I may have figured some of it out…

Well…you know I’ve been bitching and whining about being stiff and in pain all of the time and I’m even getting tired of it…the whining that is, but I may be able to stop that now…when I was out on the bike today it dawned on me that the wind is always blowing out here and I’m going into it either out or back from the lake…and it’s not a slight breeze but a 15 mile an hour gale that stops me in my tracks when the gusts hit…and then I remembered how I felt the day after a ride into that wind in GR…I was stiff and sore but it got better after a couple of days of normal rides….but I don’t have normal rides out here when the wind is always blowing and I don’t get the recovery days to let my legs heal…so, I wonder how or if I’m going to adjust to this new normal? The strange thing is that now that I think I have it figured out, my legs don’t seem to hurt as much since it’s not a permanent condition and I’m doing it to myself just like all of the other stupid stuff I still do at my age….now I guess it’s a challenge to figure out how to cope with it without more ibuprofen….oh, one good thing today…I talked to my insurance agent and the 450 buck check they sent me is mine…the house insurance came out of my loan and they sent me a bill by mistake…so that’s found money and it will buy me my new garage door opener, ladder, push broom, hose end sprayer, weed killer, stuff to repair the top on the car, grass seed, and paint for the door frame on the garage entry door….and I’ll still have 200 bucks left for the rest of the stuff I need…maybe a grill? Who knows?

Why all the hate for trans kids?

Well…damn, it appears that the repubs aren’t happy unless they have a new group to hate…Muslims, African Americans, Latinos, Gays have all had their turn in the box with these assholes and now they have picked trans kids as their latest group to be attacked across the country with laws that are legislated child abuse and cross the line over into sexual abuse….and all this from the biggest damn group of hypocrites the world has ever seen and who say they are against government intrusion in people’s lives…but I guess that’s just for people like them. Why the hell is there so much hate for trans kids? First, they started with banning trans kids from sports from kindergarten through college and are still trying to force them into standard binary choices of how they were born when we now know that sometimes you are born into the wrong body and the medical literature now support that there is a myriad of types of how sex is manifested in humans….okay, I think there is a religious component to all of this hate since religion is quoted by every damn repub hater who are responsible for these hateful laws….and that is just wrong…why should it be allowed to use your religion to hate an entire class of people? The worst law in the country has just passed in Florida that requires children to submit to “inspection” of their genitals before they can go out for sports to make sure that no trans kids can participate…now, how would you feel if some “doctor” hired by a school district forced one of your kids to expose themselves for “inspection” just to go out for sports? Never in a million years would I let any of my kids suffer this degrading crap that could scar them for life…but repubs don’t care…their hate trumps everything…

We flew a helicopter on Mars!

Well….I kind of wanted to get out of my rut of topics lately and NASA helped that out with the first successful flight of a helicopter on Mars early this morning….and I just saw a photo from the lander showing it about a foot off the ground and I can’t wait to see the video of the flight that should be available next week…and it takes that long since the data stream is very small from the copter to keep the weight low and give it a chance to succeed…something like this is just what I needed since the start of the pandemics…yep, I said pandemics…one caused by the virus and the other caused by guns that are used for the daily mass shootings we have seen for the past month…but, that is for another one of these. One of the coolest parts of the Mars helicopter saga is that it has on board a small piece of the fabric from the original Wright flyer onboard that the Wright Brothers flew for the first powered flight of a heavier than air craft in 1903…there are some dreamers at NASA still and that makes me smile…and it looks like the proof of concept that this copter is providing will lead to others on other missions no matter what the results of the next flights are…and I can’t wait til the copter can go higher and get a shot of the lander and it’s surroundings…we humans can still do astounding things when we try….

April 19th

Well…that was a little better…didn’t get out of bed til 6:30 and I slept okay but I have a question…how the heck do you hurt yourself while you’re sleeping? When I walked out of my bedroom, my damn calf hurt worse that it did when I went to bed last night…okay, it could be that the ibuprofen that I took wore off but darn, I expected that rest would make it better but I guess the weird way that I’m contorted when I sleep is not helping….the weather is going to be crappy the next few days with rain coming in in the next couple of hours and then it will only be in the low 40′s tues and wed and that is just damn depressing for the middle of April…but, it’s another one of those things that I can’t do anything about so I just need to forget about it…weather is going to be what it is and being annoyed just wastes energy that I need to conserve…and I can get out and finish the weeding and get the flower seeds planted along with filling cups to start my veggie plants in so I can make some progress….but that won’t happen until after the rain comes through….not much to do today….just going to ease into the day and have some more coffee and read the news…can’t wait till it’s warm enough to do this on the porch with the windows open…but that won’t happen until the middle of May the way it looks…more later…

A rough day…

Well…damn, I almost forgot to come here for this one today since it’s been a rough day…no, nothing big happened…no one died, the house didn’t burn down, I didn’t wreck the car, but it was rough physically…can’t remember feeling so sore and creaky and exhausted and I sure hope this is not my life from now on….I did get a bike ride in but that didn’t help and even a short nap didn’t do anything for me….and now my back is sore on the right side like I strained it…but I can’t figure out what the hell I did to do that…cripes…I feel my age and I don’t like it one bit…but, we’ll get up and get going tomorrow morning and get back to it….I do need to get a ladder this week and take the old opener down in the garage so I can get a new one and move back into the modern age….but right now, all I want to do is watch tv and go to bed early…but, that won’t happen either….

April 18th

Well…yeah, I’m running late this morning with going out to get the paper and reading it before coming here but that is kind of normal for a Sunday….didn’t sleep for crap last night after falling asleep sitting up on the couch and not getting to bed until after midnight….and I’m paying for that right now and I really hope the coffee will help soon…it seems every time I walk for any bit of time my damn right calf starts to hurt again and I still don’t know how I hurt it other than wearing the wrong shoes and I sure hope that is not my life from now on…but I’ve found that as I get older, it is easier to hurt myself and takes much, much longer to heal than it used to…cripes, I probably should buy some stock in an ibuprofen company I have been using so much of it just to get through my day…okay, 400 mg a day is not a lot but I’ve never had to take anything for just maintenance and it irritates the heck out of me…oh, well….didn’t get anything done yesterday but go into town and ride the bike and today looks much the same with lots of sports on tv and me having no motivation….I still have to accept that I can take a day off here and there without feeling guilty….but that is going to take some work…more later…

This is weird…

Well…just got my mail and it had a weird thing in it…my house insurance company sent me a check for the entire 450 bucks that I paid for my policy…I thought the first year was included in the mortgage loan that I got but then I got a bill in the mail for it so I assumed that it hadn’t been paid out of the loan and wrote them a check for it back in March and then just forgot about it…so, I guess I’ll have to call the agent on Monday to check what is going on…it would be cool if I can put this check in my account…this will pay for my new garage door opener and I’ll have almost 250 bucks left…fingers crossed….

Another busy day…

Well…yeah, that title is cheating a little but I don’t feel too creative right now…and I know I’ve used it a lot but it really is descriptive….started the day with driving into GR to help my son install his new range hood and it went pretty good even with having to improvise with the power cord and I left there with it up and working and looking pretty cool….the drives out and back were smooth and I seem to have found that the vibration in the car was a loose wheel that came after I changed over to the summer wheels and forgot to go back and re tighten them after driving a bit…and I even got to put the top down on the way back here and that was fun…I did discover that the coolant has gone bad and I need to do a flush and fill soon but I think that will wait until it gets a little warmer…the coolant has almost a gel consistency with lots of rust in it and will probably take a few flushes to clean it out…I should probably just put water back in it and then drain it in a couple of weeks before I put antifreeze back in….it looks like it won’t freeze anymore so I should be okay….and I got a brutal bike ride in going out into a 15+ mph wind and it was a little cold but I did get out in shorts so that was okay…and now I’m just going to veg the rest of the day…damn, it’s almost 5:30 already and I am really looking forward to watching a bad old movie tonight and having a cocktail or two knowing I don’t have anything to do tomorrow unless I want to…

April 17th

Well….running a little late today with not getting out of bed until almost 7…and I don’t feel that hot with having cocktails last night…I think I slept okay but I do remember waking up and trying to find my covers that had been tossed off the bed so I must have flipped and flopped a bunch….and no dreams to speak of but that’s okay….after the horrible sleep from thurs night, I’ll take just sleeping a little…don’t have a lot of pain in my calf or heel this morning and that is a relief since I am going to have to mow the lawn again Monday…won’t use the garden shoes again and I hope that helps…I did get a bike ride in yesterday but it was in almost full thermasuit and that sucks for April….and there is going to be no respite from the cold until May comes and I guess I’ll have to wait until then to plant my garden…I do need to flush the coolant out of the car since it is almost like gel and full of rust but again, I need it to be warmer before I climb under the car and pull off the lower radiator hose….and then just stick my hose in the rad and let it run….and I think the ramps will help with that….not much to do today…have to make a run into town to help my son put a range hood up at 11 and then back here to get a ride in and I hope it will be warm enough to get out in shorts….more later…

Here’s your “bipartisanship”…

Well…I am just shaking my head at the lack of awareness that both Sinema and Manchin have when it comes to their magic pony of “bipartisanship” and their efforts to find it when they have actually met mitch mcconnell….just today, ole mitch directed his repub senators to “use” both Sinema and Manchin and string them along with lies about the possibility of “bipartisanship” to block any and all of Biden’s agenda…you hear that Sinema?  You hear that Manchin? mitch has revealed that he and his caucus will lie to you all day long to make sure they can dupe you into blocking Joe’s agenda and the agenda that will help the American people…and guess what? You are swallowing it hook line and sinker with your preening bullshit while you wallow in your self importance…and that is just another tactic of mitch’s….stoking your crappy sense of importance so you’ll think you are in control but mitch is playing you like a stratocaster and you are either complicit or too damn dumb to realize it. Now, anyone with a tiny bit of self respect would tell mitch and his asshole caucus to go to hell and get on with doing right by America…the ball’s in your court…