Well….yep…it’s the switch…again…and this one only lasted about 6 months and that sucks…but, they’re only 5 bucks so I guess I don’t need to bitch too much…and I can just remove the positive battery cable for now so no big deal…after I got that figured out, the morning got better with getting out on the bike in shorts about 8:15 and getting a hard ride in…even saw my first bald eagle of the year today and that was pretty cool…and the wind waited to start blowing hard until I made the turn to come back here so I had it at my back most of the return trip and was really flying on the trail…too damn many people out today, though, and some of them were being idiots…I mean running in a group of 10 people 2 feet apart? If any of them are infected, they all will be soon….not sure what I’m going to make for lunch today….I have some bacon the needs to be used and eggs to go with that…but I have soup, chicken, and pizza that needs to be used, too….hmmm….at least I won’t need to go out for anything this week but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not….I should take the car out and charge the battery up and I may do that tomorrow…want to make a run to HF to get my new compressor for 40 bucks so I can air the tires up on the bike….more later…

Well…damn…the battery was dead in the car when I tried to go out to get the paper today and my battery box was dead, too….not sure if it will hold a charge enough to get it started a little later but I put the trickle charger on the battery and I don’t think that is going to help…so I had to ride the bike out to get the paper this morning and I’m glad it is over 50 out there right now…had some problems with the cut off switch falling apart the other day and must not have gotten it put back together right…so, I’m not sure what I’m going to do if the box won’t start it later…can’t ask the neighbors for a jump with this whole virus thing going on…crap, crap, crap….I can get a 50 amp charger at HF for about 30 bucks if I can get it started that will start the car and that would replace the battery box since I have electricity in the garage…..okay….just can’t do this right now…need to try to get the car started….okay, that was weird…hooked the battery box up to the car and it started right up after only a half hour of charging….and I checked out the switch and it seems to be working so I’m going to put it back in after I let the car run for a half hour or so…man, that takes a load off but I still may get a good charger just in case…after all, I’m going to get 1200 bucks in the next few weeks and any house I buy will have electricity in the garage so I won’t need the portability of the battery box any more….so, what else is going on? Okay…I think I may just stop here and get a bike ride in before the wind comes up….more later….

Well…made it all the way through to coffee time this morning but I don’t feel like I slept at all…and I’m coughing again and I don’t have any hope that it will get better until I can air this place out…and that looks like it’s not going to happen for a few weeks yet…we did have some storms last night that did wake me up but I don’t mind that at all…it’s not snow and it could be with this being spring in Michigan…and it looks like I may have to take the day off the bike since it’s supposed to rain all day…darn…I can use a day to let the pain in my left thigh to subside some…I think I may have torn something in it with going hard on the bike the past week or so since the pain is localized to a strip about 4 by 8 inches down the front that is tender…and that is weird…did get some good news that the 1200 bucks that they are sending out to everyone is now going to include SS recipients so I should see the cash in my account in about 3 weeks or so…and I can use it…have 4 things I’m going to buy to do my part to get the economy going again…new tires for the car, pay for the new bike, a gas grill, and a new weight machine…and I’ll still have about 300 bucks left over….and I’ll get my latest SS deposit about the same time so that will be 3200 bucks into my account in one week….I know I’m not supposed to eat grilled food since it causes cancer but I haven’t had a grill for three years now so I think I’ve got some life in the bank on that…and there is nothing like a rare steak on the grill…or burgers, or chicken, or ribs…you get the idea….not much to do today…I am going to clean the oven with what little cleaner I have here but that will only do the bottom and the door…I should put the cleaner on now…and I think I will….more later…

Well…look, I have been writing about all of the bad stuff going on in this country and it is starting to overload my brain to the point that I can’t decide what to talk about…so, I’m going to talk about some good stuff to try to let my brain rest for a while…I was sitting here yesterday and got a huge surprise when a large bird landed on my window sill outside where I put some bird food for the sparrows to eat…compared to the sparrows, doves are just frickin huge birds and where I normally only see the sparrows heads, I could see most of the dove’s body…but one thing they both do is look in the window and I wonder if they are trying to figure out what the heck the indoors is…the sparrows have even started to use the feeder stuck to the window…had four of them on it at one time yesterday and the mosh pit moved over to it from the hanging feeder….I did get my veggie seeds planted this morning but I decided to not start the sunflowers indoors…after all, they are just ornamentals and I really don’t need to speed them up at all…they should get to 10-15 feet even waiting to after the last frost and who cares if that is a few weeks earlier? The seeds for the tomatoes are tiny little things and it was kind of hard to handle them one at a time…but I am wondering if I should have planted 2 or 3 seeds in each hole just to make sure they come up…but, I did do 4 seeds of each type so I should get at least one of them to come up and that is really all I need to get a head start….this is kind of funny…the hanging feeder is empty so now there is a que of sparrows waiting to get on the one on the window…probably should go out and fill it before I get on the bike…I think that when I get through the two bags of seed I have I’m going to take the feeders down…after all, I have given them over a hundred pounds of seed since I started filling the feeders in November and those two bags will make it 140…I mean, how much food can sparrows eat? A lot I guess….more later….

Well…that was a little better…didn’t get up til 6:40 and that was with getting to bed at 11…but I think having cocktails had something to do with it and that is not sustainable…but I’ll take one night and feeling like crap in the morning…but I’m coughing and stuffed up again today and I hope that goes away soon…but, I’m not sore…cripes I’m getting old…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and was even out in shorts but I’m not sure I can do that today and the weather looks like it going to cool off into the 40’s for 2 weeks or so…and that puts us into April…where the hell is spring? Didn’t get a lot done yesterday but grocery shopping so I have a lot to do today…need to get the veggie seeds in the dirt to get them started and then need to think what I’m going to use to surround the garden….don’t think I have enough treated lumber to do it so I may have to use some of the patio blocks I removed so they could put the fence in…have piles of them behind the garage and really should figure out how to use them….so, it looks like I’ll have to get started on the outside before it gets warm enough for me….not much to do today…I do have some chicken that needs to be cooked so I’ll do that for lunch and that will leave me with leftovers for the weekend…I may have to freeze the soup I made the other day since I’m not sure when I’m going to get to it…but, I don’t want to since it came out so good…decisions, decisions….more later…

Well…I learned something this morning…bleach solution of 2 tablespoons in a quart of water hurts much less than 91% rubbing alcohol on your hands…so, I’m going back to the bleach starting today…just got back from doing a grocery run and it was pretty much painless…not too busy and got everything on my list…spent about 80 bucks at two stores but I’m in and eating from my freezer for the next month…even got bird food so the birds will be okay, too….I guess it was far enough from the panic of Monday that things have settled down a bunch…still some limits on a few items and they didn’t have any flour of any kind but I can live with that…I did bleach everything coming in the house again and I think that may be the plan for a while….more later…

Well….that was a little better…didn’t get up til 5:20 this morning and that was with getting to bed early so that was progress…and I don’t feel too bad this morning other than the normal aches and pains….I did get a few things done yesterday but that leaves me with not much to do today so I am going to make a swing out to see if I can get some groceries today….don’t have a lot of hope that the stores will be re stocked after the panic Monday and the debacle of the old folks hour but I’m good for a few weeks anyway so no big deal…I may even put gas in the car just to say I took advantage of the low prices….I may gt started on the outside of the house today but I need to sharpen up my hatchet first…I do need some hedge clippers to do what’s left of the shrubs out front and get started trying to shape them…don’t really want to do all the work of removing them and starting from scratch….but they have been left so long I don’t think I can salvage them…we’ll see…there is clean up to do, too so I might just ease into working on the outside…I do need to make a raised border for the garden in the back yard so I can get the dirt tilled and ready for the end of frost and planting…I did notice that the leaves that were a huge pile behind the garage have composted down to about half of what they were and I need to turn them so I can use them for the sunflowers and garden later in the year…and I need to plant the seeds in pots today so I can get ahead of my garden and be ready in a month or so…but I need to have coffee and lots of it right now….along with the news…more later….oh, as a note…my domain had expired this morning and my son had to renew it so this one is late….

Well…what started out as a pretty easy day has turned into a busy one even though I didn’t plan it that way…after getting up a little after 5…I vegged and read the news for a while and then got after the downstairs project by 6:30 and that took until around 9 to finish up and it isn’t really done yet…have to clean up but I’ll do that tomorrow after I get the veggie seeds planted…watched Perry Mason for a while and then dug the ham out of the freezer and got it thawing out under pressure in the instant pot and then worked on making soup for the next hour or so…okay, I know I say this every time I make ham soup but this batch is the best one yet…I’d pay 2 bucks a can for it since it came out so good….and I think part of it is that I used a Cook’s spiral sliced ham that I put the brown sugar glaze on when I cooked it and that just added some depth to the flavor…it has a sweetness on the front end and then the tomato and other vegs come out with the ham…and it has a brightness to it when you’d think with all that ham and potatoes it would be heavy….and I have 3 full 2 quart containers of it to enjoy over the next few weeks…if they ever lift this quarantine, I need to save one of these for Tom since it is the best one yet…after lunch, I got out for a bike ride and did 12 hard miles that I just got back from….so, working from 6:30 til 1:30 is enough for the day and I am taking the rest of the day off….maybe….

Well…that was a little bit weird of a night last night…just sitting here vegging and watching some tv and noticed that I wasn’t coughing at all and my head was clear…and that hasn’t happened since last year and it has me a little confused since even when I take my allergy meds, it’s never that good…so, I decided to wing it last night and not take any allergy stuff or ibuprofen since I am trying to make the allergy stuff last without being able to get more right now…and I’m not too bad right now so I have hope that it will continue all day…and I got almost 5 hours of sleep last night which is an improvement over the past few days…okay, I’m coughing now and my head is plugged up again…damn…I did get a nice ride in yesterday but there are too damn many people out on the trails who have no damn idea that there are other people out there, too…I can’t count how many times I had to slow down and wait as they had their dogs and leashes spread across the trail…aargh…I have been watching a new nest that is being built along the trail and it is pretty huge….must be some kind of raptor like a hawk or kestrel and I can’t wait to keep watching it to see if their are hatchlings over the next couple of weeks….didn’t get a lot done yesterday without much energy but I do have lots to do on the downstairs project today that will keep me busy all morning…need to make room for planting my veggies to get them started and ready for the final frost so I can plant them outside…I think I’ll do two of everything in pots and then add more as I can plant outside so I’ll have veggies right through the summer…bought some sunflower seeds that are supposed to give me plants that are 15 feet tall and I can’t wait to see that…and, reading the packages, both types I have yield edible seed so that will be cool when they finish….more later…

Well…just got back from Meijers with no groceries after trying the senior hour shopping…and it they think that this is a good idea, they are nuts…there was a line of over an hour long outside the store since they were only letting a few people in the store at a time…but, in the line outside, people were standing next to each other with no semblance of the 6 foot distancing that is necessary to prevent spread of the virus…so, I said the hell with that nonsense and just got back in the car and came home…I have enough supplies to last a month or so here but the birds are going to be out of luck next week…this segregated hour sounded like a good idea at the time but with the execution, they made it worse for everyone involved….oh, well…