Well….running a little late today but that’s pretty normal for a Sunday…got up way too damn early at 5:20 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I just gave up and got up…had to get out the warm clothes to just sit here yesterday since it is only 66 in here and I wonder if the furnace is going to work without having someone come out and take a look at it? I did check the pilot yesterday and it is running so I have my fingers crossed it will work when I need it….I did get a pleasant surprise in my e-mail this morning that my new rear cassette is going to be here tomorrow when they initially said it was going to be October 5th so that is cool…I did lube the chain to help the worn one keep working and that helped on the rides yesterday…it didn’t skip once but I kept the power lower as I pedaled in top gear since I knew it would if I laid on it hard….okay, need more coffee….there, that’s better…still haven’t adjusted to having to wait to get on the bike with it being so cold but I am not ready to get the gloves and long pants out just yet….I guess I’ll have to in a week or so since the highs are only going to be in the 60’s starting later in the week….only have about 25 miles to go to beat my all time mileage record and I think I’ll do that today…need to get to 4585 since I rode 4584 last year and then it’s downhill to 5K…I was pretty sure I could make it and the day off when I do is going to be welcome….not sure about what I’m going to do next year but doing doubles every day has gotten to be a habit and I’ll probably continue that….not much to do today…just going to take it easy and look for houses…then I’ll get back to working on the last awning tomorrow….more later…

Well…that was a little odd…slept all the way through the night until 6:13 and that should make me feel okay…but I still feel quite slow this morning…but, I haven’t had any coffee yet so that could be part of it…it’s only 38 degrees outside right now so I am curious if my tomato and pepper plants will survive it…it’s getting close to the point where they will die and that will take away any chance of getting any more tomatoes to ripen…have about a hundred of them on the plants still and it would be a shame to just put them in the trash….and with the temp outside, I won’t be able to get on the bike til at least 10 am and that will mean only one ride today since Man U starts their season at 12:30 and I do want to see that…it looks like a good sports day if I decide to take the day off…Moto GP qualifying is on right now and then soccer starts at about 7:30 and goes most of the day until the nascar race on tonight….so, at least I’ll have something to listen to in the background as I do a couple more of these….not much to do today….need to pay a couple of bills that I will put out for the mailman but will probably have to drop it off at the post office tomorrow to make sure they get there on time…and I am going to clean the hard floors today since there is a lot of dust and grit that I have tracked in from outside that is annoying the hell out of me….more later…with all the change to my gas service, I wonder if my furnace is going to start when I need it? One more damn thing to worry about…

Well….just when things were starting to go well…I have a day like this one to bring me back to reality…okay, it hasn’t been that bad but I did wear out the top gear sprocket on the back of the bike and it has started to skip when I put some power to it and that is just so damn annoying…and I only got a little over 4,000 miles out of it…so, that turned my mood pretty black since I don’t have an extra one of those that is not worn out…so I had to order a whole new cassette…but I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much since it was only 17 bucks but Amazon’s delivery performance has declined so much I’m not supposed to get it for almost two weeks…and that sucks….and they didn’t have a new pair of riding gloves that I need in black, only in some ugly assed lime green that I would never wear and wonder if anyone else would either. I did get the awning prepped for painting so I guess that’s something…oh, and I splurged and bought myself a new set of hair clippers…I figured that if I’m going to cut my own hair I probably should have the right tool for it instead of my tiny beard trimmer…they only cost 25 bucks for a whole kit with lots of stuff in it and that would pay for itself after just skipping two hair cuts at the place I used to get it cut. Okay, so I guess it hasn’t been too bad of a day…but I only got one ride in and have 60 more to go to beat my record….and with the bike skipping, I just don’t want to ride….I know I can cope with it but it just damn annoying….oh, well…

Well…that breaks the string…didn’t get up til 6:20 this morning…for the last time that is…first time was 4:40 and that is easing back to the up and down crap that I have been fighting for years….but, I slept okay with weird dreams again so I guess I’ll take it…it is cold outside this morning and I am not ready for it..I am not going to put the thermasuit on to ride the bike so that will have to wait until it warms up around 10…so now I have a morning to kill since I don’t want to do outdoor work in the cold…and the awning will have to dry off before I can get at it with the sander today so that leaves me with a morning to kill and I’m not sure what to do…I guess I could clean in here some and I really should…tracked dirt in the back door over the past weeks of working outside that needs to be vacuumed up but I think I’m going to just take the luxury of taking it easy for now…it was good to finally get the awning down yesterday without injuring my back to finish up what I’m going to do on the outside of the house….need to get some spray paint to do the inside of the awning next week since it is the only one that is painted on the inside and it has about 4 colors there that don’t match…not much to do today….need to remember to put the trash out in a little while since the bin is full and stinks….but that is about it…think I’ll just have more coffee and read some news right now….more later….

Well…sometimes you get a good day and it makes you feel pretty good, and today is one of those…I got an early start with the first bike ride then got back here and had my bagel and coffee before I started on trying to take the last awning down to prep it for paint…and it came down pretty easily although I had to bend a flange out of the way so I could get vice grips on the head of one of the screws I couldn’t get out with a screwdriver…after all, they have been in there for 40+ years and I was surprised they came out at all….once I got that done, I mowed the lawn and watered the repaired spots that have started to sprout new grass that I planted last week…then I was back on the bike by 10:30 for the second ride, and when I got back here I got a call from the woman I’ve been working with at the compliance department for the city of GR and she had good news…the guy who has been smoking up this neighborhood since I moved in here, has two weeks to move the smoker or the fines will start…and he has been working with the zoning commission to find out where he can move it to make it legal…that made my day when I was expecting that he was going to get a zoning variance that would allow him to keep smoking up the whole neighborhood but she said that can’t happen…so now I know that it’s going away…and soon…so, a pretty good day so far…and I’m going to take a break for an hour or so before I do another one of these and get out to wash the awning so I can start sanding it tomorrow….more later….

Well….this is uncanny….another 6:03 wake up and I think I’ll start counting the days since this is around 9 days in a row of getting up at that time…yep, I’m weird that way so why not make it some fun? This is strange too…I’m walking around here in very little pain and, with how I felt yesterday, I never expected to feel this good this early in the day…we’ll see how long it lasts but right now I’ll take it….I did take some ibuprofen for it late in the day so maybe it’s the carryover from that….it was pretty busy yesterday and today looks busy too with getting the rides in, mowing the lawn and I’m going to try to get the side door awning down by myself…I have a plan and it looks like it only weighs about 40 pound or so and it needs to be done…that one is probably in the worst shape of all of them so it will take some time to prep it and paint it…but the weather looks great the next week or so and that will help…won’t have to put it in the garage to let it dry when I get to paint….and it will feel good to have them all done….it looks like I’ll be down to one ride a day for the next few with the low temp in the 30’s tomorrow and Sat…I did get to 4500 miles yesterday so I’m only 85 miles from getting to a new personal best for miles in a year….and that means I’m only 500 from hitting the goal of 5,000…have decided that I’m going to take a day or two off after I do just to rest…then no stress for the rest of the fall….probably won’t do that again but It was a good goal for the last one….more later….

Well…sitting here hurting everywhere after riding and working most of the day and it hit me that I may finally be wearing out…could barely get off the bike when I got back from the second ride and it took me a few minutes to be able to walk without pain in my hip and now my back is howling in pain after standing on my feet for three hours working downstairs…and I have been exhausted for the past few days too….I know I’ve been riding and working a lot but no more than I did since I started on this place last July…I wonder if there is a cumulative effect that is hitting me? I know I’m getting old but to have it hit so fast like this makes me hope that it is a temporary thing and there is a way to correct it…not sure what that would be but the exhaustion feels like I’m not eating enough with doing 36 a day…and the pain could be from overuse so maybe some ibuprofen can help….crap…don’t like how it feels to get old…I was just thinking the other day that I really am thankful that I can still do 36 hard miles at my age…I wonder if this is the start of the decline..that would suck…

Well…this is getting a little weird…have gotten up at 6:03 for almost a week now and that consistency is a little unnerving….and I had strange dreams that had me in a library trying to find a book that I had seen on tv but couldn’t….that is another thing…have been having dreams again and that hasn’t happened in a long time…I wonder what the change is? I was just exhausted all day yesterday and can’t figure that out….have felt pretty good lately, getting lots of rides in and lots done around here but it felt like a lack of calories but my intake hasn’t changed much…I did do two full rides yesterday to get 36 miles in…maybe that’s it…it’s going to be a really busy day today with trying to stay on the 36 mile pace and then lots of work on the downstairs project along with finishing up the trim paint on the exterior of the house…..and I do need to find a house by the end of the month which is going to be a crunch….but I think that will wait til tomorrow since I’m going to be so busy today…and that looks like it will continue the rest of the week with more work on the gardens and getting everything ready for a big project that I need to do next week…or the week after….more later….

Well…with all of the criminality of every damn person around trump that has infested out government, it’s just too easy to write about the latest outrage and it has made me lazy and closed my eyes to other topics that I used to write about. I have been struggling to find things that as important as the crisis this country is in but I know it is as disheartening to you as it is to me…so maybe I’ll alternate politics with other things as we move toward the election….let’s start with something lighter…does anyone else have hundreds of green tomatoes on your plants that have stopped ripening? I just noticed that this week and I’m not sure if there is anything that can be done about it…I did pick a few of them to just put them in the bowl on the kitchen table and see if they will ripen…if not, I think I’ll just start cleaning out the gardens and tossing them…it is a shame that I didn’t get to make spaghetti sauce with all of those tomatoes but I did get tired of homemade salsa and pickles so I probably would with the sauce too…at least I learned something about gardens that I can apply to the garden at the new house if I can ever find one….one of the the worst things about this summer is not being able to see anyone and give away all the excess produce, luckily you can freeze jalapenos and green peppers but I only got one of those off of 6 plants so I guess I didn’t have to worry about that….okay, that’s enough for now…yeah, this isn’t working for me either…I live for politics so I guess I’ll get back to that soon….

Well…running a little late today for no reason at all but I can’t get motivated…and I am miserable from my allergies…my eyes have been itchy and dry for the past week or so and it will probably get worse over the next few weeks so I have that to look forward to…might even have to start taking something for it during the day but that will mean I won’t have them for night time and that will probably keep me up all night….hmmmm…I am starting to get concerned about the pain in my knees since they hurt every day now…they just need to hold out for about 550 miles and then I can rest them some and see if that is the problem…didn’t get much done yesterday but go out and get a smaller garden hose so I don’t have to lug the big one around to keep the patches in the front lawn watered….man, it was a pain getting the big one rolled back up to put it away…that one will stay in the garage from now on….I do have to do the grocery run today since I have some tasks to do Wed that are going to take a few hours in the morning….not much to do today…just the rides and groceries but I should get on the last indoor project today….just a couple of doors on the linen closet that should only take a day or so and then the interior will be done…more later….