Well…I really did think that a gallon of Thompson’s water seal would be enough to do my front steps but I was wrong…still have about 1/4th of it to do after using the gallon so I guess I’ll have to buy more next week…it does look better with it treated but my elbow is shot after using a paint brush to do the detail work and the pain is pretty intense…and it took forever with getting to take a tour of the house that is being rehabbed across the street when Dan, who is working on the house, came over to chat…they used the color scheme that I am going to use on this place with differing shades of grey…looked very cool and modern and I hope it will do the same here….needless to say, that not getting done until almost 2 will keep me off the bike for the second ride and I’m okay with that….I’m sore everywhere and need to rest a bit….

Well…another 6:42 morning today and I feel pretty damn tired…and that comes with skipping the second bike ride yesterday trying to be smart to not trigger another dehydration episode with mowing the lawn and doing the edging out front….screwed up my elbow again but it seems to be healing faster this time and barely hurts this morning…but the front looks good so it’s worth it…I am going out to get some wood sealer to do the front steps today since the wood looks so dry after I cleaned it and you do need to treat wood to keep it from deteriorating….so that may keep me off the bike again this afternoon but we’ll see…I’m slowly getting the outside done and should have it ready for fall and winter…I’m still disappointed in my tomato yield and probably won’t even have enough to make salsa and that sucks….but I like the pickles I’ve made and need to make another couple of jars…and I do have flowers that have come up along the back of the house so that is cool….never thought they would with the lack of rain but I guess watering for the sunflowers has helped that….I think I’m going to the beach Thursday so this week may be one of only one ride a day and I can live with that….running out of summer and want to have a few days to take it easy….not much to do today….going to get on the bike here in a minute but need to read some news and have coffee first…I am a little excited about doing the front steps today and seeing how that will look….little things still make me happy and I want to finish the outside by the end of the month to be able to relax during the fall….more later….

Well…I wonder if you know how disappointing it is when you wake up and think you’ve slept in and it’s only 6:42? Then you realize you didn’t load up the coffee machine either? Not a good way to start the day…..and I forgot about the US vs Mexico in the gold cup last night and that sucks….so I’m depressed this morning and that is getting to be the new normal and that sucks, too….didn’t get anything done yesterday and that is depressing, too….crap…everything seems to be depressing…..one good thing is that my right foot is much less swollen than it has been the past year and I’m not sure what is going on….but it feels good so I’ll take it….I do need to mow the lawn today and do some trimming on the front so that will mean only one ride today if I’m smart…and I need to get out on the bike here in a minute but it’s only 56 right now and that is too cool to go out in a t-shirt so I’ll have to dig out a long sleeve shirt to wear…and I have to get started on prepping the door frame on the garage so I can paint it later in the week….but I’m just not motivated right now and want to sit on the couch…but I know that can’t happen….more later….

Well…how the heck can I be running late getting up at 5:30? But, I am and need to get this done in 15 minutes so I can get out on the bike before the F1 race at 8:55…tossed and turned all night last night and I’m not sure why….had an okay day with no stress at all so that is a little confusing…but, with how I normally sleep, this is par for the course….I did get a little work done yesterday but just mowing the front of the house and watering the lawn so I don’t have much to do today other than riding….I am still waiting for my green peppers to grow so I can make a pizza and I think that will happen later in the week…have a few on the plants this year and I wonder if I can freeze some to have over the winter? Will probably have to blanch them first…will have to look that up….my elbow is getting better but now my forearm is hurting but that is the normal pattern with the pain that I have…it normally moves around but has landed in that elbow all summer…still hurts some but I can pour coffee so that is okay….not much to do today….going to get on the bike right now and then just watch olympics and racing today…don’t feel like doing anything else….more later…

Well….was going to work on the siding on the house today but just thought I’d take the weekend off and just do easy stuff like mowing the front of the house, killing more ants, and now I’m watering the lawn…I did get two rides in and ran across a gathering of Impala owners…the last of the big, rear wheel drive ones and there must have been 50 of them in a parking lot over by the marina…weird…and my right thigh hurt from the start of the first ride and I think that is trying to tell me to take it a little easier and to really do skip the sprints like I know I need to do….the bike has been working perfectly the past few days and haven’t had to adjust it at all so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that it will continue…and that it will rain later today like it’s supposed to…ha, ha, ha….yeah, that made me laugh…it just isn’t raining out here this year and I can’t figure it out…we’re more than 9 inches of rain under normal even with the inch we had about a  week ago…okay, that’s it…going to take the rest of the day off….

Well….dang, it’s only 52 degrees out here right now and that means I’ll need a fleece to get on the bike for the first ride and it’s still July? Or I guess I could wait til after F1 qualifying and go out at 10 but that would put me late for the second ride….slept okay last night but I’m feeling pretty slow right now and I could go back to bed in a minute…just feeling pretty worn out but I didn’t do anything to do that….I do need to get off my butt and get things done around here and I think I’m going to try some stripper on the floor in the spare bedroom today just to see if it will take the adhesive off  and make a good surface to maybe refinish….I am so disappointed with how many tomatoes I’m going to get off my plants this year…they are really small and very few and I will need to do a lot of work on the soil to make it better…oh, well…I did make some bread and butter pickles yesterday and they came out pretty good so I’ll probably be making more of those soon…pickles are the only way I like cukes and I already have three types in the fridge and lots more jars to put them in…I really wanted to make some tomato sauce but there are not enough tomatoes for that…I am going to make a pizza next week with my green peppers on it…I think I’ll do some herbs in the garden next year, too, so I’ll have to plan that over the winter….not much to do today…I’ll have to tamp down my guilt if I’m going to take the weekend off and just enjoy my life…that’s harder than I ever expected…especially with how much work I have to do around here….hmmmm…more later…

Well…it’s pretty cool out here right now and I probably should have closed the windows last night…but, it feel good to have the humidity down some with how bad it’s been out here lately…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed til almost 7 but I still feel a little flat this morning…yesterday was the first time in a week that I felt strong on both rides and that was a long recovery from the problems I had last Friday….I almost went out to play in the waves yesterday but they had the red flags up and I didn’t have enough energy to fight my way through the rip out and back…have to be a little more careful on these beaches with the swirling rip that goes on for the first 30 feet into the water….might go out today with how calm it is…but I need to run some errands first so that will put me late on the bike for the first ride….it looks like I’m not going to get many tomatoes off my garden this year and I’m not sure why…just put 5 pounds of food on it and the plants look like they could use more….and the ones I do have are really small…so I guess that tells me I’ll have to condition the soil more next summer….I am going to get some green peppers this year and a few Jalapenos so I can live with that….not much to do today…I did get out to get the chair for the front porch yesterday but I need to get out to Target to get a blanket since I don’t own one and really should have one…and I’m getting some pizza fixings so when the green peppers are ready I can make one or two….that will probably be next week….more later….

Well…that was okay…got a little sleep last night and only woke up a couple of times so that was cool…but, man, it’s humid out here and I’m running the fan already to keep from sweating through my clothes so that might mean a trip out to the beach today…I think I’m going to buy a lawn chair to put on my little deck that leads to my front porch so I can sit outside when it’s nice out there…I do have to start making this place mine with details like that and I can get one that I want for only 18 bucks at Lowes….I did get more pickles made yesterday and got the first cherry tomato out of the garden and they should start coming fast now…but I don’t have a lot of regular tomatoes on the plants so I may not have the bounty that I had last year….and I think my bean plants are about done but I’ve gotten 20 times more that I got last year and I have quite a few green and Jalapeno peppers that have set and I only got one green pepper last year….will probably have to dig out the garden and put better dirt in for next spring but we’ll see….the two cukes I’ve used so far came from the accidental plant that grew along the back of the house and I have tomatoes back there, too, and the flower seeds that I planted have started to sprout so I have some color back there, too…I’ll have to remember to water there next summer so the flowers will come up sooner…not much to do today…have been having problems with the shifter on the bike all summer so I may have to put the new one on the bike soon…it’s a pain having to adjust it constantly….I may get started on the west side of the house but I’m not too motivated right now….more later…

Well…just noticed that the swelling in my right foot is almost gone and that would be the first time in almost a year that has happened….I wonder what I’ve been doing that made it better? Slept okay last night but feel like my allergies are going to go crazy…it has been ramping up the past week or so but I haven’t seen ragweed or golden rod along the trail…but there has to be some of it around here….just noticed that the morning birds around here are seagulls and that is a little weird for me….I’m used to doves and bluejays and I guess that goes with being here on the coast…and there is some strange bird that I can’t remember hearing before that pipes up daily…might have to get the binoculars out to look for it…I did get the entire lawn watered yesterday since the rain that was supposed to come fell apart…again…before it got here but we are forecast to get storms again tonight and almost an inch of rain…I sure wish the storms would come when I could sit on the porch and see them….not one the whole summer and I think that’s strange….I did get my first ballot completed yesterday and need to drop it off at the city clerk’s office this morning…or I could just put a stamp on it and drop it in the mail but I want to see if there is a drop box outside of the city hall for the November election….not much to do today…just the grocery run and the bike rides…I did get two rides in yesterday for the first time since last Thursday and it was okay…didn’t struggle much but I did go down to about 80% and didn’t push it and that’s okay….need to take care of myself better and if that means not going crazy on the bike, I’m okay with that….more later….

Well….that was kind of a normal night of sleep with some tossing and turning and getting up at around 6 or so…and I feel okay this morning but my allergies are going into hyperdrive and I have been coughing and the damn 3 month headache has started and I’ll probably be miserable for the whole time….almost sent myself back into the condition of exhaustion that put me down last Friday and Saturday after riding the bike early and then mowing the lawn and doing the weed walk yesterday…but I was smarter this time and didn’t do a second ride when I started feeling crappy…and I drank a couple of gallons of water after since I was soaked through with the heat and humidity….made my first batch of pickles from my garden cukes yesterday and they came out good but I am going to have way too may cukes so I need to give some of them away…I have a couple of tomato plants that look like they are dying and it may be that they need food and I have some but just forgot about it…will get that done today after it rains…did you hear that? There is rain coming and it doesn’t look like it’s going to miss this time…but, we’ll see…not much to do today…I need to run out to DD to get sliced ham and turkey they have on sale for 99cents a pound in two pound packages….not sure what I’ll do with 4 pounds of sliced meat but at that price, I can’t pass it up…and I need some nails to fix some loose siding and Lowes is right next to DD so I can get them there…more later….