Well…yeah, I know, I said the last one was the last one for the year but it wasn’t….things have happened since then that I wanted to talk about…no, not about the idiot trump…I’ve had enough of him to last a hundred lifetimes…my son did get the live tv on the internet working again and I am just so geeked to have that back…now I can choose to watch the football, hockey, and soccer that I want this week and it is so cool to get back to normal…the cloud storage company that he uses had a massive equipment failure and he almost lost the 120 terrabytes of content that he has stored there and it would have taken him days to reconstitute it from the backups so I’m happy for the good outcome there…and I get to watch all of the shows that are starting up tomorrow and through the rest of January..Doctor Who is a tradition for me when the new season starts but I am having a little problem with the quality of the latest seasons after watching a bunch of the past shows that are just really, really good and the new one is just not there….so, I will watch but I may even just let it go to plex and watch it later….oh, hey, you remember how I talked about the damage I have been doing to this old body? Well, today I did even more damage shoveling the snow and now my thumb is really bad and that was compounded by hurting my back and shoulder, too…so badly that I took ibuprofen when I came in and am going to take more in a while…and it took me 40 minutes to do this small driveway and sidewalks….but, I’m glad I did since the snow was already turning to heavy slush as I was shoveling and now it is clear down to pavement everywhere…..okay, that’s enough…I made the goal here every month this year and that is pretty cool…I may do some stats tomorrow if I feel like it but it won’t be til later in the day…going to forget about the constraints for one night and just have as many cocktails as I want…or not…no more later….

Well…just finished 40 minutes of work shoveling the driveway and thought I’d come back here and do the last one for the year…don’t really want to talk about politics since we all know the disaster this year was for our country and many, many people have already written about that better than I can do…so, I think I’ll just reflect on this year for me personally and the kind of wild ride it’s been. Never in my dreams did I think that I would have been called into action to save this house for my son and to remember what it looked like when I rolled up here on the 5th of July is still a bit of a shock…and I do still remember that I didn’t think I could do it…that the place had been left to go to seed so badly that I was overwhelmed…until I remembered all of the projects that I had salvaged during my work life by taking small bites and getting a plan together…after all, I do have a master’s degree in management and, even though I hadn’t used it in years, it all came back to me and made it just another project to be managed…and I was fortunate to have my down payment money for my own house available to spend on the roof, windows, and fence that had to be replaced. So now, I sit here in my comfy warm clothes on my comfy couch in this salvaged house with food cooking in the oven and the enormous amount of work this took starts to recede….and part of it is replaced with the other good things that happened this year…I broke my all time record for miles on the bike just 16 short of 4,600 miles…and that is 347 miles farther than I have ever ridden…and that beat the record from more than 10 years ago. Financially, it has been an okay year, too…I have money in the bank and the old Miata is still running and driving fine and I have no big bills coming after January so I will be able to afford a new grill and weight machine that I need…things are okay, the kids are alright, and I am looking forward the new year for the first time in a while…Happy New Year!

Well…running about on time but I’m a little depressed with all of the snow out there this morning…I know it’s Michigan and it’s winter but that doesn’t make it easier to take…but, it looks like it’s almost over so I guess it could have been worse…and I got everything done I needed to yesterday so I don’t have to go out for the rest of the week if I don’t want to….slept okay last night but woke up to my internet tv still not working for the third day and it really does look like I won’t be able to see any of the bowl games that gives me something to do on the first…or any of the marathons that make time pass around here…okay…that’s my whining quotient for the day so I’ll stop now….my lungs are still bad from both the bug and inhalation of the bleach fumes yesterday so I am going to take it a little easy today after shoveling the snow…but that won’t happen til later, after I have coffee and get a few little things done around here….I need to do a full cleaning of the living room today and wax the wood floors again so that will take quite a bit of time…I do need to thaw some venison burger to make tacos again and then see what is in the freezer to eat next…I did get some chicken leg quarters at Aldi’s yesterday that I can cook so maybe I’ll have those with the tacos for a couple of days….we’ll see…more later…

Well…you know, as I get older it seems to get easier to hurt myself just doing normal maintenance stuff around here and today was one of those days…I started out working on the furnace, trying to get the belt on the blower aligned better so it would make less noise and that means trying to wedge myself into the small access hatch to get to the pulley on the blower…and immediately, I bashed my head on the edge of the opening and took a chunk out of my scalp that I didn’t think about until the blood started running down my head…now it wasn’t a bad injury, just a scrape that will heal pretty quickly but damn, I’ve been in that thing multiple times and have never whacked my head before. After that little fiasco, I got tired of seeing the dirty grout in the bathroom tile so I decided to get the bleach cleaner and scrub brushes out and scrub that stuff clean…but that meant breathing bleach fumes for over an hour and my lungs are  really screwed up that I know that will take a few days to heal….and the thing is, I know better…I’ve had it happen before but that didn’t outweigh getting the grout clean since that was one thing that was really annoying me…and guess what all the bending and scrubbing did? Yep, I hurt everywhere and the healing that was happening in my thumb is now gone and it is throbbing. Now, I don’t know if I’m just getting old or I’m working harder since I moved in here but damn, it’s getting annoying being in pain all the time….

Well…another morning of no tv and I think I may have to actually figure out what internet options give me the sports and channels I want and actually sign up for one….and that is just one more expense that I don’t want to take on right now….oh, well…I did sleep okay but feel quite slow this morning and I am going to just take it easy for a while as the coffee does it’s magic…I did get out for the last bike ride in shorts yesterday and that was a bonus to the early ride in half thermasuit so I got 24 miles in yesterday but it looks like I am going to miss my 4,600 mile goal by about 16 miles since I won’t be able to get out today or tomorrow…but still, 4584 miles is not too shabby for an old guy….and I am going to wait to put the bike up on the trainer for a couple of weeks just to see what the weather is going to look like…it’s supposed to be warmer than normal for the rest of the winter but we’ll see….last year, I had over 600 miles on the bike before I even got out on the trails…and that is a lot of time on the trainer every day….didn’t get much done yesterday but equipment changes but I think I’ll clean a bunch today if I can get motivated….but that looks like no better than fifty fifty at this point….more later….

Well…so far, that title describes today and everything that has happened…okay, maybe that’s a little harsh but I would like just a regular day for a change…of course as I said this morning, my internet tv is down and it looks like an outage at the cloud storage that my son rents for both systems that we use…both Plex and Emby are out today with that outage and that leaves me with only the antenna to watch and I lost most of those channels I watch when I moved in here…and that sucks if they can’t get it back up soon since I’ll miss all of the good bowl games…crap….and I had to restart some old equipment in the basement since the new stuff just isn’t working as promised…so I spent the morning taking care of that stuff and resigned myself to the increased cost that comes with the old equipment…oh, well…I did get a bike ride in but it looks like the last one for quite a while with the forecast of 3-5 inches of snow tomorrow….so it looks like some hibernation for me for this week and I guess I’ll have to work around here…so, I’m depressed today…

Well…woke up to pouring rain this morning along with my online tv not working and that is just so damn annoying…oh, well…slept okay and my lungs feel a little better so I guess that’s something….but, I tossed and turned all night and feel a little worn out today so I guess I’ll take it easy…but that will be a little hard without tv…I guess I could clean today and just play some music but I don’t want to…and it even looks like I won’t be able to get on the bike since the radar shows rain all the way back to southern Illinois…..I did have an okay day yesterday but didn’t get much done so maybe I should start to get the last room cleaned up and ready to paint…the wood floors could use some cleaning and another wax, too so I do have things to do today…I do need to cook, too since I am running out of ham and have some thighs thawing in the downstairs fridge…and need to use some of the food in the freezer so I can buy some chicken this week to change up my diet some and get the salt out of it….okay, I’m still coughing and starting to feel like crap again so I’ll end here….more later…

Well…running a little late today with staying in bed until 6:30 and sleeping most of that time…I do have a bug that hit pretty hard last night with sneezing and coughing all night and my lungs are still congested this morning…and I’m sitting here sweating this morning even though I’m normally freezing with keeping it 65 in here…but, it can’t be the flu since I don’t feel bad enough for that and I got a flu shot back in the fall….so, I may take the day off of everything today and just rest and watch soccer and football….I did get out to have a couple with K yesterday and it was good to get out for a while and drive the car…and the traffic was not too bad coming home so that was a bonus….I did get a cold bike ride in yesterday back in full thermasuit and that will be the plan for today if I go out….didn’t get much done yesterday but I do have laundry to do today and I need to clean the kitchen…I think I need to start to schedule my cleaning around here to make sure I keep up with it since this place is bigger than my apt was and it is pretty dusty…might have to buy one of those swiffer dusters for once overs to maintain between cleanings…probably should bring my cleaning work into more modern methods than rags and paper towels….more later…

Well…as you know if you’ve checked in this afternoon, the site was down again and my son has been busting his butt trying to figure out what has changed to cause the two outages this week but it’s working now so that is cool….but, I forgot what the topic was that I was going to write about so this is going to be a short one…I did just get back from having a couple with K and that was fun and nice to drive the car to get all of the lube warm and burn off the crap from the exhaust…the parking brake was hung up again so I think I need to oil it again Sunday when it is warmer….it’s supposed to rain but I have a garage so it doesn’t matter…and that is just damn cool…okay…I need to watch some tv and have a cocktail so I’ll end here….

Well…I am really surprised that I didn’t wake up sore this morning after doing two rides yesterday…I did take something for it before bed last night so maybe that had something to do with it….I did sleep okay and don’t feel to bad other than the bug that is annoying me…my lungs are congested and that was no fun on the bike yesterday…but, I did get out in just shorts and a t-shirt for the second ride and that was neat for December….but today will be full thermasuit with it back in the 30’s again but I can still get a ride in so that is cool…didn’t get anything else done yesterday but I will clean today and get some work done in the basement that I have been avoiding for a while now….just don’t have a lot of motivation right now…maybe the coffee will help? I did get the car washed and it is nice to be able to just back it out of the garage and get it cleaned without having to go anywhere…but, I think that’s ending with the weather change that is coming next week…but, we got to January with no really bad weather so that only leaves Jan and Feb to endure and I think I can do that….not much to do today…just going to ease into it and have more coffee before I get started….more later…