Well….talked to my oldest sister this morning and got some really crappy news about my youngest sister…she has been diagnosed with bone cancer that has spread to her lymph nodes and they are not sure what her prognosis is yet….this is really the first one of my siblings who has had any serious health problems and I am still absorbing what this means….all I know is that it sucks….

Well…running late this morning and I am wondering if I should try to get in to see my doctor with all of the coughing I’ve been doing lately…and I feel like crap this morning…even worse than yesterday and I know for a fact it isn’t from cocktails since I was good again last night…but, I had both a flu shot this year and a pneumonia shot last year so it shouldn’t be that…it does have an eerie resemblance to when I had pneumonia last time where I had a low level infection for weeks that just exploded and put me in the hospital…hmmm…and I didn’t sleep too hot, either with getting up at four and then back to sleep until a little after the coffee started…that has left me worn out today but I still need to do the grocery run in a little while and then get the bike downstairs on the trainer after I wash it….it is going to cold after this week and with the rain and snow coming, I just have to bite the bullet and give up on riding outside for a while….I did get to 100 miles so far this month so I don’t feel too bad about that….but it will be down to 6 mile days inside unless I do two a days like I did last year….not much to do today…I’m going to have to gauge my activity on how I’m feeling but it feels like I’m going to run out of steam after the grocery run unless the coffee starts to work….more later….

Well…cripes that was a crappy night of sleep and I was up and down all night….the congestion in my lungs is finally starting to break and that made me cough all night but I can feel it’s getting better so that is good news but I’m sitting here sweating and that is tough to do with it 65 in here….so I’m wondering where this is going…feel okay but I think most of that is from being good last night and I know that will continue at least until Friday….I did get out for a bike ride yesterday but it was a lot of work with the trails being snow covered and having to pay way too much attention…couldn’t go much over 9 mph but I still got almost 8 miles in and I’m hoping that the the trails will be a little more clear today and tomorrow…but, it is going to get cold starting thurs so I do need to decide whether to put the bike on the trainer…it looks like I’ll get to 100 miles before that happens so that is cool….didn’t get much done yesterday but some work downstairs and I am trying to not feel guilty while I feel crappy…but that’s tougher than it looks with the weeks going by…I’ve been here three months and the progress has slowed to a crawl….I do need to start to get a project list together so I’ll be ready for spring and to make sure that everything will be done in here before then….not much to do today…I’m going to take it easy to see how the lungs hold up to start but I am going to get out on the bike around 10 and see if I can break more of the congestion up….and I need to clean before I run the instant pot for lunch….more later….

Well….running a little late today and part of it is this damn cold that has been hanging on for what seems like a month now…still coughing and have no energy at all and that makes it hard to get going…but, I’m banking on the coffee helping here in a few minutes or it’s going to be a long morning…it’s going to be a long morning anyway but that’s pretty normal right now…I did get some work done yesterday with taking the huge headboard/bookcase apart and getting it moved up into the attic and will get the rest of the tables etc. moved today so I can get started on the repairs and painting….I am going to get a bike ride in today just to see what the trails look like…not sure if we got enough rain to flood them again but we did get enough snow/ice to screw the trails up so it may be a road ride today…I do need to clean today but I have leftovers so there won’t be any need to cook but I am going to drag the instant pot out and do some chicken tomorrow…haven’t used it since I moved in here and I really like playing with it…have to remember to over spice the chicken since pressure cooking seems to need it…and I need to put the rest of the chicken in the freezer later this morning to stock it up…I really should be taking things out of the freezer instead of putting them in…oh, well….more later….

Well…sitting here trying my best to avoid doing any work today so I thought I’d do another one of these…but nothing political…just noodling a little to try something different…I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I didn’t talk about idiot boy for a while and I know I don’t mind talking about something else….I didn’t win the powerball last night and that is a little disappointing…and the weird thing is I really do expect to win it at some point but it appears I’m running out of time….have it all figured out in my head how I’ll spend the cash but I don’t spend a lot of time on it…just something fun to think about…I think I bought way too much chicken this week with buying two trays of thighs at Meijers so I guess I’m going to have to freeze some of them or drag the instant pot out to cook some of them…maybe I’ll do that tomorrow but I just found a pasta recipe that uses cream cheese instead of parmesan that I want to make….I guess you can’t call it Alfredo sauce but with onions, garlic, olive oil, marinara, pasta water and crushed tomatoes with the cream cheese, it still sounds good to have over fetucinni… and Meijers has cream cheese on sale for a buck this week so I think I’ll give it a try after I do the grocery run on wed….I’m not sure how successful I’ve been with not spending any money after I did just do the math of how much I owe this month…over 800 bucks? Okay, 240 of that is for food and a hundred is for the winter taxes that are due next month but I still have almost 300 bucks that I owe on the credit cards for the month so I guess I’ll have to try harder…I did get my electric bill down by 20 bucks but it’s still a hundred bucks…yow…I did have to buy some stuff for the downstairs project on the cards that won’t show up until next month but that is only 64 bucks and I really needed to spend that money…so, I will need to stop using the card completely until the 4th week of Feb…actually the third week of Feb…need to get my balance up and the only way to do that is to not spend…so I won’t….no cocktails will help with that….okay, I’m done for now…need to get some work done….

Well…yeah…it is weird for me to be here this early on a Sunday morning but I got up early and it’s still too early to go out for the paper so I thought I’d come here and do this while I wait…I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a weather forecast so far off as the winter storm warning from yesterday…not that I’m complaining that we didn’t get smothered in ice and snow but damn, I actually was worried and did some prep for losing my power for a day or so and just got a dusting of snow and a little ice so I’m sitting here in the warm with a quiet furnace and will have a stress free Sunday….didn’t sleep too well last night and that damn cold is still hanging on so I think I’ll make this a veg day and just watch some sports….I did have a couple of cocktails last night but two days in a row is enough and I’ll get back to being good tonight…I kind of like getting up and feeling good…or as good as an old guy can feel…I may even be able to get back out on the bike this week since there are going to be a couple of days in the 40’s before the cold comes back for the rest of the winter…will take a look at the trails tomorrow but with the rain, the flooding will be back and I may just have to do a street ride…not much to do today…going out for the paper in a minute and soccer starts in a while but I am going to ease into it with more coffee first….might even have to run the french press for more today…we’ll see….more later….

Well…do you have any ice where you are? If this is the worst ice storm in 20 years, I’ll take it any time….the roads here are clear and there is a little ice on the trees but that is about it…so I guess the prep, what little I did, was a waste of time…but the forecaster are now saying  “wait for it”….the bad stuff is going to start at 8 tonight and we are going to have snow/sleet to the tune of 3/5 inches overnight…but, I just looked at the radar and I just don’t see it unless it just pops up out of nowhere…which it can do here in Michigan so we’ll see….but the inch to inch and a half of ice is just not going to happen so I think my power will be just fine…I did get annoyed with the noise coming from the furnace blower so I did work on that today so I don’t feel too bad about being lazy…went the completely opposite direction with the belt adjustment and left it loose along with leaving the adjustment screw loose as well and it is almost quiet now…at least the banging is gone which is just so counter intuitive that I am still thinking about it…but, I’ll take it…still feel like I have a damn cold, though….

Well…with the dire warnings that this is going to be the worst ice storm in the history of the world and we’re all going to die, I decided to do a little prep just in case I lose my power for a few days…have been charging everything that needs a charge…have both of my spare batteries, my phone, and my mp3 player all charged up along with my car starter that I can plug the car adapter into and charge everything for days if I need to…or I can charge stuff with the car if it goes on for a long time…have a full tank of gas in the car and I just realized that I can warm up in the car if it gets too cold in here…and I just found three boxes of 6 inch “emergency” candles downstairs…and yep, they are actually labeled home emergency candles…so I have 15 of those along with others and that should last me for a while…I do have 8 flashlights that will light up an entire room, too…and enough batteries to do a change in each one of them so I think I’m covered there, too…and I got my sleeping bag out of the basement and laid it out in my bedroom to air it out even though it was just recently washed and that should keep me warm enough to sleep…after all, it kept me warm when I slept in the sub in Muskegon with my cub scouts and that was unheated in the middle of Feb….I think the water will stay on and that’s the biggest thing for roughing it with no power…and I think the water heater will even work since it is self contained and is not connected to electricity….by coincidence, I just washed my riding clothes, too, and they keep me warm riding in the mid 20’s so I think things will be okay…one good thing is that I won’t have to do any work around here until the power comes back on….I’ll keep updating until I lose my internet…

Well…sitting here waiting for the power to go out and thought I’d better get one of these done before it happens….haven’t had an ice storm since I moved in here so I’m not sure how fragile the power supply is yet but I guess I’ll find out later today and into tomorrow….I sure hope it only last a day or so…going to get my warm clothes ready just in case and make sure my backup batteries for the phone are charged….if it’s a long outage, I may have to buy a generator for the next one….oh, well….slept really crappy last night and I think it might be from having cocktails last night and I don’t think I’ll do that anymore…just is no fun so what’s the point? I did get out for a long bike ride yesterday but it will be the last one for the winter it appears…with all the rain, the trail will be flooded for weeks…I may be able to get out and ride the streets but I washed the bike to get it ready to put on the trainer and don’t want to get it dirty again…didn’t get much done yesterday but with no bike ride today, I really should get some work done today…but, I’m going to start the day with more coffee and some soccer first….more later…

Well….that was a little weird night of sleep…got up for the first time at a little after 12 and then every couple of hours after that but I still feel okay this morning…that might have something to do with being good for 5 days in a row…or it might be that I have really been trying to eat enough, too….or the bug may finally be leaving…who knows? I do know that I have this strange energy this morning and I am going to ride that wave to get a bunch of stuff done…need to get out to get some food then I’m going to wash the car and the bike just in case it needs to go downstairs on the trainer…but, I’m going to try to get a ride in today before that…or what’s the point of washing it just to get it filthy again on the trail?  I am feeling a little guilty about not getting much done lately but I have just not had any energy at all and just doing this every day has been wearing me out…I think I just need to get at it and not think about it…and I’ll try to do that today…but I do need to watch a little of the car auction this afternoon since they are selling the original “Bullitt” Mustang today and am a little curious about how much it is going to bring in it’s unrestored condition…not much to do today…well… that’s not true…I do have a lot to do and it is going to be a test of how well I’m really feeling…oh, my youngest sister turns 61 today and I look at that with a little bemusement…damn, we’re all getting old…more later…