Well…running a little late this morning and it is just because I’m out of synch…I should have come here after reading the paper but got into the rest of the news first…almost forgot to do this one and that happens on Sundays…pretty darn sore this morning from going out on the bike in 20+ mph wind yesterday…feel like I pulled something in my back or obliques but it is not bad enough to take anything for it, just annoying and I hope it works out on the ride this morning…I may wait to go out until it’s warm enough for just a t-shirt today but if Man U plays crappy, I may go earlier…have been having some problems with the shifter on the bike and I think it’s just dirt from riding in the mud and rain the other day and I may have to clean it again today to see if that will help…no big deal…just annoying when you don’t get the gear you want when you want it….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but a little cleaning but it looks like I’ll have plenty of time to do more today with the dearth of sports on…and I don’t have to cook today with cleaning up the leftovers from this week so I’ll need to find something to fill the time…more later…

Well…slept all the way in til 6:03 this morning…after getting up at 4:53 for the first time that is…had a short weird dream about someone dumping out my used coffee because they thought that only fresh coffee is worthy of drinking…not sure where the heck that came from but I really don’t know where any dreams come from so I guess it’s not unusual….feel really sore this morning from riding into a 20 mph wind yesterday and I wonder if I’ll ever get a nice day where it’s not windy and warm enough to get out in a t-shirt again…probably shouldn’t bitch too much since I didn’t even get out on the trail until around this time last year and I’m pushing 900 miles already…and, it’s going to be 70 tomorrow and Monday so, if I wait long enough, it could be a t-shirt day for at last one of them…didn’t get a lot done yesterday but will plan on getting the living room cleaned along with the kitchen today…but, right now I need coffee and to watch some soccer for a while…more later…

Well…running late this morning and that is a little strange after getting up at 3:14 for the first time…but, after an hour of flipping and flopping in the bed, I did get back to sleep until the coffee maker started and the smell woke me up…after that, I should feel exhausted but I feel okay with some energy this morning and it must be that I finally had enough to eat yesterday…so, I think I’ll try that again today…still working through that 16 pound turkey I made earlier in the week and then it’s on to the freezer to use some of the stuff that is packed in there…and I have been thinking of making fettucine alfredo for a couple of weeks now and need to have something different…I do have a couple of errands to run today with the Mega getting up to 200 mil and I am thinking about getting some cheap chicken from daily deals but probably shouldn’t since I have chicken, pork chops, and other stuff in the freezer that needs to be used first…I did get a bike ride in yesterday but got frickin soaked doing it…it wasn’t raining until I got out about a mile and then it started raining for the rest of the 15 miles…and the weird thing was that, once I got used to it, it was actually quite pleasant and the trails were empty…I was so wet when I got back here that my shoes were squishy and they are still not dry this morning so I hope I can go out in the dry today…not much to do today…just a little cleaning and then some vegging and the bike ride this aft…looks like a lazy day and that’s okay…more later…

Well…as I’ve been talking about for a couple of days now, I had been working on getting my application put together to get my first passport….so, this morning, I gathered up everything I needed and headed over to the Kentwood city offices to get it certified and sent…it was really easy and only took about 15 minutes and most of that was them trying to get my photo to print on their certified printer….but, got that all done and in 4-6 weeks, I’ll be getting my first passport…it cost me 150 bucks but I put that aside by thinking about a favorite writer who said that everyone, once in their lives should have a passport…and I agree with that…not sure how much I’m going to use it but it is nice to know that I can travel outside the country now with no problem…and the picture was even okay so I guess it was a good start to the day….

Well…damn…running really late this morning with not getting up until almost 7…yeah, that is so damn weird that I don’t know what to say about it…it was even starting to get light when I got up and that made this place look so strange….and that whole thing made me late after doing the grocery run…that I’m not really sure why I did since I didn’t need to get anything…I guess it’s habit more than anything else…feel just run down today and I’m glad that I just have the passport thing to do this morning…and the bike ride if I can get that in before the rains start…it’s already over 50 and I may be able to get out in a t-shirt if I get out at all…didn’t get much done yesterday and I may not get too much done today, either….just not feeling it right now and I hope the coffee will change that…don’t have a lot of hope that it will but what else do you have but hope? More later….

Well…have been talking about getting a passport for the first time in my life for some time now so I decided to just do it and get the forms filled out today…holy crap…it costs 145 bucks but I guess if you break it down to the 10 years it’s good for, that’s only 15 bucks a year and I guess that’s not too bad. So, I need to head over to the Kentwood city offices tomorrow to file the paperwork and get a photo taken to submit with it and in 6-8 weeks, I get my passport….pretty cool since my daughter wants to visit friends in Belize late in the summer and she wants me to go with her…I think I may just try to find a rental there and try the tropics for a year instead of buying a house here…just found a 1,700 sq ft 3 bedroom house on an acre for rent for 500 bucks a month…the only problem is that it is 10 miles from the beach in the jungle and I’d have to buy a vehicle down there to get around…

Well…okay, that title is a little misleading in the fact that it appears to imply that I’m lonely…but that’s not really the case…it’s  just that I read a new study that got me thinking about loneliness  and what the effects are for people who suffer from it. I can never really remember a time when I’ve been lonely at any time during my life…I really have always liked being alone and spent a lot of time alone as a kid by my choice…after all I had 8 brothers and sisters and could have had someone to hang out with all the time if I wanted it…but I reveled in my time alone with my thoughts as I still do as an old guy. But, in reading this new study and many others that have been published in the past year, it appears that loneliness has been identified as a real, physical problem that needs to be dealt with since almost 40% of the people surveyed feel lonely on a regular basis…I wonder how that feels? Now, you may think that I lack empathy if I can’t understand loneliness or don’t feel it…maybe I should be lonely spending 90% of my time alone? One thing the study said was that intelligent people are much less likely to be lonely and I have considered myself intelligent and my academic achievements support that I am…but, there has to be more to it than that…not sure what that would be, though….maybe I should just consider myself fortunate  that I don’t get lonely and just leave it at that? Probably…..

Well…it looks like I figured out that I am going to have to keep using the generic flonase before I go to bed at night to be able to breathe….was miserable and coughed all night Monday night when I skipped it but last night I was back to being able to breathe and slept quite a bit better…but that goes against my trying to not take any kind of medicine on a regular basis so I guess I’ll have to figure that one out….got up at coffee time this morning and I can live with that if I can keep that up…much better than 4:53 that had become almost normal…had a nice day yesterday with getting my hair cut and running a few errands in the morning and getting out for a long one on the bike in shorts….it looks like it’s going to rain some the next few days but less than they were predicting yesterday so I may still be able to get to 1K miles in the next couple of weeks…I did talk to my daughter for almost an hour yesterday and it was nice to get caught up with her…lots of laughs and she suggested that I move to Belize instead of buying a house here…she has friends who are building in an American enclave there and they just love the place…going to check it out over the next few days to see if it is affordable for me on SS…would be nice to live in a warm climate and be able to go to the beach every day….not much to do today…I was going to clean yesterday but didn’t get to it but I probably will today…just need to get started but that has been the problem lately…and I need to get my paperwork ready to apply for a passport next week….more later…

Well…that was a mistake…have been trying to not use to much allergy stuff since it screws with my blood pressure but not using the spray last night kept my nose plugged up so I couldn’t breathe all night….I should have known better with how bad my allergies are getting already but I was pretty clear all evening so I thought I’d take the chance…so, that leaves me exhausted this morning and sore from all of the tossing and turning…oh, well….I did get my huge turkey cooked yesterday and it came out great…I’ll have turkey to eat for the next 5 days or so and still have a bag to put in the freezer…along with the two for the carcass for soup that I’ll make later that pretty much fills my freezer…still have some ham bones to use, too, and I’ll probably have to use those first…I did get out on the bike yesterday but it looks like rain for the next week or so and I am thinking about putting the bike back on the trainer for a while so I can get to 1,000 miles by the end of the month…but, it’s just not the same so, if it’s warm enough, I’ll go out and get wet….not much to do today…I do need to get my hair cut and run a couple of errands this morning and Man U plays this afternoon so it appears my day is pretty much set…I do need to clean my living room and vacuum but I can do that while the match is on…or not…the coffee needs to work much, much better before I’ll be motivated to do much….more later….

Well…we’re half way through April and I have 4 inches of snow on my car this morning…and that is just damn depressing….at least I didn’t get up until 6:03 so I guess that’s something…had to flip the turkey over this morning so the bottom half of it could get brined for the next three hours and spilled the brine everywhere and that was damn annoying for first thing in the morning…even before coffee and that is way too damn early to be cleaning anything…had a pretty nice day yesterday even though I didn’t get anything  done…didn’t even ride the bike and might not be able to ride again today since the snow is still on the pavement and will probably still be on the trails most of the day….but, it is supposed to be almost 60 tomorrow so I may even be able to get out in shorts…I think I may be able to substitute aspirin for ibuprofen for the overall pain that I have been feeling…tried it yesterday and it seems to have helped some so I think I’ll try it again today…my shoulder was okay most of the afternoon but it hurts some right now…I just realized how much it has improved with taking the turkey out of the fridge…the last time I did one was just after the crash and I could barely lift it then and my shoulder was howling in pain…not much to do today…just cooking and cleaning…am looking forward to having turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy today…but not until much more coffee and some news….more later…