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….

Well…how I felt when I got up this morning, I wasn’t really planning on doing much other than trying to get a bike ride in…but I still had the annoying creaking wheel on the back of the bike and the wind was blowing about 25 so, when I got down to the end of Heritage Landing I gave up and turned around…but then looked at my lawn and how shaggy it was getting so I decided it would be a good time to mow it since I couldn’t ride…after mowing I decided to get off my butt and work on the new rear wheel for the bike…still hadn’t found what was causing the flats even with using the tube for a measure to try to see where the flaw in the wheel could be…but the holes in tubes moved around and were never in the same place twice so that means there must have been something moving around, too….I did find a small, small rock when I cleaned it but that could have come from me taking it apart last time…so, I cleaned it again and ran my fingers all over it and it was perfectly smooth…then I cleaned the inside of the tire and the tube protector and put it back together with my last spare tube, changed out the sprockets and put it back on the bike…was only going to take a short ride to put a couple of checks in the mail at the post office but it the bike was riding so nice that I decided to do a full 15 and made it all the way out to the beach and back with no flat….but, I made it 5 days between the past flats so I guess it really doesn’t mean anything…after I got back here, there was soccer on so I watched the first half, then gave myself a haircut since I was looking shaggy, too, watched the rest of the match and then cleaned up the bike room…I have a bike room! Put the trash out and then here to do this one…wasn’t planning on working too much today but I guess it snuck up on me….I do feel better that I accomplished something today and that gives me a clear day to get started on projects tomorrow…oh, joy…

Well…as I woke up and then laid in bed, the question came to me: what would happen if I just didn’t get out of bed? What if I just rolled over, pulled up the comforter, and stayed there? One of these days I think I’m going to try that…I think I missed the storms last night since they came after I went to bed…and the ones that were supposed to come during the day fell apart….here anyway…and we didn’t get the rain we were supposed to….had a nice visit from my son and his wife yesterday and they hung out here with their dog for a few hours….and then I got out on the bike but it still has the creak in it…not as bad but it is still creaking and I’m not sure where it is coming from…I am going to work on the new back wheel today and put it back together…looked at it yesterday and still can’t find why it is causing flats on the inside of the tubes but I am going to put some duct tape in there where the punctures are and just try it…it is just weird that there is no obvious cause that I can see or feel…hmmm….not much to do today….I do need to mow the lawn this morning after the first ride….it is as warm as it is going to get today at 65 degrees and pretty windy so the ride is going to be some work…and it is going to get down to 47 tonight so the heat may come on…in the end of frickin June….more later….

Well…yeah, running really, really late this morning with having some bike problems when I went out at 7:30….the rear wheel was making a creaking noise that annoyed the heck out of me so I turned around, came back here, and took the wheel apart to grease the bearings and axle and that made me too late to get a ride in since I had to clean before the F1 race with my son and his wife coming over this morning…the wheel is better but still has a little creak to it so I need to get off my butt and figure out what is wrong with the new wheel so I can put that one back on and not get flats…so, I have most of the cleaning done but still need to do more before they get here but I did remember I needed to do this…didn’t ride yesterday with the malaise that I was feeling and the pain I felt in my elbow and the pain is still there today and it feels stiff, too…and swollen so I may have to take something for it before I try to get out on the bike later in the afternoon…it’s supposed to rain around 5 or so and keep raining all night so that should keep the dust and noise down out here…the idiots were loud again last night after being quiet all week so I had to call in a noise complaint again…but it was the first one in a week so there has been progress up here and I feel good about that…not much to do today….just going to hang out with the kids and Art for a few hours and then on the bike for a hard one to make up for taking yesterday off….more later….

Well…just a shorty on something I find funny….just got my gas bill in the mail and I don’t ever remember getting a lower one…only $10.73….yep less than 11 bucks and I can’t figure that out…after all, I have a gas stove I use every day, I have a gas clothes dryer…okay, I only run one load a week, and I have a gas water heater but I guess even two showers a day is not a lot and it’s a new, more efficient one, so I guess that helps…still think it’s funny to have a gas bill that is so low…

Well…yeah, I did mention that I may take the day off the bike today and I was looking for it to rain all day so I wouldn’t feel guilty if I did…but, the rain stopped around noon and then I had a decision to make…but I guess it wasn’t too difficult to stay off the bike today…I just had no energy from the time I got up and my elbow is screaming in pain so that helped me stay off it…for now…and I wanted to see the Germany/Portugal match that just ended and Indy car qualifying is on here in 20 minutes and then a nascar race right after that…and that lasts until 6 and that is too late to get out….okay, those are excuses…some days you just don’t feel like going out and today is one of those days….I wonder if I have to cut out dinner today to make up for it? I had a chicken thigh and a handful of baked fries for lunch and that is under 500 cals and I know I need more than that even when I don’t ride….oh, well….I’ll get back to riding tomorrow…maybe….

Well…I’m not sure why I’ve been consistent with my wake up time lately and it’s a little unnerving to pick up the phone and see 6:30 again…for two weeks now and that is just weird….okay, my damn ribs hurt this morning and that is new…I wonder if it’s from running the edger yesterday? All I know is it hurts to just sit here and I can’t get comfortable…it’s probably a good thing that it is raining out there and I won’t be able to get on the bike until the afternoon….and that will make it a one ride day today…and probably tomorrow so maybe I can get rid of the pain that is down my entire right side…cripes, it is a pain getting old…I think I need to eat more than I have been lately…only had a salad and a piece of smoked sausage yesterday and that was well under 1500 cals for the day…but, with that, I should be losing weight like crazy and I’m not….especially with burning 1200 a day on the bike….oh, well…I need to get planning on the indoor work here and get the tools out to get started…will that be today? Not sure but once I get started I need to just go and get it done….not much to do today…F1 qualifying is on in an hour or so and I need to drink an ocean of coffee to get myself jump started….still just worn out and want to go back to bed…but I won’t….more later….

Well…it does appear that 6:30 is the new wake up time and I think I can live with that…but the storms kept me up quite a bit last night and I am a little worn out this morning…and emby wasn’t working so I had to uninstall and re-install it to get to the tango server since my son moved it to a new server and that took some time so I’m even more late than normal…but the rain is going to stop soon but I was hoping it would continue all day so I could justify taking a day off the bike but, no such luck….and my damn elbow is back to hurting again and I can barely lift my coffee cup…and I forgot to make coffee last night so I had to make it this morning and that is not a normal part of my routine….I am hoping my lawn will green up after all the rain since it was looking pretty brown with no rain for a couple of weeks but I am not going to water it…have to get a new mindset with a lawn this big and accept that it will be brown at times….I do hope that this rain will help the small patch of grass seed to sprout so I can move on to another 6 by 6 patch and get the bare spots filled in….not much to do today…..oh, I did see my first bald eagle yesterday and it flew over me only about 8 feet up…it will be interesting to see if I can find the nest out here…just going to take the bike ride and then watch some soccer after cleaning up and sorting some clothes to be donated…have bags of them that I haven’t used in years and they need to be gone….more later….

Well…okay, I was going to do this one yesterday but didn’t get to it…a couple of days back while I was just getting to the boardwalk on the bike, something small scurried across right in front of me and I had to do a double take since I had never seen anything like it…at first, I thought it was a salamander but it was too big and fast for one of those…so when I got back here I started searching on the internet and found out that there are native lizards that live in Michigan and the one I saw was called a five-lined skink…and the weird thing is I’ve spent loads of time in the woods in my long lifetime and had never seen one before….so that was pretty cool and I learned something new…something I try to do all the time….

Well…it does appear that my new wake up time is around 6:30 since it has been a couple of weeks since I woke up earlier than that and I still don’t know what changed from the 4-5 o’clock wake ups that I was having but I’ll take it…and I’m holding my breath but it appears like my elbow is getting better…the swelling is down some and I’m in much less pain and I’ll take that, too…and it looks like I won’t be getting out on the bike until after 9 this morning since it is only 48 out there right now and I don’t want to go out in a fleece….I do think I’m going to have to take a day off here soon just to get a repair day and let my body heal up and that may be tomorrow since it is supposed to rain overnight and into the morning…maybe I’ll just do one ride in the afternoon and count that as a rest day…..I am really surprised at how good my garden is looking with how sandy the soil is here….both the beans and tomatoes look really healthy and I’ve even had more than a half dozen pepper plants survive…I’m trying to figure out how to keep the tomatoes upright since they are already as tall as the cages and the cages fell over last year…so, I bought some 4 foot long stakes and some garden twine and I am going to build a lattice so see if that works better than the cages….and I tied all of the cages together to give them a little more stability and that will be something to watch over the summer….not much to do today…going to clean some and just take it easy a bit…I think my body needs me to stop abusing it so much and I could use a morning where I just sit a bit and have some coffee…so I think I will…more later…