with getting out to the beach and playing in some nice waves but I am pretty sore today…hit the party in the park last night to see and old band from around the GR area called Hip Pocket that I have been seeing for over 40 years and that was a little weird…and they played FM by Steely Dan which made my night…lots of fun…even had a couple of local beers that I liked a lot…..slept pretty crappy last night but feel okay today and now need to not have any beer until after I have my physical Monday to make sure that my BP is as low as it can be at my advanced age….I won’t have a beach trip today since my skin needs a rest from all the sun this week and there are soccer and races on this aft….so it’s going to be an easy day after I get the rides in….but I only have 12 minutes before I have to be on the bike for the first ride and need to do my teeth so I need to get going….more later….

Well…just a quickie before I go to the beach…just checked the coolant in the car and it is still full after driving all week…and that is weird but it gets me one more week before I have to spend 800 bucks for a new water pump…or maybe a month? Who knows but I’ll take it…oh, and the power steering is getting slowly better as the air comes out of the system…and that is weird, too….beach time!

Well…that was okay…slept pretty well but still no dreams to speak of and that is a little disappointing….but I feel okay so I guess I’ll take it…still not sore yet from getting beat up in the waves yesterday so I think it will be the two day rule in effect and I’ll be sore tomorrow…had a good day yesterday and got a lot done but today will be be an easy one with just the bike rides and the beach but I do need to cook some chicken for dinner later and I may make a batch of potato salad but that will probably be tomorrow since I don’t need it today…maybe just make the potatoes and eggs after I get back from the beach…I wonder if I should try the mayo/whip combo for this batch? We’ll see….haven’t had full fat whip for a long time but had to buy that this week since there was no light available and I wonder how that is going to taste? Hmmmm….only spent about 30 bucks on groceries this week since I didn’t buy any protein with the freezer pretty full…I was tempted to hit DD to get some smoked sausage for 13 bucks for 11 pounds but who needs 11 pounds of smoked sausage? Not me…need to keep my cholesterol down so that means not much of this stuff in my diet….even though I love it….not much to do today….just going to have more coffee and sit here for a bit until I get on the bike for the first ride to get the day started….and then I’m just going to wing it for the rest of the day…I do need to go over to the ballot drop box to put my ballot in for the August 2nd primary and will do that on the first ride….more later….