Well…the Juncoes that have been hitting my feeder the past few days are pretty darn aggressive….they just chased a Bluejay off the sill and it is 3 times the size of the Juncoes…pretty fun…but the coolest thing is the new bird that just landed on the feeder…had a Northern Flicker and that was just so cool…large bird with tan and white with a red patch on the back of it’s head…it’s in the woodpecker family and very seldom visits feeders so that is doubly cool….finally, starting to get some bird tv going and that will keep me entertained for a while….

Well…okay, the snow shoveling pain in my mid back just showed up after I got out of bed and it  hurts…unless it is from sleeping wrong…my left side is so stiff that any movement hurts like crazy so I guess I won’t be doing much today….I have gotten into REM sleep every night for the past 5 days and that means lots of weird dreams, too…like last night where there were spies and redi mix concrete poured into fountains…yeah, I don’t know what that means, either….but I kinda like the weird and I know it’s from being good…it didn’t snow overnight and that’s a good thing with how sore I am but we’re supposed to get freezing rain overnight and I am really happy that I have a garage to keep my car in…I think they might have finally plowed the roads out here last night but I’ll have to walk to the end of the alley to see for sure…would like to go out and get the paper tomorrow morning but we’ll see how the roads are….I do have to remember to get some salt to salt the walks on the grocery run this week along with some more bird food since I have some birds hitting the feeder now with all the snow….but that will all be covered by not buying cocktail materials and I can even throw in a couple of spare bike tubes since I need to stock up while no one else is buying them….not much to do today….just the bike ride and working on the window but that may be curtailed by the pain….might try an ibuprofen here in a minute to see if that will help….more later….

Well…I finally have some new birds on the window feeder and I had to look them up on the internet to figure out what they are…it appears that they are a small sparrow species called a dark eyed juncoe…I guessed that they were juncoes and the only place I would have gotten that information was in 3rd grade where I had a teacher, Miss O’Beirn, who was a bird watcher and passed that on to the class..I even went bird watching with her and a couple of classmates early on a Saturday morning when we piled into her 59 Ford and went out into the fields armed with binoculars and birdcalls to see what we could identify….I got part of my love of science from this grey haired, 60ish woman and I can still see her face this 60 years later…teachers are important and I wish people would appreciate them more than they do….oh, and juncoes are a lot more fun than the titmouses that were here earlier….they act a lot like the brown sparrows I had in GR…

Well…after being good all week, I really expected to have energy all week like I started out…but I hit the wall today and feel exhausted and I wonder why that would be? Have been sleeping okay or no worse than normal but as I sit here doing this, I am just drained and don’t want to do any work at all…I know I’ve been shoveling a lot of snow the past couple of days and that is not easy but it didn’t have any effect yesterday…I wonder if I’m back to not eating enough? I had a half a chicken breast and some cauliflower for dinner and a small plate of spaghetti for lunch and I guess that’s only about 800 calories and if I’m honest, I know that’s not enough with the bike ride burning 600 and snow shoveling another 400…but I need to maintain my weight this winter instead of gaining the normal 12 pounds….just don’t feel like working on the windows today…I do need to remember to just live instead of working all the time but the work won’t get done unless I suck it up and get at it…aargh…

Well…this is starting to get to be a good thing…didn’t get out of bed til 7:14 and slept okay…had two sets of dreams and feel pretty good right now…but damn, another 10 inches of snow last night so that makes 28 inches in the past two days and it is still snowing so we may get to 30 before it is over…I’m glad it has been light powder…couldn’t imagine all that shoveling with heavy, wet snow…would probably have a heart attack…well probably not that but I would probably hurt a lot and my back would not like it much…don’t hurt much right now but my back is pretty stiff and the shoveling has been hard on my right shoulder…not sure if anyone else is going to clear their front walks but it looks like I’m the only one that is doing it right now…talked to my daughter last night and she offered to buy me an electric snowblower but I want to get through at least one winter here on my own just shoveling…and I really  think that it will be good for me to get more exercise….won’t need a weight machine until spring if this snow keeps up…they filled the big hole in the street yesterday after finding the water and sewer lines for the new house across the street and I really hoped they’d take longer…no cars going past my house has been such a nice quiet….but the barricades are still up until they smooth it and repave it so I may have a couple more weeks of quiet…not much to do today…just going to play it by ear…I know I need to work on the window after I get on the bike but will probably do the snow after that….and I’m thinking of making some alfredo sauce to go with some pasta for something different…but that may wait til tomorrow since I have chicken and chops in the fridge that needs to be used first….more later….

Well..today is the fourth day of being good and I will say I have a lot more energy than I have had in a long time….still don’t have much motivation but that’s an entirely different thing….I did get a bunch of stuff done, though, just not on the window…I got a bike ride in, did laundry, shoveled, shoveled again and did 4 of these….and cleaned the kitchen up some and I don’t know why I did that with window work tomorrow that is going to dirty it up again but my sinks needed a thorough scrub with the build up of minerals on everything from the water here….I am thinking about getting a countertop dishwasher that I can put next to the sink…they are about 250 bucks but I don’t have room for a full sized one and it might be nice to have one that holds three days of dishes…we’ll see…no more later…oh, not sure how long I’m going to keep being good…have been thinking of all month but it will be a minimum of a week…and then we’ll play it by ear…I know it’s good for me and I am curious to see how I’ll feel after a month….so, it’s not a goal since I do too many goals and want to change how I think about things….it will be interesting anyway…

Well….just finished up shoveling snow for the second time today and it hasn’t been too bad so far…my lower back hurts like crazy but I know it’s just muscle pain so I can live with that…but, we’ve gotten almost 24 inches of snow out here over the past two days and there is more coming…still under a winter storm warning until tomorrow morning and I think we may get another 6-8 inches overnight so I’ll be back at it in the morning…they did plow the alley that my garage opens onto so I don’t have to shovel that but I did have to go out and clear the end of my short little driveway to get the plowed stuff out of it….it looks like I’m not going to need a weight machine until spring if this keeps up…my arms feel a little toned already with just 3 snow clearings….the birds have started to use my feeder and it is cool to watch them but there are nowhere near the amount of sparrows I had in GR….but I have used 40 lbs of food and have stopped feeding the chickens since they like to crap all over my sidewalks and I just don’t need that…I will have to get another small bag of 20 pounds or so this week to get through the rest of the winter….

Well…damn, already have gotten 15 inches of snow out there and we are still under a winter storm warning until Friday morning and are supposed to get another foot at least before then….ick…I did sleep okay last night but tossed and turned a little more than yesterday but that’s to be expected until my sleep pattern settles down with being good…I did sleep weird and my neck has a little cramp in it but that should go away in a while…I hope…I am going to have to shovel the snow a couple of times today and I wonder why I don’t hurt after shoveling yesterday…probably the two day rule that the pain won’t show up til two days after the exertion…so I’ll be in pain until next week especially if I have to shovel the alley out to the street…I don’t think they plow the streets out here since I haven’t seen a snow plow since I’ve lived out here…or they just do the main streets so I may be in for a week or so…someone hit the powerball last night so I can hope for today that I won and have 480 million dollars….it’s nice to be able to to do that for a few hours but I know I didn’t win….not much to do today…have to get on the bike here in a few minutes, then I have laundry and the first snow removal, then more work on the window so I can fill it tomorrow…so I have enough to do today but I am going to have coffee first and read the news for the next half hour or so…then get after it….more later….

Well…just finished shoveling the snow and…owww…my back did not like that at all and now I’m sitting here stiff as heck and I’m going to have to take something for it soon…had some drifts in front of my garage door that were 2 feet deep and at least 8 inches everywhere else…and it’s still snowing and blowing out here so I’ll have to do it again tomorrow but I needed to get the front walk cleared…and even with doing all of it, it only took me about 20 minutes so that was cool…but it looks like it is going to snow for the next 5 days out here so I’ll be working pretty hard to keep the walks clean…and I won’t be going anywhere til next wed when I do the grocery run….but, I’m used to staying in with this damn virus everywhere so no big deal….might watch the first Wings game tonight since I saw they won big last night…probably won’t even recognize most of the kids on the team….but I can invest in hour to see the first period….we’ll see…

Well…finally got some work done today with cleaning the bathroom and getting started on the last kitchen window…and this one looks like the worst one in the bunch….have been chipping the runs and built up paint out of the corners and started sanding but it looks like it is going to take until next week to get it ready for paint…and there is plaster that needs to be replaced, too, so the filling and sanding is going to take quite a while and then I have to paint the plaster above the window since they left that the old green color since you can’t see it unless you lean your head over the sink…but, I can’t leave it like that…I have plenty of time to do the job right and I will…or until I get to the point that I’m tired of working on it and that will be good enough…..hooking my shop vac to the sander worked pretty good but the real test will be sanding the filler down after I get that done this weekend…still need to order the new blinds for it and the  seven other windows that I still need blinds for….I am going to leave the white ones up in the dining room since they are new and I’m not going to throw new ones away….it’s still snowing like crazy out here so it looks like I won’t get to the snow til tomorrow…or later this evening if it stops…..