Well….I know I’ve been having a laugh over the summer months about the size of my gas bill at this house, thinking that getting it down to 7 bucks or so was kind of ridiculous given that I have a gas range and a gas water heater and take a couple of showers a day after riding and working around here…but today, the bill that came beat even the 7 bucks that was the last record…only 5.80 for this bill and that made me smile a little….how the heck can I only have used 5.80 in gas? I’ll take it but I sure don’t want them coming back to me in a couple of months to say “oh, we made a mistake, you owe us 300 bucks” or something like that…I guess I should just enjoy the bills for now…and continue to laugh a bit….

Well…not sure what would happen if I just took a day off and sat here on my couch but I’m edging up to trying it….just damn tired and depressed and I just realized that the filter in the coffee maker collapsed and sent grounds into the carafe and had to make a new pot so I’ll sit here for10 minutes as the new pot brews and that is not helping my mood at all…I mean, how can you write without coffee? I just realized I haven’t had a steak in more than a year and I still haven’t bought a grill yet, but I haven’t bought a garage door opener either and I wonder why? I have the cash but I guess I can live without either so there is no urgency when I have so much other stuff to do….I’m tired….didn’t get anything done yesterday but water the lawn and the bike rides but I do have an errand to run this morning after the first ride and need to get out of here soon to get started…..not much to do today…well, that’s not true…I have lots to do but I’m just not motivated to do much right now…this place needs to be cleaned and I need to get started on the exterior painting but that will wait til tomorrow….need to go out and get paint and do a lot of prep but that is just not going to happen today….more later…

Well…running a little late this morning and just can’t get started…no reason for it, I think it’s just Sunday morning blues and feeling worn out….still….and that’s with only doing one ride yesterday but my legs needed a little bit of a rest since they hurt just sitting here…as they do right now so it may be another one ride day today….got nothing done yesterday and today looks the same with races starting at 1 or so but that gives me the morning to figure out if I can ride two….I do need to get the ladder out and clean the downspout on the front of the house since it may rain Tuesday and I don’t want it to overflow again…..cripes, haven’t even read the news yet and it’s pushing 8….still can’t just let my schedule go and live and let things go and I wonder if I’ll ever be able to….don’t want to end up one of those slugs who doesn’t do anything….but, I could crawl back into bed right now…I won’t, but I could….I do need to get off my butt and get paint this week to do the door frames and start planning the interior work….and finish putting stuff away…I’ve been here almost 6 months and there are still totes that need to be put downstairs and bags of clothes that need to be sorted and donated….but, I don’t feel like doing any of it….not much to do today…need more coffee and to read the news and then force myself to get on the bike…..then I’ll take it from there…pretty happy that the music festival that was going on down the hill is over…it was a pain in the butt hearing all that crap for the past 4 days…hope it stays quiet all day today….more later…

Well…running a little late this morning with going back to bed until 7:11 and thinking it was Sunday….and now my weekends are going to be a little more complicated with the EPL starting back up and Man U playing right now…so I’ll have to fit the bike rides in between the matches and the races that start at 12:30 today…will probably only do one today or the second one is going to be late…we’ll see…I really should take an easy day today and my legs are telling me they need a rest since they hurt as I sit here so maybe that would be a good idea? I did make a pizza yesterday and the addition of onion and garlic powder to the crust really worked and made it quite flavorful but I am at a loss why it is sticking to the pan even with a coating of corn meal that worked before…maybe I need a new non stick pan….I am going to make a stir fry today and haven’t done one of those since I’ve been here and can’t wait to see how it works with boneless skinless thighs instead of breasts….might have a little flavor….I have a weird white pepper in the garden and I can’t wait to see what the heck that is about and how it tastes….will save the seeds and see if I can grow some next year…not much to do today….just soccer, racing, and bike rides to go with cooking and I think I am going to take an easy one today….have been abusing my body too much and need to let it repair for a bit…oh, and I do need to drag the ladder out to clean the small gutter on the front of the house but it’s not going to rain until Friday so I have time….more later…

Well….yeah, I know… haven’t been too consistent on the political stuff lately but there is nothing going on that grabs me…and I’ve been pretty busy with life out here so I promise I’lI do one tomorrow…right now, I waiting for the first EPL match of the year and just got back from the beach…yeah, tough life I know…but I did do two rides today and mowed the lawn so I think I earned a few minutes in the lake..I’m tired…I think I may have to slow up a bit for a day or so and get some rest….I think I may put some cut up cherry tomatoes on the pizza today since I have so many of them and I need to add some flavor to go along with the garlic and onion powder I’m adding to the crust….okay, I need to get some more stuff done before the match comes on in 26 minutes so I’m going to end here….maybe more later….

Well…running about on time today with getting out of bed around 6:30 and I wonder what changed to allow me to sleep through the night…for the longest time I was tossing and turning all night and getting up 3 or 4 times…and then struggling to get back to sleep…but that hasn’t happened in quite a while and it is still a little puzzling….feel a little beat up after all the work yesterday but it’s not too bad so I can live with it but I wonder if I should go hard again today? Not really feeling it so I may work on the rest of the siding next week…I think I should look at the small gutter on the front of the house since it appears to be clogged up…but it’s not going to rain for about a week so I guess I’ve got time….the yard is starting to fill in pretty well and I was having concern that it would over the summer…I thought it would take a couple of years to go from bare to covered in grass and I still think that it will be next year for the last of the bare spots to fill in…but it looks so much better than when I moved in here so I’ll take that…I did see another stoat yesterday and another lizard along the same part of the trail and that was pretty cool…..I wonder how long I’m going to be able to ride this year? Pretty sure they don’t clear the trails out here so I think I’ll have to work out a city ride that will give me at least 10 miles a day….and I’ll put the specialized bike on the trainer downstairs so I can ride indoors….not much to do today…I do need to run out to meijers to get the stuff for a chicken stir fry to use the boneless skinless thighs I got at aldis and I need to make a pizza to use up the stuff in the fridge…going to add onion and garlic powder to the crust since the last one didn’t have a lot of flavor…..more later…

Well…damn, I can’t figure out why my days continue to be busy when I am officially retired…today, I started out with an early bike ride and was back here by about quarter after 9 or so…then, as I planned, I got to work on the side of the house and scrubbed the whole thing…it looks pretty good but some of the stains were tougher than the other two sides I’ve done so far and they didn’t come completely off…but it looks so much better than it did that I can live with it….after having lunch, I got back on the bike for another ride and felt pretty good on that one, too, so that was a relief with how I’ve been feeling on the bike lately…just so flat and my legs have been dead but I actually sprinted on the way back…soaked to the bone and that felt good….after I got back here and had a couple of glasses of water, I jumped back up and got started on cleaning the car since I hadn’t done that in more than a month and the sand and dirt was piling up in the floor of the driver’s side…and I washed it, too, so it finally looks okay again…then, my work day was over but it was almost 4:30 by then and 8 to 4:30 is a long enough day…but damn, I’m not sure why I’m so busy…tomorrow will probably look the same with finishing up the back of the house and getting two rides in….I may wedge in a trip out to the beach for a swim since I was going to do that today but the day got away from me…but the EPL is starting tomorrow and I do want to get back into soccer…so what to do? I know, it’s not a bad problem to have…

Well…up at 7:05 this morning but woke up an hour and a half earlier…and I still feel pretty worn out with only doing one ride yesterday…but I did get a swim in out in the waves and that was fun…but, the waves were all over the place and not very organized so I didn’t get many good rides….still fun, though, but I won’t be out there again until next week with all of the work I have to do around here…it did rain out here last night but the storms missed to the north and south and I think we’ll never get any out here….the rain lasted a couple of hours but there is none in the forecast until a week from now so I will have to water next week to keep my lawn green….I’m going to abuse my elbow again today with cleaning another side of the house with the scrub brush so it will mean another day with only one ride today…..and that will leave only the back of the house to do…..there are areas that I just can’t get to unless I buy an extension ladder and I’m not going to do that…..so I’ll have to figure out how to reach them without it….not much to do today…just ride and work and that will be enough for the day….still need to get out and get the exterior paint but that can wait till next week since I still need to do the prep work on the door frames…..more later….

Well…the storms last night were pretty darn disappointing with just some wind and a little rain when I was expecting a little lightning and thunder but that didn’t happen…oh, well….I did have to put the air on last night with how humid it was and that helped some but I shut it off when I went to bed since in my small room it gets too cold…weird problem to have I know but I’m not used to ac….I did have some dreams last night about people trying to get me into a fight and that wasn’t going to happen…..have never been in a fight and that sure isn’t going to start now…although I was younger in the dream it still wasn’t going to happen….strange….I did get two bike rides in yesterday and mowed the lawn and that took a lot out of me so I think I’ll go a little easier today…haven’t been feeling right on the bike the past couple of days….just flat and not enjoying it much and I wonder if it’s the seat adjustment? It did come loose last week and I think it moved back some and that might be why I haven’t been comfortable and my butt has been getting numb and that never happens….so, I’ll take a look at the old bike to see where that one is set and move it to that setting and see on the ride this morning…..it doesn’t take much movement of the seat to screw up my feeling on the bike….not much to do today….need to do the grocery run and then get out on the bike….I may only do one ride today but we’ll see how I feel after the first one…and I may put more food on the lawn since it is supposed to rain again tonight and I’m sure it could use it….more later…

Well…I call sleeping in….didn’t get out of bed until 7:30 this morning and that is sleeping in for me…but I don’t feel like I slept at all and it is going to be tough to get going….it was nice that it rained almost all day yesterday and it is pretty cool out here right now…and that means I need to mow the lawn today so it might be another one ride day today…have been trying to take care of myself better and not wear my body out as I get older….not sure if it’s going to work or not but I need to do something since I feel so worn out all the time….I did get out to play in the waves yesterday and that was fun…I was the only one on the beach and that was pretty cool…need to do that more since the summer is coming to an end in a few weeks….the water was perfect and didn’t take any time to get used to…I wonder how long I’ll be able to swim this year? A few years back I was in the water at the end of September when it was 85 degrees….not sure if that will happen again but it was cool when it happened….I do need to ride to the post office this morning to mail some bills…wrote almost a thousand bucks in checks yesterday and that stings a little…so there will be no gains in the checking account this month and it will be a couple of months until I get to 20K….but the car insurance and the property taxes are paid so I don’t have to think about them for a year….not much to do today…just the ride and mowing the lawn but I should get to cleaning the side of the house today and I may….but, I don’t feel like it right now…need coffee and to read the news….man, I’m running late….more later…