Well…I did get out for two rides today which were almost as brutal as the one that hurt my ribs Saturday….and I know I’m going to hurt like crazy tomorrow…but there is good news…I got some work done today…as I mentioned earlier, I planned to clean the two windows in the dining room and get ready to replace the crappy shades in there with actual white ones…and I got them done! And I’ve figured out a method that appears to be the most efficient way to clean them and the second one took about half the time as the first one…and they look so good finally being clean that I can see through them for the first time…now I can open them for ventilation that I couldn’t before with all of the dirt that was in them and I’ll be able to let some sun in when I get shades that work…will probably do the three in the kitchen tomorrow and then I’ll be down to 6 to go….still can’t believe how much dirt they collect in the bottom of them…but I think with getting grass in all of the bare spots that used to be half the lawn, there will be less loose dirt to blow around and maybe they will stay cleaner longer…hope so…

Well…running about on time this morning with getting up at 6:13 and I am sore from riding in the wind yesterday….my ribs on my right side have been sore since I got off the bike and that normally happens in over 20 mph winds…but, I’ll be out this morning with it being almost calm but I will have to wait until the temp comes up some…and it gets light…still not used to it being dark so late in the morning and I get a little antsy waiting to get out…I guess I’ll have to cope with that since it will only get worse…didn’t get much done yesterday and it looks like I’ll be down to one ride again today but I do want to start on the fall cleaning of the windows since I have 11 of them to do and some of them are pretty dirty…the heat has been on since yesterday around noon and that is one thing that was a relief when it came on….I always feel that way in the fall but I have to remember that this one is newer and should start and run all winter with just a little wd on the combustion blower…I am going to tear into it this week to see about the bearings on the blower to see if they need lube or if they are sealed…it does feel good to know that I have enough cash to buy a new one if I need it…not much to do today…just going to get the first ride in as soon as it gets light if it’s over 50 but I haven’t looked at that yet…and I do have to clean the dining room widows today and measure the shades so I can get new ones that work and put them up this week….and there are races on this aft so I want to be done before them….more later…..

Well…that was brutal…after the temp came up around 8, I went out to get on the bike since it was 52 and the weather channel said the wind was blowing around 10 and I’ve dealt with that plenty of times out here…but, they were wrong, oh so wrong….when I made the turn across the flats next to the lake, I knew it had to be blowing more than that since I could barely move even with being all the way down to 3rd on the back sprockets when I normally go through there in 7th….but the wind was coming from the NW so I decided to carry on and struggled all the way out to the lake…by then, the wind was blowing so hard I had to pedal down the steep downhill to the beach when I can normally coast down it at 20mph or so….on the way back, I used my patented way to measure the true wind speed and got about 22 and I never go out in winds that high…and it’s supposed to blow harder later in the day so it looks like a one ride day but we’ll see…my legs already hurt like crazy and the ride took almost an hour and a half and it normally takes about an hour and change….soccer time…

Well…darn, I wonder if my wake up times are going to cycle all the way through to the times I go to bed? This morning I went from 5 yesterday  back to 4 but I was able to get back to sleep and didn’t get out of bed til almost 7 so I guess that better than yesterday…feel pretty beat up today and that is with just one ride yesterday and I won’t be able to get out this morning since it is only 45 out here and that is too cold to go out in shorts…and Man U plays at 10 so that means the earliest I could get out is around noon unless Man U stinks up the place against the Foxes and I just give up on them for the day….Michigan doesn’t play today so that will help me get on the bike twice so I can get to 4K miles this weekend and then keep racking up the miles to see where I end up this year…I am losing my motivation to ride…well, and to do almost anything and I wonder why that would be? Just tired, I think and that may need a couple of rest days to get over that…and just get the fall cleaning started…need to do all of the windows to get the dirt out of them that blows around everywhere up here…but I think I’ve helped that by growing grass in the half of the back yard that was bare when I moved in here….not much to do today….yeah, that’s not true…have so much to do that it is depressing…but I don’t want to do any of it right now…just want coffee and to read some news with soccer on in the background….damn, I’m getting old….

Well…I think I hit the wall today and I am just so damn tired of working all the time….got on the bike for the first ride a little after 9:30 and then back here to mow the lawn…the fix on the mower crapped out after almost all the mowing and that was disappointing…so, right after lunch, I waded back into trying to fix it again….used JB again but filled the stripped out screw hole with it and then screwed the screw into the hole to get it as tight as I could and I hope the JB will hold it in there…and I made a clip out of some extra siding and glued that over a flange on the part of the actuator that has a broken screw in it and I hope that will relieve the pressure on the JB and hold it in place…an that took an hour and a half and I am just getting done and it’s almost 2:30….may have to buy a new mower if this doesn’t work since I need one to pick up the leaves and I can’t get a new transmission….and that sucks since I really do like this one…oh, well…and I feel guilty that I only did one ride today…but it is going to rain here in a few minutes so that is my excuse…..maybe more later…

Well…that kinda sucked…woke up at 5 this morning and tried to go back to sleep for a while but that didn’t work…I feel okay so I guess I can live with it…it is pretty darn cold out there right now at 47 degrees so it looks like I won’t be on the bike until around 10 so I have to find something to do until then…I am going to mow the lawn this morning and I am a little curious how my repairs to the mower will hold up…still don’t have a lot of leaves down so I think I’ll just mulch today instead of bagging but there is some trimming I need to do so I may start a bag for branches and the trims….it’s not supposed to rain again for a week or so and I hope the new grass will survive…at least it’s not hot so the ground won’t dry up as fast…not going to water it since I don’t want to pay the big dollars for the water…had a funny thing happen when I was out putting in grass seed yesterday…the chickens that have been roaming the neighborhood came running toward me in a group while I was holding the bag of seed and I think they thought I had food for them…so, if they’re here again today, I think I’m going to feed them some stale bread I have since that is a food they like….that may be fun….didn’t get much done yesterday but the seeding and errands but I think I want to clean my fridge today since I haven’t done that in a while….and I need to measure the dining room shades so I can get new ones and clean those windows…so, I’ll be puttering around here this morning getting a few things done while I wait for the lawn to dry out and the temp to come up…need to adjust my days to allow for the cold and accept that I may have to ride later in the day if I want to get two rides in…only have about 50 more miles to do to get to 4K for the year and that will probably happen over the weekend….more later….

Well…I think I’ve been running late all day today and I really didn’t think I was going to be able to ride at all with how much rain was forecast…and with it raining this morning, I decided to get a couple of errands run so I don’t have to do them tomorrow…had to hit Menards where I spent another 40 bucks on lawn stuff…fall food, more seed, and some weed killer…I did get the food for about half price so that was cool…and I think this may be the last bag of seed I’ll need for this year since I still have half of it left and have filled in almost all of the bare spots…I even have grass coming in on an area that I call the sandbox since that’s what it is…pure sand and I never thought grass would grow there…after getting the seeding done, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was only going to get one ride in but then the sun came out about 4:15 and I couldn’t pass that up…so, back on the bike later than I ever go out and I’m just now getting the rest of the stuff done I needed to before I can relax for the night….The Wings season starts tonight and I do need to take a look at that until they start losing but then back to Justified and Deadwood….re-watching both of them at once so it gives me something to see and I don’t get bored…oh, and the chickens were back today…I think they are free range now and that makes me laugh…

Well….damn, just can’t get started today…got up at 6:20 and it’s already 7 and I’m just getting to this…my brain is in neutral and wants to stay that way…but, I’ll give it a try….I did get lots of stuff done yesterday but I already wrote about that so I won’t do that again…there was some good news on the ground here yesterday when surveyors did the lot across the street and it looks like there is going to be a new house on it…and prep started on another lot just across 7th for another new house…I have never seen this much building in an established neighborhood in a city before and I wonder what is driving it….I did talk to my brother the realtor last night and he thinks that I may have made around 30K on this place since I bought it and that means I have around 70K in equity now…it looks like I bought this place at exactly the right time for both the investment and as a place to live….and that is pretty cool…and that makes it only 10K away from my goal of having 6 figures in assets and that should happen early next year…not bad for being broke and borrowing money from my daughter two years ago…I wonder if I should burn some cash on a nice dinner to celebrate? Yeah…that’s probably not going to happen but it is nice to have that option…not much to do today…it looks like it’s going to rain here in a few minutes so I’ll have to wait to get on the bike today and I’m okay with that….should probably get started on cleaning the windows for winter and I do need to order a window bird feeder so I can have bird tv this winter….but not right now…I need to have more coffee and read the news as I ease into the day…..more later….

Well…I know there has been a lot of discussion about what the SS cost of living percentage for next year was going to be and I even wrote one of these about the speculation…as of today, it was announced that the raise is going to be 5.9%, higher than any raise in over 40 years and I am smiling about it…..that means almost 130 bucks a month extra for me and I can use the cash even though I’m already putting almost a grand a month in the bank from my check now…so, that means that this raise is going to buy me lots of stuff that I would have waited on…like my new snowies or a garage door opener or a weight machine…all three of them would only be around 750 bucks so that would leave almost half of the raise left over…I know I have to plan for higher food prices that I’m already seeing…there is no cheap protein any more so I’ll need to look at what is cheap….I did get some American and Swiss cheese singles that are 12ozs for only 1.35 at aldis so I am going to make some grilled cheeses with that stuff….I know they’re not good for you but they are cheap and I haven’t had one in years and years….and they’re only about 300 cals so that should help….