Well…I finally did it…took the day off and did absolutely nothing today…I was going to put the new blinds up but they were pushed back another day so I’ll do that tomorrow….I did find the brass cap for the outdoor faucet and put that on yesterday since one of the plastic valves I left on it had started leaking after it got cold out here…was pretty sure it wouldn’t survive the winter but couldn’t find the cap until yesterday…so, no more leaks…at some point, I’m going to have to climb into the crawl space and put a new valve in….that’s a summer job…I did get some new neighbors this week in the house that has been under renovation across the street but probably won’t meet them until spring since I don’t have anything to do outside but shovel snow if it snows….I will have to do another one meal day today with not riding and that sucks a bit since I spent 3 bucks on a loaf of rye bread to go with the ham I made…I suppose I could put it in the fridge to keep it from spoiling too soon…darn…
This is rich….
Well…as we all know, fox news is all anti vax, all the time and push their brainwashed zombie watchers to not get vaccinated on every show…but today they changed that…they have a new meme they are pushing that is blaming Biden for the pandemic not being over…and that ran right after another anti vax segment this morning…okay, I don’t watch fox news so I had to read about this in another source…and with all the people they have killed with their lies and bullshit, I find it really rich that they are blaming Biden for their stupidity since the new omicron/delta surge is of the unvaccinated…and there is only the right that is pushing their followers to die…we all know they have cornered the market in hypocrisy, but damn, these guys have all gone over the edge…I wonder if they ever listen to themselves of if this is just acting on their part and when they go home, they get out of character and become normal? Yeah, probably not…but I still don’t understand the business model that kills your viewers…where is the profit in that? There are quite a few counties where enough people on the right have died and that will give us a chance to win in 2022…and that is pretty sick even how much I hate these assholes…geez…
December 26th
Well….up at 4:45 this morning but I was able to go back to sleep for an hour or so…and I went to be early last night so that’s not too bad….just ran out of steam at 10:15 last night and I’m not sure why other than doing an outside ride and getting lots of fresh air….I wonder if that’s why my back hurts today? Didn’t get anything done yesterday except the bike ride but that set’s me up for taking the day off the bike if I want….I really do need a repair day every once in a while…but, we’ll see…it’s supposed to be in the 40’s today so I may just go outside for a ride again today…..the blinds might be here today so I might have to work some this aft and put them up but I sure don’t feel like doing it right now…just want to sit here for a while and have coffee…it looks like the EPL matches have been cancelled so no soccer for me today and that’s disappointing…but the Lions are going to lose this afternoon so I guess I could watch that…not much to do today…going to ease into it and get to reading the news here in a minute…it is so nice to have my car in the garage and to not have to scrape the ice off the windows to go out for the paper….and to not have to shovel the snow so far…keeping my fingers crossed that we don’t have any blizzards this winter….more later….
Got an outdoor ride in…
Well…I really was going to take the day off today but around three the sun came out and it was 42 so I dragged the bike back out of the basement and rode out to the beach….it was okay with the wind only blowing about 10 or so out of the nw and it was fun to see the changes that have happened in the month I’ve been inside…the lake is down what looks like a couple of feet to where the depth gauge in Muskegon Lake isn’t even in the water anymore….I did put the bike in the garage just in case I can get out one last time this year…oh, I did hear from one of my sons today and that was cool…and got pictures of my granddaughter which was really cool…..so now I can relax and have a nice night tonight….but, I am skipping dinner…need to cut back the calories…
December 25th
Well…got all the way to 6:55 this morning and now I’m watching the launch of the JWST that is set to go in 2 mins…slept okay last night but still feel pretty worn out even without doing much yesterday so I may take it easy today and skip the bike ride but I don’t think my guilt will allow that…I did get over 4800 miles on the bike yesterday so everything else I do will be a bonus over what the goal was for the year….okay, the launch was successful but we’ve gotten spoiled by spacex launches and all of the cameras they have on their rockets….this is all animation and nowhere near as exciting….I really do need to ease into the day today with how I feel….walking in cement again today and could go back to bed easily but I won’t…have a damn headache right now and I’m sure it’s from allergies that have been bugging me since I started working on the windows and having so much dust around here…and that will probably continue all winter as I do the remaining 10…but the rest of them are not as bad as the first two so I may get some relief….not much to do today….it’s already 43 degrees out there and I may be tempted to ride outdoors today for the last time this year…but, we’ll see if it’s going to rain…don’t want to get the bike gunked up and have to wash it again….more later….
Still no blinds….
Well…crap, still no blinds and this is pretty darn irritating…they were supposed to be here this past Tuesday originally, then today, but they haven’t shown up so it looks like next week is the earliest I’ll have them…I really wanted to get them up by the end of the week so I can start on the last kitchen window but I guess I can put newspaper up on that one, too, and get started tomorrow…or, I could take the weekend off like I try to do…hmmm…didn’t get anything else done today…just didn’t feel like it and it’s getting late in the day so I probably won’t do anything else but make dinner…and watch a movie tonight…or the Expanse….not sure which yet….
I’m a little nervous…
Well…any of you who have been here before know me to be a science geek who still watches every rocket launch that is televised and reads a lot about things happening in science…and tomorrow, something really cool is happening at 7:24 in the morning…the James Webb space telescope is going to be launched from French Guyana and I’m a little nervous about that….The Arianne V rocket that is going to launch it has a great reliability record so getting it to space probably won’t be the problem…but there are over 300 discrete actions that have to happen to get it ready for observing and if any one doesn’t go right, we will have a 12 billion dollar lump of coal in our stockings. Since the mirror and sun shield are too big to fit on even the biggest rockets, they had to be folded into a much smaller package…and then it has to unfold itself once in space and on the way to the L2 Lagrange point a million miles away…and they are using that point since it is the point where the Earth and the sun’s gravity balance out and it takes a lot less fuel to keep in place…but that takes it so far away that if it doesn’t go right, there is no way to service it…I do have faith that NASA can make it work…I am a little nervous….
December 24th
Well…running really late this morning with waking up at 5:13 but not getting out of bed until around 8….and that last 2+ hours wasn’t good for anything…I’m tired….had an okay day yesterday and got the couch cleaned and the rugs vacuumed but no work on the house and I think I won’t do much but clean a little more today…the blinds are supposed to come today and I’ll put them up if they do and it will be good to have the newspaper off the kitchen windows and be able to see out again….I did get over 300 miles on the downstairs bike yesterday and still have a week to get another hundred miles…yeah, not going to get there but it was still a good year on the bikes…almost 5K miles and I am creeping up on 75K since I started riding…three times around the Earth is a long way and lots of calories burned….I was thinking about taking the bike outside today but I really don’t want to get it dirty with the showers we’re supposed to have out here today….it would be nice to get out one more time this year but it is just so easy to just walk downstairs….not much to do today….just going to wing it a bit with no plans other than to ride the bike here in a few minutes….but, I’m still on my first cup of coffee and need more than that….more later….
Omicron sucks…
Well…couldn’t find a political topic for today so I thought I’d talk about the latest covid variant, Omicron, and what is known about it now…the latest testing shows that 70-90% of new cases are no longer delta but omicron and shows how fast this new one spreads and that is a little scary….but, it appears that it multiplies in the airways of the nose and doesn’t shred the lungs like delta does…at least that’s what it looks like so far…but, there are almost 140 million cases predicted in the US between Jan 1 and March 1 2022….and that means that 60% of the US will have been infected with some form of covid…and the scary part is that 90% of those with omicron may not even know it and will spread it even farther and faster….one tiny little ray of light is that it appears that the hospitalization rate from omicron is 90 to 96% less than delta and the fatality rate is 97 to 99% lower…but the sheer volume of infections will still overwhelm most hospital systems in the first three months of next year….those of us that have gotten our booster shots have a really good chance of staying out of the hospital and then not having the long covid that is ravaging many in this country…it looks like my choice to stay away from my grandchildren was the right one…even though my kids are still pissed at me and aren’t talking to me anymore because I haven’t visited…oh, well….
I think I’m learning…
Well….I think I’m learning how to take it easy…all I’ve done today is ride the bike, cook the huge lunch, clean up my tools and put them into a tote that I can just move around with the work, and do the dishes…and now it’s a little before two and I think I’m done for the day…I should clean the couch and flip the cushions and I still may but right now I’m just going to sit for a minute and stare at the tv…but, I know that won’t last…I still have a topic to find for a political one this afternoon and I’m running out of time….so, I probably should get at it…okay, maybe I’m not learning…darn….