Well…around christmas, the James Webb Space Telescope, which I will call the JWST from now on, was launched towards it’s L2 station point and most of us science geeks were elated and concerned at the same time since there were over 300 things that needed to work perfectly for it to be usable…there were a couple of pieces of good news on the scope yesterday that I wanted to talk about here…first, the launch was so accurate that they had to burn very little thruster fuel to make course corrections and that means instead of having enough fuel for 5 years, the operators of the scope think they will have enough for 10-12 years and that is really good news since there is no way to refuel it with it being so far away…and second, the tennis court sized sunscreen successfully deployed yesterday and it is locked in place with no problems so we’re halfway there in getting it ready to start observations in a couple of months…still going to keep my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong and I just can’t wait for “first light” and the science that can be done with it…
First big snow since I’ve lived here…
Well…it looks like I’m going to be hunkered down here for a couple of days with the snow that is coming in here soon…possibility of 6 inches and, without snow tires, my car can’t cope with it…don’t really need to go anywhere anyway so no big deal….and it will be the first time for appreciable snow in the 10 months I’ve lived out here and I’ll take that any day after last winter in the Valley house where I had snow piles at the end of the driveway that were 5-6 feet tall. And I don’t have a driveway to shovel but I may need to shovel the alley up to my garage door but that is still shorter than the driveway in GR….so I’ll get a work out in the next couple days and that will fit well with taking the day off the bike tomorrow…won’t be able to get out to get the paper but oh, well…can get all of the ads online…it does feel good that I don’t have to worry about finding a place to live this New Years day…and taking the rest of the day off isn’t critical anymore….
Even the NY times thinks we’re doing it right here…
Well…I just about choked on my dinner yesterday when I read that the NY times thinks we’re doing something right with our non-partisan redistricting committee here in Michigan. In a state that, by all accounts, was one of the most heavily gerrymandered ones in the country…done by repubs…the Times gushed that we are going to have one of the most fair electoral maps in the country and that was the result of a constitutional amendment approved by 65% of the people a couple of years back….but that’s not enough..we may have fair maps here, but we can have them all over the country if Manchin and Sinema would go along and see the necessity of taking away the repubs chance to cheat by gerrymandering everywhere they are in control…and all they would have to do is vote for the freedom to vote act that is coming up for a vote in January….how can any dem not support taking away repubs ability to cheat? This act would finally level the playing field across the country and make sure that the voters pick their reps and not the other way around as the repubs have rigged across the country…and the time is now as redistricting takes place across the country this year…get it done…geez…
January 1st
Well…another year starts and I truly hope it’s not like last year…don’t need any more virus or attacks on the country…and I don’t need waking up at 5 anymore, either….and the dreams I’ve been having have been dour and depressing and not at all like the free movies they were when I was younger….it looks like I’ll be in for a few days with the storms that are coming in tonight and that means I’ll have to skip my Sunday ritual of going out to get the paper and that’s okay…the paper out here is pretty crappy anyway so it’s not worth the price I pay for it….will be doing some shoveling tomorrow, too and that’s okay…I can use the exercise and it’s nice to get some fresh air….didn’t do much yesterday but ride the bike and I think I’ll do the same today there are some bowl games on but I am depressed about Michigan getting blown out last night and I am losing interest in football…I guess I can watch soccer to pass the time….not sure about any resolutions for the year…going to make some changes to my routines but probably won’t share them….I try to do better all the time and I’ve gotten into some habits that are not good for my health so that would probably be a good place to start…we’ll see…not much to do today….I have reset the computer for the indoor bike and will start from 0 this morning but I still have news to read and coffee to drink first…..more later…
Last one for the year…
Well…haven’t found a political topic so I think I’ll do a recap of my year for the last one this year….man, when I look back to where I was last December 31st, I can’t believe where I am financially and even psychologically…last year at this time, I was down to 3 months to go to find a house before my son moved back to GR and my stress level was through the roof with seeing so many crap houses that were at the top of the range of what I could afford….but that changed in January when I found this place that had everything I wanted but it wasn’t in GR…so I had to make one of the biggest decisions of my life to just buy it….and living here in Muskegon has been better than I expected but I haven’t been able to get into life out here with the damn virus that is rampant…the trails and scenery are cool but it would be nice to be able to go out to dinner or to just have a couple of beers and meet some people…I have been at peace much more than I have been in years with now living here for 10 months and almost doubling what money I have in the bank….and with the worth of the house going up by 20k, I should reach my goal of having 100K in assets free and clear with the equity in the house and what I have in the bank…and I never thought that would happen…this house has been really reliable, too, with only a clogged drain and the handle on the toilet breaking yesterday that I have had to fix….one thing that I am not happy about is the estrangement from a couple of my sons that I can’t figure out…well, yeah I can…I haven’t been to visit my grandkids with this damn virus but I just can’t do it with the danger of me getting them sick…and I don’t understand why they don’t get that…if there was no virus, I would have been in to see them at least once a month even having to drive over by Detroit where my middle son lives….that is the only thing that has a cloud hanging over my life right now..okay, and not being able to shoot pool every week…now that Tom is retired…I’ll have to find a place that is halfway where we can meet up so neither of us have to drive a hundred miles round trip….all in all, things are okay….I have rebuilt the yard and cleaned the entire outside of the house, put up a new garage door opener and had a huge garden for the first year here that was somewhat successful….so, I am looking forward to a new year for the first time in a long time even though I’m a year older…”the sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death…” to quote Pink Floyd from “Time”…..happy new year….
4844 miles…
Well…just got off the bike for the last ride of the year and thought I’d update on the mileage…did 4492 miles outside and 352 on the torture machine downstairs…not bad for an old guy….didn’t get to my 5K goal but 4844 isn’t bad for an old guy…going to try to beat my best year of a little over 6K miles next year to gear up for a 7K mile year the following year….now I’m taking the rest of the day off to watch football and just veg it out…I’ll try to come back for a political one later but I need to finish the coffee first and stop sweating from the bike ride…more later…
December 31st
Well….not sure how it happened but I didn’t get up til 7:22 today…if I knew, I’d do it every day but sleep for me is not that easy….the pain in my back has been moving around from right to left and it is really becoming a pain…ha,ha….I think it may have something to do with riding downstairs since it started around that time….I am looking forward to totaling up the miles I’ve ridden this year…didn’t get to 5K but I got close and I think it will be about 4800 for the year…not bad for an old guy and that gives me a goal for next year of at least 5K…I’m hoping to have around 1K inside by the time I’m back out on the trails…I do have to find the instructions to reset the computer on the bike to zero and start the new year tomorrow…didn’t get much done yesterday but fix the toilet and watch sports and have decided to take the weekend off so today will probably be the same…lots of football bowl games on with the big one tonight with Michigan playing Georgia…will have to dig out my Michigan gear for that one….not much to do today…just going to sit here and have coffee for a while before I do the last ride of the year…will do a recap of the year later today…it’s been a strange one…more later…..
Got the toilet fixed…
Well…as I said this morning, the arm finally broke off from the handle on my toilet this morning so that meant a trip out to depot to get another one, but they didn’t have one for the Elger like mine so I had to buy an universal one for 5 bucks…when I got back here, I needed to fit it to this toilet which is kind of weird with an oval tank so it’s not a front or side mount but in between…and that meant cutting it down with my side cutters since the arm was too long and heating the plastic arm up over the stove so I could put a bend in it so I could connect the chain and the arm wouldn’t hit on the inside of the tank…surprisingly, it all worked out well and this one has a connection to the handle that is almost twice the thickness of the broken one so I hope it will last a while longer than the last one…and I had all of that done before 8:30 this morning since I hate having things hanging that need to be done…but I have only done the bike ride after that…oh, and made some chicken for lunch but I’m not going to do much else with Man U playing in a while and State playing Pitt at 7 tonight in a bowl game….
DeSantis disappears…
Well…amid the largest surge in cases in Florida since the covid pandemic began, the governor, Ron DeSantis seems to have disappeared…he has not been seen in public since the 17th of December and has not talked to anyone in that time either and has done nothing to help the people of Florida weather the storm of omicron…okay, that was probably his plan anyway since he has done nothing up to this point but outlaw the mask and vaccine mandates that we all know work…so what would he be doing? I’ll bet when the news comes out where he’s been, he is recovering from his own case of covid (or not, that would serve him right) and he will go on to lie that it is “just the flu” and nothing needs to be done other than be a big, manly repub and you’ll be fine…while omicron burns through his state and kills even more of his voters…repubs really are a death cult…geez…
December 30th
Well…darn, up at 5:14 again today but was able to get back to sleep for a while…but, the repair on the toilet handle failed and it broke this morning so I need to go out and get a new one here in a while…it didn’t snow last night so the streets should be dry but we’re supposed to get a big storm Sat with up to 6 inches of snow so it looks like I’ll be in for a few days….I did find a hand car wash the other day right over by depot so I’ll have a place to wash the car if I do have to go out in the snow…..had a busy day yesterday but today looks a little easier…need to get after the next window in the kitchen but my back has been hurting like it used to so that is going to make it a bit of effort…it’s been quite a while since it has hurt like this but this pain has been with me my whole life and I just I forgot about it….and I’m a little irritated that just chopping veggies for soup hurt my thumb so much that I had to take something for it…and I don’t think it’s going to get better with all the damage I’ve done to it….not much to do today…think I’ll just take it a little easier than yesterday but I do need to get on the bike after I get back from the errand…and I need to find the instructions for both bike computers so I can zero them out Sat and start a new year of miles….more later…