Well….as you know from this morning, I got my old antique receiver working and have been playing vinyl all day but it didn’t sound as I remembered it…I guess it’s getting old or my ears are…I guess both…but, I remembered that I saw another pair of speakers sitting in the basement and thought what the hell, I’d hook them up and give them a try….and they worked! So now I have the living room filled with sound and they made all the difference! Now this is how I remember my stereo sounding and it is pretty cool listening to some Joe pretty damn loud…I’ll bet my neighbors are freaking out a little…good….

Well….I guess this new coffee does work…after a couple of cups I looked down at my forlorn JVC receiver that I’ve had since 1974 and just had to take it apart to see if I could fix it…since I moved in here it didn’t work and not having music was starting to get to me to the point that I was looking for new receivers to buy online this morning…but, I just couldn’t pull the trigger without taking a closer look at the JVC…and I found it was just one of the 5 fuses in it had blown…so, I replaced it and now I’m sitting here driving the neighbors nuts at 7:15 blasting Aja by SD on vinyl and it is just so damn cool to have something work out…so now, there is a Yamaha one sitting downstairs with the same problem…no power output so I am going to take that apart this afternoon to see if that one is a fuse, too…that would be cool since it is a 5.1 surround sound with 500 watts of power…I just laughed out loud that I could fix this old thing…going to have a smile on my face all day….and it is so cool to have a house to play it in so I can play it LOUD….

Well….have been up for an hour already and it’s 5:54 but I did sleep through the night so that’s okay….and I just feel a little worn out but I think that will pass as I have my coffee…tried a new style that I got a DD yesterday that has 50% more caffeine in it just for the heck of it and I am wondering how that will work…and, it was only 1.49 for a can of it that normally costs me 3 bucks at Meijers so I may just keep this in reserve for days when I need a boost in the morning…but, we’ll see…ha, ha…on days when I need a boost in the morning…that’s only on days that end in y….it tastes okay if a little bland but that’s not much different than the coffee I make every day so I can live with it…it’s a little strange that my car is running a lot better just by putting the new battery switch in so I wonder if it was limiting the voltage that the car had to use…all I know is that it starts great in the morning now and idles better but I am still going to get a new set of plug wires after I get my deposit next wed since the old ones are held together with blue silicone….I am going to try the car wash that is just around the corner this morning before I run a couple of errands since I need to get the salt off the car and can’t do it here in the driveway when it’s this cold…then I need to go out to depot in the south end since the one out here doesn’t have the patching plaster that I like and I need to get the last gallon of paint so I can get started on the second bedroom next week….and start work on the last of the pink in the kitchen….need to get off my butt and get this place finished….more later….

Well…it has been a day today that started out weird with the garage door not opening again this morning but I figured out it is the cold, making the door stiff and tripping the safety…and the strange thing is this opener doesn’t have an adjustment for the safety like my old one did…you could just turn a screw and it would work even if the door was stiff…so I lubed everything and it appears that it worked the one time I tried it but I don’t think it’s along term fix…I may have to take the cover off and see if there is an adjustment in there…but it is too damn cold today so I’m going to wait until it warms up later in the week and then take a look at it…but, if you want really weird, I was cleaning my shower today and decided to do my shower curtain with some shower cleaner that I have used many times before….but today, the stuff started to melt the bamboo patterns that were painted on so now most of the pattern is gone after using the curtain and cleaning it for more than 10 years…just too damn strange for me…I am curious as to why it would happen now…so, next time, no patterns unless they are embossed in…

Well…I had really hoped that getting up at 5 was not going to be a habit but just a passing thing, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with the months that have gone by….oh, well…even with only getting 5 hours of sleep, I feel okay so I think I’m one of those people who are genetically disposed to not needing as much sleep as normal people….I did get some work done around here yesterday and now I have an almost normally opening front door but the lockset needs to be replaced since the inside knob is loose and I don’t think it can be fixed….but, I really can’t spend the money on that right now…I’m in no spend mode for the next month or so…need to build up my cash supplies for a while….the garage door jammed yesterday for some reason and I had to crawl under it to get a look at why…but, I didn’t see any problem and it is working again so that will be a project for  a warmer day….no much to do today…have grocery and depot runs planned for this morning and then I want to get back here for the impeachment hearings that start today….but I can’t start on those until 9 or so with DD not opening until then….need more coffee and to read the news until then…..more later….

Well….I’m getting really, really tired of my damn thumb getting hurt every time I use it to do some work around here…just finished up moving the storm door latch on the front door and changing the screen with the storm glass, to try to keep more of the cold outside and when I was fitting the glass, I did what everyone does with these things, I just whacked the glass to make it go in with the heel of my thumb and immediately knew I was an idiot for doing it….that’s the problem with not resting my hands completely…how I use them is such a habit I don’t think about it and I keep re-injuring them…and now my thumb is throbbing and I’ll have to take some ibuprofen for it again…damn…

Well…I am not ready for winter…it’s only 18 degrees outside and it’s still damn early November…and I am really getting concerned about how much the gas bill is going to be for the month…I’m betting on 300 bucks plus but I can’t turn the heat down any more…not yet anyway until I buy an electric heater to use in here…I may have to go all the way down to 60 and that is going to be miserable for the winter….oh, well…I did sleep okay last night and only got up once so I guess that’s something and I don’t feel too bad today…I did get out to have lunch with T yesterday but the roads were really slick and the car almost spun out just getting on the e-way since the snow was deep enough to pick the car up and just pitch it sideways….it was good that I was only going about 20 at the time…other than that, had a nice lunch and it was good to see her…had to shovel snow for the first time in 20 years yesterday and I am waiting for the pain of using new muscles to hit today…had to do it twice to keep ahead of it and it wasn’t too bad…I remembered that I threw out my old winter boots during the move so I had to use a pair of leather ones that I hadn’t used in years and the leather was so stiff I walked around like a zombie since they would hardly bend…I did treat them with vaseline overnight to try to soften them up and it looks like it may be working…I may get the torch out and heat them to help the jelly to soak in later since I really don’t have much to do today….I did use my new drill/driver to install the winter tires yesterday and that was pretty cool…and it worked pretty well so I’m happy with the 16 bucks I spent on it….more later…

Well….it’s 6 am again….and I’ve been up for almost an hour already but I don’t feel too bad so I guess that’s something….and I did sleep okay, too but I may be coming down with a little bug since I’ve felt warm and have been coughing since yesterday…I guess there are multiple bugs going around but I’m not sure how I would have gotten one since I’m not really around people that much…I did get out to see K and have a couple yesterday and that was fun…and the run back out to the south end was only about 15 minutes so no big deal…it is cool that I found the problem with the car starting so I don’t have to worry about that anymore…but I do have to put the winter tires on  the car today since the summer ones are worn out and no good even in the wet…and it is supposed to snow today and even the worn out snowies are better than the summer tires….I may have lunch with T today so I need to get that done this morning and I am going to try my new cordless drill/driver to take the lug nuts off…after I loosen them, of course…and I get to work on the car in the garage…yay! It was pretty cool to get back here last night and just open the garage door and drive right in…I could get used to that…not much to do today…after working on the car and lunch, I think I’ll just take it easy this afternoon and rest the hands again…my thumb feels better this morning but I know that just a little abuse of it and it will be back to square one….more later….

Well…as I said earlier…I bought an expandable garden hose last week because the heavy duty one I bought was just too stiff and heavy to drag around comfortably and I wanted something a little more light duty for every day use. After using it today to wash the bike, I have found my new favorite thing…it is just so light and easy to drag around I wonder why I never bought one before…oh, I know…I lived in an apartment and really couldn’t use a hose so maybe that’s it? All I know is it made doing the bike so easy that I washed the car, too and, even though it’s only a half inch hose, it has plenty of pressure and volume to do anything I want it to do…I like it enough that I may just buy a second one in the spring so I can reach the whole yard…I love it when a plan comes together….

Well…I think it kind of odd to sit here and feel good about getting 6 hours of sleep but I got all the way through to 5:37 this morning and really wanted to go back to sleep but I knew that wasn’t going to work so here I am at a little after 6…I did sleep okay last night so I don’t feel too bad today but we’ll see how that holds up as the day goes on…didn’t get much done yesterday but I did get a bike ride in even in the cold and it was actually pretty comfortable in full thermasuit…the only ice on the trail was on the bridges and there are only three of them so it was a no drama ride…and it’s already 40 out there so I will be able to get out again today…after Man U plays at 9…I did get the big hose drained and put away yesterday and used my collapsible one for the first time…and that was pretty cool…not as much water flow as the big one but enough to wash the car and get the salt off it and it only weighs about two pounds and is really easy to drain….not much to do today…just the normal Sunday stuff but will be heading back to the south to have a couple with K later but that is about it…no work today to try to get the thumb to heal since it is really annoying not being able to use it…more later…