Well…damn, how the heck can I be running late when I have no schedule? Have been up since 5 or so but stayed in bed until I smelled the coffee maker…even a half hour after that and that is going to make it a sprint to get on the bike by 7:15….one of these days I’m going to just not do it…not get on the bike, not work on the house, not feel guilty about it…when that would ever be I’m not sure…I did take yesterday off and it is getting pretty painful to do that…it’s not really serving it’s purpose anymore to give me rest day to just veg out without guilt…so maybe that will change this week and I’ll keep working until the big bedroom and bathroom are done…I guess I’m not too good at being retired…I did get the blinds for the bathroom ordered yesterday but found that I will have to order the rest of them from another company since they only have two lengths, 48 and 72 inches and the 72 inch ones are a foot too long for the rest of the windows…but I think it will be okay since the living room and bedrooms will match and the kitchen and bathroom ones will match…and I can live with that…damn, it’s almost April and it’s 18 degrees out there and that is so depressing that I don’t even want to get moving today…and we get one day of 50’s weather and then back to the 40’s for most of April…I guess we have no spring this year….and that really sucks…I would like to get the window open in the big bedroom to vent the dust so it doesn’t fill the house…have lot’s to do today…need to get on the bike in 11 minutes, then make a run out to depot to get a big wallpaper scraper that has a long, padded handle that I hope will help keep my hands from damage…and get more fill to smooth out the divots that I put in the plaster along with smoothing out the flaws in the bathroom walls…more work and more later….
Going to make the first goal…
Well…after that rant, let’s talk about something a little more pleasant…when I got started riding inside this year, I had a goal in my head of around 600 miles before the first of April and for a while it looked like there was no way to make it when I got the chance to ride outside. But, with the cold weather coming back and staying after just 75 miles outside, I only have 16 more miles to do to make the goal…and that will happen Tuesday with two days to spare before the 1st….and I didn’t have an indoor bike last year and also didn’t get outside for any rides until almost mid April…and I still almost made it to 5K miles even with working on this place for hours every day…and with hoping to have the entire summer off after finishing the big bedroom by the end of May, I am going to try to beat my 6K record that I did a couple of years ago….and that will mean at least 45 miles a day from then on…with doing 30 a day as soon as it gets warm….I am really hoping to get down to 175 pounds by the end of riding season this year since I am close to end of summer weight right now with cutting out the booze and riding indoors….I ran out of holes in my belt a couple of weeks ago so that means I’ve lost a couple of inches off my waist so that is a good sign….but right now I’m just going to watch the rest of the F1 race and then the nascar race later…veg day!
They’re letting them get away with all of it…
Well…I’m pretty damn disgusted today when I think of all of the crimes against this country that the dems are letting the repubs get away with…this whole attempt to overthrow the government is not being taken seriously by anyone as the dems wring their hands and “debate” whether they should subpoena a frickin justice of the supreme court’s wife for her clear role in the conspiracy…and the chief of staff for the idiot boy, Mark Meadows, is allowed to continue to commit voter fraud and ignore subpeonas from the Jan 6th committee and nothing happens…no Merrick Garland, no justice department, no nothing…and the idiot boy bribes the Manhattan DA to drop the case where one of the chief prosecutors resigned and stated that he had trump for multiple felonies…but nothing happens…and trump commits 48 felonies while in office and Garland ignores it and goes about his business tra la la….and our voters sit there whining that they didn’t get everything they wanted in the last election so they are going to not vote this time to show them…and give the country away to the repub assholes because their fee fees are hurt….and all of this could be fixed in just one election if our voters would just suck it up, stand in line, and vote….but they won’t because they think so damn small and have no memories of what the dems and Biden have done for them…ooo…gas prices are up so I’ll vote for the asshole repubs and lose all the gains we’ve worked for the past 40 years….you think it’s bad now? Just wait until you sit on your damn couch in November and let the repubs take over…it will be the last time you’ll even get a vote and the whole damn thing just disgusts me….geez…
Learned something new….
Well…even at my advanced age, there are still opportunities to learn something new every day…and this morning, one of those opportunities presented itself and made me smile a bit….as I have been watching the birds around here, for some reason I thought the black, speckled birds that travel in flocks were grackles but I was curious enough to check the internet to make sure since one of them ended up on my window sill and others have been feeding under my feeder window in huge groups…so, I found out I was wrong…they are not grackles but common starlings that I understand now are a despised invasive species by bird people in Michigan since they attack songbirds nests and drive out the native species with their aggressiveness….and these bird people are adamant that you don’t feed them or assist them in their spread in any way…but, how the heck do you do that? I’m not going to take my feeder down since the Juncoes and other birds come here to feed and I like watching them….hmmm….so, I guess I’ll have to think about that a bit…oh, I did see some sparrows out here when I was able to ride outside last week but they were a couple of miles to the west toward Lake Michigan…still don’t understand why none of them are around here when they are that close….something to think about….
March 27th
Well…damn, 23 degrees and it’s almost April? The lock into my garage was even frozen and I had to hold the key in my palm to heat it up so I could get it in to unlock…I did sleep okay last night and didn’t wake up til 5:21 and stayed in bed til 6:20 so that was okay…and I feel okay this morning with knowing it is my day off of everything…I keep talking about that, don’t I? Oh, well…it is nice to take one day a week off and just enjoy my life…but, I’m not sure it that will last today with needing to get the old wallpaper off the walls in the big bedroom….started on the second one a bit yesterday and I’m still not sure if I’ll ever get the walls paintable again…we’ll see….I am still pretty amazed I have a house that is mine that I can afford and it hit me yesterday how much stress that has taken off me no matter how much work I have to do around here….I read the stories on Kos about people my age who are struggling to keep a place to live and to pay their medical bills and I really feel for them…and that makes my situation even more of a relief as I think about it…but I have noticed a change in my thoughts recently where I am realizing that I’m coming up on the end of my life and have been thinking about what has been and what I think about how my life has gone….and that may make for some uncomfortable posts here in the near future so I’ll warn you when those start to come so you can skip them if you want…not much to do today….I’m still not that good at doing nothing but I am going to try to just fool around some today…I do need to order the blinds for the bathroom some time and will probably do a few of these, too, if I get motivated…hey, that is one thing I just noticed after not drinking any more…I don’t have to work to get motivated to work around here….I don’t think I’ve mentioned that in a while…and that is pretty cool….more later….
This is a little funny…
Well…ran across this little tidbit about the Ukrainian army that struck me as a little funny…not that this invasion and murder by Putin is funny at all….a couple of days ago, when I was reading the news, someone mentioned that the Ukrainian army now has more tanks than they did when the invasion started…if you’ve been following this atrocity, you’ll understand this comment that is supported by videos of Russian tank crews running out of fuel and abandoning their tanks to have them towed away by Ukrainian farmers….and you have to admit the picture of the Russian “supermen” running away from their tanks in droves while the Ukrainians sit and wait for it to happen and then adding the abandoned tanks to their own army is a little funny…and one of the jokes going around asks: what country is the biggest donor to the Ukrainian army? Of course the answer is Russia…whether it’s true or not is not the point…it’s just another pin pricking the bubble of Russian superiority and helps the morale of Ukrainians everywhere….humor will do that…..
Done for the day….
Well…man, have been working all morning but now I’m done for the day….got the rest of the wall peeled and that only took and hour or so but that is the start of the work to make the wall paintable again…still need to go over it to remove the brown paper residue that was left behind after scraping and I think I’ll spend the 12 bucks and buy a 4 inch wide wallpaper scraper that they have at depot since I don’t want to go over the whole thing again with the one inch chisel…after that, I’ll have to go back and fix the divots where I dug into the plaster… and fix the big holes in the skim coat…will probably do a test patch of paint after that to see if I have to remove the adhesive, too….I did get the laundry done and a little touch up on the bathroom window where the blue paint was showing through even two coats of white….I think that is enough for the day…I do need to let my right hand rest since my thumb is really hurting and it will help taking tomorrow off for my normal Sunday….I will be back here for another one after I read the news but I am going to take my time with that….more later…
March 26th
Well…damn, I hope this isn’t the start of another wake up time recession where I get up an hour earlier every day….that’s two in a row and I don’t want three…I am a little surprised that my right side is not howling in pain this morning after peeling the wallpaper off 2/3rds of one wall in the big bedroom yesterday and how much it hurt last night…but I do have some pain on the top of my forearm so we’ll see how it goes when I get back at it this morning…it is a little weird to have stripped that much of an 8 by 12 wall with just a 1 inch wood chisel….I am looking forward to taking the day off tomorrow after all the work yesterday and today…and the window in the bathroom came out good and has a nice smooth finish on it now…I do need to order the new blinds for in there today and they should be here next week…I did get my refill of the generic flonase yesterday and I hope it continues to work since I am pretty stuffed up today…didn’t have a mask on doing the wallpaper yesterday and it does make some dust removing it so I’ll have to remember to use one today…the goal is to get the wall completely stripped by the time F1 qualifying comes on at 11 but that means I need to get my butt in gear and get on the bike since it is already 7…not much to do today…I do need to do laundry after I get off the bike but I may wait til I get the wall done so I can wash those clothes, too…and I need to cook some more chicken legs for lunch…damn, I need to get going….more later…
Have never seen this before…
Well…darn, after I finished up the window in the bathroom and it was only about 10:30, the guilts got to me again so I thought I’d start to think about what to do with the walls in the big bedroom and how damn ugly they were…and just on a whim, I took my new 1 inch wood chisel in there and started to scrape at the walls with it….and, to my amazed surprise, it started to peel the 5 coats of paint, wallpaper, and plaster off easily…leaving a pretty nice finish that I may be able to salvage and just repair and paint…at the very least, I can put new wallpaper in there if the plaster won’t take paint…and I’ve never seen where someone plastered over wallpaper with an eighth inch skim coat….especially when the surface under it is so smooth and in such good shape….so, I worked on that for an hour and change and have gotten almost half of the worst wall peeled off…but, I can already feel the pain in my thumb and right shoulder so this may be slow going…and to save 3-4 grand not having to have wallboard put in there is pretty darn cool and I can suffer through it…I may even learn how to use my left hand better when I do the other three walls…I think my estimate of it taking to the end of May is pretty accurate right now especially with still having the walls to prep and paint in the bathroom…it is cool to make progress and have discovered a method that I can use for it…I guess that will mean I’ll have to do the same thing for the small bedroom and take the ugly dropped ceiling out and trash it…but that is a next winter project if I make it to next winter….I need some rest….
Rot in the supreme court…
Well..hey, and you didn’t think things could get worse at the supreme court…a little naive, huh? Damn, when have you ever heard of a SC justice’s wife being involved in trying to overthrow the government? That’s exactly what happened with Ginni Thomas, the wife of Clarence whose text messages to Mark Meadows and others in the trump crime administration were just revealed yesterday…and that makes Clarence’s vote to keep trump’s papers private (the only one on the court to do so) even more suspect…hmmm…it’s kinda like he was using his seat on the court to protect his wife since he knew that she was in on the coup attempt up to her right wing neck….look, I’ve heard all of the hot takes on this corruption of the court…or this latest corruption of the court by the repubs that started with mcconnell stealing three seats and putting right wing toadies in the in these lifelong appointments….and the breathlessness with which they are being reported…but, unless the DOJ or the House or someone does something about it, it will just be another Friday where the repubs get away with ruining another part of the government by their short sighted lust for power….and no one is held responsible. What the hell does it take? And why are the dems not appointing a special prosecutor to take this corruption on? I think this is going to be the day we lost our democracy if nothing is done….and I’m sure nothing will be…geez…