Well…how the hell is it 48 degrees for a high on the last day of April? With the wind blowing almost 20 and gusting out here, I skipped the bike ride since I just couldn’t take being that cold or putting on all of my heavy stuff just to go out and suffer in the brutal wind…I did get some stuff done this morning when I tried to clean the porch windows but found that the problems are between the double glass so they can’t be cleaned…and you can’t get the screens out to even clean them so they will have to be on the agenda to be replaced next year if I can afford it…should cost over a thousand bucks even with cheap windows and I just don’t want to spend that right now…. and I got some flower seeds planted out front along with using my new hose end sprayer to put weed killer on the front where the weed and feed didn’t do crap and it is full of dandelions….then I put some new veggie seeds in cups since the ones I planted a week ago aren’t doing anything and I need to get them in the ground in the next couple of weeks…I do have 5 bean plants up and some tomatoes but no peppers came up so I planted a whole new set of them to make sure I have everything I want…I really do have a big garden and want to fill it….other than that stuff, I haven’t done anything else today…just tired with only getting a little sleep last night but I do need to get started on the rest of the windows to clean them but I want to wait for that until I power wash the house…the 8 foot ladder I bought will really help with that and reaching the gutters that need repairs…but, I’m taking the rest of the day off and I think I’m having cocktails tonight since I’ve been good since last Saturday….and I have to remember that I don’t have a schedule anymore…that I don’t need to bust my ass anymore working around here…but that is going to be a hard habit to break….

Well…finally, it rained overnight and was still raining when I got up…and I think the birds liked it since I could hear them like they were inside when I was walking through the living room…I really hope this will help my lawn filled in and get the weed killer activated that I put on the lawn weeks ago…I still have liquid weed killer to use if the damn dandelions in the front don’t die and I may treat the yard anyway since the liquid stuff works better…I did sleep okay last night but was up at 5:04 and then spent an hour in that state that is not really sleeping but not really awake, either, until a little after 6…and I have found that I really don’t need the sleep aids anymore if I just accept that I won’t have the deep sleep that I remember when I was younger…and that’s okay…feel pretty good this morning and have a couple of errands to run early…the Mega is up to over 300 mil so I need to get a few tickets and I forgot to get milk when I did the grocery run earlier in the week and I need to get more cups for veggie seeds since the old ones I’m using don’t seem like they are going to come up and I bought more at lowe’s yesterday just in case…I do need to get on doing the windows on the porch since I do have a ladder to reach it now and I hope they can be cleaned but I think they my be permanently cloudy and will have to be replaced at some point….not much to do today…going to have to wait to get on the bike since it is in the 40’s still and that sucks with it being only one day away from May so I’ll get my errands done first and then see how the day unfolds….more later…

Well…it’s official, there will be no spring this year…just looked at the weather and it’s supposed to be in the 50’s to lower 60’s all the way through May and that just sucks…and the heat just came on and it’s the end of April…and I haven’t even tried to get into shorts this year and this is the latest in memory that there was not even an attempt…oh, and it doesn’t rain out here in Muskegon…the last appreciable rain was almost 3 weeks ago and I was so looking forward to sitting on my porch in the rain….oh, well…I did sleep okay on the 4th night of being good and had some dreams that I don’t remember but that’s okay…as long as I had them it means I got into REM sleep and that is the restorative kind that helps your brain heal overnight…and I didn’t get out of bed until almost 6:30 and I’ll take that…I think I may have to buy more veggie seeds since I’m using last years and none of them are coming up in the cups on the windowsill….the only ones that are up are the new beans that I planted but I have 5 of them up so far…I guess I can wait a week to see…or maybe I’ll get some at Lowe’s this morning since I am going out to get some concrete paver blocks to make a path  for the mailman through my flowers in the front…if they ever come up…not much to do today….just the Lowe’s run after I have coffee and read the news and then a bike ride before lunch….and Man U plays at 3 so I need to have everything done by then..at least I’ll have a clean car for errands this morning….more later….

Well…I’ve got so darn much stuff to do around here that even when I do get stuff done, I don’t even feel that good about it…after an iffy night of sleep last night, I dumped a huge quantity of coffee down me just to get moving and was out on the lawn to mow before 9…after I got that done…oh, the lawn is starting to look better but still has too many weeds and bare spots for me but I think I need to just understand that it won’t look good until next year probably…but I am going to treat it with some liquid weedkiller in the next few days since the weed and feed didn’t kill all the weeds and that is just damn annoying…after the yard work, I got on the bike to do 15 miles into a 14 mph wind…not all the way but all the way out to the beach so that made for a good run coming back but I was still sore from yesterday’s 30 miles so I only did one ride today…after lunch, I remembered that the car was just filthy since I hadn’t done the interior since before I moved out here so I got out the shop vac and went to work on it…after I got the vacuuming done, I decided to wash the rest of the interior to get rid of the dust and dirt from moving…and I had the cloth from a speaker grill that had come loose so I glued that back down and then decided to wash the rest of the car, too, so I got that done by about 3 and then decided I’d take the rest of the day off…and that’s where the not feeling good about the work I’d done came from…after all…there were 3 more hours I could work but didn’t….and there are still hundreds or thousands of hours of work to do on the house that won’t get done unless I get moving now….and that is a little depressing…I need a vacation…

Well…man, I’m sore this morning after doing a double on the bike yesterday…and I just realized I rode all the way around Muskegon Lake yesterday with getting to the state park after riding out to Lake Michigan in the morning…and it was brutal coming back 6 miles into a 20 mph wind….and I discovered where all the rich people live in North Muskegon…yow, there are some damn castles along the bluff on the lake that must go for 3 or 4 million dollars….and the roads are in such good shape that it’s like riding on glass…even the damn street signs are fancy….boy, you can really see the divide between the haves and have nots when you go through there….all I know is that even with almost 600 miles on the bike since I got out here, my butt was still so sore that I didn’t know if I was going to make it back here…and that is normally toughened up by now….oh,well…I did get my flower seeds planted and I hope some of them come up since it would look cool…but, I think I need to get more seeds to get coverage on all of the border…we’ll see….it does look like it rained a bit last night but not enough to soak the yard and get my grass seed going…I think we’re in a drought out here it has been so dry and I wonder if that is normal? I haven’t lived out here long enough to know what the patterns look like…but it would be nice if I could mow the lawn without having clouds of dust from the bare spots choke me as I run over them…not much to do today…I should take the old opener down in the garage but the first thing I want to do is vacuum the car out since I haven’t done that since I moved out here and it is looking pretty gross….first things first, though, I need more coffee and to read the news…and then plan what to do for the day…cripes, I don’t know why I’m still planning my days….more later….

Well…you know, I’m getting used to this being good stuff…I know I’ve said that before but last night I had no desire at all to have cocktails and I slept pretty well…feel okay, too, and my thumb is not hurting at all and that is a miracle after all the chopping I did yesterday….I think I may be turning the corner on the pain I’ve been getting from working around here since my back didn’t hurt much even after all of the bending, chopping, and hauling yesterday…and I’ll take that…had been feeling really old and decrepit with not being able to go like I used to but I think it’s better…I should be hobbling around here and I’m not so I’ll take it….I do need to work on the lawn more this morning and get the manure worked into the garden….and there are some bare spots in the lawn that need seed and it is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow so that will get it started…I hope…I do have one bean plant that has sprouted in the cups on the windowsill and I am hoping that I get all of the 8 that I planted to come up…that is one thing from last year’s garden that didn’t work too well….only got a few beans and there is nothing like fresh picked green beans so I am planting a bunch more this year….along with more green peppers since I only got about a half dozen off of 4 plants last year….not sure how good the soil is in the garden, it looks pretty sandy and I hope the manure will help that….if not, I’ll add some top soil to it, too, have plenty of time since it will be a few weeks until I’m ready to plant….not much to do today…doing the grocery run today along with depot and then back here for more yard work before I get on the bike…it is supposed to be almost 60 out there so it looks like a top down run with no fleece today…I think I may be edging up to switching to shorts soon…but it still may be too cold yet…we’ll see…more later…

Well…I did finally drag my butt outside to get started on some work that has been staring me in the face for a couple of weeks and it wasn’t as terrible as I expected…got the weeding around the house done and my back was feeling okay so I thought I’d start on cutting the sod out for the garden but I wasn’t planning on getting the whole thing done…but, after it started to go well, I got all of that cut out in my 4×15 space….and then I used the sod that came out to patch more of the holes in the yard entry and around the garage….so, the yard is coming along and all I need is some rain to keep the grass seed that has sprouted alive and get it growing in the new places I seeded over the weekend…but, I did hurt my right thumb with all the pounding on it and that is going to hurt the rest of the day…especially since I still need to get on the bike for a ride soon…ouch…

Well…I wonder what would happen if I decided to just not get out of bed in the morning? I almost did that this morning but did get up at nearly 7 which is really late for me….and I feel depressed for some reason and I think it goes back to spending 15 bucks on a new soldering pen yesterday…and it’s weird that something so small could trigger this….I mean, less than twenty bucks? There must be something else going on that I haven’t thought of yet….but, it’s still real and I still feel it so this could be a bit of a struggle today…oh, well…at least the damn groundhog didn’t dig a new hole under my sidewalk….I really didn’t get much done yesterday and that could be part of it, too…there is so much to do around here and every day that I don’t get to some of it is a wasted day that I don’t have a lot of left….but even with that I don’t feel too motivated today and just want to sit here and drink coffee….I do need to weed the rest of the border around the house so I can get my flower seeds in and start taking down the old garage door opener today but even those small tasks seem like too much work right now…and I need to ride the bike later but that doesn’t seem like fun…damn, I need to just take a deep breath and stop thinking for a while…..and even that seems like a lot of work…more later….

Well…finally did get out in the garage to check out the old opener and found a burned section on the board where the solder was gone…and my soldering iron has been missing since I moved so I went out and got a new one that has lights and everything in it…and soldered the places that were burned but that didn’t do anything so I’m guessing that the components that got really hot…hot enough to melt solder and leave a burn mark on the board, and that ruined them…so, I will be buying a new one in a couple of weeks and it looks pretty easy to hang it but I may have to cut out some of the shelf to make it fit if the motor unit is bigger…and I have to take my new broom out and sweep the shelf since it is covered in dust and crap and I want it cleaned….I forgot that I can use that for storage, too…and I like my new ladder…it may be a little tall to use with the garage door up but it will make it comfortable cleaning off the shelf and the windows outside…along with the power washing the siding on the house….and I really like how light it is…I can throw it up on the hooks so easily that I can do it even when I get really old….oh, and some damn animal dug a hole under my sidewalk that I had to fill back up and I’m going to put some fencing and a piece of concrete over to keep them either in the hole or from digging it again….

Well…that was a little better… slept okay last night but feel pretty slow this morning and I know I need to eat more…just did the math and was under1500 calories for the day yesterday and I think that has been the pattern for almost a week now and I know that is not sustainable when I’m riding every day…but I still have 20 pounds to lose so maybe I do need to keep it up….had a nice visit from my son and his wife and their dog yesterday and it was cool to have them see the place…their dog loved the yard and ran around like crazy…and he is still a puppy…only 2 months old and weighs 40 pounds….huge dog….if it ever warms up, they can come over here and we can go to the beach with my free parking passes that should be here in a few weeks….not going to get on the bike today with the high only getting to 48 out here today and that is 15 degrees under the average high for this part of April and I am getting tired of it…and after 2 days of normal, the rest of the week is going to be just as cold with no relief in sight….I wonder if this is going to be one of those years where we don’t have a spring but it goes straight into summer? Oh, well….I can still work on the yard and get the garden prepped for the seeds I have planted in the cups inside…and I do need to work on the garage door opener either today or tomorrow but Man U plays in 45 minutes and that goes straight into the Indy car race at 12:30 and then nascar at Talladega at 2:30 so I may just wait til tomorrow to work in the garage…and I do need to figure out food for the week…haven’t bought any protein for a couple of weeks so I will need to look in the freezer to see what’s there…lots of chicken and soup so I should thaw some….more later….