Well…with testing the water temp last week, I knew it was close to being warm enough to go swimming…so today, it was so warm that I took the car out to the lake and laid in the sun a while just because I could..and the water was just warm enough to go swimming…so I did…and this is the earliest that I can remember getting in Lake Michigan…it was still pretty cold and I didn’t stay in long but I did get in and that keeps my record secure for another year…every year since I was five, I’ve gone swimming in Lake Michigan at least once a year and that’s been a long, long time….but, the one bad thing that happened today is my right elbow, that has been giving me lots of trouble, got worse today and now it is stiff along with the pain and I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it…I haven’t found a doctor out here yet and I don’t want to drive back to GR to have it looked at… so, I guess I’ll have to just suck it up and take some more ibuprofen…darn…

Well…darn, running late again this morning with not getting out of bed until after 7….and I feel worn out today…might have to re-think going so hard as I get older….but, if I start slowing down will that start the inevitable decline that I dread so much? Or, should I go harder and try to up my capacity? Who knows? I do know that I need a day off so I may go out to the beach later this morning after the first ride and the grocery run…..I think I’m going to try to swim soon since I saw people in the water yesterday in the fog and that was kind of cool to see….it is going to be hard to take a day off  when I have so much to do around here…I think I need to unclog the gutter on the front of the house since it was overflowing in the downpour yesterday…maybe that will be the work to do today so I don’t feel guilty? That one runs under the front stairs so it will mean taking the lattice off to get to it and I’m not sure I want to do that yet….we’ll see….maybe I can just run a hose down it and see if that will work….but right now I just want to have coffee and read some news before I get going…more later…

Well…yeah, I know I haven’t been doing a lot of political ones lately and I know that is why a lot of you come here…so, I promise tomorrow I will be back on the rants and outrage….I feel I have been so damn busy lately that this at times has become an afterthought and it shouldn’t be…like today…got out on the bike before 8 and got a nice ride in but the humidity was just brutal and I feel like I have been soaked all day….then mowing the lawn and trimming the bushes by my garden, then putting weedkiller on the lawn…then back on the bike for another 15 and there was still fog out there that was obscuring the beach even at 3 in the afternoon…then I walked down to the main drag at the bottom of the hill to take in the car show that was going on and then back here to make some dinner and now I have just sat down to do this and it is after 6…so, yeah…on the go almost constantly since 8 this morning and I thought I was retired…and I still feel guilty that I haven’t made any progress on the house other than the outside but when would I do that? I’m just tired….but, back to it tomorrow…

Well…darn that was close…as I was mowing the lawn, the sky kept getting darker and darker with  a stray spit of rain, and just after I finished and was trimming some bushes along the fence, the sky just opened up with huge raindrops pounding down…just walking from the garage to the house soaked me completely and it is still raining now a half hour later….so, I didn’t get the weedkiller on the lawn and it appears like that will have to wait for a couple of days now with the rain that’s forecast….I did get to sit on the porch couch after I showered with a  cup of coffee and some news and that was really relaxing…I have made it quieter up here but there is still a ways to go…but I’m up for it….oh, and Lake Michigan was gone when I got out there this morning…the fog was thick enough that you couldn’t see that there was water there and that was pretty cool…

Well…running a little late again today with not getting out of bed until almost 7….and I looked outside and there is fog out there…not too thick but it’s supposed to be foggy all day today…I rode through a cloud yesterday at the high point of my ride out by the lake yesterday…I guess you’d call if fog but it wasn’t diffuse like fog normally is but a discrete cloud that was moving in off the lake…and that was pretty cool…going to get out here in the next hour or so and ride out to take a look at the lakeshore and see how the fog is out there…there is even a dense fog advisory for the day and tonight so I have my fingers crossed that it gets that thick…got a little work done yesterday on the yard and garden and got the tomato cages put in and I need to mow and put weed killer on the lawn after I get back from the ride…..and I may put some more seed in the bare spots with the possibility of rain the next couple of days…it would be pretty nice to get some storms tomorrow so I can sit on the porch and watch them….we are so under in rainfall this spring that it could rain for 3 straight days non-stop and we still wouldn’t get back to normal…at least it shouldn’t be dusty mowing today with the showers that came through yesterday…not much to do today…just lawn work and riding…and some cleaning in here but that’s enough, isn’t it? More later….

Well…as you know, I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix the outdoor faucet to stop it from leaking and had settled on trying to glue a piece of inner tube to the hardened gasket inside of it…but, this morning, I had a brainstorm that gave me a simple fix for it….when I was at Menard’s getting weed killer, it hit me that I could just buy a screw on hose valve that I could turn off and on to stop the leak without shutting my water off or tearing the faucet apart or cutting the faucet out and sweating on a new one…so, five bucks later, I have a non leaking outdoor faucet that I can now leave the hose hooked up to…and the valve is a really nice one with a big off and on handle that makes it easy to control…so, yay for me…my brain still does work…sometimes….and I even went out to get some new t-shirts from target and repaired a slit in the top on the car that I hadn’t noticed before…and now I’m waiting for the rain to move through so I can put the weed killer on the lawn….and, I got thirty miles in on the bike…is that enough for the day?

Well…that was okay…didn’t get out of bed until 6:30 but feel kind of slow with having a couple of cocktails last night….it is nice to have a breeze blowing through the house this morning after having to have a fan on last night to keep from sweating my butt off…and it looks like that is going to be the weather for the next couple of days until it rains Wed…..so that means I should seed some more of the bare spots in the lawn before then but I still don’t have any motivation so we’ll see….I think we’re over 5 inches under the average in rainfall for the year so far and my lawn looks like it…it is turning yellow but I am not going to spend the money to water it but I really don’t know the cost since my water bill has been the same 24 bucks a month since I moved in and I am dreading when they actually read the meter and bill me….I think the pain in my right elbow is arthritis instead of tendonitis since it now has a big lump right on the bone that is sensitive to touch…and that is keeping me from working around here since the pain is pretty intense when I do anything with it…there is going to be a point where I’m going to have to suck it up and get working but I just don’t feel like it right now….just pouring coffee sets it off and I’m think I may have to take something for it this morning….not much to do today…I think I’ve figured out how to fix the leaking outside faucet using one of the bike tubes that I have downstairs but it will mean shutting of the water for an hour or so and I am not ready to do that today…need a different adhesive that I’ll get on the grocery run wed….so today I think I’ll just clean some and get the two rides in…and I have some chicken thawed that needs to be cooked so that will be my day….more later…..

Well…still have my fingers crossed that I figured out what was causing the flats on the rear tire of the bike….never did find anything wrong when I inspected it but I changed out the spoke band anyway and washed the entire inside of the wheel so maybe whatever was puncturing the tubes got washed out…who knows? I do know that I got two rides in today and feel sunburned and had to use some aloe just now to get rid of the tightness in my face….I think I need to upgrade my sunscreen and start to buy name brand stuff again instead of the dollar store stuff I have been using….even with 30 and 50 spf on, I have been burning and making the biker tan worse…and it already looks way too weird….so maybe out to the beach again tomorrow to try to even it out….I did buy some ham from DD this week and got 6 pounds for 6 bucks but was not happy with it…it really had no taste and I was pretty disappointed until I heated it today and it finally tasted like ham…strange, but it made me feel better I didn’t waste the 6 bucks…so, hot ham and cheese sandwiches are in the future…have 4 pound in the freezer, too, so I’ll have to find some recipes that use ham….okay, the race is going to start so I’ll end here….

Well….crap, woke up again today with a bout of the damn depression I’ve been fighting for a month or so now and that makes everything just so much effort…didn’t even read the news the first thing as I normally do and I’m even bored with MotoGP that is on right now and I can’t get excited for the F1 race that is coming on in about 20 minutes…oh, well….I do have to get myself a new hose since the expandable one I have is rotting and falling apart daily…have had to repair it the past two days and that is getting old when I need it to water everything since it doesn’t ever rain out here…..and I probably should get a hose reel to store it on since it looks like hell just laying in the yard….but they are 40 bucks or so and I don’t want to spend any money right now…..and the hose will be another 25 bucks…so that’s not happening until next month…or for two weeks when I get my next deposit….still need to plan for 4K going out in August for taxes and car insurance and that is going to hurt….I did get through the bike ride yesterday without a flat and I have my fingers crossed for a another uneventful day today but I won’t be getting out until after the race around 10 or so…and that may make it a one ride day today…it was a little cool yesterday when there were 4 WWII planes doing a flyover of the beach and Muskegon lake trailing smoke behind them and doing some aerobatics…..and I think there are more planned for today with it being the anniversary of D-day and that would be cool to see….not much to do today…just going to veg out for the next couple of hours and have coffee and read the news as I watch the race….don’t feel like doing much else….

Well…damn, I am going to be guilty the rest of the day with skipping the second ride…just hit a wall and couldn’t do it…lost all my energy and just wasn’t feeling it so I’m just going to take the rest of the day off and just do these after getting everything watered outside and chasing a damn ground hog that I think has a den under my front steps…so it looks I need to gas that hole, too, just like I did the one under my sidewalk but that will mean taking the lattice work off the side of the steps to get at it…but, not today….just feel off and want to sit here for a while as I try to think of a political one for today….I did get out to the beach for a second day in a row but the wind was blowing so hard that I was getting sandblasted and cut it short….and that was probably a good idea since I do have some sunburn and don’t want to need aloe for it….more later…maybe…