Well…noticed this out on the trail the last time the ice was all melted but just forgot about it until now…on the part of the trail that runs beside M-6, there is  a spot that is always covered with water for some reason…and it is a little weird that it is not the lowest part of that section of trail…you would think the lowest part would be flooded…but this place is a good two feet higher than the low point and that leaves me shaking my head….back to the flooded part….a few weeks back, riding through the flooded part I noticed that there is seaweed growing in that water attached to the pavement of the trail…now, to me, that just shows how long that part has been flooded this year…and it is still flooded but covered with ice now…can’t wait to see what it looks like if it ever dries out…

Well….you know, I really like fresh coffee days…got up a little early this morning and slept okay with the pain in my shoulder abating some overnight…was almost able to sleep on my right side last night but not quite yet…maybe tonight…didn’t have any dreams last night and that is a little disappointing but the ones from Thursday night will keep me going for a while…I think I’ll try to go without ibuprofen today just to see if I still need it…okay…maybe not since the pain has changed to be in the front of my shoulder, not in the joint anymore and that makes me think that I may have cracked a bone…if that’s the case, it will probably be a few weeks until it is healed…had an okay day yesterday and got some cooking done so today will be a leftover day…but, I am going to make turkey soup in the instant pot tomorrow….only have one carcass to use so it may be a little short on turkey…not much to do today…going to clean some and get the bike ride in but that’s about it….but, I need coffee right now or I won’t be motivated to do anything…more later….

Well…it’s almost 7 so that means I’m running a little late today and I didn’t even get out of bed until 6:23 so that was cool…and I even slept well and had some weird dreams…but, trying to keep the pain out of my shoulder, I twisted my left knee and now that hurts…how the heck that happens I’m not sure but I do feel a little old this morning….so, I took some ibuprofen already since I am going to get on the bike as soon as it gets light and I want it to have kicked in by then….had an okay day yesterday but still didn’t get a lot done other than a little surface cleaning in the kitchen and I may continue that today but I am going to cook some pot pie filling with chicken for lunch today and all that cutting may just hurt my arm too much to clean after…we’ll see….it looks like it is going to be warm enough this weekend to get my January top down run in and I may wash the car today after the bike ride if the streets are dry to get the salt from yesterday off it…and that should be enough to do for today…more later…

Well…woke up this morning to the pleasant surprise of no pain in my shoulder…well, almost…and I just hurt it lugging the groceries in from the car but the improvement is surprising with how it felt like it plateaued yesterday with still having pain…I think today will be the last day of ibuprofen but I wonder if it will stop the improvement if I stop? Hmmm…slept okay last night and don’t feel too bad this morning but my neck is back to hurting but I’m not going to bitch about that after my shoulder pain….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I think I’ll try to clean today since I think I’ll skip the bike ride with the ice that’s out there again…or maybe wait until the afternoon and give it a chance to melt…it looks like I’ll get a few rides in this weekend with the temps in the 40’s and it will be nice to be able to go hard and not worry about crashing again….need to get in all the rides I can with the forecast that cold and snow is coming in a couple of weeks but every day that there are not snow piles out there make it a good winter for me…so far…and only two months to go…more later….

Well…about on time this morning and have been up a while….slept okay last night…for me, that is and I would like to sleep like a teenager again….but, that’s not going to happen so I guess I won’t think about it…my shoulder seems to have plateaued with some pain still there and it is not better today like it has been for the past week…might have to rest it more and stay off the bike for a couple of days…but, I don’t want to do that…need to take advantage of the lack of snow while it lasts so I’ll just take some ibuprofen here in a minute and gut it out…it was a pretty mush wasted day yesterday with all of the soccer and bowl games on so I didn’t get anything done but lay around here like a veg…will start to edge into normalcy again today with an errand to start but I still have Man U to watch this afternoon which will be a good reward if I get some things done….but, right now I just want coffee and to get to some news for cobweb removal…my brain needs it…more later…

Well…after resetting the computer on the bike and getting 12.2 miles in this morning, just wanted to recap the year on the bike…almost got to my 3,500 mile goal for the year and the cool thing was that all of those miles were on the new bike and it has performed almost flawlessly other than the normal Shimano shifter adjustment problems…but, I even have that fixed so the ride today was a good one other than having to be careful with a slight glaze of ice on the trail. 2018 was one of the better years on the bike if I discount the crash and I am healing up from that quite well…still have some shoulder and hip pain but it is down to being annoying now instead of the screaming hot pain that it was….still some swelling in my shoulder but that is gradually going away and I should be back on the weight machine by the end of the week. All in all, a good year on the bike…the miles didn’t quite get me to #3 in for the year but it was #4 so that was cool….I wonder if I can ever get to the 4,314 record? I am going to try….

Well…here we go again…another new year starts and I really don’t know what to think about it…it is nice that I have another one to look forward to and that there are still possibilities so I guess I’ll leave it at that…I was really close to declaring my shoulder pain free this morning but it’s not quite there yet…maybe tomorrow or the next day but it didn’t keep my up at all last night and I am looking forward to being able to sleep on my right side again….it was an okay day yesterday and I got a bike ride in before the rain started and it looks like I’ll be able to start the year with another ride today…I do have to reset the computer on the bike and record the mileage for last year before I go out today and that is a little bit of a pain since I need to clear everything to do it and that means entering the wheel size etc…will have to dig through the junk drawer to try to find the instructions….didn’t get a lot done yesterday and I probably won’t today either…soccer starts in about a half hour and there are three games in a row along with bowl games so I’ll be watching sports all day and I am still going to rest the shoulder one more day and not clean….more later….

Well…normally, I don’t dwell on the past or do a summary one for the end of the year but I’m bored and thought I’d just talk a little bit and see what happens…it really has been an okay year other than crashing the bike….it was a little disappointing to not be able to find a house but I’ll get that done by summer of next year…am basically ready for that with the down payment in the bank and my credit almost repaired….so that was a little progress…and I did get my health checked out and found that I’m just old and have the normal stuff that happens when you age…but no colon cancer or any problems that need to be treated so, for being an old guy, that is pretty cool. I did get one thing checked off my bucket list with the trip to NYC and I am now thinking about what I want to do for next year…maybe a return to NYC or a new city? I can afford to do one trip next year but I’m not sure if I’ll need to use that money to fix the house when I get it…we’ll see when I finally find one…it has been okay living on SS for the past 18 months and I have been able to pay all of my bills and put some cash in the bank so that is cool…and I’m getting a 60 buck a month bump next month that will pay for the increase in Medicare that I signed up for and still leave 52 a month of it that will buy a week’s groceries…I guess what I’m saying is that life could be much worse and it’s time for football…so I’m going to get a pillow and lounge it out on the couch while I veg away the afternoon…no more later….

Well…having a hard time getting going this morning and I think it’s from a lack of motivation more than anything else…my shoulder is hurting again and my plan to stop taking ibuprofen for it is going to have to wait until the swelling goes down more…slept okay and almost had dreams last night…I think…and I figured out how to prop my right arm up to keep the pain from keeping me awake so that helped…I did get out for a bike ride yesterday but it looks like it is going to rain all day today so I will take the day off and leave the mileage under 3,500 for the year… only missed it by about 20 miles so that is okay…might have a more aggressive goal for next year but we’ll see…had another day of not getting anything done yesterday but I may try to clean a little today if my shoulder will take it…but, right now it hurts too much to do much more than this so I’ll think about that later…not much to do today…don’t have any errands to run or anything so it looks like another hunker down day where I’ll just hang out and watch more sports…more later…

Well…that was a pretty sucky day in sports for my teams and Michigan was embarrassed again in another bowl game…the same thing happened to ND so now all I have to look forward to is Man U this morning and Michigan State tomorrow…and the Lions need to lose today to get a better draft pick but I still may watch it…slept okay last night and the pain from my shoulder was tolerable but it seems to be worse right now…I may have aggravated it cleaning the snow off the car so I could get the newspaper this morning…and it looks like no bike ride today since the roads around here are a skating rink and there is no way I’m going to chance going down again…I think I may have hurt my hip in the crash, too, since it hurts and is making it a little hard to get into the car but at least I can can put it in reverse without howling in pain so I guess that’s something…didn’t get much done yesterday and I am going to veg it out again today since the tendon in my shoulder will only heal with rest and any sort of cleaning will aggravate it…darn…that’s too bad….more later…