Well…damn, that was a 2:14, 4:44, and 6:02 night last night and I am feeling it today…still can’t figure out how my allergies have gotten so bad so fast this year but I did notice that the trees have buds on them already and will probably start the pollen explosion in the next couple of weeks…my eyes are so full of stuff this morning that they are blurry and that is a pain in the butt trying to do this…and will suck heading out to do the grocery run this morning…oh, well…it is a little strange how many different muscles are used riding the bike outside as inside…my core muscles hurt today and I wonder if it from the bike ride or from wedging myself into the corners in the bathroom? Whatever it is, I can live with it but there may be the need for ibuprofen later….it will be interesting to see what hurts when I get on the indoor bike here in a minute…it is supposed to be in the mid 50’s today and I may just get out in shorts for the ride if I wait til later in the afternoon….not much to do today…need to do the grocery run and then wash the car and I may take my rubber shoes with me and do it between Meijers and aldis unless I have to go over to Sternberg road this morning….more later….

Well…damn, I am getting tired of resting my thumb for a week and having the bad pain start right up the first time I use it all…but that’s not what this is about…I did get out on the outside bike this afternoon for only the second ride this year and it was not bad…it is just so different from riding the indoor bike and with all the shifting, braking, and leaning….it is not boring at all…pretty messy with all of the snow melt, dirt, sand, and crud being thrown all over the bike and me but it is still nice to see everything….and I did see some big icebergs on the lake but the coolest thing was how quiet it was out at my water stop on the boardwalk…I took my earbuds out just to see and the only sound was some gulls a long way off so you could barely hear them…I have never heard it so quiet out there and a big part of that is the road is still closed so no cars or the noise they make. Muskegon Lake is the lowest I have ever seen it…okay, this is the first year I’ve been able to get close to it this early in the year but seeing it 3 feet lower than during the summer is pretty strange….it does look like I’ll be able to get out there again tomorrow and maybe on Thurs, too but we’ll see….still going to ride downstairs until the weather gets to the point that I can do two rides outside in a day and that may get me close to my 600 mile goal on that bike….but, right now, it’s almost time for Man U and I want to take it easy for a while…for some reason, the outside ride took a lot out of me today…

Well…as I sit here having my last cup of coffee for the morning, I thought I’d talk about something I discovered yesterday on the internet while I was looking for methods to get the registers cleaned up and ready to paint…one of the suggestions was to spray them with oven cleaner…even the new stuff that you can handle without gloves…and the weird thing was it worked better than the paint stripper I bought last week…still didn’t cut all the paint but it did more than I ever expected and that made me laugh a little….but I am still going to buy the heat gun when they get them in a couple of weeks from now….but I may check on it tomorrow if DD has anything that I want since they are right across the street from each other…and I need some sanding pads for my detail sander and another roll of painter’s tape even if they don’t have the heat gun…almost time to get to work….

Well…that was a little better…slept okay last night and didn’t get up til around 6 or so and I’ll take that any day….and I can breathe better this morning with no headache so I wonder what is going on with that? Still think I may have a bug of some sort since I do have some crap in my lungs and cough occasionally but my allergies have the same symptoms so how do you tell them apart? Oh, well…going to make them worse today with getting on sanding the baseboards and trim in the bathroom this morning to get ready to fill and smooth them…I did have another brainstorm yesterday…and no, it didn’t hurt…not much anyway…instead of getting a propane torch to remove the paint from the heat registers, I remembered that they make heat guns for just that purpose and it may be a better solution…but the one I want from HF is out of stock til early next month…only 16 bucks and I may be able to get away from stripping with chemicals altogether and may have some extra uses for it that will eliminate the need for sanding and filling on a lot of the trim….it is a slow process but the areas I have to do are small so we’ll see how it works…damn, the headache is back….not much to do today…going to get on the bike early and work some on the bathroom…then I’m going to suit up and try to get an outdoor ride in today and that will make for a 20 mile day…and Man U plays at 4 this afternoon so I need to have everything done by then, grit my teeth and watch them lose again..damn, I wonder why every team I follow sucks so much? More later…

Well…happy pi day….is it 7:30 or 6:30? Going to go through the time change math for a couple of days until I get used to it…but I think I’m running late when the clock says I should have gotten on the bike 15 minutes ago…this is the worst my allergies have been this year so far and I feel like crap so I may not work on the bathroom today…I wonder if I have a cold? It sure feels like I have a bug of some sort but I just remembered that I only had a small pork taco to eat all day and that sometimes has the same feeling as a bug….so maybe I’ll have some toast here in a minute to get some calories in before I get on the bike…I did take the weekend off to finish up my healing week and my hands feel much better so I may ease into some work….until it snowed so much yesterday, I was going to get outside for a ride the next couple of days since it is supposed to be over 50 tomorrow and Wed…I guess I’ll have to take a look at the trails to see how bad they got since they were already almost clear a week ago…that would mark a milestone much earlier than last year when I didn’t get out on the trails until April….but, after the couple of days of semi warmth, it is going to be back in the 40’s for the rest of the month and I am not sure I want to be cold again….not much to do today….still need to adjust to the time change and feeling crappy so I may take it easy today after the bike ride….after all, I don’t have a schedule any more and once I get the bathroom and bedroom done I think I am done for on the house for the year…I’m running out of time to just enjoy my life…oh, and Tom…the 400 buck insurance payouts have to be complete by May 9th and have already started…new kayak is coming! More later….

Well…as I was sitting here doing the last one, a new bird that I have not seen this winter landed on my feeder and has been going and coming for the past hour or so…didn’t know what it was so I had to go out to the internet and look it up…and found that it is a White Breasted Nuthatch that is pretty common here in Michigan..it looks a lot like a Chickadee but has a long. slender beak that is as long as it’s head…about the same size as the Black Eyed Juncoes that have been the predominate bird here this winter…still have not seen one sparrow on the feeder this winter and it continues to be strange to me with how many of them there were on the feeders back in GR last winter….and the volume of birds out here are probably 1/20th of what they were in GR, too, but I hope that will change next year when I change out the type of food I use…but I still have half a bag of this feed left…I am going to get a hanger and put my hummingbird feeder up this summer right outside the same window so I can see if any of them come to it…that would be cool…

Well…darn, it’s the middle March and I shouldn’t be out there digging through foot deep drifts and getting my toes frozen…I really do hope this is the last time I have to shovel this spring….but, I said that two weeks ago and most of the snow had melted until today…now it will be another two weeks before I can get out on the trails and it looks like I’ll have to keep getting my miles in downstairs…and with that, I may be able to get to 600 miles on the inside bike since I am almost at 500 today…and two more weeks will get me there…as I get older, I like the cold less and less…or I don’t dress for it more and more…not sure which it is but the rubber garden shoes I have been using are only good for about a half hour until it’s like not wearing shoes at all…I am going to buy a nice pair of winter boots for next winter…maybe some winter hikers that have good tread for the snow and ice…at least I didn’t have to buy a snowblower this winter but the day is coming where I’ll have to…cripes, I hate getting old….oh, well….time to watch some soccer and get ready to make some pork tacos for lunch….more later….

Well…that was strange…just went out to get the paper and it was probably the most snow I’ve driven in all winter…and it feels like the depths of January instead of March….we must have gotten 4 or 5 inches of snow last night and with the wind out here, there are frickin drifts that I think I’ll have to shovel later….and it’s only 15 out here…again…and I am damn tired of the cold….oh, well…that’s Michigan for you…slept really crappy last night with my allergies acting up and I could barely breathe all night even with the allergy meds…and that is not a good omen for how it’s going to be when the trees get going with their pollen….even with that, I feel okay today with being good for 10 weeks now and I am getting to the point that I will stop mentioning that since it is the new normal for me….didn’t do much yesterday and today will be the same since I am making weekends weekends again…Sunday is actually the only day I plan to take off but yesterday was a bonus day and it felt good to veg out instead of work…but I did make some decisions on the house and will do the bathroom next but then move on to the big bedroom so I can move in there permanently….it is so much larger than the room I’m using that I can actually put furniture in there…but it needs a lot of work to get it ready to paint that I probably won’t be done with it til May or so…but, it has a door that I can close to keep the dust controlled when I repair the plaster….and I may even try to remove the old wallpaper they painted over so I don’t have to have wallboard installed….it looks like a big job but the kitchen did, too, but that only took me a couple of months and there is less work in the bedroom….I am still thinking of putting in one of those pull down stairs to give me easy access to the attic but that may be a job for a contractor….haven’t really even looked at that yet….not much to do today…just going to have more coffee and get to the news that I haven’t even started yet….and there are soccer and races on today that I can play in the background as I read…a new normal Sunday….more later…..