Well…I almost forgot to talk about something I saw on the trail yesterday…after doing the river part of the trail and getting ready to make the turn into the swamp, I saw what I first thought was a deer crossing the trail about 30 yards in front of me…but it was not the color of the normal white tail deer that I see every day…it was almost a dark brown and had a set of antlers that looked like an elks…but it was only a little bigger than a deer so then I started to wonder what that would be….and the only thing I thought of was a reindeer but there are no reindeer here in West Michigan…at least they are not indigenous to this area…but, I did remember that there were some reindeer that escaped from a game farm in the area a few years back and I wonder if they are still at large? Pretty weird…

Well….another night of semi good sleep and I don’t feel too bad this morning other than I’m a little tired still…but not tired enough to make coffee with the extra caffeine…used new muscles again yesterday with raking the leaves in the front yard and the soreness is not too bad…I actually enjoyed getting out and doing some yard work and I still have the back yard to do but the leaves are not all down and I only want to do it once…I decided to stop favoring my right thumb yesterday and it may be better from using it…at least it hurts less right now and I’ll take that…even used it on the bike to work the brakes on the back wheel and that hurt like crazy but I think that’s just breaking the scarring in it…we’ll see today…I may have to change out the rear shifter since it just doesn’t shift right anymore and that is a little disappointing after only 8,000 miles…but, not getting the gear you need when you need it is annoying as hell…I did get out to run some errands yesterday and need to do the grocery run this morning…I’m glad I decided to put gas in the car the day before yesterday at 2.13 a gallon before the price shot up 40 cents…I know that 40 cents a gallon for 6 gallons is not a lot of savings but it is something…not much to do today….need to get the stuff for t-day and Meijers has turkeys for 33 cents a pound so I need one of those…I mean a 15 pound turkey for under 5 bucks? Can’t pass that up….more later….

Well….staying in bed didn’t work this morning and that is a little disappointing…so, I’ve been up since 3:30…how about you? Feel pretty damn exhausted this morning but have a lot of work to do so maybe I’ll get a nap later in the day…yeah, I laughed at that one, too….got a few things done yesterday…ran errands in the morning and got gas for the car at 2.13 a gallon so that was cool…and got some cheap boots to do the snow in along with another set of work out pants to wear around in here to stay warm…and I talked to one of the guys from the old apartment complex who got three deer so far and it looks like I’m getting some fresh venison Thursday which is really cool….I do need to get out to get a leaf rake this morning and rake the leaves here while it is going to be semi warm and dry and I need to compost them behind the garage since the city doesn’t pick them up anymore…and I am not going to fill the Miata up with them and take them to the dump…I could burn them in the incinerator that is in the basement but that seems like too much work and I can use the compost in the garden next summer…so, I do have things to do today along with getting out on the bike again….but, right now I need more coffee and to just sit here for a while….more later….

Well…stayed in bed until 6 again today even with waking up a couple of hours earlier and I wonder if it’s worth it…I think I fell back to sleep for a little bit of that time so I guess I’ll keep trying that and see if I can feel a difference…I was a little confuse why my back, legs, and shoulder hurt like crazy the past couple of days and it completely slipped my mind that I had a flat the other day and had to walk a couple of miles back here pushing the bike and that used a bunch of different muscles than riding does…but, the pain is better today so I guess I’m healing up okay…didn’t get a lot done yesterday but the bike ride and some cleaning but today I have a couple of errands to run…need some new winter boots and Dunham’s has them on sale for only about 20 bucks so I think I’ll check them out this morning…would like a set of pull on duck boots for shoveling the snow that I know is going to come in a few weeks…and I need to get some allergy meds at Target…have had splitting headaches the past week or so and don’t have anything to take for it so I need to get something…and I want to look at some lightweight workout pants so then I’ll have 4 sets of long pants for sitting around here…it appears that that the new battery switch in the car is crapping out already since the presets were still in the radio yesterday morning and the car barely started so I m going to remove it this morning and go back to just taking the positive cable off so I’ll know it’s disconnected….and then look for a better switch that I can install…more later….

Well…as you know, I have been trying to beat a 10 year old record of mine of 4237 miles in a year on the bike and today I made it! The weather cooperated and I got out to do 10 miles today and it wasn’t bad…I know I was much younger when I originally set the record, so I think this one is even more special to me…especially when I know I did it while working on the house here since July….I am really happy that I was able to do it before winter set in and I had to put the bike on the trainer and ride indoors…so, I guess the new goal is to see how much farther I can go this year and maybe set another goal for next year of 5,000 miles….not sure how long I can keep this up with getting older but I’ll keep doing it as long as I can….

Well….just got my first gas bill for here at the house and I think they made a mistake…it is only 68 bucks and I expected it to be more like 250 bucks with how much the furnace runs and how cold it’s been…but, I’m not going to allow myself to have any relief yet with the horror stories I’ve heard that they estimate the bills and then you get an 800 dollar one when they actually read the meter…I think I’ll start saving for that right now so it won’t be so bad when it happens…but, I am going to let myself have one day where I delude myself into thinking that keeping the heat at 65 and getting the door air leaks fixed is responsible for the low bill…and, if it is, I am used to the cooler temps in here so maybe the winter won’t be so bad after all….

Well…cripes, I’m running late this morning and there is no reason for it other than I just forgot to do this one…and, the MotoGP races have been on so that has been distracting me, too…and, I stayed in bed until almost 6:30 today…not sleeping but trying to sleep but I think that may have helped just letting the frustration go and trying to stop my brain for just a little while…so, I don’t feel too bad this morning other than my damn thumb still being sore…I think I have a decision to make about that….a doctor’s visit only costs me 5 bucks so I guess I should just go in and have them look at it and see if there is something that can be done…the pain has really extended into my forearm, elbow, and shoulder so it may be just the moving tendonitus that I have been suffering for years now…who knows? I did get a start on clearing out the spare bedroom yesterday so I can get working on it and will try to complete that today so the prep work can start…and I do need to get a bike ride in after it warms up to get to my goal but that will wait until later…right now I need to finish my coffee and veg for a bit….more later….

Well…that was some night…felt worse than I have in a long time with my molar giving me fits of pain and my stomach went to hell for the first time in a long, long time and that continues this morning…and I feel hot and crappy so I think it may be a bug but it can’t be the flu since I had a shot…at least I hope it isn’t….we’ll see as the day goes on…I did sleep all the way in to almost 6 this morning and feeling so crappy might have something to do with it…I did go back to my regular coffee this morning since the extra caffeine stuff is just too much….I guess it would be okay for someone who is used to energy drinks but I’ve never had one of those so my tolerance level is much lower….I just want my coffee to wake me up, not get me so wired it is overwhelming….I’m down to only 7 1/2 miles to go to get to my record but it looks like that is not going to happen today with the temp in the low 20’s and only getting to 34 or so today…and that will leave the trails icy all day and I am not going to risk crashing and hurting myself again…so it will wait til tomorrow when it’s supposed to be almost 40…not much to today…I do need to get some work done to prep the spare bedroom for paint and clean some if I feel well enough…but, right now I need more coffee and to catch up on the news…more later….

Well….it has been an interesting day today with lots of things happening…some good…and others that all I could do was laugh at…this morning, I ran a couple of errands that I really needed to do to get some things that I wanted instead of needed, starting with a cable that lets me hook my mp3 player up to the my receiver and it sounds better than I expected it to even without working on the equalizer in the player to match it up better with the receiver…that’s a job for another day…it is so damn cool to now have all 1700 songs on the player available to listen to in the living room without having to use my ear buds…and that along with the vinyl…some of which was never available on cd’s makes my library complete to me…oh, and I went to Kohl’s to get a pair of lounging pants to add to the two that I have since it is damn cold in here and I need to dress warmer…and at only 10 bucks they were a deal. After that, I decided to get out on the bike to start riding the 20 miles I had left to do to break my record, but about a mile and a half out, I had a flat from a staple that punctured the sidewall of the tire that is not protected by the tube protectors that I have in the tires…so, after a mile and a half walk back here, I luckily had a new tube that I bought a couple of months back so I changed out the old one and got ready to put it back on the bike…but, as I was doing that, I noticed that the cords were showing through the tread so I again, luckily, had a new tire in the box so I took the whole thing back apart and put the new tire on with the new tube…finally, and got out for a bike ride that wasn’t bad but still a little icy and now I’m down to 7 1/2 miles to go to break the record…and my new piece of equipment came this afternoon and I had to install that before I could take a break…but, it’s veg time now and I’m taking the rest of the day off…

Well…cripes…didn’t get up til 6:04 this morning…for the second time, that is but it’s an improvement and I’ll take it…but, I’m sore again today and there is no reason for it…all I did was fool around yesterday and do a little prep work on the vestibule getting it ready to paint so for my back to hurt is weird…I did carry the speakers upstairs but if that is enough to make me hurt then I am getting damn old and that is no fun….I really hope we get some warmer weather so I can get out on the bike and take a look at the trails…I only have 23 miles left to do to get to the record and it would be a shame if I have to do it indoors…and I can sure use the exercise…just feel sluggish when I can’t ride…this is the second day of the supercharged coffee and I think it will be saved for times when I need a good wake up…it may be a little too much for daily use, especially after I get some sleep the night before…it was only 1.49 so no big investment….not much to do today…I do have a couple of errands to run…need to go out to office depot to get a cheap audio cable so I can plug my mp-3 player into my fixed receiver and then to kohl’s to see if I can get some more long lounge pants to try to stay warm….I have a sinking feeling that it is going to cost 400 bucks a month to heat this place so I need to budget for that…and that will really cut into the money I was going to save by moving in here….oh, well…more later…