Well…another 6:05 morning and I am just starting my first cup of coffee….just put the garden waste out to the curb and it is warmer outside than it is in here so I opened the windows to let the breeze blow through…and it looks like the rain is already over for the day but at least we got some last night…it looks like it will be dry for the next week but I don’t think I’ll need to water the lawn for a few days anyway….I wonder if I’ll be able to get in the water one more time before fall? It was pretty cold when I was out there last week but still okay…might try that later in the week….slept okay last night but I’m still worn out…and I have been having cramps in my calves and it hurt like crazy just to put the bags out a few minutes ago….so. we’ll see how it is when I get on the bike here in a few minutes…..only got one ride in yesterday with the rain we had in the morning but I am going to try to do two before I get to the soffit repair today….I got a notice that consumers is going to be out here trimming trees in the next week and there are a few branches in the alley that will need to be taken down….have not had a power outage out here since I moved in 7 months ago and that is better than in GR where I had a couple of half day ones and the power blinked every time there was a storm…not much to do today….just the rides and taking down a dead branch that is hanging over my power lines along with the soffit repairs…that’s enough, isn’t it? More later….

Well…getting ready to do some repairs to the soffit on the house this morning, I went out to get some siding and found out that the 13 inch stuff that is on my house is a special order item that would take weeks to get…so, I decided to buy some 16 inch wide stuff that I will have to cut down to make fit…a bit of a pain but doable…and when I was at Menards looking at it, I noticed a pile of damaged ones lying next to the rack of the good ones and asked the clerk if  they would sell me one of those since I only needed 36 inches of the 12 foot section…he said sure and I got the 20 buck piece for 5 bucks so that was pretty cool…they even cut it in half for me so I could put it in the front seat of the car….and I got caulk to glue the sections in instead of glue since caulk is 1.94 and adhesive is almost 10 bucks a tube…and, if I have to section a piece, I can use the caulk to fill the seam and finish it…so, I have everything ready to do the job tomorrow and it looks like there is a window from 11 to 2 that it won’t be raining so that is plenty of time to get everything done…I hope anyway….and I think I’m going to wash the section of siding near that part of the roof, too…might just as well get everything done at once….oh, and I got some stuff done on the yard today, too….got all of the branches bundled and out to the street and took out the rest of the garden to put out tomorrow so I’ll have three full bags….and I got a bike ride in and figured out I’m going to switch the new crankset from the black bike over to the grey one when I get the rest of the parts thurs so I can get the grey one back on the road…the pounding on my elbow and thumb from the frozen front forks is starting to make them hurt like crazy so I need to get that done as soon as possible….

Well….this hasn’t happened in the 7 months I’ve lived out here…it’s raining…and that makes two days in a row…had a nice little storm come through yesterday afternoon and there is another one coming through right now…my lawn is going to green up pretty well from that…but I think I’ll be down to one ride today since I need to get out and get the materials for fixing the soffit…but I need to be able to put the top down on the car since the siding is 12 feet long…so I’ll have to wait a while and I’m not sure how to do that…have to take a deep breath and just relax about it….I did get started on taking the garden out yesterday but the rest of it has to wait until I get out and get more bags this morning….I had one that is sitting out in the rain and I hope it survives the rain and dragging it out front for pick up tomorrow….I do need to clean this place up some today since I have let it get pretty messy and I don’t like it…but not right now…I’m not sure if there is enough coffee to get me going this morning with feeling this slow….not much to do today…just the errand, cleaning, the garden, and trying to get on the bike…I guess that’s enough for one day…I am going to take wed off…okay, I might take a day off this week….yeah, no….still have lots to do and not enough time to do it…at least I’ll have the outside pretty much done for the winter after tomorrow…then it’s just a wait for the leaves to fall….more later….

Well…5:56…that’s all I’ll say about that….found a new place to get my paper on Sunday and it is much closer to me so that is cool….slept okay last night and had some dreams that I really don’t remember other that I had them…feel okay this morning but I’m a little sore in new places after wrenching on the bike yesterday and I think I’m going to have to let my hands rest at some point since they feel abused and stiff and have for a while now….man, it’s already 71 out here at 7 am and the humidity is off the charts…sweating like crazy just sitting here and will be ready to get on the bike in a half hour or so when it gets light….and it is calm and that very rarely happens so it will be a good ride this morning….need to get out and back here before the F1 race at 9 so I can set up for getting two rides in today….I am going to start taking out the garden today but I only have one bag so the rest of it will have to wait til I go to depot tomorrow to get the soffit repair stuff…can still get it out Monday night for pick up so it won’t have to sit here for a week…not much to do today…do I watch the Lions suck today? Not sure yet but I may watch a bit of it to see the new qb play…have been watching them lose since I was a kid in the 50’s so why stop now? More later…

Well….not sure why I started on the grey bike this afternoon since the parts won’t be here for a couple of weeks but I did….tried and tried to get the pedals out of the crank arms since I have to re-use them and they wouldn’t budge until I remembered that I have a propane torch the kinda works…so I dug that out and heated the arms and since they are made out of aluminum, they expanded and I was able to get them loose with a big rubber hammer on the wrench…but that took almost a half hour and I thought I was done for the day…but, I was curious how hard the crank arms were going to be to remove so I hit them with some wd and got my crank removal tool out…they came off easily so I decided to remove the greasy chain, too, and got that done in about 5 mins…so now I have the bike torn down and waiting for the new parts and it should only take about a half hour to re-assemble it…but I do have to move the front shifter since the big sprocket will hit it if I don’t…it should be easy since I’ve already done it on the black bike and then I’m good for 10,000 more miles….and I hope that going to Shimano cranks and sprockets will mean they last longer…the suntour stuff has always looked cheap….and I really do like the higher gear that this change gave me…I can fly on the black bike over 25 mph and I think I may be able to get to thirty if I have enough coffee….

Well….got out on the bike around 8 this morning but it took me three tries to get out for the ride….when I got on the bike for the first time, I notices a rhythmic thump coming up through the handlebars so I stopped to take a look at the front tire and found that it had separated the cords and the tire had an S shape…it was the original front tire on this bike and that makes it 6 years old so I guess it was time for it to fail….so, I came back here and got the wheel from the grey bike since it is identical, and put that on the black bike and took off again….when I got to the bottom of the hill, I noticed that the computer was not registering any speed and then remembered I hadn’t switched the button magnet trigger to the new wheel so I had to come back here and do that…finally, I got out and got the first ride in but the front shifter was not adjusted right and wouldn’t shift down just one sprocket…so I made a tiny alignment adjustment and now it works perfectly so that is cool….and I got the second ride in with no drama…after I got back here I took a look at the missing soffit siding and there are 3 pieces missing…I have two of them so I am going to have to buy 12 feet of siding to get a 17 inch piece but I guess that will just make spares if any other of them blow out…these won’t since I am going to put caulk under the ends to glue them in…was going to use adhesive but that stuff costs about 10 bucks a tube and I can get exterior caulk for about 4 bucks and I can use that for other things…going to have to cut the siding in half in the parking lot with my tinsnips to fit it in my car but that is okay, too….makes it easier to store the leftover stuff in the garage….

Well…6:24….that’s all I have to say about that….think I slept okay but I’m still tired and I still have paint on my hands from painting the inside of the door frame on the back door…but that’s done now and I have three more to do….but two of them are on the inside so they could wait til winter if I want….there are lots of sports on today so it could end up being the second day in a row with only one ride but I may be able to get the second one in after Man U plays at 10…and that will put me out around noon but that’s okay…I really do need to get as many rides in as I can before fall comes and the temp keeps me off until the afternoon….but, it’s still dark out there right now so I’ll have to wait til around 8 to get out today….didn’t get much done but the painting yesterday but I do need to start taking the sunflowers and the garden out today so I can put the stuff out Monday….and I need to water the lawn today since it’s not going to rain until Tuesday when Tom is coming out with his equipment and I am going to get the rest of the stuff done outside and the house will be ready for winter….think I’m not going to buy a snowblower this year….need a winter out here to see if I really need one so it will be shoveling all winter…I did it last winter with a long driveway in GR and all I have here is sidewalks so it may not be too bad….we’ll see….not much to do today…just lots more coffee until I get out on the bike around 8 and then some cleaning…maybe…not sure yet….I would like to take a day off sometime and it may be Wed of next week….more later….

Well…that was a normal night of sleep so I won’t talk about it this morning…I’ll bet that makes you happy…so now what do I talk about? I put the shades down for the first time all summer last night and it is kind of weird what that does to the light in here…feel kind of cocooned and cut off from the outside and I think I like that a bit….kind of like how it feels during a snowstorm….and I shut every window last night, too, for the first time since around April and I can feel the fall coming and that’s okay…fall has always been my favorite season and the coolness of the air is welcome after this long, hot, and dry summer…..and it’s another fleece morning and only 55 out there so the first ride is going to be a cool one….need to pay my credit card bill today since it takes almost a week for the payment to get there with how screwed up the post office is…I am going to start taking the garden out today and getting it cleaned up…it will probably take two big bags to put it all out and I think I only have one so some of it will wait till next week…..the peppers were not too successful along with the cukes but I had many more tomatoes than I needed and I’m glad my neighbors took a bunch of them but I’ll still be throwing some of them away…..I may run out Monday to get more bags since I did have branches come down in the storm and they need to go out, too…..not much to do today….just the rides and some painting along with the garden and I really do need to clean my bathroom and kitchen so that will happen over the weekend….more later…

Well….got two rides in on the black bike this morning and it is working okay….the front shifter needs some adjustment but overall…it’s rideable and it looks like I’ll be using it for at least the next month when the parts for the grey bike get here…after sitting for three years, the front forks are froze up and that makes for a little bit of a harsh ride but I’m hoping that they will free up after I ride it a while…I do like the new gearing and I added almost 5 mph to my top speed cruise with the new crankset and it has also spread the use across more rear sprockets instead of just 7 and 8 with the other set… I’m now using 5 through 8 for the ride and it feels okay…the new rear shifter seems to be working fine but I still need to replace the cable with one that I ordered today…spent 91 bucks for all of the parts today and put it on my Capital One card so I can cover it with the cash I have in my cashback account….I did forget to buy the brake pads but I really don’t need them….the brakes are getting better with use on the black bike so I can live with it…I may move the front pads to the rear since they have much more bite than the back…so, with the new rear tire I put on the black bike today, I have a hundred bucks into the restoration, but with the cost of these bikes up to over 500 bucks, to get a usable one for a hundred seems like a good deal…and I should be able to use it for years without any more work…I will probably go back to the grey bike after I get the parts and fix it since those front forks still work fine and that makes for an easier ride on this old body….I do feel good I was able to do the work to fix the black one…and in a month, the grey one will be fixed, too….

Well…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed until after 7 so I call that a good night…and I feel okay this morning other than the allergies and my finger but I did that to myself so I can’t really bitch about that….it is starting to be pretty dark in the morning and pretty soon it will be the determining factor that controls when I get out on the bike….along with the temp and it’s going to be a fleece morning today since it’s only in the mid 50’s and that is going to be normal from now on….can’t believe how beat up my hands look after working on the cables on the bike yesterday….they are pretty frayed and I think I stuck every finger with the strands…hope the rear one on the black bike lasts until I get new ones for it…will probably order the parts today but I want to get the rides in first to see if the higher gear is what I want for the grey bike….I’ve wished for just one higher gear since I bought the first mountain bike many years ago and this crankset has 6 more teeth than the grey bike and should make a difference…and with the second gear being higher, too, I think it will be more usable…but, with riding the same route every day, I know what gear I should be in with the old crankset…..will have to figure out the new one…and it will be nice to be able to pedal as hard as I want again without skipping…not much to do today…just going to ride and start taking the garden out after I pick the last of the tomatoes…and I do have a political one to do after I do the first ride….more later…