Well…damn…that was a crappy night with having pain on the left side of my jaw all night but, thankfully, I was able to sleep some and the pain is manageable today…but even with the pain at a low level, the anticipation that it is going to get as bad as yesterday has me on pins and needles as I do this…and I think it may be an infection since it hurts across my jaw both upper and lower…and to have all the teeth on both of them hurt at once is not how cavity pain usually works…I was lucky to have some leftover amoxicillin to take and that may be working and I have enough to get through a couple of days so I hope I can endure until I can find a dentist out here….crap…. so that was my focus for the whole day yesterday and didn’t get much done and today will be the same if the pain comes back…and the weather is going to go to hell this afternoon with 2-4 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 55 mph so I need to be able to get to Monday before I can go anywhere…..so, I’ve already taken some ibuprofen and some amoxicillin to try to get ahead of the pain and survive the day…and I need to find out if there is a dentist out here that will take my medicare dental so I can save a few hundred bucks on x-rays and cleaning…..no much to do today…going to get on the bike here in a few minutes and I really wish I didn’t have to….and I need to shovel the snow we got last night before the storm starts this afternoon….and I planned to make a pizza today but I’m not sure if I’ll do that with the pain in my jaw but I really should before the veggies and mushrooms go bad….I do need to put the chicken I got Wed into bags and get it into the freezer…won’t have to buy any protein for the next couple of weeks with getting 17 pounds wed….and I have three pork chops marinating in the fridge and I planned for one later today but I’m not sure if I can support that many calories in one day….more later….

Well…boy, that was a lousy night and I feel pretty worn out this morning…and it is so disappointing that I’m back to the bad sleep patterns that have haunted my nights for years and years now….and that was one of the reasons for having cocktails so much for the past year…but I will trade feeling worn out for not being hung over any day since the coffee is now no longer needed to get me back to functional but I can enjoy it as it reverts to clearing out my head…and that’s what an old guy needs…I did get some work done yesterday and got the back stairs vacuumed and scrubbed along with more cobweb removal and I can’t figure out how I never saw all of them before…I know the dust made them pretty visible but damn, there were a lot of them and they would have made for a pretty good Halloween haunted house…so this place is a lot cleaner than it has been since I moved in here and I still have more work to do..one nice development is that once I got all the dust cleaned up and aren’t making more, the combustion blower on the furnace is no longer making the whining noise it has been for a couple of weeks and that is pretty cool..I was expecting to spend 300 bucks to get a new one installed and can really use a month of no extra money going out after burning a pile of cash last month….it is going to be a leftover day today even with buying 17 pounds of protein yesterday but I will need to get some pork chops in a marinade today so I can have them tomorrow with the asparagus I got for 1.49 a pound…and I have oranges! So there will be healthy fruits and lots of veggies to go with the pork chops that are not too good for you and I hope that balances it out….not much to do today…I am going to finish up the filling in the kitchen today and I do need to clean up my sander so I can get at the baseboards and the door frames…and I will need to clean under the range since it is one spot I haven’t cleaned since I bought this place and, if it’s anything like the rest of the house, it will be gross under there and probably take two or three passes at it to make it acceptable to me….more later….

Well…have been looking for a topic in politics since I got back from the errands this morning with no luck so I think I’ll talk about my success at the grocery stores today….I did get some more salt to melt the sidewalks after this warm day ends and the rain freezes overnight…and it was a good idea to get it today since depot was almost out of it when they had pallets of it two weeks ago when I got the last bag…and I got the last container of filler…I hope…to start on the rest of the windows when I get to it…but I need to work on the kitchen first to get it ready for paint next week so I think I’ll work on that today but I am not going to just slather the filler on as I have been doing since I don’t want to have a lot of sanding to do before I paint…the dust is still causing some rashes a week after I stopped sanding and that is so damn irritating….oh, food…almost forgot about that…I did get another 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters at Aldi’s for 4.90 but I also got 7 pounds of pork chops for 7 bucks at Meijers so I have lots of protein here that is going to end up in the freezer in the next couple of days since I want to make another pizza tomorrow to use up the green pepper, mushrooms, and pepperoni…oh, and I got two more pounds of asparagus at 1.49 a pound and a 4 pound bag of oranges for 3 bucks…so I have lots of food here and really don’t have to go anywhere until I get the paper Sunday…even with all that food, I still only spent 30 bucks on groceries today and I think I can get two weeks out of it…oh, and I did finally get a new mop and bought a dustpan that I needed since I was tired of using cardboard and newspapers to pick up when I sweep….both the mop and the dustpan were Libman’s and I really like their stuff…plus it’s all made in the US and they still compete on price so it can be done….more later…

Well…that was not as good as it has been lately…tossed and turned a bunch and all my bedding ended up across the room and that sucks a little…but I ‘m not sure why I would expect to sleep well every night with my history of not sleeping much at all…not sure what happened but I have had a headache for weeks now and I just may have to take something for it this morning….the wind is howling out there already and it is 43 degrees at 6:30 and I really do hope that the storm they are forecasting for tonight and tomorrow stays to the south of us here…pretty tired of the snow but it is only the middle of Feb and I know that we can expect more snow and cold…but that doesn’t make it any easier to wait for spring to come…I have a 4 store grocery/errand run this morning and it may turn into 5 if DD has anything I want…Aldi’s has chicken for 49 cents a pound again and I wonder how much I should get? Still have 4 of the leg quarters in the freezer from the last time so I guess only one bag will have to do since I do want to make a lasagna later in the week and still need to make another pizza tomorrow…I think I may have figured out how to look at the bike ride every morning to make it a little easier…I just need to think of it as listening to 9 songs of music I like while moving my legs while I do it….I may just have to take a week day off of riding since this is my most consistent winter on the bike ever and I haven’t gained a pound this winter versus gaining the 12 that is normal when I don’t ride at all in the winter….not much to do today…just the grocery and depot run and then back here for more coffee…I just looked at my bank account and I did spend 2200 bucks last month and that has to stop if I’m going to afford another Miata in the spring…more later….

Well…damn, that was a night of hard sleep….went all the way through until 6:06 today and had weird dreams about real estate and condos being built in Chief Hazycloud Park in Ada…and the only people who will understand that are those who grew up there as I did…I am having a little bit of a hard time getting going this morning and it may be from just eating  a little too far under what I need for the day…but, that may be a plus with the article I read yesterday that said that if you eat around14% less calories than you need, it helps you avoid some of the problems that come with aging along with helping maintain weight….and I’ve been doing that my entire life so maybe my obsession is going to pay benefits and I’ll be able to keep going longer…who knows? I am starting to get bored with getting on the bike every day and it is getting harder and harder to keep it up…I did get over 300 miles since the start of the year yesterday and that keeps me on pace to get to 600 before the trails melt and I can get back outside…and I think this is going to be the first year that I don’t gain weight over the winter and may even lose some and that will set me up to be at summer weight before I get outside…that would be cool….not much to do today…will probably continue to clean and organize the downstairs and start getting my tools ready to make the push to finish the kitchen….need to clean my sander and get the dust out of it so I can get on the baseboards and I have a little filling to do on some cracks in the corners but I am not going to overfill them so I can keep the dust down…still have rashes from the dust and may have to get more cortisone cream on the grocery run tomorrow….more later…

Well…gee, who would have thought I couldn’t just take it easy around here…after sitting here this morning and watching some Olympics, I just couldn’t sit anymore so I went downstairs and started to finish up cleaning the dust that got everywhere when I was sanding the kitchen cabinet parts…got the walls washed along with one fan, the ac unit, and some electronics that needed dusting badly to keep them so they will work if I need them to…and then washed all of the hot and cold air ducts in that area and cleaned the dust off my two outdoor bikes that had gotten a thin coat on them…and I found a set of Samsung earbuds that must have come with this phone when I bought it but that I forgot about…and now I have a backup set just in case my Betrons quit…but, I’ve had them over two years now and I’ve never had a set last that long…the cords are pretty heavy duty on them…not like the rest of the earbuds I’ve bought and have taken a lot of abuse and just kept on working…so, I guess the precedent is set for tomorrow to keep working downstairs until I get that done and organized…I’m even thinking about buying a cheap door to hang in the doorway of the bike room where there was one before when it was a bedroom….not sure why I want one but it would make it a little more finished…one crappy thing is that my hands hurt and are stiff again just from cleaning for an hour and a half today…crap, crap, crap…

Well…running about on time this morning with not getting up til 6:22 and I don’t feel too bad today…I am still dreading getting on the bike for some reason this morning and it may be how hard the ride was Sat…but, I felt like crap then and I feel okay now so maybe it won’t be as bad…and I really don’t have anything to do today other than clean a bit downstairs so it looks like another easy day…the cracks in the ends of my fingers started to heal pretty well with the rest from the last couple of days and I am still going to take it easy on them for a few more days before I get back into working on the kitchen…still have some crack filling to do in there before I get to the rest of the painting…and I need to hit all of the extra plaster on the ceiling so there are no blobs before I paint it…I will need to hit depot Wed to get more filler and some more ice melting salt before we get the rain/snow/ice that is going to come in Wed night…man, I burned a lot of cash this month and I think I spent all of my SS deposit with the house taxes and insurance that were almost a thousand bucks but this month should be better with nothing extra going out…but it has been so cold my gas bill is almost 115 bucks and that is the highest one I’ve had since I’ve been out here…but this week should help with highs being in the 30’s most of the week…although it is only 12 right now and that is damn cold….not much to do today…just the bike ride and then I’ll figure out what I need to do to keep the guilts at bay…and I’m making chicken and asparagus for lunch so that will be cool…more later…

Well…I have been making homemade pizza for a long time now but I really haven’t been happy how it has been turning out…I know I haven’t made it since I moved in here so my memory of how the last one came out could be a little fuzzy…but I do remember that it didn’t have a lot of flavor and that I have been adjusting the crust recipe bit by bit over the years and I think I may have screwed it up doing that…I added an extra quarter cup of water to it since it felt a little dry and I started to use vegetable oil instead of olive oil in the crust….and I think those two changes were wrong since the crust came out really sticky and didn’t taste like much…so today, I went back to the original recipe and it came out so much better and the crust was even a little crunchy and not the gooey consistency it had gotten to…so, I have enough materials to make another one Wed…and the idiot I am, I think I may add some garlic powder to the crust or maybe some Italian seasoning to bump up the flavor even more…but just enough so you barely taste it but it’s there…but, that’s all I had to eat today…two pieces of pizza and I wonder if that’s enough? I think so….or I may have some cheese and crackers with the SB tonight….who knows?

Well…I know we are in the part of winter that tries people’s coping skills here in Michigan and it is only about 15 out there right now and that is damn cold…but, when I went out to shovel the snow, by the time I got the front walks done the sun had already started to melt the remaining snow on my walks at the back of the house…and that means the sun is getting slowly stronger no matter what the temp is out there…and looking at the 10 day weather forecast, I can see that we have a short spell of moderating temps that give me a little hope that the worst is over for this winter…and it gives me a little bit of a smile that I’ve survived another winter here without much damage…but, I don’t want to speak too soon since I remember getting over a foot of snow in an April snowstorm when I was young and that can still happen….I will take any small hint that spring is coming…I’m an optimist, after all…kinda…