Well…it’s a new record! Up at 2:34 for the first time today but I will say that I did go back to sleep until almost 5:30 so I guess that’s almost normal….but my allergies are really bad this morning and I feel pretty crappy which will probably continue all day with the pollen counts at their highest of the year…I just noticed that I’m walking around pretty well this morning with very little stiffness so it looks like the crash damage is repaired already and that is quite welcome…I normally hobble around here for an hour or so when I get up but not today…didn’t get anything done yesterday but I am going to go over to the house to see if I can get rid of the pile of stuff in the back yard while the dumpster is there for the roofers but not until after the F1 race and the bike ride this morning…I keep saying that I need to clean around here and I do but, as I get closer to moving, cleaning seems to be less important and I just can’t get motivated to do it…that will be the job for the day…more later…
Some trail stuff…
Well…have a half hour until I can have a cocktail and start a movie so I thought I’d come here and do one of these so I don’t get too far behind for the month…and I haven’t done a trail on in a while so I thought that would be the topic for today…the crash yesterday did do a little damage that I am feeling today with my back still stiff and painful and everything on my left side a little bruised…but I did 30 miles today so it can’t be that bad…it looks like there is a third set of bunny litters for this year since I am seeing tons of tiny bunnies over the past few days but it seems a little late for that…I don’t remember ever seeing new litters this late in the year…or that many bunnies in total in any year…haven’t seen many snakes this year, though, and that is a little unusual…could be that it has been so hot that they don’t need to come out on the pavement to get warm enough…I have been seeing second and third hatches of ducks, too, and I wonder if that is connected to the weather, too…hmmmm….there are nuts this year after no walnuts or hickory nuts at all last year and I really missed getting free nuts last year….it did hit me today that I am winding down my trips on the trails out here and only have a couple of months left of riding before I move….after all of the miles I’ve ridden, I’m going to miss it some….just did some quick math and I’ve ridden over 40K miles since I started out here…I wonder where I’ll be riding on the west side? It looks like some exploring will be in order…there should be some trail maps on the internet so I can map out a new route…might be fun….
August 3rd
Well…okay, I feel like crap this morning and I think it’s allergies since my head is plugged up and I have no energy…getting up at 5:30 doesn’t help, either but there really is nothing I can do about that…I am a little sore today too with being run into on the bike yesterday and hitting the pavement…some woman just rode her bike out of a blind side trail and hit me and I landed on my left shoulder this time and bruised my knee that hurt through the second ride…no damage to the bike so I guess I’ll live through it…no scrapes from this one so that’s something…didn’t get anything done after that since I was pretty sore but I don’t hurt much this morning…my back was really hurting all day so to get up to almost no pain is a good thing…I was going to clean yesterday but didn’t get to it…I do need to do some work around here today but my motivation level is so low that I’m not sure what I’ll get to…more later….
Liz Cheney sticks a shiv in irony….
Well….there was a little bit of welcome news the past week when the tribal nations of the western plains won a lawsuit against trump’s Fish and Wildlife Service that prevented them from breaking the law and removing the grizzly bear from federal protections under the ESA. The only reason Cheney and her cronies wanted to remove the bear from the list was to pave the way for high dollar trophy hunts so some guides could make a profit from the sacred bear of many of the plains tribes…but this lawsuit stopped another huge deal….the lifting of leasing restrictions on almost 34,000 square miles that is made up tribal treaty land that would make it easy for outside interests to come in and mine, log, and graze livestock on this land basically for free while the Native Americans got nothing. In a breathtaking speech that was as ignorant as it was insensitive, Cheney actually killed irony with a shiv when she said ” this suit was motivated by the plaintiffs intent on destroying our western way of life”….which to Cheney, her dad, and the rest of the repubs/conservatives mean that they should be able to come in, gut the area, clear cut the timber, and leave the taxpayers on the hook for any environmental cleanup after the companies declare bankruptcy to dodge any responsibility for their actions. Now for a fake westerner to come in and say that is to deny the history of the country where whites came in and took the Native Americans “way of life” by murdering them and taking their lands for nothing…sounds like destroying a way of life to me….how about you? Poor babies…the courts stopped them from plundering more of the country and their entitled little minds just can’t take it…I feel so bad for them….ha,ha…
August 2nd
Well….don’t feel quite as sore this morning and I think it may be the two ibuprofens yesterday along with only doing one ride…my right thigh was screaming in pain yesterday, too, and that is gone this morning…or almost gone along with my right elbow and shoulder…so, after hobbling around here all day yesterday, this is a welcome change…but, it was another night of being up at 3:54 so that tempers my happiness with the decreased pain….I didn’t get anything done yesterday but cook but need to clean up the kitchen today and will get at that at some point…and the cobweb gremlins are hard at work again so that will have to be dealt with along with doing the floors so I’ll have something to do between rides…yeah, I’m going to be dumb again today and do two rides since I have the bike working so much better with the new shift cable and a week’s worth of adjustments that it is fun to ride again…they are still working on the roof of the house so working over there will be on hold until Monday and I’m okay about that…was doing too much and even K thought I looked tired when I saw her Wed so some time off should help with that….I do need to dig into the freezer today to plan food for the weekend but how hard could that be when all I have is chicken? More later….
Are you suprised?
Well…we all know that trump is an idiot and his trade policies are those that would be done by a 7 year old that was home schooled by goats…and has caused untold pain through the farm country by destroying markets that farmers had spent decades building…and today, with the farm welfare that is being doled out by trump that you and I are paying for, and that is supposed to help all farmers who have been affected, we see that most of the bailouts are going to the big corporate farms who have given millions to elect the asshole in chief. The report shows that the top 10% of farms in size got over 50% of the bailout money while the family farms who have been most damaged by idiot boy’s tantrum got less than 5,000 dollars each…while some of the big farms got almost 3 million dollars and are lobbying for more of our tax dollars to be paid directly to them…like the Venezuelan crony of trump’s who got millions just for buying up farms in this country and not even farming. Sounds a bit like welfare to me. As trump the idiot rails against American cities who need federal help for infrastructure and renewal and pledges not one dime to them to help, he doled out 16 billion dollars to his corporate farming buddies to continue to buy their votes and keep them donating to his election campaign. I can’t believe that this was not the purpose of the tariffs in the first place…to have just another method of looting the treasury for trump and his cronies while family farms are closing by the thousands and not one damn thing is done for them. I do have a hard time having sympathy for them, though, since they saddled this country with trump and still support him even though their farms are gone….not too bright in my book…impeach…
August 1st
Well…I think I’ve finally reached the breaking point with my body and need to take today off…I am just so stiff and tired that the last thing I want to do is go over and work at the house since it will aggravate the pain in my elbow and shoulders…so, I’m just going to take it easy today and may even skip the bike ride, too…but, that may be too much to ask of my guilt…at least I think I’ll wait for a while to go out and have the rest of the leftover coffee…I do have to remember that I’m not 30 anymore and have to stop trying to work like I am…have been taking too much ibuprofen to just cope with the pain and I hope that two a day won’t kill my kidneys….didn’t get anything done yesterday but work at the house but I do have to clean around here today and cook since I have no leftovers in the fridge…maybe I’ll make some pasta later…I did buy bad food yesterday since DD had brats on sale for 99 cent for 4 of them and I need some easy food with all of the running I’ve been doing lately…more later…
Another nail in the tax cut coffin…
Well…okay, I know not many of you follow what the fed does on a daily basis, but today fed chair Powell lowered interest rates by .25 percent citing weak manufacturing and business investment data….now hmmmm…let’s think back a bit to 2017…I wonder what the reason was for the huge tax cut given to business and millionaires? Yep you guessed it…they were pushed and pushed by the repubs that they would “jump start” exactly those two things…oh, and also pay for themselves and give every working person a 4,000 dollar raise…but the CRS study found that the tax cuts did nothing to juice economic growth or raise wages…it just transferred wealth to the 1% and is causing trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. You know, this should be the last nail in the tax cut coffin but just yesterday, Ted Cruz and his cronies have floated a new scheme to cut taxes on the rich even more…saying that “it will work this time” to keep the economy moving…yeah, right, Ted…never worked before….won’t work now…what a damn zombie idea that just won’t die…
July 31st
Well…after all of the abuse I’ve heaped on my body lately, I should sleep like a rock but it was another 5:14 morning today…maybe after I get the house done it will be better…ha, that even made me laugh…I did get news from the contractor yesterday that they are going to get the roof on the house starting tomorrow so that should be done by the weekend and the windows will be measured this week so there is lots of progress happening…should have the water on by the end of August and then can start moving my stuff by early Sept…when I first looked at the house, it appeared to be an impossible task to restore it but the job seems to be shrinking every day….I think I’m going to have to take the weekend off of working since I feel I’m wearing out and might be doing permanent damage…I sure damaged my ankle yesterday and need to be back at the lawn today to get everything ready for the dumpster….right now I need to have more coffee and get ready to get on the bike…more later….
House 8
Well….after doing another 4 hours on the house today, I can finally say that I can see progress…I did decide to do a color change on the garage door and the porch roof that came out better than the yellow I started with….and it looks more modern…I am going to leave the entry doors yellow for now but the trim around them will be the new brown that I chose for the rest of it…got the garage door and it’s surrounding trim done today and will attack the rest of the trim on the front of the garage tomorrow if my body will take it…I did get some work done on the yard in front of the house today with using the new string trimmer to clean it up some…and I whacked my left ankle a few times, too, leaving it bloody but it was worth it….even used the trimmer to take the grass down since I can’t get the mowers running…after cleaning up the weeds, I took to edging the front sidewalks since the grass had overgrown the sidewalk by 6 inches a side and looked pretty sketchy with lots of debris that I had to sweep up…and I got the weeds beside the house taken down and will need to take the spade to remove the moss that has overgrown the patio blocks…I can’t wait to get the water on and take the power washer to it…now I just need to get started on the interior so I can get the condemnation lifted as soon as the windows are done…man, I’m beat…but I know that once the rest of the hard stuff is done, it will be a cruise from there…I hope….