Well…running a little early this morning with getting up at 5:23 and not sleeping worth a damn…and the rain that I was counting on to keep me off the bike fell apart coming across the lake so it looks like I’ll be back at the grind here in a few minutes…but, I don’t want to…don’t really want to do anything today….at least my foot doesn’t hurt so I guess that’s something….and I noticed that I have reached the last hole in my belt when I was going out for the paper yesterday and that means I’ve lost about 2 inches off my waist this summer which normally I would be happy about but who cares? Didn’t get a lot done yesterday but work outside on a few things and I think I’m going to have to water the front lawn today just to keep it alive until the next rain that who knows when is going to come? This damn weather is just wearing me out….I can’t remember a summer where it has been over 90 so much and doesn’t cool off much overnight….everything is so damn sticky all the time with the high humidity and it is almost impossible to get relief from it…and yet I’ll be out on the bike in a minute sweating my butt off because I don’t know what else to do…not much to do today….sweat, sweat, and sweat some more and I’m going to try to work on the outside of the house some to see if my foot will hold up to it…it’s kind of nice to be able to get my shoes on without trouble but I know that will end if I’m out in the heat and on my feet too much….more later…

Well…it’s been another depressing day in a depressing week that is turning into a depressing life and I’m sure I don’t like it much…not getting anything accomplished with the damn heat and knowing that if I work in it it’s going to flare my foot again and I’ll be off my feet for another week…but I need to get off my ass and finish this house soon since all of my efforts now need to be focused on finding a house that I feel is going to be impossible with the weird assed housing market right now…prices are exploding and I’m pretty sure I’m priced out of the market…houses that were going for 120K a couple of months ago are now priced over 150K and that’s too rich for me….and the prospect of going back into an apartment at my age is just too ugly to contemplate….so, I’ve got about 5 months to figure something out….and the stress from all of that is always in the back of my head so I can’t really enjoy anything anymore….I’m getting too old for this crap…and my option of just pulling up stakes for somewhere else is gone with two of my kids expecting grandkids and I do want to be part of their lives…so taking what cash is left and moving to Costa Rica is off the table….I don’t even enjoy getting on the bike anymore but I still do it because I’m supposed to and I have a goal that I need to meet…don’t even care about that anymore…can you tell I’m depressed? I can….and my sunflowers are dying and my three important plants out back are dying, too and I’m not sure why that would be…and my tomatoes are dying to the point that I’ll probably get a dozen tomatoes off 20 plants and that is depressing too….should probably just pull them all out so I don’t have to take care of them anymore…have already pulled out 6 of them that weren’t growing any tomatoes on them and chopped down 6 sunflowers that were attacked by that damn squirrel and a couple that were just mutated and weren’t going to blossom….oh, well…I’ll get over it in time…and maybe something will happen that will lift the depression…what that would be, I don’t know but it’s happened every time and just took time….so I wait….

Well…running really late today and it was just a choice…I remembered to come here but only after I was suited up to go out on the bike so I decided to go out instead…so, here I am late as normal for Sunday….and it was another 3:40 morning with only fitful sleep after that so I am still a little worn out today….and I need to get back on the bike in a few minutes so I can get the second ride done before Man U plays t 11:00…jut talked to my daughter and she and her husband just bought 80,000 dollars worth of new cars and that is pretty cool…so glad they are doing so well….my foot doesn’t hurt much again today but the redness is coming back and that normally means my toe will hurt here in a while…have been taking vitamin c and lots of water to try to avoid it but we’ll see…I did make the pulled pork in the instant pot yesterday and made a southern vinegar based thin sauce that I will be trying today….very spicy with cayenne and red pepper flakes but it tastes good…but I only had two small sandwiches for the whole day yesterday so that may be one reason why I was struggling on the bike on the first ride…damn, I need to get going…it’s already 9:15 and I need to get ride two in….more later…

Well….crap, another 5:15 morning after going to bed late too so that means less than 5 hours…again…and getting up at that time always reminds me of the Who song from Quadrophenia….I may have reached the point where I have to take it a little easy on the bike for a few days or take a day off completely with the overall pain I have been feeling the past few days…I hurt everywhere and have been running out of energy so much lately that I even cut the second ride short yesterday and only did 34 miles for the day. And something I’m allergic to just bloomed yesterday and left me coughing and with a plugged up head on the second ride and I am still feeling it this morning even with taking something for it last night….that could be why I felt so lousy yesterday…I guess we’ll see when I get out this morning….I think I’m just finally feeling my age and can’t go like I used to…but, I’m not willing to accept that just yet. I made up a new rub for some pork shoulder and tried it out on a small piece off the 7 pounder I bought this week…tasted great but I forgot to put the brown sugar in it but I will do that for the rest of it I’m cooking in the instant pot for lunch…going to make some pulled pork sandwiches out of it and then think about what else I can use 5 pounds of pork for….thinking of trying a vinegar based thin mustard sauce like they do in SC but I’ll have to look that up…and the pulled pork should go great with the jalpeno pickles I made the other day….not much to do today…I did chase the damn squirrel that is attacking my sunflowers yesterday and I m going to try to hit him with a rock if I see him today…and I got some other outdoor work done but I really need to get at the garage soon…but, not this weekend…I am going to take the weekend off except for cleaning and cooking and try to heal up and get back at it hard Monday….and I will get to a political one later today…just have been hovering on the edge of depression the past week or so and that makes it hard to focus and make sense here….more later…

Well….running a little early today…or should be with getting up at 5:14 but I just can’t get moving…okay, this is really weird…when the cops put up their radar sign yesterday, I didn’t expect there would be much of  an effect…but damn, traffic has slowed down to an average of 30 from 50 and the volume of traffic has even decreased this morning…no trucks hauling butt down the street or people flying down it….not sure what the deal is but I’ll take….slept okay last night but I am pretty worn out from all of the riding but I’ll be back on the bike this morning even though I hurt everywhere….didn’t get a lot done yesterday and probably won’t today either but I do need to watch for the damn squirrel that is killing my sunflowers…I was going to be nice but no more…I’ll kill that little shit if I get the chance…okay, yeah, I guess a few plants aren’t worth killing an animal….and the brush killer they sprayed next door is killing them anyway…or it’s the lack of rain…who knows? I am re learning a bunch about tending a garden so I guess that’s something I can apply to the next one….I did make up my own rub for some pork shoulder I got wed and it would have been perfect if I had remembered to put brown sugar in it so I will when I do the rest of of the 7 pounds in the instant pot over the weekend….and I made a new batch of jalpeno pickles that came out good again so it will be my new go to for pickles as I get more cukes from the garden….actually have 5 more cukes that are growing, too….should have a hundred but what can you do?  more later….

Well…no, it’s not what you think…had a pleasant visit from a couple of officers from the GRPD this morning in response to my complaints about the excessive speed on the street here. They brought along one of those radar signs that show speed on a big display along with a speed limit sign showing what their speed should be…one thing I didn’t know about the newer signs is that every time it is triggered, it records the time date and speed on a computer card so that the cops will have 3 days of info to look at when they come and replace the card…one of the funny things that is happening is that some people are slowing down but some others appear to be speeding up to make their speed higher since they understand that you can’t get a photo radar ticket in Michigan. The bad part is that they don’t have the manpower to do an old fashioned radar trap with a gun and a few cars to stop the speeders so I’m not sure what use the data from the sign is going to be. At least someone in city government listened to me and something happened…really more than I expected.

Well…running late again today since I had to get a response out to the first ward commissioner who wrote me back yesterday in response to my e-mail about the traffic speed down my street…I mean 50-60 mph in a 25 mph zone? And not one damn cop in sight? They are great about citing people for peeling paint and unmowed lawns but reckless driving? Not so much…and I have never seen peeling paint or long grass kill someone like speeding down a narrow city street could. Oh, well…I’ll keep up the campaign until I get some results….oh, two days into the no foot pain count! Yeah, I know, it probably won’t last too long but I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts….and the redness is almost gone too, along with some of the swelling so that’s progress but I’m not sure what I’m doing that is helping but I’ll keep up all of them since it’s not a lot of effort. Had a problem with the garage door for the past month or so and thought it was the receiver for the remote so I bought a universal replacement from depot and am waiting for it to arrive…but, in checking the wires that led to the receiver and that power it, I found they were corroded and cleaned them…and the receiver started right up so I guess I’ll have to return the new parts when I get them…but, I am going to wait for a couple of weeks to make sure my fix is permanent. No much to do today….I did the lawn yesterday and most of the other outdoor stuff so it looks like just the rides today and I have to pay a couple of bills but that’s it…I can use an easy day and I am thinking of scheduling a day off the bike just because I’m old and I hurt….more later….

Well…running a little late this morning so this one could be short so I can get a ride in before I do the grocery run…it’s funny that when I wake up and put my foot on the floor for the first time, I don’t know what my foot is going to feel like…is it going to hurt too much to walk? Or is it going to not hurt at all? Today it doesn’t hurt at all and I am so damn surprised that I have been walking around just to feel it…okay…damn..it just started to hurt again…oh, well….slept okay last night so I guess that’s something…but it’s not enough….I did get the front yard cleared of crab grass yesterday and that was annoying the hell out of me…the killer I put on it just didn’t work and that sucked…it worked on the weeds, though so it’s not a total loss….I did get over 3100 miles yesterday and but I can feel my body is starting to wear out and it hurts everywhere every day so I may need a day off soon…I was expecting that there were going to be storms this morning but they fizzled out so I’ll be on the bike here in a few minutes….not much to do today…need to do the grocery run after the ride and maybe mow the lawn later but we’ll see…and I need to get at the crabgrass in the back yard to finish that up so I feel like I’ve accomplished something…mor elater…

Well…running a little late this morning and there is no reason for it other than I laid in bed until almost 6 even thought I wasn’t sleeping much…I did sleep some, though so I don’t feel too bad this morning with being good last night…and my toe seems to be in a lull of pain right now and I’ll take it…I can even move it but that will end after I get it forced into my riding shoe here in a while….need to work on the lawn today and pull up some crabgrass since the killer is not working too well and I should mow today too but I’m not sure if I’ll get to it…I did start my campaign of nasty e-mail writing to all of the GR city government to see if I can get them to do something about the speed of the traffic here…started with the office of the city manager and today will be the ward one commissioner…I did talk to the police last week but they were pretty dismissive that they would do anything about it…if I don’t get any response, I can always call fox 17 and get it on the news but that won’t be until I give these other people a chance to do their damn jobs….Yahoo has started to shut down my e-mail that I have had for 25 years since I use an ad blocker to keep from seeing all the crap they push so I may have to switch over to my g-mail account that I re-activated yesterday…are these people so stupid and greedy that they will throw away a long term user just to force me to take ads that I won’t look at anyway? Of course the answer is yep so we’ll see what happens….not much to do today….need to get on the bike in a few and then figure out what to do after the lawn work…more later…

Well….I think I mentioned that I used the second and last cucumber that I got off my plants to make another batch of pickles since I’m not a huge fan of cukes any other way…so yesterday, I took a shot at making another batch of pickles but this time I used some pickling spices that I had leftover for making bread and butter pickles, cut up a jalapeno from the garden, put in three big cloves of garlic, and a bunch of whole peppercorns and added the normal vinegar and water that I boiled, then let it set overnight in the fridge for the flavors to meld together…yow, by accident, I just made the best pickles I have ever made…they are spicy but with the cool bread and butter taste that offsets it some….I’ve already gone through a quarter of the ones I made for lunch and will probably have to make more if I ever get another cuke off my plants….yummy…