Well…yeah, I knew this was coming…my body just gave up on me today…woke up to pain in my foot again and then got on the bike and it was probably the worst, struggling ride I’ve had this year…and I finally got it through my head that it’s time to take some time off…I was going to get the ladders out and work on the awning in the front of the house but with the pain in my foot, I just can’t do it…or shouldn’t do it…so, no second bike ride today or even tomorrow…I may even take the entire day off Sunday with how I feel…I have to make myself realize I’m not 40 anymore and have to take better care of myself and that means no 36 mile days for the near future….I can’t remember feeling like this and I know I’m doing it to myself….but that doesn’t help my feelings of guilt at all…but, this one time, I’m going to have to suck it up and just do nothing for a whole day…yeah, I know that sounds backwards, for most people it’s easy to take a day off but I’ve never been able to do that unless I was actually away from home on vacation…and even that took work…so, here we go….going to sit on the couch and watch some races and soccer and just see how long that will last….wish me luck…

Well…didn’t sleep for crap again and I am just worn out this morning…not sure how long I can go on with less than 5 hours a night but I’d sure not like to test it….I did get some work done yesterday with wire brushing the two front awnings to get them ready to paint and my foot is feeling it today…the starting of pain is there and I’m not sure if it will hold up to painting today…I would like to get the small awning done today at least so I can see how the brown satin finish paint is going to look and decide if it works or not…but if I do that, I think I’ll only do one ride today…just don’t have the energy to do two and work outside…I did see that my sunflowers are being used for the purpose I intended when a female goldfinch landed on one in the back yard and picked some seeds out to break open and eat and I wonder why they go through that much work…but it was cool to see and I still have the two biggest ones to flower yet so that may be something to watch in the fall….I did finally get my new checks in the mail yesterday along with my license plate tabs and paid my car insurance that actually went down by 50 bucks a year instead of going up a hundred but it should have gone down by half with how much I drive…. a little over 600 bucks for a year is not too bad so I can live with it….not much to do today…I do have F1 qualifying to watch at 9 so I need to get out on the bike soon…I wonder if I should follow my rules and take the weekend off of working on the house? We’ll see how I feel when I get back from the ride….more later….

Well…haven’t done one of these in quite a while as I waited for some weirdness to pile up and make it worthwhile to write about…I wonder what the deal is with seeing all of the normally nocturnal animals on the trail over the past week or so? Have seen raccoons and opossums running across the trail and this is the first time that I have seen them on this trail but you would think that I would see loads of them with all of the time I spend out there every day…there are lots of groundhogs but never any raccoons…I did see a stoat the other day crossing in front of me and that was the first one I’ve seen over here, too…looks just like a ferret and it probably should since it’s part of the weasel family just like ferrets are….I do have one question…what the heck are snapping turtles doing on the trail hundreds of yards from and water? I know they like to lay their eggs on high ground but damn, that’s a long walk for a turtle, and I must have seen a dozen of them over the summer. Oh, and I have a set of three weird deer that stand along the same part of the trail every day and just watch me go by…no skittishness or running away, just staring…and this morning, one of the does in that group was standing on the trail as I went by and didn’t budge and inch….I could have reached out and touched it but again, all it did was watch me as I went by…I guess they don’t mind being venison steaks later in the year because that lack of flight is going to do it….okay, so maybe this one was not so weird…but I think it is so I guess that’s enough…more later…

Well…I don’t know if I feel like bitching about how badly I slept last night…just seems like too much effort at this point….all I know is I feel pretty worn out today and I really do hope the coffee does it’s job soon….at least it’s almost warm enough to get out on the bike as soon as I’m ready and I can get that out of the way…it is becoming a chore to ride twice a day but I did get the shifter fixed on the bike so I guess that’s something….I am getting really tired of being sore and stiff all the time and the only way to prevent that is to not ride but that’s not an option…yet…getting to 3600 miles today and should get to 4000 by the end of the month and then it’s downhill from there….I wonder if one ibuprofen a day will kill me? That would sure help a lot since it takes just enough of the pain away to be able to walk without limping…I think I’ve worn out my butt this year and there are no places left to sit on it on the bike without pain and I think that is putting me off wanting to get on the bike too…I just wish it would rain to give me an excuse to take a day off…I do need to heal up some and that’s the only way to do it…okay, this is turning into a bitch session and I didn’t want to do that…I do have to remember to put the trash out today since it’s full and it stinks pretty bad…need to do that before the ride but I want more coffee first….I guess waiting to go out until 7:30 isn’t too bad…I am going to get back on the ladder today to start prepping the small awning out front to paint since I want to see how it is going to look in the dark brown satin finish….I may even paint it today since it is so small and shouldn’t take more than a half hour of painting time….more later…

Well…running a little late today with not getting up until 6 or so…and it was nice to sleep under the comforter for the first time this summer…I think that had something to do with being able to sleep a little last night…and my foot hurts this morning but it’s not red so maybe I can avoid the gout again…it’s a different pain today…more like a strain than anything else….and I didn’t take anything for it last night so that gives me the option of taking something this morning if I need it….I am a little curious to see how I’m going to fare on the bike this morning after the struggles yesterday….still feel pretty worn out today so I don’t think it’s going to be much different…I think I may have to take a couple of days off to recharge and you know how hard that is for me….I did splurge on some half and half for my coffee yesterday and it is nice to not use the dry fake creamer for a change…I think the container I’m using is about 6 months old and I still have about 25% of it left….didn’t get much done yesterday but I am going to try to get something done today…not sure what that will be but something….but right now I need more coffee and to ease into it today….just not feeling it and it’s almost 7:20….it’s only 53 and I don’t want to have to wear a fleece to go out…more later…

Well…I am still pissed at windows not letting me access my wifi without forcing it to do so…and I figured that out by accident being from the DOS era and trying ctrl, alt, delete on the start screen…but it is working for now and I only have to get through the next three days until the new router gets here…probably should get a new ethernet cable just in case I need to direct into the modem since all of mine are being used for other things that I need…but, that’s not what this is about…have felt pretty crappy all day today and just frickin exhausted so I didn’t get much work done other than on the gardens…I did do the grocery runs today and got 3 more of the 1.99 self rising pizzas from DD since I like having something easy in the freezer just in case I don’t feel like cooking…then over to Menards for some veggie food for the garden…then to Aldi’s for some staples and to meijers for the rest of the stuff I needed….the first bike ride was a chore with everything feeling dead but I did the full 18 miles…the second one was even worse with cramps in my right calf and now my frickin hips hurt too and I barely had enough energy to finish it…I do think I figured out the shifter problems, though, and it was that the clamp that holds the cable to the shifter was not tight and with all of the stress on that cable…it was just sliding back out of adjustment every time I used the adjuster…I remembered that happening on the other bikes with the shimano shifter a few years back and I hope that it is the fix since it is damn annoying to ask for a gear and have it just sit there and do nothing….I think the energy problems I’m having is from not eating enough again and my allergies flaring again…and I don’t think I helped it today with having only two pieces of pizza for lunch and a salad for dinner and with only having a burger yesterday…so maybe some cheese and crackers for a snack later? My lungs were really bad on the bike too and that might have had something to do with being exhausted….cripes, I’m getting old….

Well….it’s 50 degrees outside…in August…and that is just too damn cold for me to go out on the bike this morning…early anyway so it looks like I’m going to take it easy until after the grocery run and then get the first ride in….but that leaves me with 2 1/2 hours to kill this morning and I’m not sure how that is going to work….I really thought that with it being cooler I would sleep some last night but no such luck…up at 4:44 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I guess I’m going to kill 4 hours today…but, my foot doesn’t hurt for the 7th day in a row and I’m almost back to my normal walk…I did get the lawn edged and mowed yesterday so I guess that’s something and I think I may try to get back on the ladder today and paint the small awning over the round window out front…that will give me an idea how the brown paint is going to look and will be easy to repaint if I don’t like it….I couldn’t believe how stiff I was last night so I took some ibuprofen for it and it’s better this morning but I don’t want to have to take it every day just to be able to function….I am going to hit DD this morning for cheap pizzas again…I mean 1.99 for a 4 cheese self riser? They even taste good and I have just enough room in my freezer for three of them since I am going to use the one in there today…not much to do today…have 4 stores to hit this morning since I need food for the garden too and then the normal Aldi run…maybe I’ll just do one ride today? Who knows? More later….

Well…I just hate frickin windows….it has just now gone crazy and told me that my router is too old to use anymore and I had a hell of a time getting it to let me use it to come here and do this…so I may have some problems over the next few days as I try to find and set up a new one that is affordable to me…I just don’t need this right now…and really, who the hell cares if the router is secure or not? I only use this computer to do this and every other thing that I use to pay bills is encrypted on their end so no one can hack them…so if someone wants to hack in and write these for me, go for it…I’ll take a few days off….crap…

Update: just talked one of my computer geek sons and bought the new router he recommended…only 65 bucks and it will be here Sunday…and you’re supposed to be able to just plug it in and open your browser and it will tell you how to set it up…now I just need to remember how to get my phone to recognize it when it gets here…hey…maybe there’s a post in there somewhere…

Well…man, feel pretty crappy this morning and just can’t get started…didn’t even get out of bed until almost 6 and time to get on the bike is coming up way too fast….I did sleep okay last night…for me anyway but I’m not sure if that really helped much…I did get up on the ladder yesterday to finish up the trim on the porch and my foot survived it pretty well…no pain this morning so I have my fingers crossed that I can start doing more work around here…I did take some ibuprofen last night since I was so damn stiff and sore and that is helping this morning….I may have to try that again today since I am still being an idiot and riding way too much….I did get the shifter on the bike figured out…I hope…and went the entire second ride with the 5-6 shift working and that made it fun again…made one more adjustment after I got back here and can’t wait to see how that works….I have to remember to never lubricate the shifter since all that does is gum it up and makes it worse…I do have to run out this morning to get some more food for the gardens to try to make sure they are fed enough to get bigger tomatoes…the celebration strain that I planted are just too small but the better boys are going to be okay…and I have 6 cukes waiting to be picked so I’m not sure what I’m doing to do with them…along with the many jalpenos that I think are going to have to be frozen since I can’t use them for salsa yet….not much to do today…I do need to mow the lawn and start planning the next work on the outside of the house along with the trip to menards but right now I need more coffee before I get on the bike…more later….

Well…as you know, the idiot running his damn smoker all day and night has been driving me nuts lately and last night was the last straw…just sitting here when it started to rain and I just love opening the windows and hearing and smelling the rain…but, as soon as I opened this place up, the smell from that damn smoker filled the whole house and forced me to close everything back up again it was so bad. So this morning, I thought I’d make a little mischief and called GR’s 311 number that is used to do all kind of stuff for the city and put in a report…they guy I talked to was cool and looked up the property on his computer to make sure there was no zoning variance covering it and there wasn’t….and he told me me what I thought…you can’t run a commercial business in a residential area so they are sending him a notice of non-compliance to the city rules and then sending an inspector out next week to make sure the smoker is no longer being used….now, I hate to be that guy that bitches and complains about everything but it smells like I’m living in a frickin campfire and my bed, clothes and furniture all smell like smoke and I am tired of it….and it is getting warm again over the next week and I need to be able to open my windows….and I could even smell the smoke 3 streets to the south this morning when I was coming back here on the bike….and I have the right to not live inside a campfire….