Well…you know me, if I have things that need to be done, I just can’t sit and wait to do them…so the plan to put the second coat on the window tomorrow didn’t hold up too long…right after lunch, I dragged the paint and brushes out again and finished it up so I don’t have to paint tomorrow…or, I can start on the dining room windows that should only take a couple of days to sand, fill, and paint since they don’t look too bad…at least not like the kitchen window I just finished…that one was just ugly and looks okay but there was so much damage on it, it was never going to look new…but it looks okay and I can live with that…and I painted the space above the window that was still the original green of the kitchen from 3 or 4 paintings ago….will probably start putting everything in the cupboards in totes tomorrow so I can start taking the doors off to sand, fill, paint and remount with the new hardware…and then the facings of the cupboard need the same work so that is going to take a while since I need to sand and paint the insides of them, too…lots of work to do but it will be worth it…I hope….

Well…busted my butt this morning to get things done in the kitchen and I feel good about that….had to fill a bit on the window after I sanded and had to wait for it to dry so I could sand again so I decided to replace the hinges on the big doors and try to adjust them so they would close…both of them were a little warped so they are never going to close like they should but I got them so they don’t stay open 6 inches and I think that is about as good as I can expect with 82 year old doors….and the new bronze look hinges look good, too, replacing some that were so covered with paint that they just looked ugly and, while it is just a little progress, it is progress and I feel good about it… I had to take everything out of the cupboards and clean all my spices, dishes, and the rest of the food from all of the dust from sanding and fitting the doors and wiped out the inside of them…I worked for 3 1/2 hours today and will work again tomorrow to put the second coat on the window after all of the errands in the morning…I am getting used to getting on the bike early and had the best ride I’ve had since I started riding downstairs….had to contort myself so much to get at the space over the window that I think I’m going to hurt tomorrow….but it is looking better than it did and that’s all I can expect….more later….

Well…another 6:01 morning and I really wish that how I feel when I get up would last all day…feel okay after my 8th day of being good but it exposes how it feels to be old and I’m not sure I like that at all…having cocktails masks all of that and gave me something to blame feeling old on but that is gone with being good….I guess it’s good to know what reality is for a change but I don’t have to like it…I did sleep okay last night but getting up so early and coming here early sets me up for another day like yesterday where I’ll be on the bike a little after 7…may even have time to paint the window today and work on the hardware on the doors….I may do the kitchen rehab before I work on the rest of the windows since the kitchen is the worst looking part of the house…but that means taking the entire kitchen apart to sand, paint, and replace all the hardware and get a place set up downstairs to do the work…will be living out of tubs for a month or so since I want to paint the interiors of the cabinets and put some shelf paper down…the last time they were painted it was done so badly that there will be a lot of prep work…I wonder if I should paint the interiors grey as an accent…that may look pretty cool with the grey I’m going to paint the walls and will cover a lot of the flaws of the 82 year old cabinets…we’ll see…..not much to do today….need to get started on my day here in a minute and I need to sand a little more on the window before I can mask it off and paint…just had a thought that the grey blinds would look cool with the grey interiors of the cabinets….okay, too much to think about…want to read a little news and have more coffee before I get on the bike….more later….

Well…there is one problem with getting all your work done early in the day…it leaves too much time on your hands to just fool around…so today, the big doors on the kitchen cabinets were annoying the heck out of me since they wouldn’t stay closed and it hit me that I had a box full of new hardware downstairs so I thought I’d look to see if I had any self closing hinges in the pile and I did…some really nice bronze ones that fit right in the same holes so all I had to do was take the old ones off and screw the new ones on and now the doors stay closed and at any other position that I want…and that is with only one new hinge on each door…didn’t have time to replace them all with Man U playing but will get to putting the other two up tomorrow and even adjust them so they fit like they’re supposed to but that will mean re-drilling some of the holes since they are a good 1/4 of an inch off at least…will have to see if I have enough of them to do all of the doors…I need 16 in total to do them all and I’m not sure if I have that many…will count them tomorrow and see…back to ManU…dang, it’s cold out here…only 11 degrees right now and getting down to 0 overnight…brrr…still need to put the trash out later….

Well…I am looking for a political topic for later today but not right now….got such an early start today that it is 10:30 and I have everything done that I had planned…got on the bike around 7:20 and was done a little after 8 and that felt pretty good…got a nice ride in with very little pain and then got after the window sanding and re-filling…it’s such a pain that cleaning up the dust afterward takes more time than the actual work….and it looks like I’ll be ready to paint Thurs…can’t do it wed since I have a huge set of errands to run…have to hit 5 stores to lay in enough supplies for a couple of weeks and get some stuff that I have been needing for a while…need to get a shower curtain liner from Target and some more curtain rings from the dollar store….plus two grocery stores since Aldi’s has chicken leg quarters for 49 cents a pound Wed…have to buy a 10 lb bag but that’s okay…and then I need more filler and melting salt for the sidewalks at depot…so it’s going to be a busy morning…but, I’m about done today other than cleaning and cooking so it is going to be easy until Man U plays at 2:50….more later….

Well…woke up at 4:50 this morning but was able to go back to sleep until a little after 6 so I guess that’s a win….and had dreams again for the 7th day in a row and the reason must be skipping the cocktails for the same time…but, while I felt better most of the week, over the past few days I don’t feel any better being good so I wonder why that would be? Felt really lousy yesterday afternoon and I don’t think it could be not eating enough and I even took the day off and didn’t feel better…and that sucks…but, I’m going to keep it up for at least this week to see if it may take longer for my body to re adjust after having cocktails for so long…..have had a low grade headache for weeks now and I know it has to be allergies so I think I’ll try some nasal allergy meds this morning….taking it easy yesterday at least has helped with my back pain and that feels pretty good today but my right elbow has been screaming and it will get worse when I sand the window later this morning but it’s a familiar pain I’ve had for years so no big deal…okay, that’s enough bitching about my old body….I guess it’s not just Muskegon that doesn’t take care of their roads on the coast…it seems that every school system  has cancelled classes with the ice we got yesterday and I hope the warmer weather that is coming tomorrow and Wed will melt it so I can do the grocery run Wed…it’s going to be cold out here with a high in the teens and single digit lows today but I’m staying in so it doesn’t matter….not much to do today…need to ride the bike first and then get at the window for the first sanding after I filled it sat…then I need to fill again and sand and I’ll be ready to paint Wed or Thurs and then I need to order the new blinds for the rest of the windows so I’ll have them here as I get them done….sure hope it doesn’t take 10 days to get them…it shouldn’t since the holidays are over….more later….

Well….it really is eye opening how windy it is out here in Muskegon…we are under another gale warning today with steady winds of 20-30 mph out of the southwest with gusts of up to 50 mph and I can hear it howling out there right now…one good thing is that we have no big snow in the forecast until late this week and that will help healing up my back from all of the shoveling I had to do wed, thurs, and fri….and the pain has been subsiding a bit but it still hurts and I hope staying off the bike today will help, too….it’s too windy for the birds to even land on the sill or feeder and I’ve only seen one all this morning and I was hoping to see what I saw yesterday with lots and lots of the Juncoes coming back…at least the sun is shining for the time being and that is a welcome occurrance with how gloomy it’s been out here lately….okay, time to take it easy and figure out what I’m going to do for lunch…

Well…running a little early today with getting up a little after 6 and then going out to get the paper even with the streets out here solid ice…almost buried it in the snow on the last turn coming onto 7th but I had just enough momentum to get through….it’s nice to get back to the normal Sunday routine and it’s going to be an easy day without riding the bike today….need a rest day at least once a week….and I am going to take the day off of everything and just relax….and that’s pretty hard for me and will probably clean some later…or not…who knows? Had a good day yesterday and got a bunch of little things done that I hadn’t planned at all…they just kind of happened when I was wandering around here…I feel pretty good about getting started on freeing up the front forks on the black bike but I don’t think it will work as good as new again but it’s certainly going to be better than it was frozen…that was hard on my hands when I hit bumps on the trail and it shook all the way into my shoulders….will keep hitting it with wd all winter to make sure it doesn’t freeze up again….and I tried one of the repaired tubes int he front tire to see if that works at all…it never has before so I’ll be surprised if it did….I did have my 6th day of being good yesterday and I tried to eat more to see if that was why I was so exhausted the past couple of days…I am pretty excited to have a day off today to just veg out and do nothing…I do have to remember to get some salt wed since my walks are pretty icy and the last thing I need is to slip and fall and break something….not much to do today….just going to play it by ear and have more coffee and see if there is soccer on that I can put on in the background as I read the news….more later…

Well…after sitting around here with no energy all afternoon, the idea that the front forks on the black bike were frozen started to bug me so I decided to go down in the basement and take a look at it to see what I could do before I start looking for a new set of forks…so, I pulled the rubber seals off the top of them and flooded it with wd just to see what that might do…after banging them hard on the floor they started to move again…very stiff but moving so I kept that up for a while until my back wouldn’t take it anymore…but it did start to move…not smooth like the grey bike but they moved again so I may try some rust remover on them since there was rust under the seals when I took them off…and I had to change the tube out on the front wheel since it had gone flat and I tried one that I had patched to see if it would work…if it does, I’ll patch the one I took out and use that for a spare….so I guess I got things done today…and I am feeling a little bit of energy so I probably should eat more to see if I can keep that going….

Well…even with how worn out I’ve been feeling the past two days, I got some work done today that I really hadn’t planned to do…got all of the first layer of filler done and I think that is all I’m going to do today…felt okay when I got up and had some energy but that ended around noon or so and now I’m worn out again and the only thing it could be is not eating enough…so I’ve been eating a bit more today…still only had a small plate of spaghetti and garlic bread for lunch…and that can’t be more than 500 calories so I think I need to eat more later but I don’t have anything planned other than a small pork chop and some tots which will be another 500 or so calories so I may have to make some popcorn with butter later to make up for it…I’m so damn tired of feeling worn out that I have to do something…and I’ve been good for 5 days now so I should feel better, shouldn’t I? At least my back didn’t hurt riding the bike this morning so I guess that’s something…but not much…