Well…after some big cups of coffee, I finally got moving and did get both rides in before 10….feeling a lot better about things today and even went out to participate on Mastodon for a while and got another 5 followers this morning and that always makes me smile a bit…I can’t believe how different Mastodon is from the rest of the social media world…I was on twitter for 15 years and ended up with 9 people following me…I’ve been on Mastodon since November 30th of last year and I have almost 200 followers and over 4,000 actions that I’ve taken like posting my own thoughts or boosting someone else or favoriting a post….lots of interaction and lots of nice people out there and I invariably laugh out loud a couple of times a day….I know I’ve been slacking a bit on the political stuff but I will try to get one of those out this afternoon if I can find a topic….more later….oh, my daughter is working hard to make me feel better about my health problems…texted me this morning about a friend of hers family member who had a PSA of over 40 and they were able to correct his problem and that was almost 20 years ago….so there is hope….
February 4th
Well…running about on time today with waking up early but not getting out of bed til 7…just feel deflated today and I think it will be a struggle to get going…need to get two rides in before 10 when Man U plays but I have no motivation to do that right now…don’t even want to go out to Mastodon to talk to people so I won’t…didn’t get a lot done but ride the bike yesterday and that will be my day today…I did have to repair my earbuds yesterday since the vinyl coating on the outside of the wires had cracked near the switch and it looked like the wires were starting to fray…so I used some adhesive and it appears like it’s fixed…I did have to use a spare set for the second ride yesterday and they were not anywhere near as good as the ones I repaired…probably should buy a new pair before the UK trip…after the bad news yesterday, I talked to my daughter for an hour and a half and it was nice to catch up….damn, I have to get on the bike in 14 minutes if I’m going to get two rides in before 10…not sure if I can…not feeling it right now…and I need to read some news first…along with more coffee….more later…
Well…this sucks…
Well…just got the results of my PSA test and it is even worse than the last time…even with being off the bike for 3 weeks…so, it looks like I have prostate cancer and that really sucks…so, I see the urologist on the 14th of this month to start treatment…crap….
Where’s the coverage?
Well…with the stunning performance of the job market adding 567,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate at 3.4%, the lowest since 1969, my question is “where’s the coverage?” I’ve seen coverage all over today about some damn Chinese balloon that is floating over the US, but maybe two articles about the best economic performance in decades…and with inflation dropping quickly, every person in the US is going to benefit from what the Biden administration is doing to steer this economy…and when you compare the US performance to the rest of the world, we have recovered better from the pandemic than any other country…but no mention of that in the news, either….but you get some asshole repubs wearing AR-15 pins in the House and it appears in every news feed that I read…the media really is broken in this country…geez…
Got 16 miles in today…
Well…got 16 miles in on the bike today after getting my blood drawn this morning…but, it took them 4 tries to finally get the blood to flow…the back of both hands are going to be black and blue tomorrow…I am going to be sore from the waist down tomorrow but damn, it feels good to be back on the bike and sweating it out again…and now I can have two meals a day again but I’m still having coffee so lunch will wait a while…the phlebotomist put a bad thought into my head…what happens if I can’t ride at all anymore? That never even came into my head until this morning and it will really suck if I can’t ride without killing myself…crap…
February 3rd
Well..life begins again today with finally getting my blood drawn for the PSA test at 9 this morning and the right back on the bike as soon as I get back here…it’s only 9 degrees out there so I am going to fire the car up at 8:30 and let it run a bit before I take off….I really do need to tighten up the alternator belt since it has been squealing a bit in the cold…only got up once last night and then out of bed about 7 or so….feeling pretty worn out today and I’m sure it’s from keeping the calories down the past three weeks…not sure what I’m going to eat today but I need to do two meals….I have a leftover pork chop for one of them but didn’t take anything out of the freezer so it may have to be pasta….didn’t get much done yesterday and today is going to be just regaining my routines until I have the urologist appointment on the 14th and I find out if I’m dying or not….I should have the result of the PSA test by Monday and then I’ll know what is going on…not much to do today…just the doctor and then the bike rides are in the plans so far….it didn’t snow as much as they forecast overnight so no shoveling today so it appears I’ll be fighting boredom…more later….
Finally got it done…
Well…have spent a good part of the afternoon setting up another MyChart page for the upcoming urologist appointment I have on the 14th since it’s in the U of M system and not Spectrum Health…and I find that to be a little weird in this ultra connected age we live in…I wonder why they don’t just let us give access to our page that has our PCP and files in it? That would seem to be a better solution than making a new file for every new provider…and no cross pollination from one file to another…I don’t know how they are going to get the information from my urology appointment back to my doctor…oh, well…I guess they’ll figure it out…
This is why gas prices are high…
Well… as people continue to blame Biden for high gas prices, the latest report on the profitability of the big four oil companies shows who is really to blame…over the last quarter of 2022, profits at the big 4 were 140 billion dollars…yep, that’s a B as in billion dollars….over 50% higher than they have ever been, and guess where all of those dollars came from? Yep, from you and me in one of the largest transfers of wealth in history that is going right into stockholders hands…and that ain’t you and me. Now would be the time for a excessive profit tax to be levied on these crooks…it has gotten so bad in the UK that they are predicting that 3-4,000 people will die as a result of not being able to afford heat for their homes this winter…and that is just sick…people die just so stockholders can buy the fifth house, or the bigger yacht, or the hundredth car….and yet the conservatives on both sides of the pond make sure that nothing can be done about it to keep the big oil money flowing into their campaigns…I really don’t see how these people can sleep at night know that they are slopping at the oil trough while people die….geez…
February 2nd
Well…another night of ups and downs that ended at 6:19 when I got out of bed…must have slept on my right shoulder since it hurts like crazy today…but it’s more than that, it even hurts down my side and I am getting tired of hurting myself sleeping….had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get a lot done other than the grocery run and laundry…and today looks even easier with only getting the time for my blood draw set up for tomorrow….will be back on the bike for at least one ride tomorrow but after three weeks off the bike, I know I’m going to have to work back to fitness…it’s going to be a strange roller coaster with the weather the next few days and the little weather widget at the bottom of my screen is going nuts saying warmer temps and then temps plummet…it is going to get really cold and then into the high 30’s and lower 40’s for a week or so…and that gets us a week closer to spring…the high tomorrow is only going to be 14 with a low of 8 tonight and 9 tomorrow night….ick….not much to do today…going to grill a couple of chops if I have the gas and probably roast a potato to go with it…tomorrow I get back to two meals a day and I am looking forward to that….not sure what those meals will be…maybe some pasta to go with the chops? More later…
Got some things done…
Well…I finally got some stuff done today and it felt good…after the grocery run where I did get some pork chops on sale…yeah, I know…just finished up a pork shoulder today and then right back into pork again tomorrow? Probably should change it up but I only have chicken drumsticks or soup in the freezer and neither one of those really grabs me right now…I can finally go back to two meals starting Friday with getting my blood drawn at some point that day…got the laundry done today, too and did dishes…all the normal stuff…I did start watching “Babylon” last night but damn, it’s 3 hours and 9 minutes long and I just couldn’t get through it so I have about a half hour to watch when I start my night…I am going to see if I have enough gas in the grill to grill the chops tomorrow…if not, I have to take the tank out and see if it can be filled…if not, I have 60 bucks to spend on a new tank and a fill…but that will last me two years so I guess that’s not too bad and it will be my last grill anyway and it is better than any grill I can afford anyway…but that will be next week…now it’s time to wind down for the day….