Well…that kinda sucked…woke up at 5 this morning and tried to go back to sleep for a while but that didn’t work…I feel okay so I guess I can live with it…it is pretty darn cold out there right now at 47 degrees so it looks like I won’t be on the bike until around 10 so I have to find something to do until then…I am going to mow the lawn this morning and I am a little curious how my repairs to the mower will hold up…still don’t have a lot of leaves down so I think I’ll just mulch today instead of bagging but there is some trimming I need to do so I may start a bag for branches and the trims….it’s not supposed to rain again for a week or so and I hope the new grass will survive…at least it’s not hot so the ground won’t dry up as fast…not going to water it since I don’t want to pay the big dollars for the water…had a funny thing happen when I was out putting in grass seed yesterday…the chickens that have been roaming the neighborhood came running toward me in a group while I was holding the bag of seed and I think they thought I had food for them…so, if they’re here again today, I think I’m going to feed them some stale bread I have since that is a food they like….that may be fun….didn’t get much done yesterday but the seeding and errands but I think I want to clean my fridge today since I haven’t done that in a while….and I need to measure the dining room shades so I can get new ones and clean those windows…so, I’ll be puttering around here this morning getting a few things done while I wait for the lawn to dry out and the temp to come up…need to adjust my days to allow for the cold and accept that I may have to ride later in the day if I want to get two rides in…only have about 50 more miles to do to get to 4K for the year and that will probably happen over the weekend….more later….

Well…I think I’ve been running late all day today and I really didn’t think I was going to be able to ride at all with how much rain was forecast…and with it raining this morning, I decided to get a couple of errands run so I don’t have to do them tomorrow…had to hit Menards where I spent another 40 bucks on lawn stuff…fall food, more seed, and some weed killer…I did get the food for about half price so that was cool…and I think this may be the last bag of seed I’ll need for this year since I still have half of it left and have filled in almost all of the bare spots…I even have grass coming in on an area that I call the sandbox since that’s what it is…pure sand and I never thought grass would grow there…after getting the seeding done, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was only going to get one ride in but then the sun came out about 4:15 and I couldn’t pass that up…so, back on the bike later than I ever go out and I’m just now getting the rest of the stuff done I needed to before I can relax for the night….The Wings season starts tonight and I do need to take a look at that until they start losing but then back to Justified and Deadwood….re-watching both of them at once so it gives me something to see and I don’t get bored…oh, and the chickens were back today…I think they are free range now and that makes me laugh…

Well….damn, just can’t get started today…got up at 6:20 and it’s already 7 and I’m just getting to this…my brain is in neutral and wants to stay that way…but, I’ll give it a try….I did get lots of stuff done yesterday but I already wrote about that so I won’t do that again…there was some good news on the ground here yesterday when surveyors did the lot across the street and it looks like there is going to be a new house on it…and prep started on another lot just across 7th for another new house…I have never seen this much building in an established neighborhood in a city before and I wonder what is driving it….I did talk to my brother the realtor last night and he thinks that I may have made around 30K on this place since I bought it and that means I have around 70K in equity now…it looks like I bought this place at exactly the right time for both the investment and as a place to live….and that is pretty cool…and that makes it only 10K away from my goal of having 6 figures in assets and that should happen early next year…not bad for being broke and borrowing money from my daughter two years ago…I wonder if I should burn some cash on a nice dinner to celebrate? Yeah…that’s probably not going to happen but it is nice to have that option…not much to do today…it looks like it’s going to rain here in a few minutes so I’ll have to wait to get on the bike today and I’m okay with that….should probably get started on cleaning the windows for winter and I do need to order a window bird feeder so I can have bird tv this winter….but not right now…I need to have more coffee and read the news as I ease into the day…..more later….

Well…I know there has been a lot of discussion about what the SS cost of living percentage for next year was going to be and I even wrote one of these about the speculation…as of today, it was announced that the raise is going to be 5.9%, higher than any raise in over 40 years and I am smiling about it…..that means almost 130 bucks a month extra for me and I can use the cash even though I’m already putting almost a grand a month in the bank from my check now…so, that means that this raise is going to buy me lots of stuff that I would have waited on…like my new snowies or a garage door opener or a weight machine…all three of them would only be around 750 bucks so that would leave almost half of the raise left over…I know I have to plan for higher food prices that I’m already seeing…there is no cheap protein any more so I’ll need to look at what is cheap….I did get some American and Swiss cheese singles that are 12ozs for only 1.35 at aldis so I am going to make some grilled cheeses with that stuff….I know they’re not good for you but they are cheap and I haven’t had one in years and years….and they’re only about 300 cals so that should help….

Well…I guess eating enough helps…feel okay today even after working my butt off today…started off with doing the grocery runs and the on the bike for the first ride, back here for about 10 mins and then back on the bike for ride 2….they were both pretty good ones with much less wind than yesterday but the legs are still a bit flat…when I got back here, I put the rest of the seed in the bare spots and then put the mower back together and gave it a try…after adjusting it, the thing moves faster than I can walk so that is cool…it may have been broken from the start since it never went this fast before…just hope the jb weld holds until the end of fall and then I’ll take it apart and drill and tap the bracket mounting holes on the transmission and put bolts back in them…but there isn’t much meat around the current holes so I’ll have to be careful…but it the jb does hold, I may just leave it til it fails or I need a new belt…it felt pretty solid but we’ll see after I run it over my bumpy lawn a few times…so, it’s now time to take a break since it is 3 and I need to read the news for a while…another 7 hour work day….

Well…running really late today with just getting out of bed at 7:26 and I’m not sure why I’m so late…must have been exhaustion from being so burned out yesterday….but we’ll see as the day goes on….no dreams to speak of so I won’t…I did have a little weird thing happen last night when I had 4 chickens walk through my yard…have never had that happen before but I’ve heard them to the west of me since I moved in…I took a picture of them to post on facebook….strange….man, I felt lousy all day yesterday and I guess I can’t exist on 600 calories a day…I did get two meals in yesterday so I was close to 1200 so I hope that helps…I do need to get two rides in today along with doing the grocery run so I’ll need to get going soon…haven’t even had coffee yet so I probably should get a cup to get the caffeine flowing….I think I’ll be able to put the top down on the car for the errands this morning but it will probably be the last one…going to get cold later in the week and will probably stay that way til spring….closed up the basement yesterday and will probably have the heat on later in the week…darn….more later….

Well….I very seldom turn around when I go out on the bike but today I just had to with how hard the wind was blowing…18-20 steady with gusts of 35 or so right into my face…was all the way down to 2nd on the rear sprocket and got hit by a gust that stopped me dead…too damn much work…as I get used to the rhythm of this place as I go through every new season for the first time, I noticed something pretty funny as it moves on to fall…boats are disappearing…every time I ride past the marinas, a few more boats are gone…but I never see them leave…it’s like one of those time lapse movies where a car or building is there and then just disappears….I wonder when they will all be gone? Just kinda funny…

Well…not sure how I’m running this morning with not getting up til 6:45…feel pretty crappy and I’m pretty sure that it is from only eating one meal of about 600 calories yesterday….I know that is pretty stupid but I just didn’t feel like eating for some reason…and with doing two rides and mowing the lawn yesterday, I know I’m going to feel this way most of the day and it will probably get worse as the day goes on…so, maybe just one ride today since I have to go out and get the jb weld to fix the mower and then fix it…and it’s raining right now so maybe that’s a good excuse to ease into the day…I do need to get the yard waste out to the curb to get it out of the garage but I’m not ready to get cold and wet yet….need more coffee before that…and I only have one more cup since I didn’t make coffee yesterday…just using up the leftovers from two days ago and I need to stop doing that…I can afford to make coffee every other day to make sure I have enough to wake me up in the morning…not much to do today…need to run that errand and fix the mower and I may make some lasagna again since I only have one chicken thigh left over to eat and I know I can’t do two days in a row of not eating….more later…

Well…damn, when I was mowing the lawn today the drive on the lawnmower broke…or the control for the drive broke…it is attached to the top of the transmission by three screws and two of them were gone, letting the bracket bend instead of adjusting the drive…went out to the hardware store and got screws but one hole had a broken screw in it, and the other one had most of the threads stripped…so I put a bunch of loctite on it and screwed one of the new ones in the hole but it’s not going to hold so I am going to get some JB weld and glue it on…the only problem with that is that you have to remove the bracket to put a new drive belt on it but the belt looks good and I can probably get a few more years out of it and I guess I can chip the JB off when it needs one….at least I can fix it…doing the lawn with a mower without drive is like driving a power steering car without the power working….way too damn much work….will get that done wed so it will have time to harden before I need the mower again…

Well…running about on time today with getting up around 7 but I am still pretty worn out….my legs don’t hurt as much as I expected with riding back with a flat yesterday but we’ll see how they feel when I get on the bike here in a minute…it’s weird having to wait for it to get light to be able to go out but soon it will be the temp that controls that…after the warm of the next day or so, it’s going to be cold with highs in the 50’s and 60’s…and it’s supposed to storm later today and into the night so I need to get the lawn mowed after the first ride but I think I’ll do two rides today after only doing one yesterday….if I have the tire fixed, that is…Meijers finally had tubes in stock again so I bought two to have a spare just in case….had a weird dream last night about a Joe Walsh concert that was to be held in the old Civic auditorium in GR but had elements of this house in it….strange…but it was cool to actually have a dream again….don’t have many of those anymore….not much to do today…just the rides and the lawn but I should get the branches around my power line cut back soon…but I’m not sure I need to do that today….it will be a full day without that so I may just do that by itself later in the week….I still can plant more grass seed today and I’ll take a look at that after mowing…more later…