Well…running a little late from the new normal for me with not getting out of bed til almost 6:30 so I won’t be getting on the bike til 7:30 or so…I have to remember I don’t have a schedule anymore and it doesn’t matter if I’m on the bike a few minutes later…but it is nice to get the ride out of the way early before I have the chance to think about it…slept okay last night and I was good for the 13th day but I almost had cocktails to watch the Ray Donovan movie last night…that was a habit for so long that it was almost easy to fall back into it…the movie was just meh and a little disappointing but it filled a night so I guess that’s okay…watched the last episode of the Expanse last night and it had a pretty good ending after 6 years so that was cool but I’ll miss the show….I did get a little work done yesterday but I’m only going to do a little today..going to take the big upper doors off the kitchen cabinets and get all the food, spices and dishes out of them and into totes so I can get started sanding the insides of them….want to get the upper parts of them done this week and then get on the lower ones next week with the ones over the stove the week after….I can’t wait til all the sanding is over and I can do one final dust clean up but that won’t come for a month or so in the kitchen with needing to do the door frames and baseboards before I can paint the walls…so it looks like mid Feb to have the work done in there or maybe even a little later….it is a pain that every surface in the entire house needs work but I do have to remember that I have the whole winter and summer to work on it and I don’t need to rush…working on the house will be my job for the year…but I am going to take a two week vacation in July and just go to the beach every day and get a good tan…and I may just go fishing this summer too, even if I can’t eat the fish…and the kayak is still in the back of my mind but I need to get one on sale and not spend more than 200 bucks….so, I need to get on the bike right now and get my day started…lots of soccer on and Man U plays at 12:30 so I want to be done with my work by then….more later…

Well…with fighting all the dust since I started on the kitchen, I figured there must be a better way to deal with it than just letting it blow all over the house…and with starting on the cabinets and doors and all of the filling and sanding that they are going to need, I decided to build a little 9×12 work room in the basement out of drop cloths to try to contain at least some of it…luckily, I had enough them of them to do the two sides and cover the floor to protect against paint drips…I’m pretty careful when I paint but there is always at least once that I’ll drip some paint and this way I don’t have to clean it up as I go…and there is enough room to put all 4 or my sawhorses in there and still have room to move around…and I have two 100 watt LED lights in there so I’ll be able to see really well when I work…and I even have a small window in my glass blocks that I can open to get some ventilation…man, I love having a basement that I can use…so, that’s enough work for the day…need to get photos of the kitchen tomorrow before I start tearing the doors off…oh, I did plug the new light socket into the outlet over the sink and I’m not sure if I’ll keep it there or not but it is nice to have light over the sink….oh, and while I was downstairs, the combustion blower on the furnace started to whine again so I whacked it hard on the side of the furnace and it stopped…I guess sometimes you need to use brute force to fix things….

Well…as I watched the new house going up across the street, I couldn’t figure out what kind of house it was going to be…it was way too small for a one story and I had no clue where the garage was going to be…but, this morning, they started to put the second story on and that made much more sense…and some of the other new ones around here have detached 2 stall garages but this lot has a curb cut for a garage that fronts on Merrill so I’m not sure how that is going to work…but I am relieved that it is not going to be a tiny house that would sell for less than mine is worth…and that makes the eighth new house that I can see from my yard and that is a welcome restoration of this neighborhood…

Well…I can’t remember when I had a more relaxing time running errands in the morning…the roads were clear and very little traffic and when I got to depot to get the first batch of grey paint there was no one waiting so it only took about 5 minutes to get the paint mixed and I was able to wander around and get an outlet to try to put a light over the sink…it’s just a plug in with a pull chain but I thought I’d try it and see if I need the light….then I stopped at Aldi’s to get 10 more pounds of chicken leg quarters and I was the first in line at the checkout so it only took me about a minute to get out of there…then a run across Sherman to HF to get sandpaper and a short handled brush to paint the inside of the cupboards…and the sandpaper was only 2.47 for 7 sheets while it was 7 bucks for 4 sheets at depot and that was just a little ridiculous…and I got some new style pads for my detail sander that I wanted to try…so, all in all, a good day so far and I was back here by 9:30….now I need to get a couple more leg quarters in a marinade for later and put the rest of them in the freezer…I think I have just about enough room with giving Tom some ham soup yesterday…oh, Tom…the Ray Donovan movie is out on Plex…going to watch it tonight…

Well…darn…another 4am morning this morning but I was able to get back to sleep until a little after 6 so that is a win…but, I wonder why I don’t feel like I slept at all? I have been good for 11 days now and you would think that would be enough to feel better but I just feel worn out…again…had a nice day yesterday with Tom bringing out his new puppy and I couldn’t help but laugh at all the energy Lucy has…damn, I would love to harness some of that…think she is going to be a good dog and a lot of fun…didn’t get much done yesterday but clean but the house needed that and I have plenty of time to get to the kitchen cupboards….I had a brainstorm last night on the colors for the doors and it may work and it may not but I’m going to try it and see….will probably start taking the doors off today so I can get started on sanding and filling them or I may just prep my workspace downstairs and call it good til Monday and take the weekend off…I am going to go out and get the first gallon of grey paint for the insides of the cupboards and some more sandpaper for my sanders since there is going to be tons of sanding on both the doors and the inside and outside of the cabinets….just realized I have about a grand going out in Feb for my property taxes and house insurance so I won’t be gaining any cash in the bank next month and that kinda sucks but it is part of life…I am going to stop at Aldi’s this morning and see if I can get another 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters for 4.90…and that will give me protein for the next month or so…the marinade I use for the last chicken really made it taste good and I am going to look for a few different ones to add to my recipes to expand my taste and that may be the task for the weekend….more later…oh, found out this week that there is a Ray Donovan movie coming out today on Showtime and I am going to try to find a channel to watch it on…

Well…the plans that I had for this morning changed and I decided to not go out and get the grey paint I need for the insides of the cupboards…took a look around and decided that the place needed cleaning more that it needed paint so I did laundry and cleaned up instead..I can’t believe how far the dust traveled from doing the kitchen windows….it’s all the way into the living room and I am debating cleaning it up when I know I’m just going to spread more when I get to sanding the cabinets in the kitchen…will probably wait until I sand the first cabinets…I am setting up a work space downstairs to sand and paint the cabinet doors but I need to get out and get some more sandpaper at HF tomorrow….looked at depot yesterday but they only have 3M and it costs almost 7 bucks for 4 sheets and I’m not going to pay that much…and I need more diamond shaped sheets for my detail sander and HF is the cheapest for those, too…so today is going to be a down day and I’ll get back to work tomorrow….more later….

Well…woke up this morning and took a look at my phone and thought I saw 5:14 but then my coffee alarm clock said it had to be after 6 since I could smell the new coffee brewing…so I’m up and here I am…again…had dreams last night about Steely Dan concerts and people that I met before but didn’t know where I met them…it was one of those things where you see someone and you know them but you don’t know where from…kinda weird….it was my 9th day of being good and it is starting to be a habit and I am curious how long this is going to last….one place that it has really affected is the bike ride every morning…it is still a bit of a struggle to force myself to get on the bike but once on it the rides have been much easier and more fun…I think part of that is that I have the plans for working on the house to think about while I’m on it and that is a good distraction…I did get the salt I needed to do the walks yesterday and they are finally clear….and the chicken I got from Aldi’s is really good after I marinated it in balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, worst sauce, garlic and onion powder along with some Italian seasoning….and the leg quarters are pretty big so one makes a meal and I have another one for later today….if I had room in my freezer, I’d run out and get another 10 pounds at 49 cents a pound to stock the freezer for a month…not much to do today…Tom is coming out in the afternoon so I can meet his new dog and hang out a while…and I have to remember to send him home with some of the latest batch of ham soup that I made a couple of  weeks ago…and I have laundry and cleaning this place up a bit to do before then…it is nice to finally be making some progress on the house and to have a vision of what I want it to look like when I’m done…going to go out tomorrow to get the first of the grey paints so I can start painting the inside of the cupboards…it is going to be a subtle grey that I think will look cool…more later…

Well….darn…got most of the shopping done by 10 this morning but no one had any salt for the sidewalks…Meijers and depot were out and I tried menards website to see it they had any…and they did but that meant another run over to Sternberg Road when I was just there for Aldi’s, Meijers, target, and the dollar store…so, I jumped back in the car for another 10 mile round trip and finally got 50 lbs of a blend for 12 bucks so that was cool…so now, after lunch, I’m going to go out and clear the sidewalks and salt them since it is warm enough for the salt to work really well….and it is going to get much colder later in the week…I did get the 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters for 4.90 this morning so I need to marinate a couple for later today and that will keep me going for a week or more…going to make some alfredo sauce tomorrow for fettucini and I got eggs and thawed some bacon so I’m set for food for at least a week to 10 days….I will be back for a political one later but I need to have lunch first…

Well…a 5:39 morning this morning but I was able to lie there until a little after 6 so that is pretty normal for the past 10 days….don’t hurt as much as I should with all of the climbing, carrying, and twisting yesterday and that is welcome news when I thought I’d be limping around here…still a little stiff but I can deal with that….it’s nice that I have a plan to rehab the kitchen over the next few weeks and I will be happy if I have it done by the end of the month….going to be a ton of sanding, filling, and painting and I’m going to buy a new range hood to replace the ugly painted one that is in there…a nice stainless steel one will look good when I get it done…I may start tearing the doors off today…have 11 of them to remove but I need to fit them first so I don’t have to do that after I’ve painted them….and I need to empty the cupboards into totes so nothing is in the way…and that means I’ll have to get a gallon of grey paint to do the insides of them along with the walls….but I won’t do that til next week since there is lots of prep to do before I can paint…..man, I have a busy errand day today and I can’t remember having a list so long…and having to hit 5 stores in one morning…going to burn over a hundred bucks but I’ll have everything I need to go a couple of weeks and get a lot of work done….hope I can get the 10 lbs of chicken from Aldi’s since I’ve planned to marinade some and have that later today…and fill my freezer again….more later….

Well…I wonder if it takes 10 days of being good to feel better? I had a day today with lots of work in it and I still have tons of energy and it’s 5:30 in the afternoon and I’ve been going since 7:15 this morning…no hitting the wall, no feeling like crap, no nothing…I have been trying to eat more, too so that may have something to do with it but whatever it is, I’ll take it…I know part of it is accomplishing something today and, looking at the window, it came out a lot better than I thought it was going to….I really like this Glidden paint I’ve been using…the satin finish just looks rich and pretty nice for a cheap paint….I am really sore after the painting today…trying to turn myself into a pretzel so I could get at the back side of the header was a bit much for an old guy and I had to stand in the kitchen sinks to even get close to be able to do it…I did discover there is an electrical outlet on the back side of the header and I am going to try to put a pull chain socket in there to see if it works….I could use more light in the kitchen and that would help…I’ll bet they had a clock plugged into it like most kitchens had in the olden days…I may even be able to put a pull chain light fixture in there…we’ll see…okay, that’s enough for the day…time to take it easy….