Well….going to talk a little sports today since I don’t have any interest in anything else right now….I think it may be possible that some of you out there are Detroit Lions fans, and if you are, you know the frustration that comes with rooting for a team that hasn’t won anything since before I was in kindergarten…and that same frustration and dread is now there when I watch Man U play…I mean, losing to Watford 4-1? And being in 7 th place in the PL already 12 points behind Chelsea and it’s not even December yet? With all of the money they’ve spent bringing in Christiano Ronaldo and many other players who were supposed to be stars and already losing 7 games in the league? I guess the normal change that happens when a team sucks has happened with the firing of OGS and appointing Michael Carrick (again) as interim manager but who can they get that is better? All the big names that have been successful in the PL are already snapped up so that leaves second tier managers who have never been in charge of a PL team before and who wants to go through that after the same thing with OGS? For a long time, you could watch Man U and expect a good performance and 90% of the time you’d get a win…but now I get the same uneasy feeling in my stomach that they are going to find some way to screw it up…just like I get when I watch the Lions…and there is no reason to subject myself to that as I have for over 60 years…just don’t have the energy for it…so, do I watch Man U play Villareal in the champions league Tuesday…yeah, probably….they haven’t sucked for 60 years yet….
November 21st
Well….damn, that was a crappy night of sleep and I am feeling it right now…have been sliding back to bad sleep for a while now and I’m not sure why…not doing anything different other than not riding enough but that shouldn’t do it….oh, well….was planning on being sore this morning after all of the yard work yesterday and I am a little…and in new places…yay! Yep, that was sarcasm…I am just so tired of being sore all the time from doing anything…stuff that I could just rip through when I was younger now cause days of pain that leaves me hobbling around here and I don’t like it….didn’t get much done yesterday and I am seriously considering skipping the bike riding today….won’t be riding outside with the rain showers and wind that is forecast and I would like to get a few more in before the end of the year…..glad I got the leaves done yesterday so I don’t have to worry about getting that done but there are quite a few more left to fall…my big tree is still green but I’m hoping that the wind will blow the leaves somewhere else so I don’t have to pick them up….not much to do today….just going to ease into the day and watch the F1 race at 9 and will probably wait til after the race to ride if I do….I need a day off….more later….
Got some work done…
Well….have been waiting for the leaves to dry out and today was the day they did…so, after getting my miles in downstairs, I put the bag on the mower and got to work….it took almost an hour and a half but I got it done…filled 5 of those big paper bags and only about 2/3 of the leaves are down…but it looks really nice and feels nice to have the first pickup done…and I have 5 more bags in the garage so I may not have to buy more this year…when I cleaned up the garage to get ready for the new grill, I made enough space to put all 5 full bags in the garage to keep them from getting wet until I put them out Monday night…so, I’m taking the rest of the day off to watch some college football…..
November 20th
Well….damn…must have tossed and turned a bunch last night since I found one of my bed pillows in the living room this morning and I’m not sure how that would have happened…but, I did make it to 6:24 so I guess that’s something…had a good day yesterday but didn’t do much but ride the indoor bike and put the black bike back together that should have been done weeks ago…it was some work with putting the crankset and pedals back on and then changing out the tires to put the set of knobby ones on that I had from the Motobecane to replace the front tire that had come apart at the cords and was shaking the front end of the bike….I hope the knobby ones will work in the snow if I ride outside this winter…I still laugh a bit when I now have a “winter” bike to take out in the snow…have been waiting for the damn leaves to fall so I can pick them up and put them out to the curb but it looks like some of them will stay on the lawn since I only have two more Tuesdays that the city will pick them up and I don’t think they will all be down by then…I am going to try to get some of them done today but it is spitting rain out there and I may have to wait til tomorrow….not much to do today…need to get a ride in before F1 qualifying at 9 and then I will try to get out and do some leaves…still working on leftovers so I don’t have to cook today…I did watch the latest James Bond movie last night and it was pretty good…at least it kept me interested through the whole thing which is unusual for me…not a wasted night….more later….
The repubs hate everything….
Well….after Kevin McCarthy’s 8 hour stunt rant yesterday on the House floor trying to delay the vote on the BBB bill, the only conclusion that can be made is that the repubs hate everything that would help most Americans. After all, the BBB bill has a bunch of good stuff in it like universal pre-k, capping insulin cost at 35 dollars a month, lowering other prescription drug costs, expanding family leave, dealing with climate change, expanding health care availability, and cutting child poverty….but there is much more in the bill that is paid for with higher taxes on the rich…but, unless their big donors are given the whole country, the repubs don’t give a damn and won’t vote for it…while they take credit for it back in their districts. One thing that the idiot McCarthy didn’t take into account was that his stunt of delaying the vote until this morning, he guaranteed that it would be the first thing that people saw on the morning news today and the passing would get much more coverage…super genius….now on to the senate….
November 19th
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….
November 18th
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…
Just fed the chickens….
Well…as you know, I’ve had chickens wandering around in my yard for quite a while now and, with the wild birds not eating much food, I have a 40 pound bag of bird food downstairs that I’m not sure how I’m going to use…so today when the chickens came, I put out a couple of cups of the feed out in the back yard and they just loved it so it looks like I’ll be doing that regularly especially when it starts to snow….it was really fun to see them discover the piles and go crazy over them…hey, it doesn’t take much to make me happy…
A frozen turkey shortage?
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…
It seems like they’re lying…
Well….this one is going to be a little jumbled since I have a few things I wan to talk about….first, just as I predicted, the repubs are back in their districts after Biden signed the infrastructure bill touting all it’s going to do for them…conveniently lying about the fact that none of them voted for it…or I should say not many voted for it…there were a few who participated in writing the bill and then voted for it and I thank them for that…and the response of repub leadership? You can guess this one…they want to censure all of the repubs who voted to help the people of the US and get started rebuilding the crumbling bridges, roads, buildings, and other infrastructure….and most of them will be primaried by far right nutjobs who will probably win and then lose in the general…kinda smart, huh? Explain this to me….consumer sentiment is in the low 30’s even with consumer spending reaching all time high….and the economy added an additional 700,000 jobs from June to September and real wages are up as well…so what is making people think the economy sucks? Could it be that the media doesn’t know how to cover good news anymore? Sure looks that way when you see the headlines screaming about inflation and how long it took to get the infrastructure bill passed…but it did pass but not much was written about what the benefits are going to be for the country….and that is wrong….geez….