Well…I don’t know what changed but I’ve never been able to go back to sleep after waking up early…but, I have been able to for weeks now and it is starting to concern me a little….I wonder if there is some hidden health problem that is allowing me to do it? Or, maybe I had one for 30 years and now it’s gone? Who knows? All I do know is that it’s making me late getting here in the morning and I’m not sure I like that…I did sleep okay but no dreams to speak of and the pain from working on the bathroom is subsiding some so that is a good thing…I did finally get my hair clippers figured out yesterday and gave myself a short, short haircut that looks pretty good on what hair I have left…and I paid for them twice over with not paying to get my hair cut since March….it only took about 5 minutes this time so I can keep it short anytime I want…yeah, I know, I’m probably the only person in the world who gets geeked out about cutting his own hair…didn’t get much done yesterday but laundry and the bike ride but I need to get started cleaning the downstairs today and probably will…unless I decide to take the day off and just veg it out…it can go either way the with the coffee not working yet…more later….

Well…aside from getting such a late start today, it has been a pretty good day today…had a long text convo with my daughter and it was good to get caught up with her…and I found out she made me some socks and a stocking hat that are on their way to me and I can’t wait to see them…she has taken to knitting and making her own yarn so that is pretty cool…and she has been promised a promotion next year with a large pay raise…it is so cool to see your kids so successful…and I made a huge ham for lunch that I got for 8 bucks that came out great and I even made some tasty smooth gravy for the mashed potatoes…and I got a hard bike ride in with no lung problems again so that made me smile…I am a little conflicted about a house that came up in my e-mail today down in a little town called Nashville…only 80K and it has everything I want…basement, big two stall garage on a quiet street with a good sized yard…but, it’s 50 miles away from GR and doesn’t have high speed broadband, just dsl…would have to get satellite internet and that costs about 80 bucks a month…but, it doesn’t really need any work so that would be cool…will have to think about that one….the 250 bucks a month payment would be cool….oh, and it was built in 1900 so that is a little too old…I think….I only have three weeks to find a house and the stress is starting to get to me…but, I’m done for the day…going to go back and look at that house again…it may be a placeholder house that I can just buy while I look for another one…hmmm….

Well…I think I’ve discovered why I got up so early for so long…when I wake up at 4 or 5 and I do get back to sleep, it makes me late to come here…this one should have been out an hour and half ago but I went back to sleep when I woke up around 5…but, I did have weird dreams after getting back to sleep so I’m a little torn about that…man, I hurt like crazy after working on the bathroom faucet twice in a day yesterday….you know how cats like sitting in boxes that are too small for them? That’s how I felt pretzeling my body into the tiny little space under the vanity to get to the pipes and hold downs….and here’s the weird thing…after I re-installed the old faucet, it doesn’t leak now…and that was the only reason I was replacing it…probably should have let it leak for a few days to see if it would stop…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday but that contributed to the pain I felt late in the day…but, my lungs were okay after a few days when they weren’t so that was a good thing…I did get started on the cleanup downstairs yesterday but that was about it for work…and I don’t feel like doing much with how I feel right now…everything still hurts but my elbows and back are the worst and I think need some ibuprofen right now so I can get on the bike in a few minutes…going to make a big ham today since it was cheap ad I haven’t had one in quite a while….more later….

Well…it is a pain in the butt to work on old houses…as you know, I was going to replace the leaking faucet in the bathroom today…even went out and bought one this morning but it wouldn’t work with the sink so I put the old leaker back in to think about what I can do…the new one has the feed lines that come out in the center of the faucet where my sink only has a small hole that the control for the pop up goes through and there is no way it is going to fit…so now I guess I need to just cross my fingers and hope the leak doesn’t get worse until I can find a faucet that has the feed lines on the outside and that doesn’t cost a hundred bucks…what a pain in the ass….

Well…running almost on time this morning with getting up for good around 6 or so…but I feel like a car with a dead battery…the starter is grinding slow but not enough to start it….hmmm…that would make the coffee a battery charger or a set of jumper cables…yeah, that metaphor is a little tortured but it is still how I feel…I did wake up around 4 or so for the first time so that makes it a 400 which lots of companies made including Pontiac….had some really weird dreams that I can’t even understand so I’m not going to bore you with them…I did get some work done yesterday that I hope to finish this morning but I know it’s not going to be that easy…going to have to figure out how to adapt the new style flexible water feed lines to the soldered in compression fittings on the valves…it would be way too easy that they would just fit….what a pain….I am going to get out on the bike today no matter what since it is going to be above 40 and that will make for a nice ride after the numbing cold it’s been for the past week….and I do need to do the grocery run here in a bit but right now all I want to do is have more coffee….more later…

Well…if the rubber shoe debacle wasn’t enough for one day, the damn faucet in the bathroom started to leak again after I replaced the cartridge about 6 weeks ago…even with that replacement, it never worked right and it had a leak around the aerator  that sprayed all over the place…so, I decided that I wasn’t going to put another cartridge in it for 15 bucks when I can get a cheap replacement faucet for 20 bucks and it should last until my son and his wife move in here in a couple of months. The problem was that this faucet has been here for at least 40 years and has never been touched…so, of course, it was going to be a pain in the butt to get out and to get to the hold downs and the water connections, I had to bend this old body into a pretzel shape since the cabinet it is in is tiny and there is very little space between the opening and the opposite wall. Surprisingly, the fittings and the hold downs came off with just a little wrenching and it only took about a half hour to get it out and get the sink cleaned up for the new one that I’m going to get at Menards tomorrow during the grocery run….will probably have to get some kind of an adapter since the water lines that are soldered in use a nut and ferrule fitting and I’m sure the new ones use flexible lines instead of copper….but, it’s no big deal living without the bathroom sink if it takes a day or so to get it installed. Probably should have done this instead of wasting 15 bucks on the cartridge for the old one…oh, well….

Well…as I talked about this morning, I was going to try my new waterproof shoes on the bike today just to see if they were warmer than the running shoes I’ve been using for the past couple of years…yeah, that was a mistake…while the shoes are great to work around in the yard, using them to ride the bike was a big mistake…my right foot started to hurt so badly that I had to cut the ride short at 8 miles and they are no good for the cold either…they are way too flexible for the pressure I put on them riding…and I couldn’t get comfortable like I can in my running shoes…they seem to just fall where it’s comfortable and they are stiff enough to not hurt the bottom of my feet…and the rubber shoes screwed up my entire position on the bike, too, and that made everything hurt from the waist down…so, big, big mistake…oh, well…

Well…running a little late this morning even with waking up on another engine size at 4:40….have been coughing and wheezing all night from the work I did downstairs yesterday and I am still coughing like crazy this morning…I sure hope it doesn’t take 6 weeks to stop like it did last time…feel a little better this morning but I think I’ve been under a thousand calories a day for 4 days now and I can’t keep that up and feel okay….so, I’m going to try to fix that today and have a couple of big meals…okay, big for me that is so I should be at around 1500 for the day…the bike ride was such a huge chore and so damn cold yesterday and I am starting to try to figure out what has changed to be so sensitive to it…I’ve ridden in the cold for years and years in the same thermasuit that I’m using now and the cold never hung on throughout the day like it has been these past few weeks….I am going to try out my rubber slip on shoes today to see if they will be better than the running shoes I have been using…other than the downstairs work, I didn’t get much done yesterday but I do have an errand to run this morning to get some new furnace filters and some new registers to fit in the openings in the walls that have been open since I moved in here…only 8 bucks at Menards and that will be the finishing touch that I am going to do here….more later….

Well…even with no sleep and feeling crappy today, I dragged myself downstairs and finished up the project that I had going down there…and I’m already feeling my allergies from it…my eyes are scratchy and puffy and my head is plugged up…but, it’s worth it to finally get that done and shut down….now comes the hard part of cleaning up everything but that is going to wait until later in the week…now, I just need to get a bike ride in here in a few minutes…but, I’m going to have lunch first….more later…

Well…running so late today with not getting to sleep until almost 6 this morning and then getting up at 8 or so….damn, that’s going to make for a crappy day today and I had some work to do on the last of the downstairs project that I guess can wait until tomorrow….man, I can’t remember feeling this lousy in quite a while and I wonder it I’m going to get out on the bike today…didn’t go yesterday with how cold it was all day and I am at the bottom of the energy tank right now…it’s a hell of a lot of work to just do this and I can’t imagine getting on the bike and doing 15 miles…didn’t get a lot done yesterday and today will be the same after I finish this….need to start cleaning this place up but I don’t have to cook today so that will be a relief….and I know I need to eat more than a couple of pieces of pork and a bowl of soup so I’ll try that today….need to get motivated but the coffee is not working so I think I’ll just sit here and read the news for a while and hope that I feel better….more later…