Well…as you’ve probably guessed, I’m not going to do a political one today since I’ve been darn busy all day….started out with getting on the bike for the first ride at 7:30, then back here for coffee and the F1 race, mowed the lawn, cleaned up the window and put the ac unit in, made lunch, and then back out for the second ride and I found out something about that today…that I can go out when the wind is blowing 20 if it’s coming from the south…and got back here at three and now it’s time to take it easy for a while…the damn camera in my phone died today so I need to buy a new phone and that will be over 200 bucks but I can buy it over 2 years with no interest so that will be easier…and I am going to get a rate cut on my plan or I’ll move to another company where I can get a better deal….I did try the ac unit after I installed it and it only takes about 10 minutes to cool my bedroom to make it comfortable so that’s nice to have that just in case…oh, one last thing, the pain in my right arm has expanded down my forearm all the way to my wrist and it was torture to use it to cut the supports for the ac unit with the skil saw…not sure what I’m going to do about it….might have to go back to gr to see my doctor if it doesn’t improve soon…

Well…darn…another before 6 morning and the hope that I had gotten into a better sleep mode is rapidly fading… and I feel it this morning…feeling kind of slow but part of that is only eating one meal with only riding once….I’m sure that a pork chop and two spoons of potato salad is not enough even with only doing one ride…and I am going to try to get two rides in today but to have that happen, I need to get out by 7:30, and that is in 5 minutes…didn’t get a lot done with all of the rain yesterday…I should have started on the inside but I am leaning toward waiting until fall for that…and winter since it snows so much out here that I’ll have lots of days where I’ll be staying in…it’s nice to not have the gutter overflowing on the front steps and even in the heavy rain it didn’t leak a drop so that is cool….my grass has grown about 4 inches this week with the rain and me feeding it again….and it is really green so I’ll have to mow tomorrow…or later today…not sure of that yet….and there is grass growing in where I seeded it so I will have a yard later in the summer…I hope the sunflower seeds I put along the fence sprout but it is getting late in the year for them to mature…oh, well….not much to do today…there are lots of races on and I’ll have to fit the rides in between them…and I think there is soccer on, too, so I won’t be bored…or too bored…it seems I’m always bored these days….more later…

Well…darn, the string was broken this morning with getting up a little before 6 and that is disappointing….had really hoped that I would be getting 7 hours or so from now on but no such luck…oh, well…it’s raining out there right now but it looks like I may be able to get on the bike here in a while and get a ride in between the waves of storms that are supposed to come…and my downspout is working with no overflow so it looks like a relaxing day with nothing to do but cleaning….lots of sports on with the tour de France starting this morning and that is perfect background noise for doing this…and MotoGP and F1 qualifying on in while….my damn elbow is hurting again and I may have to just rest it to try to get the swelling to go down…I know it howled at me just carrying the ladder yesterday and that means I really can’t do much without hurting it…maybe I can use that as an excuse to take it easy today? At least I can pick up my coffee cup this morning and I’ll take it….the 6×6 patch in the yard that I seeded and watered has started to grow grass and I hope that the seed I put in yesterday will grow too…I must have put 20 lbs of seed in so far and still have a couple of pounds of seed to use to get after the bare spots…not much to do today…just going to have more coffee and watch the radar to see if I can get on the bike…I had planned on taking the day off with the forecast of storms all day but it looks pretty spotty right now and I just might be able to do one….more later…

Well…man, it took a long time for the rain to stop so I could get the ladder out and work on the downspout to get it to drain….and I started to take it apart but then thought I’d check the gutter itself for leaves and other stuff to see if that was the problem…and yep, there was a  quarter inch thick mat of leaves and other debris that had solidified over the downspout hole…and it had sealed it so perfectly that not a drop of water could get through it…cripes, if I tried to seal it off with rubber and adhesive it wouldn’t have worked that well….so it saved me from taking the downspout off and only had to replace three screws and put the extension back on…so, that was easy and only took about 10 minutes including getting the ladder out of the garage and putting it back. There must have been 50 gallons of water in the gutter and at 7 pounds a gallon, the gutter was holding up 350 pounds and I know it’s not built to do that…and I even got a bike ride in and got some grass seed put in the bare spots in the back yard and raked that in since it is going to rain the next couple of days…so it looks like I’ll have a full day off the bike tomorrow with the storms that are supposed to happen starting in the morning…but the rain is going to start around midnight and go all day tomorrow….and it will be nice to not have the water running onto my front steps…now it’s time to take it easy for a while after getting some stuff done today….

Well….damn, I really thought that my elbow was getting better when it didn’t hurt when I got up this morning…but after just cleaning up the AC unit, I can barely lift my coffee cup again and that is just so disappointing….but, the AC unit is clean and works, but it still has some leaves in the fan that I hope will break up after it runs a while…the noise isn’t bad and will be outdoors so I think I can live with it…and this one is even modern enough that it has an led display of the temp you want it to be and it will automatically keep that temp….but it hasn’t been used in almost 10 years so I was surprised when it started to blow cold after a while….after that job, I have  decision to make…the rain is going to stop in a couple of hours so I need to decide whether to get a ride in or tear the downspout apart and get the clog out of it….okay, maybe I’ll do the downspout and then get on the bike…but only if I feel like it…yep, it’s the downspout since leaving it like it is would be really annoying since the water is running over the side of the gutter and I can hear it spilling onto my front steps…so downspout it is…but first I wait for the rain to stop…

Well…running about on time this morning with waking up at around 6:30…again, so it does look like that is the new normal…I’m crossing my fingers that the improvement in my elbow will continue today after the pain started to subside yesterday…I was even able to pour my coffee one handed today after having to use two hands from the pain the past week or so…after the easy day yesterday, today looks even easier with it raining already and that will continue all day so it looks like the day off the bike I’ve been needing…and the gutter work will have to wait til tomorrow so I guess I’ll clean up the ac unit after I have my coffee and read the news….my yard has really started to grow in…finally…and it looks like I’ll have a one by the end of summer as I was hoping…but there are still a couple of bald spots that I need to put seed in and I may do that between the periods of rain today…we’ll see…I did pick the first 5 beans out of my garden yesterday and I hope that more of them mature so I can have enough of them for a side for a meal in a couple of days…even with 10 plants there aren’t enough so next year I’ll put in 20 or so….less tomatoes, too, since I am going to have way too many of those…I have enough room there to expand it but I’m not sure I’ll need to….not much to do today….with no bike ride, I have an extra 2 1/2 hours to kill and that might be a little tough…it was yesterday with only doing one ride so I guess I’ll have to get creative today…or just clean…and I have a lot of that to do….more later….

Well…I can’t remember having a day this easy in a long time…just rode the bike once and cooked lunch and that was it….oh, I do have a downspout that is plugged up and I took the bottom of it off to see if that’s where the clog is but it wasn’t so I’ll need to get the ladder out and take it down tomorrow but it’s only 3 screws so it should be an easy job….and that makes this a really easy day…and I figured out that I don’t have to take the screen out to put the air conditioner in since the windows are double hung and the screen just pushes up so you can open the top part of the window and still have a screen there….so now all I have to do is clean the ac unit up and put it in the window….not sure what window in the bedroom I want to put it in…probably the one that is on the side of the house and not the one that opens to the porch…it has to drip the condensate somewhere and I don’t want to get my porch carpet wet….it’s a pretty light unit so putting it in should be a breeze…will probably only use it a couple of times since I really do like the heat but the humidity here by the lake is pretty high and that might make me use it more…we’ll see…now I guess I’ll start thinking about what to make for dinner…I do need to marinate some chops so I probably should do that right now….

Well…yep, 6:30 is the new normal and getting here around 7 is too….and I guess feeling slow and having a hard time getting going is going to be, too…and I’m not sure I like that….and the rain that is supposed to come looks like it’s splitting again and a huge mass is going north and another is going south of here so it looks like no rain again today….and I was planning on that to get the lawn greened up and to keep me off the bike today…but the wind may do that since it is whipping the trees around right now and that is way too much for me to go out in…but, I’ll probably try it anyway just to see how bad it is….I did have an okay day yesterday with G coming out to visit and bringing me a small air conditioner that I can use to cool my bedroom if it gets too hot and humid to sleep…have to figure out how to remove the screens to put it in but won’t have to do that for a while since it’s not going to be hot for a few weeks….didn’t get anything else done yesterday but I did get a brush to use to clean the siding when I get to that next week and I am going to use the handle of the broom I bought to extend it so I should be able to reach almost every part of the siding with the ladder and extension handle….but, I don’t feel like starting that today….maybe tomorrow….not much to do today…going to just ease into it and read some news and have more coffee before I give the bike a try….and I need to cook today since I don’t have any leftovers to use but I need to decide between chicken or chops and I don’t want to make that decision right now….more later….oh, one last thing…my elbow seems better today and I can pick up my coffee cup without the screaming pain I’ve had for the past month…still hurts when I pick up something heavy but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue to improve….

Well…it seems official that this is the new normal time of getting started in the morning…another day of getting out of bed after 6:30 and I still don’t know what happened to change my sleep…but, I think it’s okay…getting up at 3:40 was not a good thing and being up and down all night wasn’t either….I wonder if it’s settling in here? I did get some things done yesterday and I’m all the way up to 3 rides on the new rear wheel without a flat but I’m still not confident that I fixed the problem….and I got food on the lawn and stakes in the garden to support the tomatoes…I’m trying a few different designs to see which one works the best…using the tomato cages along with lots of garden twine to tie them together and stakes and twine to support a line of 4 plants with the stakes on each end…last year, the cages were just not strong enough by themselves to hold up the plants and I still think I may have to stake inside the cages to hold them up…I did get some nice hardwood stakes at menards but pounding them into the ground with a  hammer hurt my elbow and that pain continued all day….at least it’s not 44 degrees out there this morning and I’ll be able to put the top down on the car when I do the grocery run…if it’s not raining…it looks like we are going to get some the next three days and I feel good that I got the food on the lawn before it….the grass is filling in on the huge bare spot…well…bare half the lawn that is the back yard and it looks like I’ll have a yard by the end of the summer….not much to do today….need to do the grocery and menards run this morning and then G is coming out to see the house later and is bringing me an unused air conditioner for my bedroom for the times when it is too hot and humid to sleep….haven’t seen her in a year and it will be good to catch up….more later…

Well…it’s almost 7:30 and I’m pretty sure that makes me late today but I’m not sure it really means anything…I don’t remember waking up at all so I must have slept okay but I don’t feel like it….it looks like a lazy morning today with the temp only 44 outside and I need it to be near 60 before I’ll get on the bike…so I have til about 9 to just sit here and drink coffee and read the news….I do need to get out to get more food for the garden…have gone through 5 pounds already and, with how poor the soil is, I’ll need a lot more…but it’s working so far with all of the garden looking pretty healthy…I think I’m going to feed the lawn again today since it’s going to rain tomorrow and it’s still not too green…it does look better but it appears like the weeds are going to be a constant battle and I’ve already gone through a quart of weed killer…but that is only about one application with how big the yard is…..I have been thinking about getting some dental work done since I have a molar that has been bugging me for a couple of years now but I just read yesterday that the dems are going to push to have dental coverage included in medicare so I may be able to save a couple of thousand bucks if they pass it…I guess I can tough it out for a little while longer….not much to do today….going to just ease into the day as I wait for the temp to come up…I may start to clean the siding on the house but we’ll see how my elbow feels before I get into it….more later….