Well…damn, not sure if I can get going fast enough to be on the bike in 5 minutes…got out of bed a little earlier that has been the norm lately and broke the string of getting up at 7:30 with dragging my butt out at 6:30 today….I do need to keep up the two rides a day so I have no choice but to get going soon….but I feel so damn worn out that I could just sit here and get ready to do the grocery run….but I won’t and I wonder what that says about me? I did get a few things done yesterday with moving the spare mattress downstairs to get it out of the way for me to work on the dining room and I wonder why I let it sit there for almost two years when I have tons of room in the basement? Oh, well…now I just need to keep going on the trim in there but I’m going to be so busy that I may not get to it today…and I do want to watch the world cup match today….not much to do today…just the grocery run and then back here to ride the bike again and do a couple more of these…kind of boring, I know, but that’s my life…..more later….
Another reason…
Well…as you know, I continue to be careful about getting infected with covid by social distancing and still masking up whenever I go out anywhere…and with reading more about the damage the virus does to your body, it gives me another reason to continue being careful. Just yesterday, I read an article that said a recent study of infected people found that the virus suppresses the immune system by up to 80% making infected people much more susceptible to the other viruses going around like RSV and the flu…and this effect lasts from 8 months to a year…and this is in addition to the debilitating effects that you get with long covid that many people still feel years after their infection and is going to result in a tsunami of permanent disability in the near future…and don’t get me started on the 1,000 people a day who are still dying and adding to the total of 1.1 million who have already died…so, am I trying to justify my being careful? Nope, I’m comfortable with what I’m doing to try to avoid this disease and I really don’t care that no one else is…it’s their lives…
First two ride downstairs day…
Well…even with getting a late start to the day, I was able to get everything done I wanted to do…an that included doing two rides on the bike downstairs to give me 16 miles for the day…but man, that second ride was pretty brutal and I started to shake getting off it and I’m not sure what that was about…but it stopped within a minute so I guess I can live with it…and in between the rides I finally got the bathroom cleaned and it sure needed it so I feel good about that…and I got all that done before Argentina plays Croatia in 20 minutes so I will be able to just hang out and watch it…I do need to put the grocery list together during the game but that will only take about 5 minutes so I will be able to just sit back and enjoy it…okay, just did the math and I have about 200 miles to hit my goal for the bike this year and at 16 miles a day, it will only take 13 days to get there while I have 18 days left in the year…so I am going for it…and that should get me to about 6100 miles for the year…and that is 57 over the record from a couple of years ago….and I can even still take Sundays off….yay!
Ole Rupert is in the hot seat today…
Well…finally, the one person in the world who has done the most damage to everything good is going to be in the hot seat today…Rupert Murdoch, who has turned fox news into a weapon against democracy, is going to be questioned in the suit that Dominion Voting Systems has brought against fox for lying their asses off for a year claiming that their machines were used to steal the 2020 election away from the idiot trump…and at 1.6 billion dollars, a win would put a pretty big dent in murdoch’s wallet…the whole case is going to hang on whether or not there was a corporate mandate for those lies and they knew they were lying…which isn’t a stretch given that almost everything that is broadcast by fox is a lie and they know it…in fact it’s one of their most used tools to spread disinformation while pushing the right wing bullshit that pollutes the world….but, I’m sure he will take the fifth for every damn question just like the idiot trump did in the NY suit against him…but that shouldn’t even matter…there is plenty of evidence to convict without his testimony…gutting fox would be a christmas wish for all of us over here on the left…and it can’t happen too soon….geez…
December 13th
Well…damn, running really later again today…I mean it’s after 8 and I’m just getting to this…so is that sleeping in when I didn’t get out of bed til 7:30 for the 3rd day in a row? It sure feels like it but my body doesn’t feel like I’ve been sleeping in at all…I know I tossed and turned all night and remember looking at my phone at 2:34, 3:51, and 4:44 before getting out of bed so I guess that kind of cancels out the sleeping in….when I got up and looked at my couch I had to laugh that it looks like an old person’s nest with blankets, pillows, and a heating pad on it…and the various lotions for my hands and feet on the coffee table….damn, it’s strange getting old…I am going to try to get two rides in downstairs today but to do that I have to get off my butt and get going in the next 15 minutes or so….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but start on the bathroom and I need to put in an hour or so to finish it up…I made the mistake of having my glasses on when I went in there the other day and that showed me how much dust and dirt was in there and I need to scrub the shower to get rid of the soap scum…but I need to do the ride first and need to get off my butt and get going…but more coffee and some news first….more later….
Last outdoor ride…
Well…after getting an indoor ride in this morning and making lunch, I decided to get one last outdoor ride in, too so I jumped on the bike and froze my butt off for 15 miles….my fingers are still a little painful and I’ve bee back here for an hour so I’m not sure if it was a good idea or not…I sure did need the exercise but I seem to be more sensitive to the cold as I get older and it just makes it too brutal for me to go out…and it looks like the weather is going to keep me off it for the rest of the year with the rain/snow that is coming in the next few days, and then it is going to get really cold with highs in the 20’s next week and even down to 21 for a high next Friday….I am still trying to get to the record for the year but that will mean two indoor rides every day and I’m not sure I can muster up the dedication to do that…I guess we’ll see starting tomorrow….damn, I’m still freezing…think I’ll put the heating pad on my back to help that…..
True fusion?
Well…I think I’ll talk a little about science this morning since I haven’t been able to find a political topic yet and I just put some chicken in the oven for lunch…yesterday, there was a news story that would be surprising if it’s true since true fusion has been 40 years away since I was a kid…so this story said that the National Ignition Facility, that uses lasers to compress a deuterium pellet to trigger fusion, got almost 20% more energy out of the reaction than they put into it….the holy grail of fusion reactors across the world…oh, I probably should explain what the difference is between fusion and fission reactors…in fission, atoms of uranium are split and the resulting heat is used to turn a steam turbine to create electricity…while in fusion atoms of deuterium are squeezed together by lasers or giant magnets to form a new element which also releases energy and that is what happens in the sun…one of the reasons that fusion is being pursued all over the world is that it is much more clean than fission with no leftover radioactive waste that piles up from the fission reactors currently in use….so the reporting has been breathless about this one event since it was the first time that more energy came out than went in to the start the reaction…but I’ll reserve judgement until they make the announcement tomorrow and the data is peer reviewed….more later….
December 12th
Well…damn…not sure how I’ve been running late for weeks now but I am…up at 5:07 but not out of bed til 7:17 and it’s pushing 8 and I just poured my first cup of coffee…so that will telegraph into the entire day and I don’t like that feeling….had an okay day yesterday and did get an outdoor ride in when I was supposed to have the day off for a rest day…so I should feel good about that but I don’t…if I could do one ride, I should have done two but I was so damn cold that I didn’t warm up until I put the heating pad on my back to keep it from seizing up…so I think I’ll start the day by riding downstairs and then maybe do an outdoor ride later if it warms up enough….didn’t do a damn thing other than ride yesterday but I am going to clean the bathroom today since it is coated in dust that I don’t see unless I have my glasses on…and I made the mistake of having them on yesterday….I just noticed that the nail on my right thumb is almost healed from the damage I did to it catching it on my fence raking over a year ago…it has been split down the middle since then but it only has about 1/4th of an inch to go and the split will be gone….not much to do today….just need the damn coffee to work so I can start moving but I guess until then I can read the news and sit here a bit…and then figure out what the day is going to look like….more later
People are embarrassed…
Well…just read a funny little article that says that people are now becoming embarrassed to drive their Teslas with the idiot musk revealing who he really is by his destruction of twitter and his trump like tweets that spew the same kind of right wing bullshit…and the sales of teslas are dropping like a rock as is it’s stock price that has dropped by 75% over the past year…so I wonder why the tesla board hasn’t done anything about musk since it appears he is intentionally trying to tank the stock for some reason? I know he hated twitter and the content moderation that kept the worst of the worst right wingers off the site but he is now running up against EU and UK regulations that require moderation and it is going to cost him millions after he just fired everyone at the company that did that task…and facebook just got a 230 million dollar fine in the UK for not doing enough to keep banned content off the site…so what the hell is his endgame? I know I used to like musk for the innovations of spacex but I’m done with him…I’m off twitter now and refuse to watch the spacex launches until he is gone…I really do hope he goes broke…so any of my readers who use twitter, please go over and try Mastodon…I find it relaxing and there are no ads….or Nazis…geez…
December 11th
Well…yeah, I was lazy and only did one of these yesterday but I will do better today…slept okay last night but still feel a little worn out this morning and I’m waiting for the coffee to work after going out to get the paper….there was supposed to be a big snow storm later this week but it looks like it’s going to be light instead of the feet of snow they are getting in the plains and mountains to the west….and I’m okay with that…if we can get through December with just a little snow, there are only two months of winter to endure and I can live with that…I’m re-thinking getting another car in the spring since I don’t really use mine much and I’m not going to be able to afford one after all the dental work…going to take the day off the bike today since I need to rest my legs a bit and I just don’t want to ride right now…I may go down there later since it only takes about 45 minutes to keep my guilt at bay but I don’t have to and I like having that option at least one day a week…didn’t get anything done yesterday…as you know…and today is going to be the same I think…but right now all I want is to have another cup of coffee and to read the news for a bit….no world cup on today so I am just going to run the tv in the background and veg it out a bit….more later….