Well…running a little late this morning with not getting out of bed until after 7….and it snowed out here last night and it is sticking to the roads so I’ll be riding indoors today….had an okay day yesterday but I am a little irked that I didn’t hear from two of my kids after I reached out to them….only had one meal yesterday but it was a big one with doing the normal turkey for t-day and I’m not sure what I’ll do today…still have leftover ham that needs to be used or put in the freezer and I do want to have turkey sandwiches so maybe I’ll have a small lunch so I can do two meals today…..I can’t figure out how I hurt so much yesterday with just doing one bike ride and no other work but it might have been doing the leaves Wed…and, as I’ve bitched about before, it seems everything I do makes me hurt these days…it was almost a day off yesterday other than cooking and I think today will be the same….just don’t have any motivation right now and I hope there will be some soccer on later…I did start the Beatles documentary done by Peter Jackson last night and it was so cool to see how they worked to develop songs that I’ve only heard in their finished states….more later…..

Well…yeah, I usually don’t do one of these…they seem to be pretty self-indulgent and a way to brag about how much you have and how good things are going for you…and I know that many people in this country aren’t doing great…in fact almost 60% of the people in this country wouldn’t be able to meet a surprise 400 dollar expense….that said, I have had a lucky year that has been pretty good to me and my future….I have been in my new house now for 9 months and that in itself is something to be thankful for….with all of the moving parts that had to happen just right to get everything I wanted in a house for a good price, I will thank my brother the realtor…and to have the beautiful trails I ride on everyday and to have Lake Michigan so close is something I never thought could happen after looking for houses for a year….it has been a lot of work to tame this neighborhood but it has gotten so much better that I can go weeks without making a noise complaint…and I have enough money in the bank to take care of any emergency that might arise and that is all happening with my only income being SS….and that is something to be thankful for after being broke 4 years ago and having to borrow money to live….I’m on pace to have 100K of assets by early next year and that is just so damn cool…so, it has been a good year…I am thankful to have all four of the kids doing well, too, and for my grandchildren that I hope this damn virus will stop preventing me from seeing….and I’m thankful for the turkey that is making this place smell so good as it roasts….I think I may be at peace for the first time in many, many years and I always thought that was unobtainable….it’s not all rosy…I’m getting older and the daily aches and pains are always here and getting worse but I can still rip off 15 miles on the bike so I should stop bitching…so I will…Happy Thanksgiving…..

Well…running about on time this morning with waking up at 5 but staying in bed til about 7….slept as well as can be expected but still feel kind of slow and I’m going to ease into it this morning…it’s pretty warm outside right now and will probably get on the bike here in an hour or so and try to get an outdoor ride in if it isn’t raining…but it’s going to get colder as the day goes on and we may get some snow showers later in the day…glad I got the leaves picked up yesterday so I don’t have to think about that….had an okay day yesterday and got a few things done but I’m not planning on doing much today but cooking the turkey and watching football…just flipped the turkey over in the brine so I could get the back of it brined and need to get it in the oven by 10…going to slather it in rosemary butter to get a nice crisp skin…and I’m putting garlic, celery, carrots, and bacon in the cavity as it cooks to get some good flavor in the turkey and gravy…not much to do today…just cook and veg and then cleaning up after I’m done….and eating too much…I’m sure there will be a nap in there somewhere, too….more later…

Well….once the temp got up to around 40, I decided to take an outdoor ride today even with the wind blowing over 15mph…but it was out of the south so it wasn’t too bad…and the waves were huge and so loud that I had to take my earbuds out just to listen for a while…they must have been 8 feet or so and they were not just at the shoreline but stretched a quarter mile or more offshore and I’ve never seen that before….it was a fun ride and so different than riding indoors an it took me a while to get used to it again…once I got back here, I decided to pick up the rest of the leaves that had just fallen and filled two more bags to go out Tues on the last pickup day…the big tree still hasn’t lost it’s leaves but I think it’s tall enough that the wind will blow the leaves away when they do drop…oh, and after that, I washed the car in the driveway for the last time until spring and I need to find a car wash around here so I can wash it over the winter….need to put a hook up to hang the hose on over the winter….oh, and I did put the turkey in brine this morning to get ready for tomorrow…it’s a small one….only about 9 1/2 pounds and that’s probably the smallest one I’ve ever gotten…and fresh this year, not frozen…thought I’d pay a little more and see if the quality is better….we’ll see…

Well…darn, no dreams and crappy sleep last night and up at 6:46 but woke up an hour earlier than that….on the first cup of coffee and I sure hope it starts to work soon…I almost had that elusive day off yesterday but I did clean the kitchen so I guess it doesn’t count….but, I’m getting close and may get there tomorrow…I do have to cook the big t-day meal so I wonder if that counts as work? I do have to get the turkey into brine this morning and I’m not sure what flavors I’ll put in…rosemary, of course but I think I’ll add some bay leaves and thyme along with some garlic cloves….I’m thawing some bacon so I can put that in the cavity with the celery, carrots, and onions tomorrow to give me some good tasting gravy…..didn’t get much done yesterday but the kitchen and today looks like more of the same…I am going to try to get out on the bike today since it is already 41 out there and I would like to do a few more rides outside…but there is a gale warning right now and lots of wind out of the south so we’ll see…..would like to see what the countryside looks like after riding indoors for the past 10 days….not much to do today…I do need to clean off my dining room table that I have been using for storage for dinner tomorrow…..and I think I’ll open all of my shades to let some light in too…there is a huge change in the weather coming on Friday with cold temps and maybe some snow so I need to get out and get the leaves picked up today or tomorrow…or wait til next week but I want to put them out so I would like to do them today….we’ll see…more later…

Well…as you remember, when I got up this morning it was only 18 degrees out here since it was clear all night last night…and I had a few trees that still had most of their leaves on them… when I opened the shades that look over the back of the yard I saw something really weird…all of a sudden, the leaves on those two trees started falling off them in sheets and in less than 10 minutes they were bare…and, you know me, that triggered the first line of “Ramble On” by Zep…”leaves are falling all around, time I was on my way…” I’m weird that way…but, my big tree still has almost all it’s leaves still on it and I hope they fall so I can get them picked up by next Tues since Wed is the last day of yard waste pickup…and I don’t want to store them over the winter…I know there will be limbs down over the winter but I can store them next to the garage where they won’t be in the way…still pretty weird sight to see…

Well…that was a little different…woke up at around 5 or so but was able to go back to sleep until 7:34 and had some weird dreams in that 2 1/2 hours that I am still thinking about…offices and being chased were part of it and I’m not sure why…hmmmm…think I slept okay and part of it was straightening out my sheets and blankets and getting back under them…darn, it’s 18 degrees out here right now and I was hoping to get out on the outdoor bike today but I don’t think that is going to happen….I should be able to get out tomorrow if I wait til the afternoon or I’ll make it a two ride day with one inside and one outside….I do need to get back to a two ride routine to keep the weight off and I already feel like I’m getting huge with only one ride downstairs a day….but, I have adjusted what I eat down to about 1K calories a day so I may be able to maintain where I am now…I haven’t been able to get the birds to use my window feeder but they are eating the feed that I put out for the chickens so that is a little confusing…it’s been three weeks that I’ve had it up and I guess I’ll have to wait til the yard is snow covered to get some on it….I was looking forward to watching my bird tv…oh, well….I did get new oven mits and 100 watt led bulbs for my opener at my dollar store yesterday and they replaced the ones that I had burned on the heating elements at the Valley house….and that had become useless with the holes in them….not much to do today…that is true today since I got all of the yard work done yesterday and I don’t count indoor work….but, I do need to clean some today to continue the little that I got done yesterday but not right now…still have to read the news and have lots more coffee…still do want to take a day off but is it a day off it you plan it? Who knows? More later…..

Well….I usually have the tv running in the background all day so I don’t hear my tinnitus as much and with that, I hear commercials all day and they run lots and lots of them for peloton and the other stationary bikes that are out there…and I think that was in my head this morning on the bike when I marveled at the cost of those things…I mean 2500 bucks and up? I know they have cool internet connectivity for group rides and that kind of stuff, but they also have the people running the groups “encouraging” people to do more and I find that to be distracting and is  the reason I ride alone all the time…it gives me time to think and be alone and I think that is the best part of the ride…then it came to me that I spent 100 bucks for both the bike and trainer  to get the same exercise as the peloton people get and my little computer keeps track of time in the seat, speed, and mileage I’ve put in…by the way, that is about 7 hours and 96 miles so far….and I have variable resistance that is controlled by a switch on the handlebars but I also have gears so I can vary the amount of work I put in…I wonder how guilty those people feel when they don’t ride their 2500 dollar bikes? Probably not as guilty as I feel when I don’t ride my 100 dollar bike but that’s my problem….all I know is that I would never spend 2500 bucks on exercise equipment just to have some stranger yell at me that I’m not working hard enough….

Well….yeah, I was going to take the day off and just veg it out but I think I now realize I’m not capable of doing it….started out the day running an errand to pick up the rest of the stuff for t-day so I don’t have to go out again this week but when I got back here I almost didn’t ride the bike, but after lunch I couldn’t stand it anymore so I went downstairs and got my 8 miles in…then I had branches all over the yard from the big winds last night that needed to be picked up, bundled and set out at the curb and even had some big ones that needed to be cut up…then I put the 6 bags of leaves out with them and came back inside and got the laundry done and cleaned the bathroom a bit….but, I’m done now and I guess I can take it easy for a while…one of these days I’m going  to surprise myself and take one off….yeah, right…

Well…one of these days I’d like to wake up with the covers still on me instead of the floor….not sleeping much at all now and I am feeling it today….I wonder what would happen if I took the day off today? The only thing I want to do for just one day is lie on the couch and do nothing….just worn out and feeling old…the wind was howling out here last night with gusts of over 50 mph…it shook this place and sounded like a jet plane was landing in my yard…..but, it didn’t snow so that’s cool…I wonder what was in the head of the person who wired up my garage for the door opener? They drilled through the roof beams to connect it to the box for one of the flood lights over the door…why didn’t they just run it over to the box where the power comes in? I am going to tear the feed out and do it as it should be so the power to the opener is on all the time and not switched…weird….but not today…don’t feel like doing it today….don’t feel like doing anything right now….not much to do today…I need to make one final grocery run before t-day and it needs to happen before wed…I may do it this morning if I can get motivated but that’s not looking too likely…but staying off the bike is….just want to have coffee and sit here for a bit…I think this is going to be a second gear day where I just go slow and take it easy….I need one of those every once in a while….more later…