Well…that really sucked…had another bout of acid reflux last night that woke me up at 2 and kept me up most of the night…still hurts to drink coffee now and I wonder if it’s something I ate for a snack last night….all I know is I’ll be taking antacids all morning to try to heal it up…needless to say, I didn’t sleep for crap and will need a nap later….I did get out for a bike ride yesterday in shorts and it looks like I’ll be able to do it again today with the temp already at 45 and it getting to 50 by 11…but, this will be the last day for that…for a while anyway but there is no big snow in the forecast for the next 10 days or so and that will keep me on the bike until the end of the year….didn’t get anything done around here yesterday but cook a big ham and watch a little tv but I do need to clean some today…not sure when that will be with soccer on all day but the dust needs to be attacked before it coats everything in here…and I should wash the car this morning and I think I will….but I need to have more coffee and watch some soccer first…more later….

Well…it looks like you may be getting a few of these today with it being Christmas and because I don’t celebrate it so the normal stuff that normal people do are not part of my day…so that means I’m starting today just like any other Wednesday…with the “Lone Ranger” playing in the background so I have some noise in here that masks my tinnitus….I did just notice the intro that made me laugh out loud when they called him a “fabulous individual”….who talks that way? I’m pretty sure I’ve never called anyone that in my life but I wouldn’t mind being called that….I think this is probably the 20th year or so that I haven’t celebrated Christmas and it is so damn liberating to not have to shop for presents or to travel to family gatherings…my kids all celebrate with their in-laws and that is cool but I would feel a little hypocritical to go through those motions since I have been an atheist for as long as I can remember…and you know how I feel about the damage that religion can do…after all, all you have to do is look at the trumpism that has been shit on this country solely by the evangelical voters who still support the idiot in chief even after putting children in cages and his daily immorality that they conveniently ignore since he totally supports the hate they feel for everyone that is not like them. I really don’t want to tar all religious people for the actions of these folks who would use anything else as a vehicle for their hate even if religion didn’t exist…I grew up in a religion that taught the principles of love and tolerance that I still aspire to today but that doesn’t look anything like the “christianity” that spews hatred to the LGBTQ community, that wants to ensure that women continue to be second class citizens with only the rights that they say women can have, and whose morality is malleable and not what is taught in their bible. I’ll end with this…as an atheist, I don’t feel offended when someone says Merry Christmas to me and I’ll happily say it back to them….I’ll never be one of those people who craps on other people’s traditions and beliefs…there is room in this big world for everyone….

Well…running a little late this morning with going out to get a paper to read and not getting up til almost 6:30…slept okay last night and feel pretty good this morning even with not being good last night…and my thumb is finally starting to show the signs of healing that I have been looking for for months now…I can actually use it to work the rear brakes on the bike and it doesn’t hurt all the time so I’ll take that as a win…but I do have a cold that is more annoying than anything and I’m still coughing like crazy and my head is plugged up but I can live with it until I’m over it…got a nice bike ride in yesterday with almost all of the ice on the trail gone and being able to go hard for the first time in a week…but that has caused everything else to hurt and I am hobbling around here a little with the stiffness that comes with it…hope it doesn’t sound like I’m bitching because I’m not…not much to do today…I am going to cook another ham for lunch since they  were so cheap this week and then I’m going to wait to get out on the bike until the afternoon so I can go out in shorts…it’s supposed to be over 50 today and my threshold for shorts is 47 degrees…that will look weird for a Christmas day but I’ll take this weather anytime…no snow any time soon and that will leave us only two months of winter to endure….more later…

Well…you know I have been doing kind of a countdown to 4,500 miles on the bike for the past month or so and yesterday I finally made it! That’s a hell of a lot of miles for an old guy like me and with all of the time that I spent working on this place…and that kind of makes me feel good that I can still do that much physical exertion at my age…and that I still like doing it…I look forward to getting on the bike every day and I hope that continues until I get too old to ride…but, I think I am going to need a new bike in the spring if I can’t figure out how to replace the sprockets…so I need to start saving for that soon…but, I’m not going to think about that now…just going to try to run up another 35 miles so I will have beaten the old record by at least 200 miles…6,000 for a goal for next year? We’ll see….

Well…as you can see, the site was down until just a couple of minutes ago when my son got it running again…yay! So, let’s get to it…have felt like crap most of the day with the coughing and just feeling bad most of the day and I just can’t get warm after the bike ride…so, it’s a bug but it doesn’t feel like a bad one, just a cold of some sort….my head is plugged up, too but I really can’t tell if that is any different than normal for me….will take something for that later this evening so I can breathe when I try to sleep…cripes..this is weird doing this so late…have to remember how this normally goes…slept pretty crappy last night and even went to bed really late to try to tire out more than normal but that didn’t help…I’m sure that’s part of why I’ve felt crappy today…okay, just noticed that I am freezing but feel warm, too so that is not good…had to go back to full thermasuit on the bike today since it never got warm like it was supposed to…it was forecast to be in the 40’s but never got there and I wasn’t going to wait all day for it to warm up….I am hoping that it does get to 50 tomorrow and Thursday…and that will give me my second day of the month with the top down on the car…might have to take a cruise tomorrow since I don’t celebrate anything and it is just going to be Wednesday to me…I am going to make another ham since I got it cheap and I need another set of leftovers to make ham soup later in the winter…okay, that’s enough for now…I may come back for another one later but I’m not sure yet…I do have a milestone to talk about that happened yesterday so maybe that will do it….more later?

Well…running a little late this morning and I just can’t get started…stayed up a little late last night and didn’t sleep well so today is going to be a bit of a chore…at least this morning is so I’m going to ease into it…again…that seems to be happening a lot lately and I’m wondering if I have a bug of some sort…have been coughing a lot and feeling slow so maybe that’s it…who knows? I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and got my top down run in for December when it got to over 50 yesterday could have gone out in shorts if I had waited until later in the day but I wanted to get it done and not get too cold…only have 10 more miles to do on the bike to get to the goal so that will happen today…after I get out to do the grocery run this morning…need to get some stuff to make on Wed and don’t want to be in the stores tomorrow…way too damn busy and I don’t need the crowds…I sure do like not having to go out and buy any presents anymore or do anything to celebrate….not much to do today…after finishing up the dining area yesterday, I need to start on the last room by emptying it out and putting the stuff up in the attic….more later….

Well…it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood….yep, that one just popped into my head after seeing a picture of Mister Rogers in the paper….I remember watching his show with my kids when they were little and still marvel at his gentleness…hmmmm….I had an okay day yesterday and got a few things done and I’m hoping that I can keep that up today but don’t want to take on any big jobs…want to take a day off and just watch soccer and clean but I do have the cold air register to paint to complete the dining area and I think I’ll get to that this morning…and I want to wash the car after it warms up some…it’s supposed to be over 40 again today but I think I’ll wait until the afternoon to do that…probably after a bike ride…I miscalculated how many miles I need to do to get to 4500 so I still need about 30 miles and that will take me until Tuesday but I will get there outside and that is cool…I am seriously thinking about getting a new bike if I can’t get the sprockets off and turning the current one into an inside bike permanently on the trainer…..and I am going to make sure that the sprockets on any new one are replaceable…no more Sun Tour crap on a new one….more later….

Well….just a little burned out on politics right now so I’m not going to talk about that…maybe later, but not now…it’s been a pretty productive day today even though I didn’t plan it….when I was sitting here with my morning coffee about 8:30 this morning, I suddenly got the urge to get the rest of the painting done in the dining area…having to go over a bunch of parts where the pink bled through even after two coats…just couldn’t sit here with something to be done to finish it up…so, I painted it and just finished up putting the trim back on it so now the dining area is finished…except for the window that overlooks the street but that frame needs to be stripped and sanded before I can paint it and the strip really stinks the place up so I may wait until I can open the windows in the spring…I did get a bike ride in today but there was so much snow on the trail that it took quite a bit of work and paying way too much attention…and I only got it out of 5th a couple of times…but, I did get it done and I hope that the snow melts some today so I can really ride tomorrow…only have about 13 left to go to get to my 4,500 mile goal so that will happen tomorrow or Monday…so, after all that, I think I’ll take the rest of the day off and just find some sports to watch…

Well….to start, happy winter solstice….from today on, the daylight starts to increase and that will be welcome to those of us that need the light to keep depression at bay…but it also means that it will be starting to get dark around 4 and that is depressing…slept okay last night but feel a little slow this morning with having cocktails last night and I wonder why I did that…I mean it’s not much fun anymore and I prefer to just feel old in the morning…I did get a few things done yesterday but it was a rest day after doing the painting thursday…I did get the trim for the dining area sanded and painted and I needn to paint the pink that soaked through before I can re-install them…and I think I’ll do that this morning…but, after coffee and soccer…I am hoping to get out on the trails today for a full ride but I think they will still be covered in snow and ice…went out yesterday but only got to the old dump before turning around since there was no clear parts of the trail…so I rode 5 miles on the streets and that is just way too scary with the narrow streets around here…way too many close calls, snow and ice to make it fun….not much to do today….just going to watch soccer and veg this morning and the ride after lunch but that is about it…more later….

Well…as I get settled in here, I have started to look through the cupboards and storage that I haven’t really thought about before…and today, after getting a short ride in with the trail being covered with ice and snow still, I got back here and thought I’d look through the high cupboards above the fridge just to see if there was anything there…and I found some stuff that might be interesting…my son left behind an all in one bread maker that I remember him getting back in ’99 and I plugged it in and it appears to still work so I will be trying that at some time over the winter…and half of that cupboard has all kinds of booze in it, but weird stuff and cheap tequila…so I’m going to ignore that…but what I did find was a Bodum french coffee press that I also remember him using all the time when he was still living at home…and I always wanted to try one…so I cleaned it up, put some coffee in it, added water and made coffee….and I will say this, the coffee is much better than what comes out of my Mr. Coffee drip maker…it actually tastes like something and now I’m torn about using it instead of my coffee maker…but, it is too small to replace it so I think it may be for those times when I want just a couple of cups…I used the same coffee as I normally do and it appears the grind is okay for the press…and now, I’m all caffeined up in the middle of the afternoon and that is not going to be a good thing for later in the day…oh, well…