Well…I’m feeling every damn minute of my age this morning and I don’t like it one bit…and my left big toe hurts like I bashed it last night and I don’t remember doing that…crap…it’s already 6:30 and I am so far from getting going that I don’t think I can see it from here…didn’t get anything done yesterday other than cooking the Masala and this heat is just wearing me out…it’s not bad right now but it’s going to be in the high 80’s again with no rain so I won’t be mowing my lawn anytime soon…I really should clean this joint up but I’m pondering going to the beach…and I need to have blood drawn to see if I have a vitamin deficiency tomorrow…man, it’s a lot of work getting old…have started to think about about my mortality with the cancer diagnosis last week and that sucks…I may not make it to 80…oh, well…need to get moving soon but that seems like a lot of work right now….damn, I’m feeling old…more later…

Well…after the diagnosis of melanoma from the freckle I had removed last week, it dawned on me that I’ve had two different kinds of cancer in two years…now the prostate cancer was removed on July 27, 2023 and less than two years later melanoma…and I’m not sure how to think about that…I need to follow up with my doctor to see if more treatment is necessary…I would have thought they would have called me when the diagnosis hit the charts and said melanoma…and they took a look at the freckle in the office and said it didn’t look like a melanoma but they would remove it if I wanted them to…so I’m glad I had them do it since getting at melanoma early is the key to survival…so, should I feel fortunate or concerned? Not sure yet but I really don’t see this killing me…yet…

Well…it appears that the “danger freckle” really was one…the test results showed it was a melanoma and it appears that cancer really is trying to kill me….first from the prostate cancer and now this and I wonder if there is further treatment that has to happen…I guess I’ll find out tomorrow…I do need to get out on the bike by 6:30 to get two rides in before the F1 race at 9 and with this new development, I wonder if all the work is worth it if the damn cancer is going to kill me anyway? Oh, well…going to die from something…so I guess I need to get my life in order and get a will written…I do know I have 6 pounds of coffee beans that need to be used so I’ll be using some of them tomorrow…have to start getting rid of stuff around here so my daughter has an easy time selling this place…okay, not going to think about that right now…need to make some Masala today and I’ll do that for lunch…and I thawed some more cheap bacon so there will be blt’s today, too…still can’t taste anything and it appears they are not going to do anything about it and that sucks…it is such a pain in the ass to have to work so damn hard to deal with health problems…and I am so tired of it….more later…

Well…when I started out this morning, I thought it might be a really short, one ride day with the big running race going on today…I did get the first ride in leaving here at 6:30 am but then the race started as I was just getting back…there were almost 1,000 people getting ready downtown so I came back here to wait it out…but I got to around 11:30 and I realized I could just go east instead of west so I got on the bike and headed out…rode all the way to the eastern end of Muskegon Lake and kept going so I could look at Muskegon from the north side…that was about a 12 mile round trip to get back here…and I had completely forgotten about the 2 mile long boardwalk that goes over a couple of rivers and through a swamp so that was cool to ride on again…and when I got back to the park, the runners were gone so I decided to just keep riding and do another normal 12.5 mile lap…so it was a 37 mile day today and it felt good to stretch a bit and do some extra work…and I even had time to finish the book I started yesterday…this small town was just buzzing with activity all day…starting with the running race, then the craft fair downtown, the boat ramps were full, and there were no parking spots out at my beach…probably busier than I’ve seen…so that was cool…now it’s time to start another book…

Well…damn, I hate it when outside events screw up my schedule and that leaves me sitting here bored silly as I wait for the runners to vacate the trail so I can get the 2nd ride in today…have been looking for a political topic but nothing is grabbing me right now so I’ll keep looking and try to get one out later today…just looked at my stats for the month of June and I had 23,926 people visit my site and they looked at 113,543 pages and that is about 4 times the norm and I’m not sure why that would be…maybe other people are bored, too? Who knows? It is kind of cool that I’m still getting good traffic here after doing this for so many years…that’s over 13,000 posts here since I started and I guess I still have something to say…so now after seeing that, it makes me want to work harder to do a political one every day…so, I will be back later when I find a topic…more later…

Well…damn, need to get on the bike before 6:30 to avoid the runners from the biggest race of the year where thousands of people will clog up the trail…still may only get one ride in if the race starts at 8…darn…up at a little before 6 after waking up around 4 or so…it’s a little cool here but I’m still going out in a t-shirt…my right forearm is sore as heck today and I have no clue how I hurt it…but I guess that’s part of getting old and I don’t like it at all…there is a nice cool breeze blowing through here right now and I’ll take that since it’s been so damn hot lately…no more rain in the forecast for about a week and I don’t know if my lawn will survive it…oh, well…need to clean this place up today and that will set me sweating since it’s going to be in the mid 80’s again with high humidity…and that is getting tiring…having trouble keeping track of what day it is this week…just have felt off all week and I may need an easy day after going to the beach 4 days this week…that does take a lot of energy out of me but I won’t be going out there on the weekend…too many people and too much noise…man, I need to get going…more later…

Well…it’s going to be a tough one today with only having about 600 calories yesterday and I do need to do better…but I had other things to do other than eat and today is probably going to be the same…I may make some toast with PB before I get on the bike…and that needs to happen in a half hour or so so I can get the rides in by 9 or so…not sure I I’m going to the beach today but I probably should to complete the week…I’m still red from the sun yesterday and I probably should avoid the sun but darn, when I have the beach figured out with all of the new stuff, it’s easy to head out when I don’t have to think about it…it’s just so relaxing to be able to just go…but it may rain in three hours so it may end up being a reading day after I go to the library…I still need to take a day off at some point but I do need to go out and get blood drawn next week since they think I have a vitamin deficiency that is causing my loss of taste…hmmm…I do have chicken thighs to cook today but with the heat and humidity, I really don’t want to add any more to it…I really don’t want to eat at all but I’ll force myself at some point…so, I need to get moving…it’s 6:30 and need to get my day started….more later…

Well…today was a pretty good day…loaded my new beach bag up and hit the beach for the third time this week and got to swim…again…last year, I only got in the water about 5 times all summer it was so cold…and it was never comfortable like it has been this week…so I may go out there again tomorrow sine it’s supposed to be damn hot again…I really do wonder why I’ve never bought a beach bag when I moved out here? I mean it’s been 4 years of dragging a tiny soft sided 6 pack cooler and trying to fit all my stuff in it…and this bag is big enough to put the cooler in it along with my beach towel and everything else…and the extra small bag to hold my phone, glasses, mp-3 player, and car key is nice since I know where all that stuff is…oh, and I signed up for prime today…not sure if it’s going to be worth it but I’ll give it a couple of months…need to hit the library tomorrow since I just finished up the 4th book this week…I did figure out my car has a tilt steering wheel today and I have the wheel perfect now….makes driving the car more fun…and the car looked cool sitting out at the beach…tv time

Well…damn, feeling pretty slow this morning and I’m dreading getting going…I did wake up around 5 or so but was able to get back to sleep until almost 6 and I’ll take that any day…when I woke up, I had the idea that I would grind some beans to make coffee and it worked out that I forgot to set the coffee maker up last night…so I have good coffee but can’t really taste it and that sucks…not much wind this morning but the inch of rain that was in the forecast is not there anymore and the radar shows that it missed to the north and that sucks, too…so, I’ll be out on the bike here in 30 minutes to get a dry 25 miles in…I am going to make a run over to Ollies since he has t-shirts on sale for 2 bucks and I can use a few new ones to replace worn out ones and x-large is too big for me after losing 30 pounds…I may even go to the beach today to try out my new beach bag…and I need to finish up the last book so I can get more tomorrow….I do need to clean the living room and couch today and just have to have some discipline to move forward and that is in short supply right now…oh, well…more later…

Well…sine it was raining when I got up and the radar looked like it was going to last all day, I did my two rides in the rain this morning and it wasn’t bad…haven’t done that in a while and I was a little surprised how many people were out in the deluge as I was…I could have waited to go out til it dried out but it’s hard for me to just sit around here and do nothing…but we did get almost 7 hours of rain so I hope it stops my lawn from dying more than it has…I did get my new beach bag today and it is really nice…big enough for both my oversized beach towels and anything else I want to take…lots of pockets on the exterior and even a zippered pouch that is waterproof and is going to have beer in it at some point…it also has a cool little detail on the inside…an aluminum bottle opener on a strap so you can open bottles with outside the bag…pretty cool…and worth the 25 bucks I spent on it…and it’s black and waterproof so no more gaudy colors for me…okay the towels my daughter gave me are pretty gaudy but I can live with that…time for reading…