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…

Well…running a little late today with not crawling out of bed until 6:30 and had some weird, weird dreams that had boats, meat and losing my ear buds in it…yep, as I said weird….slept pretty crappy, as normal, but don’t feel that bad today…still sore everywhere but feel okay…I may need to take something for it since I am getting the yearly tendonitis that has settled in both shoulders and both Achilles tendons and need to get the swelling down…at least I’ll get the chance to rest everything today since I won’t be getting on the bike with 3-6 inches of snow predicted for the day…so, I’m settled in here on the couch and am trying to figure out my day…don’t think I’ll be doing much but getting the turkey in the brine so I can cook it tomorrow and watching some soccer and races later…I missed the F1 race since it was on at 4 am and I was not getting up that early…so I guess I’ll have to check later to see if there is a repeat….more later….

Well…haven’t done one of these in a while and I’m really not motivated to do anything in politics right now…there is one topic but not right now…just noticed on the bike this morning that I have gone over 800 miles for the year and we are not even halfway through April so maybe my goal of 1,000 miles before the first of May is doable? I thing the whole thing is going to depend on the weather and looking out the next two weeks, it doesn’t look good with rain nearly every day…but, I’ll try…one last thing, yesterday when I was riding the diagonal trail up through Kentwood by 60th street, I saw the biggest flock of turkeys I have ever seen…or rasher of turkeys, you can call it either…there were at least 23 turkeys that just strolled across the trail as I was riding up it and only the last two males seemed to be in any way concerned that I was there…I never remember seeing even one turkey when I was a kid and I was out in the woods all day, every day….so, that was pretty cool to see…now if the damn weather would warm up and the wind would quiet down, riding may be fun again…my legs are really sore form bucking the wind today…think I’ll probably have to take something for them…

Well…it didn’t work this morning….tried to go back to sleep after getting up before 5 but it was all tossing and turning and shoulder pain so I just gave up…and now I have a sinus headache that I am going to have to take something for pretty soon…I finally get to have some different food today with getting through all the leftovers I’ve had for a week…got really tired of bean and chicken burritos and am looking forward to some chicken thighs for lunch and then some turkey soup that I thawed for later…I do have that huge turkey that is thawing in the fridge that will need to go in the brine Monday and then will do the whole turkey dinner thing on Tuesday and I am looking for ward to that…hope I have enough room in the freezer for the carcass after I break it down…so I can make more turkey soup in the near future….I did get out on the bike in the wind yesterday and it was pretty brutal and left me sore this morning…but it is too darn cold to get out today until the afternoon and I’ll have to go back into light thermasuit again…or should I say still? I can’t wait for the weather to break and get a little of that spring smell….not much to do today…just a little light cleaning and soccer…and probably lots of vegging…more later…

Well…running a little late for me this morning and it’s just from going back to bed for an hour after getting up a little after 5…I decided to start trying that instead of just getting up at all hours of the morning and I am surprised that it has been working some….almost got back to sleep before I gave up…I did get some things done around here yesterday and that felt good…my bathroom is finally cleaned and I got some bike stains out of the carpet that have been annoying me for a while…but, I skipped the bike ride yesterday with the wind blowing over 20 for most of the day and it is raining like crazy right now so it looks like I won’t be going out until this afternoon…I do have an errand to run this morning before I get to the workout…GOT starts it’s final season Sunday night and I am going to treat myself to some cheese and crackers…but, I forgot the crackers when I did the grocery run earlier and I need my Mega tickets for tonight…so, out in the rain in a bit…at least it’s not snow….more later…

Well…have reached another milestone here at my site when I noticed this morning that I have done 7,000 of these…7,000…by any measure that is one hell of a lot of posts and I wonder why I keep doing it…okay,, not really…part of it is habit but part of it is to preserve my sanity and give me an outlet for my semi lucid moments…and I am constantly gratified that quite a few people come here every day to read what I have to say…and I do feel an obligation to you to make the effort to stay relevant in these weird, weird times we live in….so, I’m going to keep it up for as long as I can and I hope you keep coming back…I may stumble onto something cool…and you won’t know unless you do….thanks….