Well…I did get a bike ride in this morning but it was one of the most brutal rides I’ve ever done with the wind just howling…should have realized that when I could hear the wind just sitting here on the couch before I went out…I do feel like a slacker, though, when I decided to only do one ride when I was coming through the tunnel of trees out by the beach and my legs hurt so bad after a climb into the wind….but, the wind was so brutal that a ride that normally takes around an hour and 10 minutes took me an hour and a half today….and the wind was so strong that I had to shift all the way down to 2nd on the back sprockets and could barely make any headway on the point…the worst thing was when I crested the hill going to the beach and the wind was so nuts it stopped me dead and I had to ride down the hill in 3rd when I normally just coast down it to the boardwalk and get up to 20mph or so…I know I’m going to be really sore tomorrow and I may just have to take a day off…even after doing more than 5,000 miles this year, I still feel the guilt when I take any time off….and if the wind goes down, I’ll probably be out on the bike again…yeah, I’m that stupid….more later….
October 15th
Well…damn, it’s only 39 out there and I’m not sure if I want to go out on the bike with it that cold…and the wind is blowing out of the west at almost 15 so I may just wait a while even though I did go out at 42 yesterday and survived it….slept okay last night but was up at 5:11 and then out of bed by 7…had to figure out what was wrong with emby this morning to be able to have some tv to watch and it’s still screwed up with the sound not synchronized….and I haven’t had to sign in to it in years but I figured that out at least….can I take a day off? Feel pretty crappy this morning and not motivated at all so I’m not sure what I will accomplish today…didn’t do much yesterday other than go to the library and get two rides in but I should get the blinds down in the dining room and get the paper up on the windows so I can start getting them ready to paint…and I need to start prepping for the UK trip since we have a zoom meeting with the travel agent in two weeks to finalize the agenda….going to get to see Abbey Road studios and the street crossing where they took the picture for the album Abbey Road and I think were taking a day trip to Canterbury and to Stonehenge which will be pretty cool….but the planning is going to be a lot of work and I need to get started on that this weekend….not much to do today…just need to drag myself out on the bike here in a few and then figure out what I need to do for the rest of the day…and I need to reconstruct the channels on emby so I have most of the ones I used to have and that will take a while but that will be for later today….want to have coffee and read the news first…man, I’m worn out….more later…..
Got to 5,000 miles today…
Well…with getting back out to do a second ride today, I got to the 5,000 mile mark on the bike for the year and that makes me smile a bit even though I know I won’t make it to my 6,050 mile goal…and I feel better now that I have broken the ice of going out in full thermasuit and that opens the entire day up to riding outside and I don’t have to wait for the temp to come up to go out in shorts….and it was nice to come back here to the slow cooker making a great smell in here and I have been waiting for the carrots and potatoes to finish so I could add the pasta which I just did and now it will only be about 15 minutes until I can have my first meal of the day…probably the only meal of the day since it’s so late in the day and I can skip one meal to make up for only riding once a day the past two days anyway….okay, that’s enough…time for food….
Chris Wray needs to be fired…
Well…after watching the Jan 6th hearings yesterday and with the revelations that the FBI and Secret Service knew that the attack was going to happen over 10 days before January 6th and did nothing, the head of the FBI, Chris Wray, needs to be fired and now. Did you see any FBI agents protecting the capitol that day? Nope, neither did I and knowing what they knew, both should have at least mustered a small force to help the local police defend the capitol…and that makes you ask the question, why? Is Wray just incompetent or was he in on it? It is well known that various offices of the FBI are hotbeds of trumpism and Wray was appointed by the idiot trump…and many officers of the Secret Service are hardcore trumpers and a few of them even palled around with the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and one of them was even on trump’s staff before he went back to his job at the SS..this guy Ornato, should be fired today, too, since his support for trump trying to overthrow the government was clear to anyone with eyes…and that should go for any trumper still in either of these organization…even if they weren’t personally involved, their support and donations implicitly helped trump do what he did so they are all responsible…and that’s not a political purge that I’m calling for at all…it is a reckoning for the people who enabled trump to even try to destroy this country and are still supporting him even when they know what he did…the poison tree needs to be torn out by the root for this country to survive….geez…
Got a new library card…
Well…as I had planned this morning, I went over to the Hackley library this morning to get a new library card and to look at the used book sale…this library is in a cool old stone building that has been there since the 1800’s and the people were so nice and it only took about 5 minutes to get my new card…and they don’t cost anything and that is so cool…I did get down in the basement to look at the books and found 12 books that looked interesting…a couple from George RR Martin, Patricia Cornwell, Harlan Coben, Lawrence Sanders, and even found a Larry Niven that I had never read so I’m pretty happy about that little trip…and it’s only 5 blocks from here and I was able to park right across the street so I think I’ve found a new happy place for the winter months…they even have the NYT that I can go in there and read every morning if I want….and I even got a ride in today in almost full thermasuit but I’m not sure if I’m going out for another one with the wind blowing 25+ out of the NW…my legs really hurt from the first one but if the wind comes down, I just might…who knows?
October 14th
Well…damn, feel like crap this morning and I’m depressed after looking outside after hearing the rain/hail pounding on my siding…the cars going by are leaving trails in the slush it’s so cold out there and it just reminds me that winter is coming….ugh….slept okay last night but I wasn’t good so that offsets it pretty much…have no motivation right now but I need to get off my butt and load the slow cooker with carrots and potatoes right now….using one of the pork loins I got Wed instead of chicken and it will be better with no bones to pick out of it….but I’m not going to put the pork in til the last hour so it’s not overcooked…should have food for the next 5 days or so after running the cooker today….but I do need to figure out what the second meal will be for that time….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but clean a bit but I want to go to the library today to check out the used book sale they have going…and I need to get a library card since the one I have is for the Kent county library system and it won’t work out here….but they don’t open til 10 so I will have time to have all of the coffee since I’m not getting on the bike til the afternoon…I really hate this transition time when I can’t get two rides in every day so I guess I’ll work on the downstairs bike today and get it lubed up so I can start riding down there again….and I’ll need to get the full thermasuit out…don’t want to be as cold as I was yesterday….not much to do today…just need more coffee to get going but I don’t want to….it would be easy to be a slug today and sit here..oh, one pretty cool thing…my daughter was in Rome yesterday and sent me pictures of the Colosseum and the Vatican…they have been on a cruise through all of the Mediterranean over the past week…and it looks like they are having fun….more later…
A bad week for the idiot trump…
Well…with what has happened this week to the idiot trump, he really should just have a huge L tattooed onto his forehead to show everyone what a loser he is….at the end of the January 6th hearing today, the committee voted unanimously to subpoena trump for his testimony in front of the committee…not that it’s going to happen but it may spur the justice department to bring the charges of seditious conspiracy against him that they have laid out clear as a bell…and today’s hearing tied everything together and showed that it was one person, trump, who was behind the whole thing and made a good case for prosecuting him…right after that, the SC slapped his delaying appeal down, again 9-0 of the appeals court ruling that said the investigation of him in the mar a lago stolen documents can go forward and even his pet justices voted against him…and I just know the walls of his tacky club is covered with ketchup and other food this afternoon…earlier in the week, a judge in NY ruled that idiot boy had to sit for a deposition in the defamation case he is subject to there…and, since it’s a civil case, I don’t think he can take the fifth to avoid testifying…so that will be fun to see since he just can’t tell the truth…and the last one has to do with the civil suit brought by NY’s AG Letitia James that alleges that the entire trump organization is based on real estate fraud….and just today, she filed another suit saying that the idiot is still trying to defraud NY by forming a new company that he is planning to transfer all of the assets of the trump organization to and avoid paying any fines since there will be no assets left for them to go after….I see that as another opportunity for a criminal case that should be filed and filed soon….so, not a good week for the idiot boy and I am having a hard time stifling a smile…he has to be just stewing with all this going on…he is going to go to jail at some point…indictments are coming….geez…
1 1/2 rides today…
Well…the first ride this morning was so damn brutal going into a 15 mph wind all the way out to the beach…and with it only 48 degrees, I was frozen by the time I got back here and worked so hard going out that I am calling it 1 1/2 rides with only doing one…and that was a really good decision with the rain starting up again and, if I would have gone out, I would be getting wet along with being frozen and I just couldn’t take that today…going into the wind was so hard that everything hurts from my back down and I’ll never heal if I don’t take care of myself….not sure how much work I’m going to get done today with the Jan 6th hearing going on at one and then Man U plays at 3 so I may just take the day off other than a little light cleaning….and I am going to try to not feel guilty about it…more later….
Today is the day….
Well…the problem with the sunrise coming later and later is that I now have a couple of hours to fill as I wait to be able to get on the bike…so I thought I’d talk about the SS raise that is going to be announced today…with inflation running hot for most people, there has been speculation that it will be anywhere from 8-11% and I think it will be more like 9 or so but we will find out this morning…even at 9%, the raise I’ll see is going to be over 2 grand a year and that will come in handy as the property taxes on this place are continuing to be raised to match it’s valuation…but, I’ve been able to survive the rest of this inflationary time with just a little belt tightening so I guess I’m luckier than most…and the only raise in my housing costs are taxes and energy…and with gas going up by 50%, the heating bills are going to hurt this winter…I am expecting them to be about 150 bucks a month or more and that is well over the highest one of about a hundred bucks last year….so, I can’t wait to see so I can plan a little better…I really would like to be able to splurge on some unnecessary stuff like a new bag for the bike and maybe some new clothes but I hate shopping for that stuff so I probably won’t buy much…we’ll see….
October 13th
Well…that was okay…tossed and turned a bit but slept well and had dreams all night…and I can’t remember the last time that happened but I take it all day long….I wonder if it was the late bike ride yesterday? Had a good day yesterday and got a bunch done and want to continue cleaning up the dining room just to make a mess of it again with starting on the trim in there today….it has been so nice not living in dust over the summer but that has already ended with doing the bathroom door and frame and the dust settling on the stove and everything else out there but I’ve learned how to clean it up quickly…I do need to figure out why the vacuum is not pulling the dust out of the sander anymore and I may have to blow it out with compressed air to clear it….it looks like I’m going to wear gloves on the bike today with the high of 51 happening right now and it not getting any warmer…and the wind is already blowing over 10 out of the west so the out runs are going to be brutal again but I will do two runs today…I should get the bike out when it gets light to hose all the grit off it since it was interfering with shifting on the ride yesterday…I do need to drop my ballot off at the drop box this morning on the first ride to make sure it gets counted but it’s 3 weeks before the election so I think I’m okay….the January 6th committee’s last hearing is on today at 1 so I need to have everything done before that so I can watch the whole thing….not much to do today…don’t have to cook since I have leftovers but I may make a last batch of pasta salad since I still have a green pepper and celery that needs to be used and don’t want to throw that away…and I like having an easy side to go with sandwiches….more later….