Well…damn, another busy day and I’m just now getting the first chance to breathe…the whole thing started with doing the grocery run today since I wanted to get my Mega tickets for tonight and I had to stop at the dollar store for more sunscreen and a new set of sunglasses for riding…then over to Aldi’s for a bunch of stuff to make mushroom chicken tomorrow in one of my new pots and then to Meijers for the rest of the things I need…cheap day with not buying any booze…I think I only spent about 20 bucks at both aldi’s and Meijers combined so that was cool…and then over to the bank to cash and deposit my 600 buck check and then back here…before I got started, I had to call PNC bank to make sure my first house payment got applied to my account and get a pin to set up my online banking with them…after I got back here I had two hours on the phone with comcast trying to get my accounts straightened out and finally got that done so now I can take a break and just relax for a bit…no bike ride today since the wind is just howling out here and I had to weigh down my leaf bags to keep them from blowing away until they picked them up this afternoon….this has been a lot more work than I wanted to do but that takes care of everything that I had to do this week other than pay a bunch of bills that will burn through another 1200 bucks before it’s all over…but the next big thing that I have to pay for is my taxes and car insurance at the end of August…so I need to start saving right now for that…that should be another two grand…yikes…

Well…running about on time for a change with getting up around 6 but with having trouble getting to sleep last night I only got about 5 hours but I feel okay this morning with being good last night…my hands and arms are sore again today with all of the chopping and raking I did on the lawn yesterday but I did get the back of the yard finished and will probably start work around the house today…need to trim the long grass around the foundation and do another repair on the fence to keep animals from getting through it…and I think I need to buy a reciprocating saw from HF to cut the brush out of the fence, too…but I am going to wait for the 1400 dollar check to come before I do that…and that should be next week…I do need to get a lawnmower, too, and my oldest brother said he had one so I need to check that out before I burn 500 bucks on a new one…but, I need a self-propelled one since this is a pretty big yard….and I want a mulcher and bagger, too, so we’ll see….and once I get the grass cut out of the fence, I’m going to treat the fenceline with grass killer so I don’t have to trim it too much….not much to do today…it’s going to be a busy one with doing the grocery run today and hitting the bank and phone calls to comcast and the new bank that now has my mortgage so make sure the check they cashed for the first morgtage payment was applied to my loan…looks like I may not get on the bike today with the wind blowing over 25 already and getting gusty later today….more later…

Well…damn, just got the 600 dollar check that I had to file a tax return for! And the 1400 dollar check is going to be sent on the 2nd of April…yay! It took a damn lot of work and bitching to get this one so I really do hope the next one comes without any work since the IRS has my info now so it should be easy…the operative word is should…but, we’ll see…all I know is that I can sure use this money…going to call a plumber or drain cleaner and get the kitchen drains cleaned next week and probably get an estimate on taking down the dead tree….and I can now afford a ladder, garage door opener, and a grill so I’ll be set for the summer….this is just such a damn relief….

Well…it feels darn good to be able to  come here first thing in the morning after not being able to for two days…after almost 9,000 of these, I still look forward to doing this every day and my day is just wrong when I can’t…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed until 6:30 and that makes three days in a row of sleeping through and I’m not sure why that is happening….I’ll take it but I sure wish I could figure out the keys to doing it all the time…didn’t get out on the bike yesterday with the cold, rain, and wind and it looks like this is going to be a pretty crappy week with temps in the 50’s today and tomorrow but down into the 30’s wed and thurs and rain showers almost every day so riding is going to be iffy starting then….I should be able to get back to yard work this morning and I want to finish the back of my lot today…still have trimming and raking to do and then I’ll start on the rest of the yard…not sure when I’ll get started on the interior of the house but I am starting to feel stress about getting going…and that shouldn’t be…after all, I don’t have any schedule to meet and I am perfectly fine living in the house the way it is….and I want a summer off to just enjoy myself…don’t know how many summers I have left and it would be a shame to spend them all working on a house that someone else will enjoy….not much to do today….I am going to try to get a ride in today and the yard work done and the dirt races at Bristol are on starting at noon so I may have to fit the ride in between the trucks and cup cars….more later…

Well….after working and working to try to get my relief payments and not having any luck, I went out to the IRS website on Saturday and put my info in and they have information on me and they are sending one of the checks on the 2nd of April….so, I’m not sure which payment it is going to be but I’m guessing it’s the 1400 dollar one and that would be so cool…have burned so much cash in the past month that I was going to have to basically stop spending any money to make sure I still have a good sized reserve left….I need a garage door opener and a grill..and my kitchen drain cleaned…maybe by the middle of April…yay!

Well…I’m back! Did you miss me? Had a little snafu with my domain name expiring and my son being too busy with an outage at his work to fix it until just now…so now I’m back…and damn, it’s hard to not do this for almost two days…so let’s get to it…hmmm…I did sleep okay last night but still feel pretty crappy even this late in the day so it looks like I’m going to skip the cocktails tonight and just have water…or more water since I’ve been drinking glasses on glasses all day today…I’m really not as sore as I should be after chopping out a bunch of stumps yesterday with my axe and that should have screwed up my shoulder but it feels okay today…but my back is still iffy and stiff and that has been going on for a long time and I’m not sure what to do about it….I did get a comment from one of my neighbors on how nice the sidewalks in front look after I edged them with my spade and that made me feel good that someone is noticing…and I got all of the vines chopped up and bagged yesterday but I am out of space in the garage so the leaves will have to wait a while until they start picking them up in a couple of weeks…I didn’t do anything today but watch sports and veg since it was so cold and windy out here…steady winds of over 20 with gusts to 40 with rain and I just don’t want to get wet working outside…I did talk to my neighbor about the amp he has in his van…I heard it the other day and could not believe how loud it is…but he’s my neighbor so I’m not going to bitch…and he’s a nice guy…oh, he has 2,000 watts in the thing and 4 12 inch woofers in it…made me laugh….okay, that’s enough to get started again…might be back for another one later after I let my brain get back into writing mode….

Well…running on time this morning with getting up around 6 or so…I know I could smell the coffee so it must have been a little after 6 so that makes for a good night after crashing out about 10 last night…I did get up a couple of times and the pain in my left ribs didn’t let me sleep in my right side…yeah, that’s weird…I could sleep on it but sleeping on my right was too damn painful….and I was good again last night for the fifth day and I feel good about that…that’s two weeks in a row and I am close to making that a new habit…I did get my new stainless steel pots yesterday and I can’t wait to try them out but need to read the pamphlet that came with them to care for them and make them the last pots I need…after all, I am pretty damn old an they only need to last about 10 years or so…didn’t get on the bike yesterday since I really did need a day off I was so sore…and I may take today off, too, with the cold and showers that are forecast but we’ll see…I can use some exercise but I’m not as anal about it as I used to be…it is going to be cold the next few days but I am ready to go back to my thermasuit if I need to….not much to do today…I should get into planning the painting project for the living room and the bedrooms but I still haven’t taken the two weeks off I said I was going to after I moved in here and I wonder if I will ever do that….there is still a lot to do and it is hard to sit here with it not done…and I do need to not spend any money until next month since I spent close to 2500 bucks this month and that is more than I had come in for the first time in years…and that is not sustainable….more later…

Well…with the package that just came with my new Cuisinart cookware that my son and daughter in law bought me, I’ve had a really nice day that started with T coming out to see the house and then going out to lunch and talking for a couple of hours…it was nice to catch up with her since I hadn’t seen here since last year and, with everything that is going on in her life, I think she needed and old friend to just sit and listen a while…and we laughed and smiled and just talked as old friends do…and that made me smile that I could give her a couple of hours where she could live in the moment and not think about the hard decisions she needs to make….I felt useful for the first time in a while and that made me feel good…hope I helped…

Well…darn…was up three times last night with the last time a little before 6 and I could tell that there was no use to try to get back to sleep…so, I didn’t…slept okay, though, and feel okay today…and I am getting to like this feeling good in the morning without cocktails the previous night so now I’m up to 5 days a week and I think that’s where I’ll keep it for a while….getting through the first few weeks of this and getting my habits changed was different…I won’t say tough but it did need some discipline and I am glad I made that choice…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday even with the wind blowing almost 20 but I won’t be going today with gale warnings up for out here of 25-30 mph and gusts of almost 40 all day…it was like that yesterday in the afternoon and one gust sent some of my tools flying when I was working on the sidewalks…but, I had them inside the fence so they caught as they flew…I wonder if it’s going to be this windy all the time out here? That could make the summer heat a little more bearable…and it is usually cooler out here by the lake…T is going to come out here today to take a look at the house and then go to lunch over in GH and it will be good to see her….and I am getting some new pots and pans from my son and his wife for a housewarming present…a nice set of Cuisinart stuff that look pretty cool and will be replacing pots that I’ve had for 20 years and were looking pretty shabby….not much to do today…need to clean this place up some this morning but that is about it….haven’t gotten sore from all of the pounding my body took yesterday but I think I’ll try to get ahead of it with an ibuprofen in a few…my ribs still hurt when I breathe and it’s pretty annoying….more later…

Well…man, I’m tired…it’s been another busy day and I am now waiting for the pain to start to build for the rest of the day…started out with doing the grocery run and hitting Aldi’s and Meijer’s…forgot to buy milk and I’m not sure how the heck that happened…but, I have a gallon and a half here so I may be able to get through the week without it….then I got out for a hard ride in the wind…it was blowing 18 to 20 mph with gusts of 25 but it was from the south and, with my route mostly west and east, it was tolerable….and that’s something I wouldn’t have said last year….then I got started on edging my front sidewalks with a spade since the grass had grown over the walk by almost a foot so that took a little work…okay, a lot of work and I am surprised my back allowed me to get through it…and I took the sod and dirt that came from it and filled the back entrance to the yard and it looks pretty good…no more 2 foot deep holes and, after it grows in with some rain, I think I’ll be able to easily drive in the back yard to wash the car….so, progress! Still haven’t done much in here but I can live with the interior as long as I get the outside cleaned up…and now I’m making an 8 pound ham with mashed potatoes and corn for dinner since I skipped lunched to get the work done…almost want to have cocktails tonight since I earned them but nope…have to be good again tonight and tomorrow…discipline….