Well…as you can see, I didn’t come back for a second one yesterday and I have an excuse…it was a busy day and I had to run into GR and that was a 90 mile round trip and I didn’t get back here until around 5….and I still had to make dinner but that was easy with having a container of ham soup that had finally thawed….slept okay last night but had some weird dreams that I am still thinking about….had a group of friends turn on me and I wonder what that is about? I guess it doesn’t matter….cripes, I’m going to have to put gas in the car today and I haven’t had to do that in weeks….and I need to hit Meijers to get my turkey this morning if they have any….not sure if I’m going to brine the turkey this year since last year’s came out pretty bad…but I think it was the turkey and not the process that was bad and I even threw the leftovers away instead of freezing them for soup….I think I’ve made enough room in the freezer for the carcass but I may just make the soup before I freeze it this time….and I think I’ll do it in my instant pot again since the ham soup came out great in it….not much to do today…just need to run the errand this morning and then get on the bike downstairs and take it easy for the rest of the day…will have to wait til tomorrow to pick up the leaves since there is still some snow on the yard that needs to melt today and then dry up before the mower will work to vacuum them….more later….

Well…up at 5:20 and really thought I wasn’t going to get back to sleep but when I rolled over to look at the time, it was 6:49 so I guess that’s okay….have been tossing and turning a lot so the quality of sleep hasn’t been too good but that’s pretty normal….had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get much done and today will be much the same but I do have to make a run into GR today to meet up with T around 2…haven’t been over there in at least 6 months and I hope it doesn’t snow today since I still have the summer tires on the car….have only been out on the bike once in the past week and I am getting used to riding inside…it is so convenient to just walk downstairs that I am getting spoiled…I am going to have to start doing two rides a day to maintain the calorie burn I get from doing 30 miles outside but I’m not going to start that until tomorrow….that will mean two showers a day since I come away from the inside rides soaked in sweat and don’t want to touch anything or sit on anything until I shower….not much to do today….just the run into town and the bike ride so far…won’t need to cook for a while with the big ham I made yesterday and I thawed some ham soup to get the freezer cleaned out for the turkey I hope to get tomorrow….more later…

Well….just reading the free press out of Detroit and I guess there is a frozen turkey shortage this year…so, I may not be able to get one of the cheap ones for me…but, that’s okay…it’s not like I have to cook a big meal on t-day…I’ll probably still have leftover ham that I am heating right now with the thing being 9 pounds….since I got it at DD, I had to smell it before I put it in the oven with buying some spoiled food there over the years and not wanting to heat a spoiled ham….that smells really bad and I wouldn’t get that out of here for a week…but it smells good in here so I’m having ham with mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner today….and when I read the label, it came from a company in Marne called Farmer Peete…not sure if you remember that brand but it was big when I was a kid but haven’t seen it in many years….I really do like having the opener in the garage and the extra light that comes from it…had to do a repair on the top when I got back from groceries and there was plenty of light even with the door closed…I am going to get a 100 watt led bulb Friday when I go out to get the turkey so it will be even brighter….I think the one I put in is a 60 that I took out of the basement so I’ll need two since I broke the first one I put in it….got my first gas bill with having heat on a bit and it’s only 30 bucks so far…but, I guess natural gas is up by about 30% over last year so I’m expecting it to get to 100 bucks a month this year….still not bad for a house this size…..and I can afford it…

Well…up a little after 7 this morning and that’s not too bad after having a few days of waking up at 5….man, I’m still worn out but I think I did it to myself with not eating enough…again…I mean a bowl of chili and a dog? Under 1K calories again and that’s not sustainable…but I have lots of food in the fridge that I am waiting to thaw and once that happens, I’ll have ham for a week…maybe tomorrow….then I can have a couple of omelets with ham, onion, and cheese…..didn’t get much done yesterday and it was supposed to rain today but it looks like it may miss to the north so I can get out and ride after I do the grocery run….and it’s 56 out there right now so I may be able to ride in shorts for the last time today….but, there is supposed to be a huge storm coming in from the west that may bring snow early next week so I need to plan for that and get all of my groceries in before that…and it looks like a set up for lake effect snow after that so I need to put the snowies on the car over the weekend…but I am going to try to not drive int he snow this year to keep the car from completely rusting out…not much to do today…just the grocery run and bike rides and if it doesn’t rain, I may start picking up the leaves with the mower…more later…

Well…after all of the work putting the opener up yesterday and taking an outdoor ride, I decided to take it easy today and not really do any work on the yard…I did get out to run a couple of errands and it was so cool using the remote for the door opener like a normal house…and got a big spiral sliced ham for 8 bucks to start with, then I decided to hit depot for an indoor ladder since they had a 5 footer on sale for 29 bucks but when I got there they only had one but it was even cheaper at 24 bucks so that was cool….and I even put the top down to transport it back here and that was fun with the nice sunshine there was this morning…and I got an 8 mile ride in downstairs since it was only 29 this morning and I just wasn’t going to get cold again….oh, I guess I did get some work done…I did laundry and I am waiting for the dryer to finish since I don’t have any extra lounging clothes and everything is in the dryer….so now I have the tools I need to get started on the inside of the house when and if I get some motivation….but, not right now….

Well….another 6:23 morning today and I still feel pretty worn out but I don’t hurt as much as yesterday so I’ll take that…I just hate it that every damn thing I do puts me into pain and that never used to happen when I was younger….I mean just hanging a garage door opener? That was just normal work and I never ended up with my whole body in pain like I did yesterday….and my shoulder is stiff today for some reason, too…think I slept on it and that is disappointing, too….just getting old and decrepit…oh, well….I did get a few things done yesterday but I may take the day off today….installing the opener finished off the outside work that I had to do other than pick up the leaves so I think I may have earned a day off….I do have to make a run to DD to pick up a spiral sliced ham for 88 cents a pound and that is cheap with how pork prices have gone up…I did take some ham soup out of the freezer yesterday and that leaves one 2 quart container in there that I will have to use up if I want to have room for the turkey carcass….I do want to make turkey soup after t-day since I tossed last years carcass out with the turkey tasting off from the start…not much to do today…I think I’ll ride downstairs this morning since it is 29 out there and I don’t want to get cold again outside….can’t wait to take the car out without having to lift the door and get out of the car to close it….this is a normal house now and it feels good….more later…

Well…just got the first birds on the feeder and they are not what I expected…I thought I’d get sparrows since there are so many of them around but the first ones were Tufted Titmouses and I had a few of them here in just the past few minutes…and they feed really quickly…just hit the feeder, grab a couple of seeds and they they are gone….I did have one other bird…a big one with an orange breast and a red patch on the back of it’s head…can’t remember ever seeing a bird like that….oh, the chickens were back today just hanging around on my sidewalk and they just stood there when I walked by…I may put some of the 40 pounds of seed I have out for them in a pile in the yard and see if they will eat it….up close, the black one is just huge and must go 10 pounds or so….I did get an outdoor bike ride in today and it was just no fun…to damn cold and windy and I am sore from it….it was nice to get out but I guess I’m getting old and just want to be warm…