Well…running about on time this morning with forcing myself to stay in bed until 6 or so…woke up at 4:44 but that just wasn’t going to cut it so, for the first time in a long time, I decided to just lie there in bed and try to go back to sleep…and it worked kind of…I may have slept  a half hour of the extra hour and 15 minutes but that is better than nothing…feel pretty good this morning…for me…was good last night but that made it a little boring so I even went to bed early since I was falling asleep sitting on the couch…but, that didn’t help getting to sleep and that is a little weird….my new speakers for the car came yesterday and I installed them but have another problem…the passengers side worked okay but the driver’s side is still dead and I don’t know how long that has been…will have to take a look at it later today but I really don’t feel any sense of urgency so I’ll get to it when I get to it…didn’t get anything else done yesterday but figuring out my new Medicare plan and need to sign up for that by the 7th of next month so it will start Jan 1…will get more benefits for only 9 bucks more a month so that is a good deal…I do need to start cleaning around here and I will get to that today….bathroom and kitchen need work along with vacuuming so I shouldn’t be too bored today…more later….

Well…up again at the now normal time of 5:30 and I think I need to reset the timer on the coffee maker to reflect that fact….the old normal used to be 6:30 but I can’t remember when I let it get to the timer…and now I’m waiting for coffee and that is annoying…slept okay last night but feel a little worn out today so I think I’ll ease into the day…really don’t have much to do so when I get to it doesn’t matter…had a nice ride out and back to pool yesterday…which I lost…and I really didn’t notice the missing speaker…and I can’t hear the one in the driver’s door so I wonder if they ever worked…we’ll see today when the new ones come and I get the bad one replaced…I am already grumpy that I can’t get on the bike with the snow yesterday and it looks like I may be done for the year…so now I have to try to find 600 calories a day to cut out of what I eat…and that is not going to be easy since I don’t eat that much to begin with…maybe I’ll just stop drinking completely and that should do it…don’t want to but I might have to…oh, well….more later…

Well…running about on time today and didn’t get out of bed until after 6…and that was with going to bed a half hour early from boredom…slept okay and don’t feel too bad this morning other than the normal aches and pains…just looked outside and it appears that the 8 inches of snow we were supposed to get is just around 3 inches so there will be pool today…and I need to get out of here for a while…won’t be getting on the bike for a few days but it may melt the trails later in the week so I guess I’ll just do double workouts instead….maybe that will help the pain I have everywhere….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I was bad and made myself a burger for the first time since the first part of September….I did have one with my daughter and with T but that was the only red meat since then…just got damn tired of chicken, turkey, and veggies and had two pounds of chuck in the freezer…tasted damn good but I know I have to keep with the no red meat restrictions to get my cholesterol down….it hasn’t been too hard but just boring….not much to do today…I will have to start to find things to replace the bike ride so I think that will be cleaning…oh, well…more later…

Well…yep, no politics today but I did want to talk about some problems with the car…not really the car but I had a door speaker fail this morning…making a loud scratching/crackling sound that was just damn annoying…I was going to just leave it until spring but, you know me, when something happens, I have to deal with it or it will be all I can think about…so, when I got back from the bike ride, I thought I’d pull the corner of the door card and take a look to see if it could be fixed…no luck but I did get the old speaker out…it wasn’t even screwed in so it must have been a replacement…and it had a weird 4 wire hookup that I think split the tweeter and normal speaker input that I have never seen before…so, I taped them off and put the card back in place, fully intending to leave it til spring…but, I’m bored so of course I went out on amazon to look for new speakers and found a pair for only 16 bucks and with free shipping…they are made by a company called Pyle that I guess is well known for their inexpensive stuff…they are 3 way speakers and I really don’t care what they sound like…with the top down you can’t hear them much and with the top up, you can barely hear them the car is so loud without any sound deadening…and they can’t be worse than the ones that were in there….the cones are even waterproof so they won’t rot even if they get wet in the door…so 10 days and that will be fixed….I do have to get some push on connectors, though, since the ones in the door were changed to a screw on type and most of the new speakers have push on blade type connectors…

Well…crap…just had a speaker fail in the car on the way out to get the paper and it’s not just a silent failure but a loud, scratchy one…but, I’m not taking the car apart until spring so I guess I’ll just put the earbuds in and get music that way until then…and, we have a huge storm coming where we’ll get 8 inches of snow overnight and that is depressing me…might not even be able to get out for pool tomorrow and that will be 3 weeks in a row…I am getting a little stir crazy with not getting out anywhere but it will keep the salt off the car so that is a good thing…slept okay last night but still feel a little off today and I hope that gets better over the course of the day…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and it looks like I’ll get out again today but that will be the last time for weeks it appears…once the trail gets covered and the temp stays low, it won’t melt enough to get out…and that is annoying, too…and, all of my sports teams sucked yesterday…so, my mood is a little sour today and I don’t see it getting better…so, I won’t be cleaning or doing anything else today….just the F1 race in a few minutes and then out on the bike…more later….

Well…slept in til 6:24 this morning and that is a little weird…the normal has been around 5 or so and this is a welcome change…slept okay but I still think I have a bug that is slowing me down…just feel off a little and that has been going on for a week or so…I am really sore today but it’s all muscle pain and I know that will pass sooner or later…or I can take something for it and it will be okay…didn’t get much done yesterday and today looks the same with the Premier league starting back up…but, before that there is F1 qualifying, then Man U, then Michigan plays Ohio State and then state plays….so, I’m not sure if there is going to be room for a bike ride today…it’s raining anyway and I don’t want to get wet…and I guess we’re supposed to get 8 inches of snow starting Sunday afternoon and into Monday morning so I may not be on the bike again until Tuesday or so…oh, well…there looks like a warm up is coming the end of next week so the snow should melt and I’ll be back on the bike….more later….

Well…have been having a productive day today with getting a nice bike ride in and getting the last of the  possible leaks fixed on the car’s top before we get bombed with snow Sunday…and I noticed something weird…as you read yesterday, I have been having problems with a molar that was causing me loads of pain the past few days…even to the point that I could barely eat yesterday since chewing triggered it…but today, the pain and swelling is gone and were are back to what has been the normal for the past couple of years…annoying, but easy to ignore most of the time…I even chewed on that side when I had lunch with no pain at all…and that is really weird after having to take ibuprofen and use some orajel to make the pain tolerable yesterday…but, I am not going to bitch…

Well…feel pretty crappy this morning with my damn tooth giving me fits again after almost 2 years with no pain…almost couldn’t eat yesterday but it seems a little better this morning and I hope that continues…I just want to go back to bed but I know that won’t work so I guess I’ll just ease into it and hope the coffee works soon…I did make another great turkey yesterday and it was a good idea to not change the method I’ve refined over the years…came out tender and juicy and I am looking forward to leftovers for the next few days…I sure feel like I’ve got a cold with some coughing and no energy but we’ll see…have felt this way for a week now and I hope it doesn’t get worse…the bike ride was just brutal yesterday and I shouldn’t have gone out in 26 degree weather and 20 mph winds…but, I wanted to have a piece of pie and wouldn’t have been able to without burning off some of dinner…and that was part of the problem with the ride…too soon after eating and I felt uncomfortable the whole time….not much to do today…going to just take it easy until I feel better and that may take the whole day…who knows? More later…

Well…while I sit here waiting for the time to come to prep the turkey, I thought I’d do the corny thing and talk a little bit about what I’m thankful for on this holiday…and, even though I’m getting old, when I think about it, there are some things that I am thankful for. First, Social Security…with looking for a job for so many years with no luck and burning through every dime that I had saved just to stay alive, SS has given me the lifeline I needed to be able to live…while not a lavish lifestyle, it pays all the bills and will help buy me a house next year…and the weight it lifted off me by not stressing about a job anymore was the best. Second, Medicare…going without health insurance for 16 years and just hoping that nothing would happen to put me into bankruptcy was another reason that my stress levels were so high all the time…and with the tests and checkups that Medicare provides, I know now that I am pretty darn healthy for someone my age and there are no hidden problems that I have to worry about….and, this is the one place that I am going to get political..hey, politicians…I PAID for this my entire working life…it is not an “entitlement” it is a contract between the people of the country and the government…it is not a bargaining chip, it is not something that can be discarded to pay for tax cuts for the rich…okay, that’s enough of that for now…I may be back for another one later since I do have to talk about friends and my kids and the sky and the stars…and Steely Dan, and Robert Heinlein and computers and life…so, check back later…I do have a couple of hours free while the turkey cooks and before the Lions start….more later…

Well…running about on time today and didn’t get up until almost 6 so I guess that’s a win….but it took a while to get through the paper with all the ads…one thing I don’t understand…and I’m pretty dumb for doing it…is to pay 3 bucks for today’s paper…I mean paying extra for advertising? Especially for ads that I will never use since I would never, ever go out to any store for black Friday…the only holiday that I do anymore is Thanksgiving and the only thing I do for that is cook…after all, how can you pass up all that protein for 37 cents a pound? Oh, well….I am looking for ward to cooking today and having the standard t-day meal…but, I’m not sure when I’ll get out on the bike today….it’s only 21 outside right now and that is too cold for me…I need it to be around 28 if it’s sunny and that won’t come until this aft…so, maybe after I watch the Lions lose? Not going to feel guilty about doing nothing else today…I do need to get the pumpkin pie in the oven right now and then ease into the rest of the cooking…after the news and more coffee that is….more later….