Well…running a little late this morning with not getting out of bed until 6:30 or so….for the first time I had all the windows open last night and it was nice to get up to a breeze blowing through this place…and it was a nice, quiet night and I will take credit for that….I am going to try to take it a little easier today and not rush around like a crazy person to try to get things “done” when I really don’t have to…I know I should have the kitchen cabinets torn down already and have them stripped to paint but I just don’t feel like taking on a big job right now….and my right elbow won’t let me do it anyway…it still hurts like crazy and I’m having a hard time just picking up my coffee cup this morning…but, I’ve had this before where I couldn’t pick up anything where I had to grip with my hand and it went away after a few months so I guess I’ll just gut it out and take some ibuprofen….I did get two rides in yesterday without a flat but it will be weeks without one before I can relax about it….and the problem is that I didn’t find how the tubes were being punctured so I don’t know if cleaning the wheel and changing out the spoke band fixed it…I guess we’ll see today….not much to do today….F1 qualifying is on in a few minutes and then out on the bike but it’s going to be a windy ride and a lot of work…so maybe only one today….more later…

Well…darn…I almost forgot to come here for the second one today and it’s all because my routine was changed by going out to the beach this morning and into the afternoon…it is pretty darn cool that I can get to the beach in about 5 minutes instead of 40 from GR and I can park my car about 20 feet from where I set up my beach chair….so the great evening out of my biker tan has started and with lying in the sun so easy, I may have a great tan this summer…I know you shouldn’t tan at all but even with 50 sunscreen on, I still do get color on my legs and arms when I ride so I have to do something about it and only 30 minutes per side isn’t that bad for me…but I didn’t get back here until almost 1 and that made me late for the second bike ride…where I didn’t get a flat…yet, and that all made me late to do this one….so, I may not do another one today on politics but who knows? Haven’t read much news today so I need to catch up first….

Well…this is really weird…for the second day in a row I didn’t get out of bed until almost 7:30….and I slept through the night but tossed and turned enough to kick the covers off the bed….and with the windows open, that was a little chilly…I think the dollar store sunscreen I’ve been using is not working…after being out on the bike with the flat yesterday and using the spf 50, I still had sunburn on my face when it should have blocked it all….had to use aloe since my skin was so red and tight…I may have to splurge and buy some name brand stuff but that is up to almost 10 bucks for a spray can and that is a bit much…..it has been quiet up here for three days now and I wonder if the last call was the one that did it…I know that the officer I talked to on Tuesday was going to threaten the morons to the north with fines and that was what they should have done with the first call, not the 12th but this place is now getting to where I can enjoy my day…whatever works….as the idiot that I am, I’m going to get on the bike here in a few minutes to see if I can get through a ride without a flat for the first time in days….and I may get in the car and head out to the beach after I’m done with that….might just as well use my free parking pass and start evening out my biker tan…and yep, I’m going to feel guilty about not working on this place when I have way too much to do….I think I’m going to buy a new beach towel this week since the one I have is probably 30 years old and looking pretty shabby…and I don’t know where it is….but, right now I need more coffee and to get to the news….it’s after 8 and I’m not sure I like being so late….more later…

Well…as you can see, I just couldn’t do a political one today with how sucky this day has been…okay, not that bad but still two flats in two days? Had another one almost all the way out to the beach which meant riding back 6 miles on a flat…again…and I’m not sure what the heck is going on….the punctures aren’t in the same spot on the inside of the tubes so there is nothing that I can see that has been causing them…so, when I got back this afternoon, I tore into the rear wheel to try to find the cause thinking it may be the spoke protector band that wraps around the wheel…so I took another wheel apart from the Motobecane that I kept and got one off and put that in the new wheel….but that was after I had taken the wheel off the old Gravity that was the same wheel as on the new bike (since they are the same model bike), pounded out the axle that had rusted in, changed the gearset over, and inflated the tire, I saw that the tire had started to separate and come apart…so, then I got to work on the new wheel and put on a new gearset that I bought a couple of years ago, cleaned it up since the tube that went flat was full of slime…that is supposed to prevent flats…and put the whole thing back together with the hope that changing out the spoke band and washing the slime out of the wheel will have fixed the problem…if not, I’ll have to change the new tire on the new wheel over to the old one…or just buy a new tire since I’m going to need one before the end of summer…this has become a royal pain in the butt and riding 6 miles back today is going to make me sore tonight and tomorrow and it is starting to make me not want to get on the bike at all…what a pain…

Well…that was weird…slept all the way through til 6:30 this morning without waking up once….can’t remember the last time that happened…..a thought just hit me….I can remember when there was an idea that you could be tired from too much sleep…not sure how that happened or if you can get too much sleep but I’d like to sleep enough to try it out….I do feel a little worn out this morning but it’s from having a cocktail last night…just felt like I earned it after 30 miles on the bike yesterday…..and that makes me sore today…my darn right elbow is killing me this morning and I can barely lift my coffee cup without it screaming….cripes….I was laughing yesterday when I rode out to deposit a check at the bank and ran into a family of Sandhill cranes on the way back…they were just walking down the trail trying to find a way through the chain link fence that lines it….2 parents and two chicks and I really did have to laugh as the parents tried extending their wings and flapping them to make themselves look bigger even though I was staying back to not stress the chicks out…they finally found a wooded area to run into and got off the trail…but it was cool to just dawdle along and watch them for a while…not much to do today…I didn’t win the powerball last night and that is a little disappointing but no one else did, either, so I still have hope…I do need to run errands today or tomorrow since I used my last spare tube yesterday and I can’t figure out how I’m getting flats on the inside of the tube…need to buy a patch kit since I have three tubes downstairs that have small holes that could be repaired…but I haven’t had much luck patching them before…and I need to hit DD for sandwich ham they have on sale for 99 cents a pound so it will be a run out to the west of Muskegon along 31…the stores out there are much nicer than the ones here in the city…similar to how they were in the GR suburbs….more later….

Well…damn, that sucked….okay, let’s just say that I didn’t sleep well and leave it at that….but, I feel okay without any cocktails last night so I think I’ll keep that up all week….I did get a lot of stuff done yesterday with mowing the lawn and doing the front of the vacant lot across the street and it looks like just killing the weeds in the lawn has allowed the grass to start to grow in so I may just hold up on seeding more of it and see where it goes….and I got two rides in yesterday and that is the plan for today…I think I may take the car down to the beach this week and just sit in the sand a while and start to get some color since I can do it for free and it’s easier to carry my chair, towel and cooler in the car….not sure if the water is warm enough to go swimming yet but I’ll check that today….can’t wait to do that….I do need to do the grocery run this morning and get some allergy tablets…after mowing the big weeds across the street yesterday, I was miserable and had a headache that lasted all day so I think I’ll have to get a dust mask out for the next time….but I don’t have a lot of stuff to get other than some cauliflower so I can roast some with carrots for lunch today along with a pork chop that I thawed overnight….haven’t had that for a while and I need to get more veggies into my diet over the next couple of weeks…not much to do today…just going to wing it and start to plan the interior work and I’m not sure if I’ll run it in parallel projects or just do them one at a time…I guess it all depends on how much work I want to do at a time….more later…

Well…that was better than I expected…only woke up once at 4:17 but was able to stay in bed until after 6 and I consider that a success with no cocktails and no sleep aids…but my allergies are still crappy today and that is getting tiring….still think I have a bug but it feels like a cold and that is weird since I haven’t had one in over a year….I wonder if it’s from starting to not wear a mask again?  That would suck….I did get two rides in yesterday and planted some sunflower seeds out back but didn’t do much else with how crappy I’ve been feeling…all I wanted to do was lie on the couch yesterday afternoon and that extended into the night but I think I feel better today…and I should with no cocktails….need to get back to the 5 days off I was doing there for awhile….will do that this week….I have started to plan the work on the inside of the house and need to get started on the spare bedroom….need to get some plaster, sandpaper and flap discs for my grinder before I can, though, and I’ll get out for that this week…it is going to take quite a while before it will be ready for paint since they painted over wallpaper and I’m not sure how to remove that…or I wonder if I should just put a skim coat of new plaster over all of it? I guess I’ll see when I get started….not much to do today…two rides, of course, and some cleaning but it all is going to depend on how I feel…need to just let myself get better without pushing too much…and I don’t really have a schedule to keep anymore so I can do that….maybe…more later….

Well…still feel like crap and I’m still searching for a topic that grabs me without much luck….so, what to do? With it being the last day of the month, I guess I’ll just noodle a little and see what happens…just planted some more sunflower seeds out back and picked the rocks out of the topsoil that I used to reseed part of the lawn…have never seen so many rocks…it was like buying rocks with a little dirt in it and I hope the grass comes up…need to mow at some point this week but I think I’ll let the grass get a little longer so I can see where I’m mowing….and let the food I put on it last week try to work….god, I’m miserable and sneezing and I think it has to be allergies….but then I wonder why I feel warm and tired? I think that could be allergies, too, but I have never felt this bad from them….okay…I’ve had enough of this for the day….need some more water and to get some rest….

Well…darn, I think I may have a bug of some sort…have felt pretty crappy the past few days and I don’t know if my allergies are bad enough to do it….there are a few cold viruses going around that are causing some infections and I wonder if I may have picked one up over the past week or so…all I know is I feel lousy and the allergy meds aren’t helping…I wonder when I can take a day off and just lie here and do nothing? Is that even an option? For me, probably not….I would have an overwhelming case of the guilts if I did and would be depressed as heck from it….I did get two rides in yesterday and am going to try to do that again today but I do need to plant the rest of the sunflower seeds I have along the back fence to try to brighten this place up some….none of the other flower seeds I planted came up and that is a little disappointing that I won’t have color around the house….I do need to look in the freezer to plan the next meals for the week and I think I’ll have some pork chops or maybe some burger for tacos…or maybe both….who knows? I do know that I need to have coffee and read some news first before I can get moving…that is going to be hard today….more later…

Well…it looks like it didn’t freeze last night so my garden is okay but it does need food again since the soil is so bad out here….my son and his wife were supposed to come out here today but she hurt herself playing with the dog yesterday so we’ll have to reschedule…slept okay last night but still feel pretty crappy with my allergies so darn bad that I am miserable today….and I am still working on my first cup of coffee so it hasn’t had any time to work yet…I did get a lot of cleaning done over the past couple of days but that will stop today with Indy and the coke 600 on later…it will be a lazy day with only one ride today unless I get out for a second one between the races but I’m not sure about that yet….I do want to plant some more sunflower seeds along the fence and the back of the house but that shouldn’t take much time….I have a couple of them up out back but want a lot more of them since they make me grin….don’t have to cook today with burger left in the container and chili dogs to make…just had a taste for dogs and had to scratch that itch….not much to do today…just riding and vegging and I’ll probably get a nap in while Indy is on…..need to start planning to work on the inside of the house and picking out the paint that I want to use in here….but not right now….need more coffee and to watch the MotoGP race….more later….