Well…running a little late today with staying in bed until almost 7 but I don’t think that is sleeping in…just didn’t want to get out of bed and don’t really want to do anything right now…but I am and it is more than a little work….and I forgot to set the timer on the coffee maker so my coffee was cold this morning…aargh…I did get two bike rides in yesterday and did the weed walk and that always hurts my elbow so it is a little tender this morning…but better than it has been all summer so I’ll take it….I do have to water the lawn today with no rain in the forecast for the next week and I don’t want to lose all of the work I’ve done on it since I moved in….I did discover a white pepper in my garden and it is weird since it is growing on a green pepper plant…wonder what it will taste like when it is ready? Didn’t get anything else done yesterday and that is starting to get depressing….I have so much to do around here and I think I’m in a loop of not working and then more depression but I am so damn tired that I just can’t do more work…may have to cut out one ride every day and see if I can use that energy to get the painting done…and finish washing the siding…and I want to get out to the beach more with the summer almost gone….not much to do today…yeah, that’s just a habit…again, I have lots to do but just don’t want to do any of it right now….only have 17 minutes before I have to get on the bike and still need to read some news and have more coffee….more later….
Monthly Archives: August 2021
Isn’t this pay for play?
Well…we’ve know for some time that the repub party is infested with grifters and thiefs but what the senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson did for two of his biggest donors is breathtaking in its crookedness. When the big tax giveaway to the rich that the repubs passed was being written, Johnson had a little bit of specialized tax code added that would benefit the two families that gave him 20 million dollars for his campaigns…and that benefit? They got tax breaks of almost 500 million dollars…not a bad return on your 20 million dollar bribe. This is normal for the repubs these days, scratch any one of them and you’ll find a petty crook inside, using their office to enrich themselves as people starve and the roads crumble….and yet, nothing is done…not one of them goes to jail and the rich keep stealing with their help…it’s pretty damn depressing…geez…
August 18th
Well…running quite late this morning with getting up at 6 or so and then going back to bed until 7….just wasn’t ready to get up at 6….don’t feel too slow today and know I have to get moving here soon to get the grocery run done…have to go to the atm today to get some cash out to buy some stamps since I ran out yesterday and I may want to go to the party in the park Friday but I am a little concerned about being in any crowd with the damn virus still everywhere…went back to masking up in stores and will do that again today…I just hate the damn anti vaxxers who did this to us and their selfishness is not “freedom” it’s just stupidity….I did only do one ride yesterday and got out to the beach for a while and probably should do that again today but I won’t because of the guilt that it generates….still haven’t figured out how to relax and just take it easy yet when I have so much to do around here…need to get the back of the house washed and climb up on the roof to put the soffett trim back on that blew off in the wind when I first moved in here….but I may have to buy an extension ladder since the one I have is too short to get up on the lowest part of the roof….I did spend some time yesterday figuring out how to replace the drive train on the old bike and need to buy some tools to do it…it looks like with the tools and parts it will cost almost 60 bucks to get it running again but that will be good practice when I need to rebuild the current bike…and then I’ll have three working bikes and that will be cool…not much to do today…just the grocery run and riding but I think I’ll get to prepping the door frames for painting, too, so I can get those done next week….more later….
More Afghanistan…
Well…with all of the whitewashing that is going on with the repubs about their role in the Afghanistan debacle…wiping out twitter threads, scrubbing the RNC website, and any other place that they supported the idiot trump’s deal with the Taliban, let’s just remember what that “deal” was…idiot boy’s cronies negotiated the Taliban’s takeover by not even including the real government of the country…yep the government and army that we spent 2 trillion dollars supporting and building were not even included in the deal, and that telegraphed to the Taliban that the US didn’t care what happened after our withdrawal…and idiot boy gave them cash that the Taliban used to buy off cities, towns, and Afghan army units across the country so they wouldn’t fight…and why would they fight when they knew that the US didn’t care about them anymore with the master idiot giving the country to the Taliban in exchange for not attacking us as we left….so, let’s not let the revisionists on the right pull the same bullshit they always do to scrub their roles out of history and try to blame Joe for this crappy deal…he was bound to abide by it and did the only thing he could…get us the hell out of there…cripes, they had been fighting that war since I was in my 40′s and I’m a whole lot older than that now…geez…
August 17th
Well…running about on time this morning and it is uncanny how I’ve been getting up at around 6:30 for such a long time now….that should be enough sleep but I still feel worn out almost every day…must just be getting old…I did get a lot done yesterday with two bike rides and mowing the lawn and I will need to water the lawn today to keep it alive since the rain that was forecast has been pushed back til maybe Thursday….and I do want to get out to the beach today since it is going to be warm but I’m not sure when I want to go…I may just do one ride today to give the legs a rest and then go out around 11 or so…and that will give me time to work on the door trim…I did start giving away my garden bounty yesterday with having way too many tomatoes…thinking about getting the blender out and making some puree to freeze in bags as sauce base that I can use over the winter…I think the tomatoes need to be blanched first but I’ll have to look it up before I do it…still have the white pepper growing on the plant and I am going to save the seeds from it to see if it can grow more white ones…that would be cool….not much to do today…need to ride to the post office to drop of my house payment and scope out Hackley Park for the party in the park event this weekend…supposed to have bands, food, and beer so that’s something I can do…I could walk there but I will probably drive and park…it’s just easier and with sore my legs have been, they need a rest….more later…
A new record gas bill….
Well….I know I’ve been having a laugh over the summer months about the size of my gas bill at this house, thinking that getting it down to 7 bucks or so was kind of ridiculous given that I have a gas range and a gas water heater and take a couple of showers a day after riding and working around here…but today, the bill that came beat even the 7 bucks that was the last record…only 5.80 for this bill and that made me smile a little….how the heck can I only have used 5.80 in gas? I’ll take it but I sure don’t want them coming back to me in a couple of months to say “oh, we made a mistake, you owe us 300 bucks” or something like that…I guess I should just enjoy the bills for now…and continue to laugh a bit….
Afghanistan…
Well…with all of the hand wringing and finger pointing that is going on with the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover of the country, we need to remember the bottom line in this whole debacle…that no matter what we did and how much money we spent the Taliban was just going to wait us out and take over the country when we left…and there was no agreement that would have stopped it, any agreement was just part of the wait it out strategy that is happening there just as it was for the Vietnamese at the end of that war…and 20 years and 2 trillion dollars is enough…when should it end? If you listen to those on the right, they permanently wanted to occupy the country and part of that is that it keeps their buddies in the defense industry raking in cash….what is the profit on 2 trillion dollars spent? Now, with the chaos that is going on there, I will say there should have been better planning on how to withdraw and I do put some of the blame on Biden…but the generals and the intelligence community have had 20 years to plan how to get us out and I don’t see where the effort has had any effect…if there was any effort that is….I feel for the people of Afghanistan but most of them are perfectly fine with the Taliban taking over if it gets the Americans out so we needed to go….let’s not do this nation building crap again…okay? geez….
August 16th
Well…not sure what would happen if I just took a day off and sat here on my couch but I’m edging up to trying it….just damn tired and depressed and I just realized that the filter in the coffee maker collapsed and sent grounds into the carafe and had to make a new pot so I’ll sit here for10 minutes as the new pot brews and that is not helping my mood at all…I mean, how can you write without coffee? I just realized I haven’t had a steak in more than a year and I still haven’t bought a grill yet, but I haven’t bought a garage door opener either and I wonder why? I have the cash but I guess I can live without either so there is no urgency when I have so much other stuff to do….I’m tired….didn’t get anything done yesterday but water the lawn and the bike rides but I do have an errand to run this morning after the first ride and need to get out of here soon to get started…..not much to do today…well, that’s not true…I have lots to do but I’m just not motivated to do much right now…this place needs to be cleaned and I need to get started on the exterior painting but that will wait til tomorrow….need to go out and get paint and do a lot of prep but that is just not going to happen today….more later…
August 15th
Well…running a little late this morning and just can’t get started…no reason for it, I think it’s just Sunday morning blues and feeling worn out….still….and that’s with only doing one ride yesterday but my legs needed a little bit of a rest since they hurt just sitting here…as they do right now so it may be another one ride day today….got nothing done yesterday and today looks the same with races starting at 1 or so but that gives me the morning to figure out if I can ride two….I do need to get the ladder out and clean the downspout on the front of the house since it may rain Tuesday and I don’t want it to overflow again…..cripes, haven’t even read the news yet and it’s pushing 8….still can’t just let my schedule go and live and let things go and I wonder if I’ll ever be able to….don’t want to end up one of those slugs who doesn’t do anything….but, I could crawl back into bed right now…I won’t, but I could….I do need to get off my butt and get paint this week to do the door frames and start planning the interior work….and finish putting stuff away…I’ve been here almost 6 months and there are still totes that need to be put downstairs and bags of clothes that need to be sorted and donated….but, I don’t feel like doing any of it….not much to do today…need more coffee and to read the news and then force myself to get on the bike…..then I’ll take it from there…pretty happy that the music festival that was going on down the hill is over…it was a pain in the butt hearing all that crap for the past 4 days…hope it stays quiet all day today….more later…
Biden to the rescue…
Well…as you’ve read here, the asshole repub governors of Texas and Florida are doing everything they can to get teachers and kids sick by forbidding any mask or vaccine mandates while threatening them with loss of pay and state funding for any school that tries to protect their staff or kids….but yesterday Joe Biden had his education secretary send a letter DeSantis of Florida telling him that any funding he cuts will be made up by the feds, essentially taking that threat away from him and doing the right thing by the staff and kids of the state of Florida…and that funding will be sent directly to the school districts so DeSantis can’t screw with the funding like he did with the 7 billion dollars Florida got from the coronavirus relief package and never gave to the schools just so he could have leverage to force people to die for his being an asshole. Look, if repub governors want to try to make sure their people die by forbidding them from using life saving equipment and vaccines by mandate, then Biden will do everything in his power to help the unfortunate residents of Florida and Texas who really would prefer not to have their governors kill them…geez…