Well…haven’t talked about some nonsense things in quite a while but a funny thing happened on the way back from the ride this morning that I am still laughing about that I thought I’d share…after getting through the park and hitting the newly paved part of Valley over by the park, I saw a squirrel just sitting in the road about 25 yards in front of me…most of the time, they will take off running before I get much closer than that…but not this squirrel…as I rode toward him, he just sat there looking straight at me not moving at all and not even doing the nervous darting that they normally do…when I got about a wheel width from him, he finally took off and ran under a car that was parked in the street…I have never had a squirrel play chicken with me before and it was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while…I never even thought to swerve around him because they normally  take off long before I get to them….I wonder if he does that with cars, too?

Well…cripes, I’m miserable this morning with my allergies shifting into high gear with sneezing and my head completly plugged up so I am going to have to take something for it before I get on the bike….have been having some problems with he 5-6 shift on the bike and I’m not sure what the problem is…I cleaned the shifter and hope that will help but I won’t know until I get out here in a few minutes…I do have a new shifter that I bought for the old bike that I can put on it but this one shouldn’t be worn out with only 3100 miles on it….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I am going to try to get the front trim painted today…but, with the storms that are supposed to come in around noon, that may have to wait until tomorrow…I did cut the ride short yesterday and only did 32 miles for the day…and I think that will be the mileage every day from now on…the only reason I’ve been doing 36 daily is to get to 5K for the year and it looks like I can get there with only 1500 left to do…I think I need to limit the wear and tear on my body some since I have been getting cramps in my calves and some pain in my right achilles and that never happens when I ride normal miles….I haven’t been taking any painkillers so I may be able to take some today just to be able to move better….I was going to talk about sleep again but I guess all I have to say is 4:14…not much to do today…need to get out on the bike soon but it looks like a one ride day with storms coming in around noon and I just can’t muster the energy to do two before then….more later…

Well…running early for a Sunday but it is only because I remembered to come here and that it is raining and I can’t get out on the bike yet…it was a really depressing night last night with new renters moving in next door and the resulting noise and bullshit that comes from that…you know, I am beginning to hate living in the city with the traffic noise, the idiot people, the smoke from the damn smoker that runs all the time, and the heat that is relentless and can’t be relieved when I can’t open this place up from the smoke….I feel like I have ptsd from all of the sensory overload…it’s never quiet here and I have taken to wearing earplugs to sleep again…I am just so damn tired all the time just from living here that Tom’s cabin in the woods is looking better all the time…and this damn virus is wearing me out too….got invited out to K’s yesterday but I couldn’t go with having T here on wed and the possibility of exposure that I couldn’t take out there…so here I sit….and I didn’t get anything done yesterday but a little cleaning and the depression that I thought was over is again paralyzing me….and part of that is my damn body is giving up on me and keeping me from working as hard as I want to….so, what to do? Endure the day I guess and keep moving forward…the rain needs to stop in the next 10 minutes or I won’t be able to get out on the bike before the F1 race at 9…and I don’t want to get wet today…or cook, or clean, or even think….more later…

Well…not going to talk about how crappy my sleep was last night since it depresses me to think just how bad it is…I did have to take some allergy meds last night since I couldn’t stop sneezing and that is making for being able to breathe this morning and I appreciate that…and I don’t really feel that bad today…just the normal aches and pains but my butt is starting to wear out with all the riding and I have had to move around in the seat the last week or so just to tolerate it and I may just need to take a day off to let it heal up some…oh, I did just go past 3400 miles yesterday so that is more than 2/3 of the way to my 5000 mile goal for the year…I was a little disappointed that my rear tire only lasted 3,000 miles  before coming apart but I have one of the hard ones on now that I hope will last the rest of the year…I am going to see if I can find a spare locally or get one ordered so I’ll have one in reserve…I could take the front off the old bike if I need it but I want to keep that intact so I can get it repaired…didn’t get much done yesterday but I am going to paint the trim on the front of the house today to get that off the list…and I may try to clean the copper trim around the porch too, but that will depend on how my foot fares….not much to do today…I may lay out in the sun again to try to even out my biker tan and continue getting some color but we’ll see how the day goes….more later…

Well…I wonder if I’ll ever sleep again? Needless to say it was another crappy night with getting up at 4:44 this morning so that’s another 5 hour night…and I’m tired….oh, well…there probably has to be some long term health problems that go along with not sleeping but I’m not ready to find out what they are yet…I did get a few things done yesterday and I picked the first of my tomatoes and had one for a snack and I can’t believe how much better they are than the cardboard ones you get at the grocery store….and that makes the fact that I’m not going to get too many of them really suck….I guess I’ll just enjoy what I get and plan for the next garden….I am getting some cukes now and that will allow me to refine my pickle recipe and that is cool….I did get the lawn mowed yesterday and I am going to feed it tomorrow in front of the rain that is supposed to come Sunday and Monday to try to green it up some….I think they will be working on the gas meter today and I hope they finish it up so I don’t have to look at it anymore and I can get things back to normal around here…I do need to get out to depot this morning to pick up and return a new garage door receiver that I ordered since I fixed the old one and don’t need it…and that will save me 37 bucks that I can use….more later….

Well…cripes, it seems like my waking time is slowly moving back toward bed time with this morning being at 3:18 instead of the normal 3:40 but I still got out of bed before 6 so I’m not sure there is much of a difference….I did break down and take both some ibuprofen and allergy meds last night and I feel better for it this morning….my head is clear and the normal pains are down about 50% so that is cool….hope it continues all day….the swelling in my foot is down some too, so that is encouraging…had a nice visit with T yesterday and it was nice to see her and laugh a bunch but the whole thing was marred by DTE being here to move the gas meter from the basment to outside the house and they had to replace the steel gas line with a plastic one that they tunneled under the road for…but that still leaves the meter job and I just hate the disruption to my life that this three day process is doing….need to be here for them to be able to get in the basement so that means another day of only one ride…oh, and I just did one ride yesterday since I needed to clean this place up and that may be part of why I don’t hurt as much as normal…I did pick the first two tomatoes from my garden yesterday and I am going to have them for lunch today…they are pretty small so I think I need to feed the plants more…so I’ll do that today….not much to do today….just going to hang around here after the first ride and wait for the guys to finish the meter job so I’ll work on the gardens and the last of the trim on the front of the house….I did get a big box of baking soda to clean the copper trim and I may try some of that today too….more later….

Well…okay, my allergies are really bad this morning and I know I should have taken something for them last night…but I didn’t and now the decision is whether to take something this morning with only having a few left….maybe after the first ride…slept okay last night but feel as bad as I have in a while and it may be that I need to take a day off the bike to recover….I may have to only do one ride today with doing the grocery run and needing to clean this place up with having a visitor this afternoon…should have done that over the weekend but just couldn’t get moving to do it…I did take an ibuprofen last night since I was so damn sore everywhere and I think that is making a difference this morning…just small aches and pains that I can live with….I did get some work done yesterday and I bought a small sprinkler to use to try to save the front lawn so I don’t have to use my hose end sprayer and blocks so that will make it easier to keep it presentable….I think I’m going to be able to pick 3 tomatoes from my garden today and I even picked an inch long potato that was on the surface and that made me laugh…I planted the potatoes on a lark from sprouted ones in my cupboard and never expected to get anything from it…and there are more little ones just below the surface of the ground and I wonder how long they have to stay in to get big enough to eat? Not much to do today…just need to get going right now to get the bike ride in…okay, after one more cup of coffee that is….it’s not 7 yet so I can sit for a bit….more later….Oh, and I will get to a political one today…I know I’ve been slacking a bit on that lately but there was a reason for it….maybe even two of them if I don’t take the second ride….

Well….as I’ve said over the past week or so, I’ve have had another bout with depression that had me essentially shut off from everything but I’m a little happy to say that the veil seems to be lifting some today and I have been able to enjoy the bike rides and have even got some work done on the house…got the tuck pointing finished on the brick on the porch and have worked on watering the lawn a little but I still do need to buy a cheap little sprinkler so I don’t have to use the nozzle on the hose supported by blocks to water it….have been looking for one of those little ones with a turret that has different holes for different shapes but haven’t been able to find one…and that’s weird….oh, and I got a text from my youngest son that his wife is getting close to delivering and they are thinking of inducing labor so it could be any day now…and I am a little excited about that…and he made me laugh when he told me he is growing a “dad” mustache and he thinks he looks like me from when I was younger…I always had a mustache then and I think it’s kind of cool that he thinks of me….that made me smile…

Well…another morning of getting up at 3:37 and I’m pretty damn tired…but, my foot doesn’t hurt at all and the swelling is improved too so I’ll take that…it feels weird to be able to walk without pain but everything else hurts but I guess small progress is all I can hope for right now…yeah, I know, I could take something for it but you know how much I avoid that since I do like to have working kidneys….and I know part of the pain is from pulling all of the crab grass out of the back yard and the abuse that it did to my thumb…and I really expected to hurt worse from all of the bending over but I think it helped stretch my hamstrings and that helps on the bike…I did do the full 36 miles yesterday even though I’ve been trying to convince myself to take a day off but the weather didn’t cooperate by giving me an excuse….so that means I’ll need to rig up my sprayer for the front yard today so I don’t lose it to the heat and drought…I think I figured out what was wrong with the receiver on the garage door not having any power…just some corroded wires that I cleaned up and it has been working fine for the past two weeks…but that means the new receiver that I ordered from depot has to be returned and it just got here and I haven’t even picked it up yet…I wonder how that is going to go? Not going to spend 37 bucks for nothing, though…not much to do today…I am going to test out my foot on a ladder out front today to get some grout repair done and start working on the last of the trim around the front porch and maybe even start prepping the gutters on the garage to paint them…the weather is going to be a little cooler so I need to take advantage of it….more later….

Well…it seems that nothing is easy anymore, even ordering checks from my bank. Back in June, I ordered checks for my checking account since I was down to the last booklet and I write a lot more checks since I moved in here….so the whole thing turned into a fiasco with the check company sending the checks to my old address for some reason and they just disappeared…the company said they were sent on the 2nd of July but I had still not seen them this past Friday so I called to find out what had happened and the person I talked to freaked out that I hadn’t gotten them and cancelled all 140 checks…but he couldn’t get the charge for them removed or order me new checks so I had to go over to my branch to get that done this morning. The woman I talked to was quite a bit of help and took care of everything in about 5 minutes and also changed my checking account to a better one since I keep a high balance in it and that gave me free checks so I got my 30 bucks back and didn’t have to pay for the new ones…and getting it straightened out was basically painless other than the drive over there. So, things got a little better today…oh, and I finally remembered to change the address on my car insurance so I’ll get the bill and can pay it on time…and that only took about a minute so that was cool….still haven’t gotten my new tabs yet but the expiration has been extended until Sept 30 so that should give them enough time to get them to me….I’ll probably start working on on them in a month or so just to guarantee that I get them on time…I’ll take the baby steps…